February 25, 2008

Out of my comfort zone!

Relaxed & happy - yes, that is what I'm these days... After months of ordeal and stress, feeling good these days. Decision to quit something that was going well, with the attached money and fame, was a tough one I must admit - but surely worth it given how I am feeling for the last few days. It is a mixed emotion including relief, excitement, fear, satisfaction and few more I guess.

Spending time reading a lot, and happy to do that. Other than that, sleeping, watching movies & cricket makes up most of my time.

I have also started to do something for which I took the decision to quit from an activity which took up almost all my time. May GOD give me the ability and sense to keep doing it for the rest of my life.

The next few months are going to be real exciting stuff, something that was missing in my life. Wanted to move out of my comfort zone, picking the line from Steve Waugh's autobiography.

As I had posted earlier - happiness, here I come!

February 12, 2008

Self-discovery, not self-improvement

The journey of life is not about improving oneself. It is about remembering oneself. The path you're traveling isn't a journey to some distant land. Rather, it leads back to a place you once knew but forgot along the way, as those around you socialized you out of your essence. Actually, it's a journey back home, to the natural greatness and perfection you had when you were born. We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.

Living your best life is really mostly about recapturing what you gave up!

It's true. As a child, you were aware of all your gifts. You were innocent and pure. You were immensely creative and wildly passionate. Your imagination knew no boundaries and your dreams knew no limits. You trusted others and had faith in yourself. You didn't have this need we adults have: to have everything all figured out. You expressed your truest essence as a person without fear of reprisal, and you freely let your light shine. You lived totally in the moment and savored every simple gift that each of our lives brings to us on a regular basis. You loved snowflakes and spiders, singing and dreaming, a good hug and a steaming cup of hot chocolate. The world was abundant, a place of boundless possibilities. But then something happened - you grew up!

As you grew up, you started to adopt other people's beliefs about the way the world works and the nature of your role within it. You shut down your beautiful feelings and began to live in your mind - spending your days rationalizing, judging and worrying rather than slipping, dancing and playing. You became a pleaser - thinking, acting and conducting yourself in ways that were not necessarily of your own choosing but of the choosing of those around you, such as your parents, teachers and friends. And so the process of socialization took over and your personal magnificence began to be hidden. You did what you were told, acted as you were instructed to act and thought the way people taught you to think.

And in doing so, you began to live in a small box. After you die, there will be plenty of time to be in a small box... so why live in one while you're alive?

- This is an extract from Robin Sharma's The Saint, the surfer and the CEO.. one of my all time fav books.

February 4, 2008

Irrational... but scary

In one of my earlier posts, I had cited an instance of how the Maharashtrians in Mumbai have started to feel let down and their privacy being diluted by 'outsiders'. The activities of Raj Thackeray's Nav-Nirman Sena over the weekend has added more weight to my views. Hope it is only a one-off and not emergence of a trend.

I always wonder how a layman Maharashtrian feel about all this? Can they relate to the ideologies and views of these extrimists? Is there supposed to be a differentiation between Mumbai and India?