What it means to be educated !

Power of education is, it disciplines us. It provides a platform to explore, experience the different subjects, education is so much more than just Grades. 

Personally, I didn’t understand that when I was a students mostly studied for just exams. We don’t  remember anything if we just studied for the sake of exams. But I realize it now, my student days were the best days. It was  perfect time to develop good habits of reading different books, know different culture, history etc. Our primary goal as a student is to study & its great to leverage our time to not just study the syllabus but also explore other books on people skills, mindset etc. for what it's worth , I believe those are the books that help us in the long run. Of course alongside good grades. Because just the grades will only take us so far.

Little did I know, as life gets busier, we tend to multitask. But we know "to do two things at once is to do neither" -PS. Let alone learning something completely new.

Education is beyond just a degree. Objective is to use time on hand wisely to expand our horizon by continuing to learn something new. Don’t let education interfere with your learning-AE. Expand the mind, expand the universe.

Don't judge anyone based on their educational background. If we can use our time wisely, we can learn  more than a degree can offer.

We know now leader like Bill Gates and many others, dropped out of college but that didn't define them. They continued there journey in the area of their interest and that is what made them successful.

Although Education and a degree is very important, it should not define you. Look beyond what you can do. Focus on building character. Excellence is beyond any "TITLE" . 

How to be organized in the middle of Pandamic

Clearly, what we are all going through is fearful and disturbing. More and more of us are getting anxious to step outside. Although we all want to get back to our routine work and activities, what we have to remember is that the rules and guidelines are in place to protect our lives. As we all start getting used to this new normal we must continue to protect ourselves and others.

These difficult times stir up so many emotions, from anxiety to depression to insomnia to many people. It is highly important to take care of mental well being as we sail through these difficult times

Here are couple things you can do-

Create New Routine- With new normal, start focussing on creating new routine, that might be early morning walks or yoga or streaching. Do something that sets your day on a right track

To do list- It is a blessing if you are able to work from home however it does come with its own challenges. Interruption & distractions are inevitable if you have young kids who needs you for everything. Try keeping a standard follow through list of activities for the day. Engage other family members if they are around. Ask for help when needed.Having a structured plan can make life a little easier

Create a space for yourself- Create a dedicated work space or a place to relax. It is easier to get consumed by work especially when working from home. Personally, what helps me is a dedicated space for work.

It not only keeps me focused when I am working, it also helps me be more organized.

It makes it that much easier to close my laptops and walk away when I am done working. And not carry my work around the house.

In the middle of everything that's going on, it's all about finding something positive amid coronavirus. Carve out time for family and friends. Host virtual dinner parties or game nights. After all stories do connect us.



Take care. 

3 Keys to maintain the Right Mindset

Happy Easter!!

While it may be disappointing to cancel Easter dinner with family and celebrate little different this year. You can still keep it festive and connect with loved ones in many different ways.

With the current covid-19 Pandemic, it is difficult to keep a positive mindset. If you are feeling lonely or afraid, you are not alone. We are all social animals. We don't shy away from parties or social gatherings. Although this seems to be working, for many individuals physical distancing can have a range of impacts from stress to anxiety and depression.But keeping a positive mindset can help manage these difficult times.

You are in control of your thoughts and how you feel about yourself and your surroundings.

If you constantly look for negative then that's what you are going to see. Be more mindful of what your are constantly thinking because you attract what you fear. Having the right mindset will change the way you see the world.

Practice right habits to change your perspective and look for possibilities

Practice gratitude -We all have a wish list. We all want to accomplish our dreams and goals. But very often what we forget is the attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for what you have. Make it a daily habit to express thankfulness and appreciation for what you have.

I caught myself complaining about my current social distancing situation. Many of my routines are now haphazard and sloppy. I had to constantly remind myself to be grateful for what I have while we all fight this-covid-19.

We have heard this a million times, things get worst before they get better. We all just have to embrace each other and stay safe for each other.

Power of words- with the power of spoken words you can attract good or bad based on what you say repeatedly. Always think aboundence. You will have what you desire if you practice the power of spoken words and back it up by precise actions. Only when you think positive, you yield positive results.

