How About A Date With Yourself?

Yes.. You read it right. Yourself. A date with yourself.

Go out for that drive/ride. Enrol for that course you always wanted to. Go out for a stroll.

Take yourself out for dinner or maybe visit an art gallery. Or better still try out a new recipe. There are many things which you can do and should do to date yourself.

For dating yourself allows you time to reflect on all of the events, news and interactions that are happening around you. It enables you to check how you are feeling emotionally and physically, an opportunity to introspect. It allows you an opportunity to be yourself and do what you would love to do, without having to bother about  what someone else may feel or say.

It strengthens your sense of independence, builds confidence and results in better self awareness.

So go ahead and set up that date with yourself.

Believe me when I say it won't be easy at first, but will be worth it once the dates begin to sink in.

#dateyourself #selfawareness #selfdating #selfreflection #setadate #datewithself

Thirty Day Challenge

I started as a skeptic when I took up the thirty-day challenge.  I was not sure if I would be able to complete it successfully. The very first morning, I woke up to the question - Will I or Won't I? But the journey thereafter has been a fascinating one. As I kept writing, the topics kept coming. Barring a couple of occasions, I was able to keep writing. Finally, I reached this far.

Now that I reached this far, I feel the thirty-day challenge is doable. You can aim to do almost anything. Read, write, meet, earn, exercise, take pictures... you can do literally anything as a thirty-day challenge. There is no doubt that if done well, the challenge creates momentum that helps you to keep going. 

Going by my personal experience, I would strongly recommend setting up your own challenge. Set up a challenge that will help you become better or make you happy when you look back at the thirty days. In the process, you will learn some interesting life lessons and gain precious memories. You learn to make small, sustainable changes that are likely to stay with you. Just give it a try. 

Whether you like it or not, the next thirty days are going to pass. So why not spend them doing something that you always wanted to do. Look at each month as an opportunity to start a new thirty-day experiment. With each successful challenge, you will learn a lot about yourself and the strategies that can help you live your life at its best. 

Sometimes, all it takes is one simple change to make life better. The thirty-day challenge is the way to make it happen!

Give It A Try

Have an idea? 

Do give it a try. 

You never know it might just work. 

Better still you may know why it won't. 

Even better, if you persist enough, you may just find a way to make it work. 

But nothing ever happens without trying. 

You won't ever know, how far you can fly, how high you can soar if you never ever give it a try. 

Good things come to those who try. 

Not just once, not just twice, keep trying a hundred thousand times. 

In the process, you figure out something new, 

You set new milestones to achieve

So the next time you have an idea

Do give it a try. 

For you will never know until you try!

A Single Step

 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao Tzu

Big achievements are made through small yet concrete steps. No matter how big our dreams are, we can achieve them by taking small steps. Many who interpret the proverb as signifying the importance of small steps, miss out on its essence. No doubt, the small steps are important. Yet, one should not miss out on what the proverb tries to tell us.

Yes, the single step is important and will make all the difference. It will set us on the path of achievement. No doubt about that. But what is more important is how to begin the journey. How to begin is the core. Beginning with a single step is the essence. 

The first step is most important because we may have big plans, but they will not materialize if we don’t take that first step. They will not go anywhere if we don't begin. The beginning is key. Nothing happens without the beginning. A thousand dreams (I would say lakhs) die even before they begin. 

At times we may get bogged down by our dreams, ideas, or things that we may want to achieve. Their sheer intensity may weigh us down. That's where beginning with the single-step comes in. It is easy to trust and back ourselves to take the first step, back ourselves to make the beginning. It may not change us drastically, but that simple beginning sets the tone for the thousand miles to be covered. It is only when we learn to take the first step, we learn to walk.

Let the journey begin.

Letting Go

There are times when it is better to let go of something than to hold on to it. It is important to realize and accept that some things are not meant to be. The more one tries to hold on to something, the more entangled one becomes. It is just better to let go.

Let go of - a person, an event, an incident, a thing, or maybe a failure. Just let go of anything that is holding you back and draining you down. However, it is easier said than done. For most of us, letting go is hard. It’s a struggle to release people, things, or emotions we’ve grown accustomed to having in our lives. Yet, that is what exactly one should be doing. 

Because it frees you up from obsessive thoughts and unhappy feelings. In the process, it creates space for those things that you really need to focus on. It is the space to start afresh with a new perspective and create something meaningful. 

Always remember, the trees lose their leaves so that they are not weighed down by the season to come. Rather, they are all set to flower again and grow bright green leaves when the season does arrive. In the process, they keep tellings us, " Sometimes letting go is an act of far greater power, than hanging on."

Not Everything Happens For A Reason

Not everything happens for a reason. Sometimes things just happen. That's it. There is nothing one can do about it. But we go looking for reasons. That is what we have been told for ages - Everything happens for a reason. 

And we have all kinds of reasons. Fate, destiny,  divine plan, higher purpose, God's plan, for something better, or it was meant to happen. You keep getting some or the other inexplicable reasons which rarely makes any sense. Yet we continue to look for answers because we have been always made to believe everything happens for a reason.

Just because something does not work out - it could be a business, marriage, education, divorce, death of a loved one, broken dreams - does not mean there have to be reasons for it. In fact, there are none. These reasons we seek become an escape route. We start using them to rationalize failure and loss. We have grown accustomed to becoming strong believers of cause and effect. So much so that it starts becoming a crutch we would like to hold on to. Does everything in life happen to teach us a lesson? We, unfortunately though, believe and it hurts us a lot. It makes us look helpless about which we can't do much.

Our belief in such things may strip us of our ability to think, make the right choices and make us believe downhill is the only way to go. We may end up believing in a fatality, as the only way out. 

It does not have to be that way. Why should it be? Just stop looking for the answers. Stop looking for the reasons. There is nothing/no one to be blamed for. Whatever happened just happened. Let go of looking for answers, always. Letting go may help us look at things from a different perspective. It may help us understand what to take out of it. More importantly, it may create meaning out of something that happened for no reason at all. 

Finding or creating meaning is not as same as looking for reasons. When we create the meaning, we grow.  We accept what happened rather than finding an escape route. And it changes us. The process, however, is easier said than done. But it is worth trying and accepting that not everything happens for a reason. 

Step Back

At times it is better to step back. The best way to settle the muddied water is to do nothing. Just step back and let it settle. When it does settle down the view becomes clear. 

A cluttered mind is the same as the muddy waters. To solve the problem of a cluttered mind, you do NOTHING – you step aside and let it be. With time, the disturbances will settle down on their own and you will get a clear and calm mind. The process of calming the mind is effortless. It happens on its own. 

However, what you do need to do is step back. Stepping back helps you look at things from a different perspective. Always remember, measuring your success is as important as the action you are taking. Stepping back allows reflecting if both are in sync or not. 

Avoid rushing through, for haste makes waste. Nothing ever in life is linear. Life moves back and forth, up and down. In such cases stepping back helps to analyze and realize the mistakes you are making. It is time to introspect and understand what exactly are you trying to achieve and if you are on the right track or not. 

Taking time out is never wasted. Rather it helps you to understand what is it that you are doing right, where are you going wrong, what is working and what is not. You get a clear picture of which way you are heading to. It also makes it very clear whether you really want to head that way or not. 

Taking a step back for reflection actually helps you take two steps forward. Always remember, an arrow is always released from the stretched bow. Stepping back is actually stepping forward, in a better way for a better life. Stepping back is understanding the big picture and transforming yourself.