Map out your future, but do it in pencil

Some wise person once said nothing is achievable without commitment, that without concentration of efforts  no results can be expected.  Of course he/she is right, diamonds only appear after carbon undergoes intense compression. But in a world full of uncertainties, it isn't guaranteed that diamond will be the final outcome or whether the outcome will be the diamonds we want. Which is perhaps why Don Bon Jovi said the words , "Map your future, but do it n pencil".

In other terms, make commitments but don't be as committed. Some of us can live with partial commitment but if you are like me you might find this a bit confusing. Isn't success simply a cumulative function of pure efforts. Shouldn't it be a simple mapping of hard work to results? Well, it is, but as these stories reveal , there is another factor involved, one that defies the laws of perfectionism and order.

Alexander Fleming for example was determined to make the 'wonder drug' that would kill all bacteria. So he collected samples of all sorts of bacteria in petri dishes, trying out every drug. After spurious attempts he finally resorted to discarding the experiment. In this process he noticed something rather odd, in one of the petri dishes where mold had accidentally grown, turns out the mold had the magic drug.  That my friend is how we got the antibiotic penicillin; by accident. The X-rays that are so extensively used today; they were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen who accidentally discovered them as he was doing research on electrons. It is worth knowing that the Microwave oven was also invented by accident. The scientist Percy Spencer was busy researching on radar until he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pockets was melting. A couple of years later we now have the magic heating box.

So yes, there is an element of chance and luck in the equation of success.  No matter how convinced we are, we will always have those doubts; no matter how focused we are we'll always make mistakes. And there is nothing wrong with that. The formula, the commitment makes a good headline but the real story is in the doubts and mistakes.

Bon Jovi had it right, 'map out your future in pencil'. It doesn't mean you should stop planning at all, it just means the plan will constantly change. As much important as it is to have a defined structure and life,we are not robots. So, yeah,  go ahead scribble that plan in pencil, make mistakes, erase a few bits, modify a few bits, show your human side,  A beautiful painting could come out in the end, who knows?

Hello overachiever...

Its May, and you are starring at a project that was to be accomplished by last year. You had a mission, you have a goal , a defined routine; a sense of purpose. Everything was in tune,
until when life got really messy and you started living to survive, from one deadline to the next. In between these you lost track of the mission in the first place. Well, I say welcome to reality , a land where randomness is the norm and laws of physics stop to hold.

If you are an overachiever, then I know at these times you just want to punish yourself for not meeting that goal in time. You probably want to give up already; looking back at the original plan just makes you realize how immature and silly you were. Guess what? You are not alone. Plan A almost always never works. Besides, you'll learn a lot more as you improvise.

We all fall off our commitments sometimes, either due to failed attempts or just the fact that we are human. The worst thing you can do at that point is give up. It may be just one task, and failing it isn't a big deal but as you already know misery loves company. The psychological impact of that action to your brain is way greater than the action itself. Many of us underestimate that impact, but quitting may sound practical, sets up a ripple effect on subsequent aspects of our lives.

We strive for perfection and excellence. But we are too human to simply use mathematical models to give us results. If every task worked as planned, there would no point on planning in the first place. If it helps, Da Vinci's model of an aeroplane has only been realized 5 centuries latter. Point is, Its never too late to start over.
The next time you are at the quitting point, I say, Congratulations you are officially a fully fledged human, Those plans you had, they couldn't last a second in the world.  Life is amazing, it offers a plan B, and the plan is "Dust yourself up and beat the odds". Have a great week!

Your home.

Here's a quick question. Where is your home? It is probably that place where you grew up as a child but I define home as the place where everything is just warm, safe and stable. I bet that place seems miles away now that you know no real place can be safe and warm and stable simultaneously. Life is tidally changing, rarely predictable; that nice stable home was  an illusion.Why then do we bother with  plans, routines and timetables?

Your psychological home is in your daily routine. The things that are so deeply ingrained in your subconscious that you don't question them anymore. The things you do whether you are having the worst day or a bad day. The reason why you wake up in the morning,  at the time you did (hopefully there is reason to that). Your home is  a product of your goals and discipline. Some people  like Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin have had interesting routines, and its probably the reason why they are successful.