Never give up - See challenges as an opportunity, an opportunity to do something that you have not done before. Make setbacks as your launching pad. Always fail forward. You are not a failure unless you give up. Change your perception about failure and response to failure.


"Fail early, Fait often, but always fail forward" John C Maxwell.

Having the right perspective will allow you to make well informed decisions. Consciously make efforts to check on your mindset. Choose positive over negative, joy over sadness and love over hatred.

Be kind, Be safe !

Being Right Verses Feeling Right

As humans we often take decisions based on our Gut Feeling. Yes, it's kind of methodical. There are many instances where we all feel right about our resolutions. When we take decisions based of off our gut feeling, we are almost always using our emotions more than the logic. These emotions are driven based on our past experiences and how they made us feel. These series of experiences dictate our gut feelings, which is innate in all of us.

While it is not completely wrong to fight your instincts, because in many situations we can not relay just on feelings. For example, when we do Math, it takes an effort to calculate and be right. We are as good as our experiences, good or bad, positive or negative. If not paid attention, we all become victim to our past experiences, which in turn drive our decision making ability.

By nature we are intuitive, but at the same time limited by our experiences. At times we feel we did  the right thing, but the question we need to ask, was it situational? Would you make the same decision if you run into something similar? If not, then you know it wasn't a well thought decision. Also, in many cases the differences between people is what stops them from getting help. Our resistance is sheerly due to ego or distrust.

Being right takes effort. We have to be open for suggestions, fight our calculated, emotional decisions and realize that at the end of the day, we want what's right for us and for others.

I like the expression "Don't judge me till you walk a mile in my shoes" or "live a day in my life". Makes us rethink about our decisions, our judgements and how we look at others. Taking time to analyze a situation without emotionally getting attached would lead us to better results. Most importantly save time, few relations and in some cases could be money as well.

While contemplating on this thought, I just came to realize that, I fear posting my thoughts anywhere else other than on this blog because "I FEEL", I don't write that well. If I need to be RIGHT then I have to set my emotional feeling aside and look beyond the horizon and make an effort to take the RIGHT decision.

Ah! May be this one was for me :)

JS.

How to be Organized and Be More Productive

If searching your keys or wallet is a part of your daily ritual, then it’s time to break that. Some of the things that have helped me be more organized are defining the space for everything and re-organizing my space frequently.

Here are top 5 organizing hacks that have helped me.

1.     Have a designated space for everything

It doesn’t matter If you are living in smaller space or large space, if you don’t have a defined space for each of your things then its going to get clutter in no time.

One of the best ways to avoid clutter is to lay things out on the floor and start organizing. Anything that you have not been used in past few years then it must to go trash or donation (if it’s in good condition)

Once you have concise list of things that you absolutely need everyday then you sort them all and keep where they belong. For example- all your tools can go to garage and gift wrapping can go in closet, so on and so forth.

2.       Put things back where they belong after using

In my opinion this is the hardest part of being organized. It might take an extra minute to keep shoes back on a rack after using but its easy to do and easy not do. Eventually this will result in a stack of shoes on the floor that just keeps growing.   So best way to tackle this is by keeping shoes back where they belong.

3.       Clean up regularly

Its highly possible that if you have taken time to organize your space and spent some time, then you want to maintain the cleanliness. If someone else has done that for you then probably you would be depended on them. Nothing wrong. But make sure you keep your space clean and declutter regularly.

I have known people who tend to push the work thinking they will get to it when they have time then guess what, they never get time until unless life forces. So, its better to do little bit every day or as it suits your lifestyle.

4.       Create a Task List or Checklist-Plan for tomorrow

Being organized is not just a personality trait, it’s a conscious decision anyone can take and implement it in their life.

This can start with planning your breakfast, cloths, lunch and so on. This is what I have seen, if I am preparing my self for the next day I tend to think of everything I need and keep them all in one place, which saves me some time the next day morning.

It’s a promising idea to plan your next day in advance and have everything on TO DO list if you have many things to accomplish. By doing this exercise you are not only prepared but also know what to expect the next day.  

