Life at 88
It is day number 88 in KL as I write this. Much water has passed under the bridge from the time I landed in Malaysia to this day. To my greatest joy, much has been unlearned than learned. Not only that, as I have grown older and more since I have begun to reflect, which is approximately the same time as the life of this blog, I have realised people everywhere are the same. There are only 2 kinds of people in this world, those who inspire and those who are looking for inspiration. It is anybody's guess where the majority is.
Nevertheless, many things transpired in the last 88 days. Together with the wife, we have been scaling the peaks of independence in all things domestic. Not only has that been truly inspiring for me but has been a moment of awakening in every respect. When you hit the ground running, there are no free cookies at the coffee break. In fact, there is no coffee break.
Much like I expected, this post in an early stage has met with the dose of rambling soliloquy. Who am I fooling? I started to write this post about how an individual can better himself just by looking at the world around him. Not envy it, but get inspired by it. In an age of information where knowledge is free flowing, anyone can find inspiration.
Inspiration, as they say, can come from anywhere and nowhere is this more evident when you open your eyes to everyday people and everyday lives. We all have something or the other to give each other and fortunately pass it around in many ways that we don't notice. When I see a 60 year old runner beating me every mile of the run, I get inspired. When I see someone tell me something so basic that I shudder to think 'why didn't I think of this', I am inspired. To be inspired you have to be true to yourself and to inspire also you have to be true to yourself.
So how do they do it? To somebody who inspires everyday, the answer is simple but to somebody bound by the chains of inertia, the answer is an excruciating mental war. Not only do I believe that each of us has the power to inspire, I also believe that we do it everyday in a very small way with the people we touch everyday. Every word and every action of ours is making an impact on someone else's life that we just don't comprehend but it is all adding up.
Its only very late in my life that I realised a lot of things. One of those many things is that your parents are always right. Whether what they told you about thinking before speaking or what they told you about listening to people. The only thing that mine were a little off were when they said don't eat meat!
But I surprise myself to this day by never listening to them or their advice. It may not be entirely true that I do not listen to them but in fact I end up on the wrong side of their advice. So how does that matter when we are talking of inspiration?
Connecting the dots.
Life is nothing but connecting the dots. Those who really have it easy are the ones who will be driven around, first by their chauffeurs and then by the world in general. So in order to be inspired to do better than what we think we can do, there is no better trick than to listen, make a mental catalog and always be ready to pick out any bit of information at any point in time and use it to solve the situation. In the age of information, our conversations are creating reams and reams of data in our brains and in others'. No part of that information is useless. Not even the one that we have after 3 tequila shots and 10 minutes wasted waiting outside the women's room. Because the next moment can be the one that can change our lives.
Nevertheless, many things transpired in the last 88 days. Together with the wife, we have been scaling the peaks of independence in all things domestic. Not only has that been truly inspiring for me but has been a moment of awakening in every respect. When you hit the ground running, there are no free cookies at the coffee break. In fact, there is no coffee break.
Much like I expected, this post in an early stage has met with the dose of rambling soliloquy. Who am I fooling? I started to write this post about how an individual can better himself just by looking at the world around him. Not envy it, but get inspired by it. In an age of information where knowledge is free flowing, anyone can find inspiration.
Inspiration, as they say, can come from anywhere and nowhere is this more evident when you open your eyes to everyday people and everyday lives. We all have something or the other to give each other and fortunately pass it around in many ways that we don't notice. When I see a 60 year old runner beating me every mile of the run, I get inspired. When I see someone tell me something so basic that I shudder to think 'why didn't I think of this', I am inspired. To be inspired you have to be true to yourself and to inspire also you have to be true to yourself.
So how do they do it? To somebody who inspires everyday, the answer is simple but to somebody bound by the chains of inertia, the answer is an excruciating mental war. Not only do I believe that each of us has the power to inspire, I also believe that we do it everyday in a very small way with the people we touch everyday. Every word and every action of ours is making an impact on someone else's life that we just don't comprehend but it is all adding up.
Its only very late in my life that I realised a lot of things. One of those many things is that your parents are always right. Whether what they told you about thinking before speaking or what they told you about listening to people. The only thing that mine were a little off were when they said don't eat meat!
But I surprise myself to this day by never listening to them or their advice. It may not be entirely true that I do not listen to them but in fact I end up on the wrong side of their advice. So how does that matter when we are talking of inspiration?
Connecting the dots.
Life is nothing but connecting the dots. Those who really have it easy are the ones who will be driven around, first by their chauffeurs and then by the world in general. So in order to be inspired to do better than what we think we can do, there is no better trick than to listen, make a mental catalog and always be ready to pick out any bit of information at any point in time and use it to solve the situation. In the age of information, our conversations are creating reams and reams of data in our brains and in others'. No part of that information is useless. Not even the one that we have after 3 tequila shots and 10 minutes wasted waiting outside the women's room. Because the next moment can be the one that can change our lives.
posted by Saurabh at
1:19 AM
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