Wednesday, November 30, 2005

first things first

Last week-end had 4 hours to kill before the show 'cyprus' so ended up in a big book-store at Trafalgar square and as always headed first towards the best sellers section then to the discount section and then finally to the spiritual/philosophy section. Collection in this 'Mind body and spirit' section was quite vast and book-reviewes and book-store recommendations were all around the place.

What struck me about these books was -

Almost all the book seem to be saying the same things. If I was to do a great job of precise writing and condense all book to 2-3 paragraphs it would be impossible to tell which best-seller has been condensed. (For example the first page of the book - first things first seem to be a page straight out of Bhagwad Gita - Nishkaam Karma .. )

It is similar to the exercise that can be done for popular movies if we were to condense the plot in one paragraph - boy meets girl, boy and girl fight, they seperate, they clear their misunderstandings, they marry and ... etc etc

So the central message seems to be -

1 - Dont take life and seriously job seriously ( Something what Kittu da had once told me - nobody on his/her death-bed ever said - I wish I had spent more time in the office ;o)

2 - Nishkam karma - Focus on the job not on the results ( this is opposite of what most of the management books would tell you ... be RESULT-ORIENTED )

3- Love humanity and contribute to society. In short - be good

4- Dont be in denial of death nor be afraid of it. Accept it as a part of life

5- Do physical exercise daily

6- Do something for mental peace daily - meditation etc etc

7- Stay in the present, forget about past and dont worry about future

8- Eat healthy food

9- Have a good long sleep

10- Avoid caffine,nicotine,alcohol & drugs

11- Be toleant to diverse religions and ethnic groups

12- Money does not necessarily result in happiness

13 -Family values are important

14- Follow your heart not rationality

Ok will stop at this point .. this is becoming a FAQ of 'what should I do in my life'

Bottomline is that even though these points are so simple to understand and mostly do not contradict our personal point of views then why are these so difficult to follow on a continuous basis ? We all know how difficult it is to continue doing your daily jog after the enthusiasim of first 2 weeks has died down.


Would like to know about your views on this ..

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lack of discipline.

4:02 AM  
Blogger Vishal Sah said...

yes I Agree .. but wasnt all that schooling & parenting things supposed to hammer Discipline into our heads ?

4:45 AM  
Blogger Lokesh Shah said...

That was just discipline 101.

5:01 AM  
Blogger Vishal Sah said...

hmm... so for Discipline 202 do we need to get married ? ;o) Loki whats your experience

5:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Marriage is a step in the other direction. Life becomes comfortable and one tends to get lazy. (unless your luck abandoned you on the marriage day :-) )

For **most** people Discipline 202 is some sort of shock.
Eg. For items like physical exercise, eating right & healthy food it is illness (stroke, diabetes ) which forces one into Discipline 202.

Other examples may be some sort of religious experience, death of a close friend/relative .. stuff like that.

4:12 AM  
Blogger Ritesh Dahiya said...

They say "Knowledge is Power",
I disagree.
I say "Knowledge with Action is POWER".
Without action knowledge doen't mean or translate into anything.
All the points that you mentioned is good knowlegde, but until unless me/you/or anyone is not going to do something about it, it will be just a good knowledge.

11:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dhaiya ji ..good point -

-vishal

3:45 AM  
Blogger Rambler said...

It is very obvious...it is all the same. I realised this very early in life and have never ever touched (yes, literally as well) any self-improvement types.

11:45 PM  
Blogger Rambler said...

To add on dhaiya's comment, I think
Knowledge+Action+Vision is Power.

11:46 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home