What better way is there to live?

Marie Curie was a legend, she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prize in two different sciences, She together with her husband discovered radioactivity, a concept that helped study the structure of the atom, and radium which is central to cancer treatment. That was the mark she left in the world and that's the headline that will go down in history. What this introduction doesn't tell you is how many failures and adversities she had to endure before achieving the role model status. Well, lots of it, in fact following the most unconventional route possible she had to earn whatever she accomplished. (Hint: it was the 19th century, women were not allowed to study let alone in the sciences and a Pole when Russia controlled Poland).

Here are some anecdotes history won't tell you about. She couldn't afford university education, so she made an agreement with her sister where each would for the other. So, she worked to pay for her sister's education, who would return the favor once she graduated. In college, she had to work for her up keep, sometimes fainting due to hunger or the cold. She and her husband were invited to a conference in London but she wasn't allowed to speak  because she was a woman. She wasn't dominated for the Noble Prize by the committee in the first place, her husband was, it was the Swedish mathematician Goester who proposed her , after he was nominated. She had to conduct her research in her backyard because she couldn't get a lab. In short Marie suffered it all , yet she conquered all.

She could have taken the easier route, become a house wife and live happily ever after, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her definition of happy. I quote her own words, "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that?We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that thing must be attained. That thing must be attained even if our achievements are lost to history."  This is as inspiring as it gets. When it feels like its all tumbling down, don't quit , instead,  ask yourself, what better is there to live? 

Forget balance , try focus.

 

I'm gonna talk about diamonds and waterfalls today. They may be completely different things but they both illustrate one common and very important lesson; the power of concentration. Diamond is made of Carbon, the same stuff that makes charcoal and pencils, but we don't see anyone singing about the latter and there is a reason; concentration. Diamond is made from Graphite under very intense pressure and temperature, another synonym for concentration. Same applies to waterfalls, ordinary water has nothing special, we use it without even noticing, focus it to pour a cliff and governments will make a fortune out of tourists. 

So much for just one word? Not exactly. We live in a society that upholds normal even though we can't clearly define normal is, we resonate with words like balanced, well rounded, versatile , multitasking among others. Which is a good thing if all these other things contribute to one final goal, otherwise it is of no significant value. The main and probably only reason Leonardo da Vinci is still popular is because he did it all. He did engineering, architecture, painting , biology, mathematics, physics, geology and more, probably all the professions of the 21st century. He did it all, but he didn't do it all at once. Actually , he was primarily a painter, then pursued other fields later in life. 

There is no shortcut to mastery, its focus. It is through focus that priorities are made, that willpower is efficiently used and everything falls into place. It may sound like getting lazy but it actually gives you energy to do even more. 

Have an amazing week ahead!

Moving into the unknown.

We live in a chaotic world. No matter how ordered it may seem, its almost always guaranteed the perfect plan will not work out. Its comes as no surprise, considering the entropy of the universe has been increasing ever since the BigBang. This only means one thing, we are constantly moving into the unknown and sometimes it can be scary. 

If you know Stephen Hawking, you've probably ever wondered how manages to do it all inspite of his limitations.  How he can speak without a voice, write without using his hands and write the most intelligent things in a wheelchair. Part of the answer of the answer to this question is Intel and the other half is failures ,mistakes and lessons learned through trial and error. Intel had to fail about 5 times before inventing ACAT(Assistive Contextually Aware Toolkit), a user interface that was appropriate for Hawking. It took 3 years and 5 failed attempts to come to this conclusion and to many people this may appear to be wasted time.

Problem solving has obviously many processes but the most important and unfortunately the most time consuming is that of recognising what the problem is. It took centuries for us to realise that we are not at the centre of the universe, it took Thomas Edison 1000 failures to invent the light bulb, it took  J.K Rowling 12 rejections to find the right publisher, the list goes on. Ray Kurweil speaks of the exponential growth of the universe which is just a similar idea of slow to no development at early stages and sporadic growth thereafter.  Its important to realise this because we live for problems, we are paid to solve problems, we feel validated by solving problems and when it all feels like a dead end , its good to know that it is not wasted time. All we can do is face the unknown with hope that at the end of the tunnel there will be light.

In this chaotic world, we are all working towards that 'AHA' moment , that moment when we have it all figured out. When we have realised the root cause of the problem and solved it. But we should keep in mind it takes time, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it. The next time you are moving into the unknown , remember this and move forward in faith that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Afterall ..

“Every problem is a gift- without problems we would not grow.” 

--Anthony Robbins.

Just do it!

I'm not just talking about the Nike sports gear that makes you drop all excuses for procrastination , am talking about every other aspect of your life. In most cases we don't do what we want because we think about it too much that we get enough reasons to put it off. Well, the moral of this short post is to tell you to just do it, if you thought about it to the point whether you question yourself whether to do it or not, you need to do it or at least make a decision . I would mention how much this altitude has helped me or other people succeed but I won't because what you need is not more reasoning but more actions. After all, there is only one thing worse than failure and that is regret. So, have an amazing week ahead and keep doing amazing things.

Its okay to be selfish.

