Categories
Lifestyle design

Living life in a fast lane and ways to slow down

2_Feb_2013_fastlane

Now-a-days I ask myself a simple question – “What are the things I want to do before I die?” – The list is long and it keeps on growing.

When I thought that I wanted to become a product designer, I started working very hard to achieve that goal. Now when I look back from where I started and compare it to the goal that I’ve set, I realize that I have climbed only a few branches of the tree and the crown is still very far. If you ask me – “what did I do to get where I am today (in the field of designing)?” I will answer that with – “only hard work and doing things that make me happy”. I started setting small goals and did everything to achieve them. But did I enjoy every moment of those days when I was designing? No! Because I was pushing myself hard and didn’t give other adventures a room to entertain. When I wasn’t designing, I was engaged in random acts, like checking my facebook notifications, surfing the internet, playing computer games all day long, which are also a way to relax (to some extent), but are useless most of the time.

Since the day I was born i.e. 20 years ago from today, I have lived 7,305 days….wait wait wait….you see, 7,305 days?! That’s huge. REALLY HUGE and there are only few days or moments that I remember and can tag as ‘remarkable’ (take for example 18th of September of 2012, Tuesday was the day when I launched my portfolio website). And due to these facts, there I was, again asking few questions to myself: What I was doing the rest of 7,255 days? (Approximately taking 50 days as productive ones), Why is that I didn’t enjoy every moment or each day? The answer was very simple. I was LIVING MY LIFE IN A FAST LANE.

Today, we live in a society where everyone desires more. Everyone wants a bigger house, a better car, more money, more respect, increment in salary, promotion and what not! To achieve those dreams, we started living a life in which we are always working to get to a better position. We neglect what we have and pursue better life (of course that’s important because what’s the point of living a life in which we don’t grow). But in this process of getting better, we ignore many other beautiful things happening around us. Everything moves so fast that we barely get a chance to witness those beautiful and magical moments. In short, we stop enjoying life and we hardly know it. And that is called living life in a fast lane.

So what’s the way out? The answer I figured out and also suggested by many is to: LIVE IN PRESENT or (in simple terms) to SLOW DOWN. By living in present, we enjoy almost everything. We don’t have to wonder about our past neither care about the future. We simply focus on our present. Focusing and living in present means knowing more about ourselves, caring about everyone, spending our time with our loved ones rather than checking facebook notifications, being polite to everyone, getting close to nature and admiring its beauty, to choose between things that are more important to you, in which you find the joy…..and the list goes on.

What living in present can reward us with is beyond our imagination. Just to point out a few, it will make us more contented, organized, calm, generous, optimistic, and modest, who lives to inspire, who encourages people, and who has less weakness and more strength.

So, I am going to try and slow things down a bit from now on so that I can enjoy this beautiful life. I know it’s very hard to be consistent on this path of choosing between actions which promises to deliver equal amount of joy as compared to the hard work and dedication involved. But I will try because in the end when I die, I want my eyes closed but heart open.

So here’s a question and a song by Eminem Ft. Royce called FAST LANE I would like to leave you with.

Q.WHAT YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE? (Share your dreams in the comment section below)

And if you haven’t figured it out till now from the paragraphs that followed, let me tell you, it’s me and my twin brother’s birthday today. So CHEERS!

1_Jan_2013_happybdayma

Your visit is really appreciated. Slow down and enjoy life.

Categories
Blogging Writing

Why this blog?

1_Jan_2013_whythisblog

Since childhood, I hated books. I had this perspective that people who read books, write novels, articles or blogs are boring. They live a monotonous life and are introverts. I still remember myself tagging few people as “boring” because of this particular notion.

Still today, I hate to study and you know the reason, it’s because the topics are not of my interest (which is widely a generalized case). But as I grew up and developed interest in design, I decided to make a career in it. Later, while moving forward, I started developing questions like “how to be more focused towards your goal”, “what to do when off-tracked”, “how to lead a good life” and so on. I wanted answers. This led me to follow some self-help blogs and writers (offering the same) like Zen Habits, Paulo Coelho, Robin Sharma and others which at some extent answered my questions. I searched everywhere and got many answers but the most common of all was: TO WRITE. I was amazed by discovering that “writing” was on the top of the chart. So to give writing a try, I begun documenting my routine and works (which is a short of writing, I decided to stick to) from 24th of September, 2012 (5 days after I launched my portfolio website).

I started to plan in advance like what I wanted to do the next day, next week, next month or next year. By documenting every step, I discovered that my brain had started to re-wire and it acted accordingly. I tried to maintain the pace of documentation, but failed many times during the course.

By writing I dumped whatever’s in there, in my head and those write-ups reflected my thinking level, my personality, what I am now, what I wanted to be, what I needed in life, etc. Writing made my thinking visible. It has refined my ideas. It has enhanced my power of perception. As I believe that “what you think, you can write and what you write, you can think upon”.

I still document my plans and it was only through the process of writing and to cross-check my position which made me realize that through writing or expressing my thoughts, I can always know about myself, where I stand and what actions do I need to take to make any changes. Also by writing something knowingly or unknowingly you’re trying to analyze the content. So I think this whole writing process is a tool to analyze and improve your personality in many ways. These results forced me to admit and appreciate that journalist and writers who have continued to read and write their whole life are not only making a living out of it, but are also improving their personality day-by-day. They re-wire their brain functions by these processes.

Relevantly, this book: The Shallows – What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, written by Nicholas Carr, explains how the internet is deteriorating our brain functions in many ways, is a must read.

Thus, finally I decided to start a blog only to pen down and analyze my views on a particular subject so that I can act accordingly, in near future. Some of you who might be thinking me as adopting a profession in writing (as a professional blogger), I’d like to clarify two things:

  1. What this blog is not about
  2. What this blog is about

This blog is not about:

  1. making money
  2. trying to change anyone’s life (not my motto) because I think people change their own lives
  3. getting readers or views
  4. promoting something (although I am promoting “writing” here)
  5. starting a career in blogging
  6. showing my knowledge

This blog is about:

  1. developing a writing habit
  2. expressing my thoughts and opinions
  3. improving myself by analyzing my views

And, by the way, it’s my mom’s birthday today! So CHEERS!

1_Jan_2013_happybdayma

Your visit is really appreciated. Enjoy reading and writing to have an open mind.