Life is unstable, but that doesn't mean we have to absorb that turmoil too. It is that home that puts us back on track when nothing makes sense or when everything falls into place. The home is our powerhouse , like a physical home, it has to be maintained and improved through discipline. “Why is discipline important? " the author Leon MAcArthur once asked. Well, my answer is simple, actions tend to become habits and habits do have consequences. Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Discipline may sound impractical or hard but in the long run its the best thing you can do for your sanity,

We all know want wake up to nothing and do everything as we desire. Achieve without having to plan or anticipate anything. As sweet as that sounds, that's not living, its surviving. Doing that merely means surrendering. Living for convenience sake simply robs us of our ability to be masters of our destiny. Life is too amazing for that.

The media has been very successful in poisoning our minds. They use the terms like, "life is short", "do whatever you want"," chase paper". They are infact right, life is too short to just live for convenience, you can do  whatever you want, but if you want to reach that goal, choose wisely. Money is important but it is as they say just paper. Long story, make time to build your home. You might fall off that bandwagon once in a while but when that happens, make sure you have a stable home to go back to. Have a great week!

Thou shall not get comfortable.

He is a straight A student, his family was probably not the richest but they can afford a luxurious lifestyle. What could else could he need? He has the ultimate life 'it' life you would call it, or not. Dont be surprised to find that he is the most hardworking person in the batch, and so we think he is crazy. A number of history legends fit into the shoes of this description, Isaac Newton, Bill Gates, you name them, look around and the list might overflow. These people are not crazy, they just know a little better than incubating in the comfort zone. 

Comfort zone is literally that place of comfort, where everything is pretty much where it needs to be.  We all love this zone, and our ultimate goal is probably to get comfortable. We pursue goals, when we succeed we get comfortable and when we fail we lower our expectations to get comfortable. The comfort zone is safe, its' warm, and cozy, which is not a bad thing in itself. We need that warm place to reenergise. The only downside to this zone is that it is marked by absolute zero life.

People measure success by how much they have, or appear to have. Successful people measure success by the rate at which they are moving. You don't need calculus to understand the difference between the two. What you have isn't good enough if it is currently depreciating or not growing at all. Stepping out of your comfort zone implies growing with every second, learning something new and facing each day with passion and enthusiasm.  Assets and material rewards are important but what really counts is what happens subconsciously as you acquire those rewards.

A Chinese proverb goes, "a man grows most tired while standing still" further pointing that the comfort zone is comfortable, but not in any way fun. I have a simple algorithm that has pushed me to places I never imagined, pursue goals, if you succeed, move on to new challenges; funny thing is even when you don't succeed you'll have to do the same. Life is too dynamic to settle for anything. Point is keep moving, life is most amazing out of the comfort zone.

The world needs you!

There is a common saying that goes, Be yourself, others are taken'.  It is true, only that it is not necessary. Scientifically speaking, we are made of over 20,000 genes. Different permutations of these genes produces an astronomical humans number of humans. That is from natural factors alone. Factoring in the influence of environment and culture on personality then we have an infinitely diverse pool. There shouldn't be a possibility that two people are the same. As Galileo put , we are indeed in between infinitesimals and indivisibles.

That being said, what exactly is being yourself? I'll tell you exactly what it is. It means fighting against your human nature. We naturally love to compare anything to anything, which is a good thing when it comes to products and objects as its the only way to know what's best. When it comes to humans, emotions tend to complicate things a bit. Being yourself means muting all that noise and looking inside you. It means competing with nobody but yourself and doing the best you can. When you think about it, its a bit scary, well, it is for me. No one else has had the combination of experiences and talents you have and no one else will. You are history in the making.

Think of the mathematician Leonhard Euler, in 1735 , after suffering from a fever, his eyesight began deteriorating towards total blindness. His story is funny cause Leonhard became even more productive thereafter, publishing more papers than before. Instead of whining about the illness, he compensated for it with his mental calculation skills. Stephen Hawking is another living proof that life is amazing. According to his physician's report 51 years ago he should have be dead now. He's not, he's actually considering a vacation in space and I do hope he will have it. We can name a lot of people who had to undergo a major transformation in their lives and turned it to something amazing. How did they do that?