Give and you shall receive, play your part, charity begins at home , give, give and give .....etc . You know all these sayings that make you feel guilty for not contributing to a cause or taking the time to treat yourself? Yes, they make you feel like humanity has been restored and its time we started giving more. Well, in all good meaning they forget one thing. You know that person who you only get to see in the mirror? You mean me? Yes , you , you are also a citizen of this world and you also deserve the good life. 
Giving is good, everyone advocates for it, religious institutions, the government, family and society at large. That's a good thing, in simple terms , life is just a trade of giving and receiving. Besides, it always feels good to put someone's else needs above yours, it makes you a respectable human. See, giving is a good thing but like everything else in life, done excessively it is damaging. 

Humanitarians and philanthropists are admirable people, they contribute a lot to society, they change people's lives but what they don't do is deprive themselves for the benefit of others. In fact, they might be  the most selfish people in this world but only that they use this trait wisely. Bill Gates started philanthropy in 1994 after 20 years of Microsoft. He made himself rich before helping others. You may wonder what about Mother Theresa? and Mahatma Gandhi? and all those selfless who died completely penniless. Well, they too are selfish, I even have quotes to prove it.

“I loved my Microsoft: it prepared me for what I’m doing now. In the same way that I got to see the PC and internet revolutions, now I see child death rates coming down. I work very long hours and try to learn as much as I can about these things, but that’s because I enjoy it.” - Bill Gates

"If you do something out of duty, it will deplete you, if you do something out of love, it will energise you" - Mother Theresa

"There is greater joy than caring for someone, It is the joy of knowing you got others to care as well, come on experience it." - Mahatma Gandhi

See, these angels are not motivated by some call of duty to their country or the world. They are motivated by the selfish motive of enjoying what they do and feeling useful.

Moral of the story: its okay to be selfish , actually it is encouraged. Only when you stand with what you believe in and what you are good at will you be sane enough to put something to the table. Don't feel guilty for being selfish, embrace it.

A heterogenous universe

You are you for a reason, I don't know if this sentiment has been said enough but I'll keep saying it. Despite all we know, we normally a natural tendency  to fit in, or at least try to. Ussually , much to our disappointment, we realise that it is impossible. No matter how much you practise you'll never sing like Mariah Carey , or dance like Beyonce, or be as smart as Stephen Hawking. This is a stone cold reality yet I hear so many whine that  they are talent-less. Its admirable to look upto the best, but not to be them but the best version of yourself.

In case you haven't noticed, we live in a heterogenous universe and when you think of it, it is the force behind our existence, literally. We have rivers because of difference in altitudes, we have wind because of difference in pressure between two places, we have trade because of difference in allocation of resources. And its not just these superficial facts we can attribute. Life on earth probably began due to a heterogenous universe. Stars were not evenly distributed so some clusters had enough gravity to create galaxies, and the heterogenous nature of these galaxies led to some stars like the sun to have planets , of which the earth was in the best position to harbour life. So yeah , life itself was born of heterogeneity. Had the universe been uniform, there would be no story to write.

Point is, we are not the same and we'll never be the same. We have differences and that is a good thing, it means we should learn from each other, admire and respect each other because we have a role to play on the history of the universe. Remember this the next time you try to compare yourself with others only to realise that living someone else's life  is an impossible mission. Its better to use those talents and experiences than trade for another's life.


PS: I know its been a long time since I posted something. I took a little sabbatical to discover the secrets of the universe(kidding). I was in a dilemma whether this blog should continue, Don't worry though, life is amazing and I'll keep writing. Have an amazing week ahead.

Thank you!

   1st Jan 2015, I like the sound of it. We are officially as far away from 2030 as we were from 2000, not that it matters , just an observation. Today is a day to celebrate because not everyone got the chance to see 2015 and you did. Some of us are really celebrating because we achieved all of last years resolutions, some of us are neutral because we achieved  only some , some of us are saddened by the fact that another year has passed without accomplishing anything meaningful. If you are in the first category , congratulations and keep doing what you do. Today am addressing the rest of us, am rooting for those who are a bit disappointed to write new year's resolutions.

You did the best you could, like you always do. There are so many things we wish we did differently because we now know better,  but at that moment it was the best thing to do. The calendar is just well , a calendar, we made it up to keep track of time , but the truth is a new phase of life doesn't have to start on the 1st of January. It starts at the time you make the decision. The moment you realise what you truly want and decide to go for it at all costs. Trust me that's what makes for  new year's resolutions that actually come true.

Speaking of resolutions. How long is that list? Mine is just 3 things. I know I can do more, but I've got the rest of my life for that. I wont share them, yet, but these are the three things that will be at the back of my head for the rest of 2015. For the sake of your sanity, make that list as short as possible. Don't just write generic things like loose weight, be healthy , be happy, be rich. Everybody says so but not everybody has a specific plan. The art of writing resolutions is like the art of creating goals. They should be specific, that way the universe knows exactly what to give you. 

I had my good share of 2014. I threw myself at things I never would have thought about , took risks, learned, made friends, traveled , hustled most importantly this blog is growing faster than I expected. Thanks to all my readers ( I hope you find stories of Newton and Einstein and Physics and Math as inspiring as I do). Risk taking, that is how you grow, that's how you let go of fear. It all starts with a first step, you learned to walk by crawling, why should everything else be different? I read somewhere that to achieve anything, you don't have to be the best, you just have to start. Humble beginnings usually have a happy ending. As long as you are alive, there is something for you.

So here's to 2015, here's to 2015 for the risks that we'll take , the journeys that we'll begin and the memories that we'll take. As we sing Auld Lang Syne I would like to wish a  Happy New Year!!!! Make it matter.

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” 

― Plato