One common question everyone asks, third to be precise, after someone meets me is, what are my hobbies? And one popular, safe hobby we all, and for some time, I chose to say was, ‘listening to music’. My friends don’t ask me questions, they know I can blabber on and on. So, it’s people who don’t know me, unfortunately, who ask this question, but they zone out to my answers pretty quickly (hmm, they are smart after all). And, while the discussion is still going on around the table, I go back in time, to see how my hobby developed.
My GTD workflow
I’m a strong advocate of GTD. I like its bottom-up approach of starting where we are, instead of where we want to be. There’s so much distraction in everyday life, that reverse engineering from ‘where we want to be’ and organizing daily activities around these priorities (like Stephen Covery’s method) is impractical and near impossible. Starting with where we are, handling all the various stimuli, life throws at us every day, organizing, clarifying and doing it appropriately helps us to get control of our life and only then, we can ask ourselves what we want to do in life, break them into do-able action items and fit them in our schedule. This way, we are in control of the daily activities and also moving towards where we want to be.
And this is the way I do it:
My Quotes
Over time, I’ve collected some quotes of mine, which I used over time in various occassions; ranging from thought provoking to outright cheesy, here are some:
- Change comes from action, not intention
- The lust for comfort kills the passions of the soul
- The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret
- Sometimes we miss the moments we had, sometimes those we didn’t
- You’re getting old when you enjoy remembering stuff, than doing them
- If it can be hurt, it can be killed
Enough
How much do we need? how much is more than required? where do you draw the line? should you draw a line at all? I’ve asked myself these questions from time and again. But, we live in a age of abundance – be it information or material comforts – that drawing the line becomes very difficult; there is too much good out there to hold our reins and be in control. The only thing we dont have is: time – the great determiner – more experience? or more quality of experience?
We are in the best times possible in history. We have everything today. The future looks optimistic. But, are we as happy if not more than our ancestors were? Too much to choice, of alternatives have created a paradox. instead of driving up satisfaction, it pulled it down. Then, what is the answer? – limit ourselves – say ‘enough’.
Warrior of light
A warrior of light is never predictable. He might dance down the street on his way to work, gaze into the eyes of a complete stranger and speak of love at first sight, or else defend an apparently absurd idea. Warriors of light allow themselves days like these. They are not afraid to weep over ancient sorrows or to feel joy at new discoveries.
- Paulo Coelho