Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs in his famous “how to live before you die” talk has told three stories from his life. These stories are:
1. Connecting the dots
2. Love and loss
3. Death

Here I will talk about the first story, Connecting the Dots. Connect the dots meaning doing whatever you do with full faith and believe that in future it will add up to something bigger. This will lead to something meaningful.

So, Jobs talked about staying in the moment and doing whatever you do with full passion. He wants all of us to believe that whatever you are doing currently are actually meant to do it. So why waste time and do it halfheartedly. We should make this opportunity count and give out best shot.

He further added that dots become visible only when you look back in the past. Its not possible to see the dots in the future. So just trust yourself, your intuition or whatever you are comfortable with.

So, ended his talk with “stay hungry, stay foolish”. We need to remain hungry for knowledge, growth, progress, and prosperity then only we can work with full passion to achieve them.

We are all Abhimanyus?

We all would have heard about the heroic act of Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna and Subhadra. He is know for breaking into the Chakravyu of Kauravas while his father Arjuna was away and other four Pandavas were unaware of the technique to break in the Chakravyu. Abhimanyu learned this technique while he was in his mother’s womb. Once Arjuna started telling these techniques to Subhadra but she fell asleep after listening the breaking-in techniques. So she could not hear about the exit technique from the Chakravyu. Thus Abhimanyu after breaking-in the Chakravyu got killed as he was not able to exit from it.

Many of us doubt whether it is possible to learn in the womb. Many of take this as a myth, as just a story. But many of also keep thinking what if this is possible to learn in the womb and go further contemplating what all a child can learn in the womb. All these questions are answered by the Dr. Annie Murphy Paul in her TED talk.

According to her a child learns through mainly two sources viz, sound, and taste. Thus child is able to recognize the mother’s voice as it has heard her voice maximum times. Child’s taste is also determined by what mother ate at the time of her pregnancy. In fact Dr. Paul explains that child learn the culture through the taste and language through the sound.

So, one may wonder why child start learning in the womb and how its important for a child. Well its very important for the child’s survival after s/he is born. It even cries in the same pitch in which its mother’s mother-tongue is. It tries to find out which food is safer for it. So basically this learning serves to the survival instinct of a child.

So, in a way our mythology are not just myths, they are having some of the very truth of the life and its learning. Dr. paul tells us that we are all born Abhimanyus. She also explains about importance of the pre-natal care in her presentation.

Grit: A Key to Success

Have you ever got frustrated over your bad luck? Have you ever wonder why you are not able to do as good as your other friends? Have you ever considered that you are mentally weak that’s why you cannot beat others? Have you ever felt helpless and hopeless? Have you ever imagine to do wonders? Then this is right place.

I am going to talk about the keys to success here. Have you seen movie The Shawshank Redemption? Did you notice that irrespective of anything and everything the protagonist doesn’t stop doing digging the tunnel, his ultimate goal? If you have noticed that then you are on right path. Have you wonder why Sachin Tendulakar has never suffered from a lean batting form for longer duration? Answer is same, he worked hard irrespective whether he was in form or not. I can give you thousands examples of such people. For example Marry Kom, Saina Nehawal, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.

Here I am going to tell you few things which you should keep in mind while working for excellence.

Firstly, Growth Mindset. You should know how our brain works. You should know how we learn things. If you know this then you would also know that it can be done, its very much possible for you to achieve what others have achieved. For this, I suggest you to watch inspirational videos and read quotes of great leaders. Read autobiographies of successful people and leaders. Just keep yourself motivated, you can use anything to do the same.

Secondly, Conscious Effort. Here what I mean by conscious effort is: you should never forget your goal, irrespective of what may come. You should keep yourself reminding about your goal. So my ultimate message here is your subconscious mind should be aware of your goal. This can be achieved by a Conscious Effort, by reminding yourself every opportunity you get.

Thirdly, Grit. Grit is ability to work with passion and persistence for a long term goal. You should work daily towards your goal without failure. Make a habit to work towards your goal. Fix a time to work towards it. Set small small goals to achieve the ultimate goal. Never stop working and never stop believing in yourself.

Fourthly, Introspection. Yes, it is very necessary to achieve ones goal. This should be done daily just before going to bed. You should ask following questions to yourself. Where you wasted time today? What unproductive work did you do today? How much effort did you make towards your goal? What tomorrow you will do? That’s it, simple!

I can go on and on about keys to success. Like keeping yourself healthy, making good friends, reading good books, meditating etc. But I personally believe that above four keys can change you and your life. And key number three is to make sure you follow other keys too.

This article is inspired by Dr. Anglela Lee Duckworth’s TED presentation.