Blog Post 114 - 2 Original ideas - Frameworks

When you go to a doctor's office the question you should expect is "Who are you?"

If you hear "How are you?" - it may means you are a sick person!!! - literally .. so many visits make you friends with the doctor!!!

Stay away from Doctor's if you want to be healthy. An apple a day keeps the doctor away?! What will a Dell or Lenova do - keep the hospital away? - ha ha

Seriously, avoid going to doctor's unless necessary . Doctors ,Dentist and Lawyers practice.. note the word practice. Priests pray - so go to temples,mosques, churches - any place of workship of mediation - physical or mental wellness.

Now to the 3 frameworks

1. Past Present and Future
2 Busy work and Creative work

Any situation you face has 3 parts of it
1. Past - We want to ensure we understand what happened in the past objectively and clearly
2. Present - What can we do now
3.Future - What should we expect out of this for future? Repeat ? Prevent?

Here is an example
Child broke a glass jar - make it adult broke a glass jar
1. Past - What made this happen? Jar came close to the human, human went close to jar, their interaction was not expected or was it expected but ended up bad (Needed to handle the jar but didnt expect it to be Hot !)
2.Present - So what do you do now? Clean up? Shout? Shout and clean? Vaccum? Add flour to glass pieces to mix and sweep? Google or youtube on how to clean glass pieces? Run away and come back? Ask everyone to leave the site ?
3. Future  - Should you ask the person who broke it to be careful? Was it the jar's fault? How do you know?

This framework helps me sort through thousands of things in life and work.

Practice and tell me what you think

The next idea is that of Busy work vs Creative work

Think about every work that you work on.. Is this busy work - checking off boxes..things that have to be done? Will this work matter in 10 years?

How about creativity?

Blog Post 113 - My Gift to a friend's daughter - 4 ideas

Here are the 4 Ideas that I consider part of my worldly wisdom collection

1.Always give - Not take                                                                                                                             Give opportunity to people
                          Give  money
                          Give time
                          Give Ideas/Suggestions

2.Do - not Talk about ideas . Commit and do .

3.Live and die alone - Do what you should!!!

4.Always remember the proverb - ‘this too shall pass’

Principle 1 - Always Give not take. Adam Grant wrote a book recently Give and Take

Are you a giver or taker ?

We always like to take - Is that true?Given an opportunity always look for what you can give. It makes you feel good . It makes you feel you have 'More'.

Most people need a gratitude log and practice writing 3 things they are thankful for in the book - after dinner or before you go to 'bed' .

Most people need a gratitude log and practice writing 3 things they are thankful for in the book - after dinner or before you go to 'bed' .

You can always give a small gift - atleast your time and your human labor - help a friend move,offer to take care of their kid...do something with your body and mind (if you dont have money to give )

Kids - you can also give opportunities - give adults an opportunity to teach you,Adults - give opportunities to teach you - yes I mean it!!

2. Do - not Talk about ideas . Commit and do .

Ideas are easy to create difficult to execute. It is very easy to commit and do 1 thing at a time. It also start with commitment. First commit. Then do. Don't talk!!!

Everyone generates ideas as fast as they can breathe- How many breaths do you take per day?

(From http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/LK/20100112/News/605199447/SH/)

In average, a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. This means we breathe about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day, 8,409,600 a year. Unless we get a lot of exercise. The person who lives to 80 will take about 672,768,000 breaths in a lifetime

3. Live and die alone - Do what you should!!!

You can alone. You came to do certain thing.Wake up and question why you exist!! Yes and I mean it. Family is good . Society is great but you are not Family or Society. You are you.. Be you.


Story from Valmiki answers the deeper meaning (From https://kids.baps.org/storytime/valmikirishi.htm)..Understand Valmiki is not a bad guy..He wrote one of the greatest epics - Ramayana - by understanding you are not part of family - you are important to your family but you are you.

During Treta Yug, a time thousands of years ago, a man named Ratnakar lived in the forests along the banks of the holy river Ganga. Ratnakar was a cruel hunter and a fearless thief. Everyone was afraid of Ratnakar! When he walked in the forest, even the birds would fly to their nests, and the animals would look for a place to hide. 
One day, Ratnakar was hiding by the side of a forest pathway, waiting for a victim. Along came the great sage Naradji, who was walking peacefully, admiring the beauty of the forest and singing kirtans in praise of God. 
Ratnakar jumped out in front of him and demanded, "Hand over all you have or else!"
With love flowing from his eyes, Naradji said smilingly, "My dear man, all that I have are these rags I wear. If you want them, you may take them!"  Naradji's fearlessness surprised Ratnakar. As Ratnakar gazed in Naradji's eyes, his cruel mind melted.
Naradji saw this transformation and lovingly explained to Ratnakar how stealing and killing animals was very sinful. He reminded Ratnakar that although his family was eager to share the fruits of his bad actions, they would not share his sins.
   Upon this realisation, Ratnakar fell to Naradji's feet and asked for forgiveness.  Naradji taught him to recite the sacred name of Ram. Ratnakar sat down in the forest and continued chanting with closed eyes. His concentration was so deep that he remained in meditation for years.  In fact, he sat there so long in meditation that an anthill grew all around and above him! 
One day Naradji came that way and carefully cleared away the anthill. With a kind smile, Naradji declared Ratnakar a sage, "As you are now reborn from a 'Val-mika' (ant-hill), from now you'll be known as Valmiki."
With tears of joy in his eyes, the sage Valmiki began his new life. He built an ashram near the river Ganga that provided refuge to Sitaji, wife of Shri Bhagwan  Ram.  It was at this ashram that Valmiki rishi composed the Ramayan!

4. Always remember the proverb - ‘this too shall pass’

Things sometimes are great. Sometimes times are tough. We all need to be 'observers'

Life is not constant - we know that. Good things happen.Bad things happen.

From Wikipedia

Its origin has been traced to the works of Persian Sufi poets, such as Sanai and Attar of Nishapur.^[3] Attar records the fable of a powerful king who asks assembled wise men to create a ring that will make him happy when he is sad. After deliberation the sages hand him a simple ring with the words "This too will pass" etched on it, which has the desired effect to make him happy when he is sad. It also, however, became a curse for whenever he is happy.

Give ,Do,Alone,Transient - that is the core Message I have gathered so far in my life

Keep learning

Siva

Blog Post 112 - Peru - Traveler's guide

Peru 

Inspiration 1 for visiting Peru

As a south indian (ex) Rajni Fan (Due to the last  few movies including Kaala ) .. and as a Shankar Big Budget movie Fan Kilimajaro song made with some awkward sound with Brazilian models in Machu Pichu is the first thing that comes to most people's mind about Peru including Me

Inspiration 2 

My son did a project about Machu  Picchu few years ago as part of Talented and Gifted Program. I learnt lots of useless stuff with him  and didnt even know what the big deal was and where people from Machu Picchu vanished.

His Project  did remind me that I need to learn something important about this place but left many many questions than answers

Inspiration 3 

Books- I don't know anything about Geography Kenneth Davis - Amazon link 

Jared Diamond's Book Guns Germs and Steel -  Amazon link

Yuval Harari's Sapiens Amazon link

These 3 books  keep referring to these civilization's downfall in a very similar way.. sad ..pathetic and totally unexpected (for them not for Spaniards)

Kenneth Davis Book started me off in this journey first..
Here is what I gathered Jared Diamond - Latitude helps .. horizontal lines.. and people and communication in horizontal lines communicate and collaborate.. Latitude Hurts .. Aztecs didn't talk to Mayans..Mayans didn't talk to Incas (my favorite so far..Peru!!).