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We often want to make overnight changes.
But that won't work.
Because our body and mind resists change.
So we have to trick our body and mind.
By making the change happen slowly.

For example:

You wake up at 8am and want to wake up at 6am instead?
Setting the alarm clock for 6am will work for a few days, until it doesn't.

Instead:

Set the alarm for 7:50am (10 mins earlier than usual).

Acclimatise your body and mind to this small change.
Will take 2-3 weeks.
Post that, another small change.

Alarm for 7:40am
Repeat.

Then 7:30am.
Repeat.

Over a period of a few months, you would get to a routine of 6am!

The cool kid will always have opinions of you.
The boring kid within you will ache to do anything to get their validation.
It is going to be fascinating to leave who you are and be what they are.

Except, that isn't success.
If changing yourself could bring you friends, they aren’t friends.
If being someone else could bring you closer to people, it is always a wiser choice to stay alone.

Success is a relationship you have with yourself.
If you know who you are and where you are going, you are successful.

The worst thing that would change your life forever isn't the worst thing.

Like every good thing that doesn’t make us excited forever, so do the bad things lose their power over time.

Time is not only a great healer, it also makes you aware of better things.

Everything is temporary.
And that’s a wonderful thing to begin with.

This is a story I have always loved to recite, with a brilliant life lesson.

One day, Narad Muni went to Lord Vishnu.
Narad Muni keeps chanting “Narayana Narayana” (which is another name for Lord Vishnu) as he believes that he is Vishnu’s truest follower.

To validate his belief, he asked Lord Vishnu “Who is your truest follower?”
Vishnu pointed below the clouds.
There was a poor farmer over there.

“He is my biggest follower,” Vishnu said.

Narad was shocked!
He used to chant “Narayana” day in and out.
Vishnu was in his thoughts all the time.
He was sure the farmer’s devotion didn’t come close to his.

“How is that possible? What makes this farmer your truest follower?” Narad asked.
“I will answer this question. But before that you will have to do something for me”, replied Lord Vishnu.

“Please tell me. I am really eager to know the answer.”

“You need to take an earthen pot, fill it to the brim, and then take three rounds of the universe. But there is one condition: you can’t spill even a single drop of water.”

And so Narad set out.
With his immense concentration, he did exactly what Vishnu told him.

When he returned, he asked Vishnu, “Now tell me please - how is that farmer your truest devotee?”

Vishnu pointed at the poor farmer and asked Narad to observe him.

Narad saw that even after a taxing day, even in the most difficult circumstances,
That poor farmer used to chant Vishnu’s name every night before sleeping.

Vishnu smiled.
“How many times did you chant my name while doing this task?”

Narad’s face dimmed.
“Not even once.”

He realised it is very easy to do the things we should do when times are good.
But doing what we should do even when times are bad is what defines us as a person.

Do you agree?

Most of us had a childhood of competing with others.
Get more marks than your competitor.
Higher rank.
Go to a better college than them.

These were (and unfortunately still are) the parameters that defined success for us as kids.

Except: Everyone is running their own race.
We aren’t competing against anyone, but us.

Being alone in the race is super powerful, because now we get to focus and win our way. Not someone else’s.

We are with our friends. Yet we feel bad at the end of the conversation.
They care for us. Yet something doesn’t feel right.

We are there for them in thick and thin.
Yet we don’t see them happy when we are.

Too often, we are surrounded by beautiful toxicity in the form of friends.

People who are there for us sometimes, yet make us feel bad every time.
People who are themselves, yet never respect us for who we are.

Who you are is priceless.

The famous Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai opened in 1903 at Rs. 6 per room.
Today, that same room costs Rs. 26,000.

That’s 7.2% annual inflation for 120 years!

If your money is not growing (post taxes) at atleast this rate, it is LOSING value every year.

I am against FDs as an investment option because it protects your money.
Does not help it grow.

Banks clickbait you by offering stability and security in the form of FDs.
And then, resell the same money to you at higher rates, through loans.

What DOES help your money grow is investing it in the stock market.
Is it risky? Yes.

You cannot eliminate the risk.

You can manage it, though.
Through time.

Consider this — the probability of gaining more than 8% returns, had you invested for more than 10 years in Nifty50 (India’s top 50 stocks on the National Stock Exchange), has been 100% till date.

You don’t have to be an expert.
You don’t have to pick stocks.
You don’t have to run numbers.

Just start investing.
Every month — through an SIP — and stay committed for 10+ years.
The Nifty50 Index Mutual Fund is a great place to start.

Saving is hard.
Being broke is harder.
Learning about investments is hard.
Suffering from bad investments is harder.

Choose your hard.

Someone was kind to you for a long time.
Now, all of a sudden they’ve become rude.

This leaves you questioning.
How could they change? Why did they change? Did I do something wrong?
Somehow it has started affecting your self worth in that relationship.

Here’s the truth: People don’t change. They just surface. Depending on their life circumstances or even the situations.

When we accept people for where they are, we don’t do them a favour. We do one to ourselves.

When we talk about secrets to productivity, mostly we think they would be Pomodoro technique, having a schedule, working out, etc.

While all of that is true, there is something way bigger than it: Our rest schedule.

Rest and rejuvenation is not sitting idle, wasting time, and something to be done when we will have more time. It is rather a way of getting more productive. Because even when we are not doing “work” on the outside, amidst the games that we play, the music that we work on or maybe while folding clothes, the mind is working on its own patterns to bring us our solutions.

And that, in turn, accelerates our productivity.