We scientists love formulas and equations, we just throw in variables and an answer magically appears. Well, life is a bit more complicated, there are no formulas and there are no answers. Life is literally what we make of it. We can choose to stand on the shoulders of giants or whine after comparing ourselves to them. We can choose to panic at the circumstances we have or embrace them and make the most out of them. We can choose to be afraid or work on our fears instead. There is no formula to life, but if you learn from the giants, make a couple of mistakes and have a little bit of hope, you should be fine.

As you get to experience life you then realise you should be yourself not because its wiser or the right thing to do but because it is easier. Its easier to learn from people than envying them, its easier to appreciate than complain. So, yeah, others are actually taken, live your life, bring out the best in you because that is what the world needs. Have a you-some week!!

The clock is always ticking..

You know you have the ability, you also know that nothing is impossible under the sun, you have the passion, drive, determination to overcome an obstacle. There is always a but somewhere along those lines. Yes, but time is not enough, in fact its never enough to do all that we want to do. Statistics reveal that time rather than lack of confidence is the major reason people back out of challenges.It is a major challenge to fit everything into 24 hours.

Deadlines, there is a reason they are called so because they are truly killers. Living in the 21st century you can't really avoid deadlines. Truth be told, we live for deadlines. As much as we don't like them, deadlines are actually good. With our lazy human nature, deadlines can perhaps be the only way to get things done. The bad in deadlines comes when we live for them; studying under pressure to hand in an assignment is bad , studying to learn and apply something new not only lifts the fear of a deadline but also leads to a rewarding experience.

We all have 24 hours in a day. Guess what? so did Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Plato, Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa and everyone else you know. Leonardo da Vinci is a living proof that time can actually be enough to practice any profession you may want. He mastered all skills from painting to engineering in just 67 years. Their secret? Its simple, on reading their biographies I have learnt a pattern among these legends; One step at a time. They prefer to focus on one problem rather than scattering attention to whatever everyone is doing. There is a lot happening, a lot you have to do but at this time you can only do one thing so stick with it.  If a problem takes more time than expected, forget the deadline and stick with it. Castles are not built in one day!

We use time to solve problems but time is an even bigger one, it keeps popping up and the clock just never stops ticking, once lost time will never regained. Well, its a good thing because it makes us focus on what really matters. This world's biggest challenge is solved by three words, 'One step at a time', make a poster out of them, paint them on your wall if you can. Plan ahead, take the one step you can take right now and if it gets too overwhelming, relax, be grateful you are alive. Life is indeed amazing, have an amazing week ahead!

Life's basic algorithm

We don't need the second law of thermodynamics to know that the universe lacks order, we don't need the M-theory to realize  that life is not straight and that things happens at random. Fact is, no matter how much we try some things are just out of our control. Some things will just happen whether or not it is what we want. The amazing part is that life comes with a simple algorithm to ensure we are not as helpless.

Scientists have a lot to tell us, not only form their theories but also from their personal lives. Stephen Hawking, the smartest man alive is one of my huge role models.  At 21,when he was diagnosed with ALS, a deadly motor neuron disease and  was given 2 years to live . Like any other human he almost gave up on his studies and life in general, I know I would. But he learned for a to value every second of life, living everyday like it was the last day.
Today he stands at 72, physically weak but mentally strong, probably stronger than any other person alive,  a living testimony of mind over matter power . He couldn't control the fact that he got the disease but he could control how he dealt with it.

Magical isn't it. We have the ability to defy the laws of nature and it all lies in our minds. It all starts with accepting the situation and then doing something about it no matter how small. Soon enough your mind will take charge and you will be well on your way to regaining your control.

No path is ever clear as we might expect it to be. As amazing as it is, life gives us an algorithm that should sort everything out. It is simple as this: Something happened, is there anything you can do about it? If yes then do it already!! if no, don't waste your time and energy, adjust to the wind and you wont break. There is no point in fighting what you can't control. With this simple algorithm you should be well on your way to a productive week, have an amazing one!