5.       Maintain a Calendar

If you are looking at not only being organized but also productive then having a calendar is next to must have.  

If you like to keep a note, or a journal or digital calendar they all serve the same purpose, keeping you accountable for your actions/plans. Leverage what’s available to you and make your life more simpler and less complicated. 

Becoming Better

Most of us have a very humble beginning. At least I can relate to someone whose parents worked hard to make ends meet and to provide their children the best. They work double shift or may be take extra tuition class, just so they can make enough to keep the family comfortable. 

Growing up, I was provided everything that a child would need. I don't remember my parents saying “you can’t have that”. But I also remember my father teaching us the art of appreciation. He would often share his past and all the troubles they went through to reach where are are today. And that thought us to value what we had and be humble about it. 

One Sunday morning, my father asked me and my youngest sister if we were interested to go for a train ride, it was just one day to and fro trip, but it was an awesome experience because it was our first train ride through tunnels. To this day, I can not forget the feeling and seems like it was just yesterday. 

The reason why I shared this experience is, the more I think I feel strong that it was not the exotic places or lavish life style that mattered. I am thankful to my father, who gave us his time. Most parents do sacrifice a lot to provide the best for their children, but I think only few sacrifice that extra money they get for extra hours at work. 

All along I have heard my father say, “My goal was to be home by 6 o'clock in the evening after the day’s work so I could spend time with my wife and children”. Knowing where they came from, today I feel that if he wanted he could have used his evening time to make extra money but somehow, he thought that grooming us made more sense. We had fun growing up, we did all sorts of science experiments and just had lot of fun but learned a lot through the process. I claim, who I am today is because of my parents. He made me and my siblings more capable by always bringing the best in us.

Doesn't matter where we came from, one thing is certain the moment we realize that we are more capable than what we think we are, is the time to reevaluate our priorities. Set the boundaries and raise those bars high for our self. We are all capable of becoming better. It does't matter whether it's fear of failure or cheers for success that motivates, all that matters is we are becoming better every single day, until you feel proud of our self and tap our potential. 

Where we are today in life is because of our decisions and if you are like me, you’ll never be content and always find avenues to become better, not only because you are capable but because someone raised you, so you can stand on mountains.

At all times leave room to change and grow. 

Jahnavi S.

Magic Wand or Will Power ?

How to lose weight ? ah!, I know that feeling. you know what, don't jump to a conclusion yet. Keep reading until you find it interesting and then you can enjoy reading this article. I promise you will :)

I have met many who are obsessed over weight. All they can think of is "Am I Really Fat", "Do I look Fat", uh! "I might have put on little weight". In my opinion, we have all been there or some of us still do it, so for those of us who still think "I have to lose weight", here is a surprising thing to know "Burn fat". 

Have any one heard this by Robin Sharma- "What you focus on grows, what you think about expands". Keeping this in mind, I urge you to focus on "burning fat", "gaining the right weight". 
Just by focusing on the positive thing, we are making it easy on our self. It is no more "omg! am fat" or "I have to lose weight". Frankly to me just those two words bring so much negative energy, it makes me start off on a wrong foot. As if there is a pressure of losing weight and I already feel its hard. 

We are all unique and beautiful in our own ways. If we don't feel comfortable in our own skin, it would be even hard to accept who we are, which is the most important thing of all. 
Having said that, obesity is the most pervasive heath hazard some of us are fighting today. It increases type 2 diabetes , heart disease , cholesterol and so on. 

As the new year approaches , I can say right off the bat, people will have one resolution and that's losing weight. But what we forget is to practice it everyday henceforth. 

In the recent past, I have experienced Keytogenic diet has worked best for me. There are many studies upon Keytogenic diet and intermediate fasting and how it can help you burn fat, one of the source that I have been loving is -

Dr. Eric Berg DC 

If you are someone who want to start off the right way and stick to the plan, you can follow some of his videos.  No I am not sponsored, I am just sharing my experience hoping you'll find it helpful. 

Nobody is perfect, we all need to buff off our rough edges, even if it means buffing off some of that pound ;). 



Good luck !