On My Deathbed

Yeah, I am dying,
On my deathbed, here I am lying.
Oh God, please give me some more time,
Take all material possessions of mine,
My money, my gold, my big house,
my imported cars, that valuable stuffI kept in a bank vault, And my collection of expensive watches,
Take all these useless things of mine
Oh God please give me some more time.

Yeah, I am dying,
On my deathbed, here I am lying.
Oh God, I wasted too much time.
I was too busy earning money, To collect things I don't need, To impress people I don't like.
I was too busy creating those Instagram pics of mine,
With hot chicks, modified  cars, expensive dinners, and imported wines,
Showing and proving to others that I am living an ecstatic life,
But all those long years, I was just lying.

Yeah, I am dying,
On my deathbed, here I am lying.
Oh God, I want to wake up listening to birds rhymes, Peacefully watching the sunrise, Inhaling the fragrance of petals flowing in the fresh air, Feeling cold dew when I wander barefoot on cozy grass,
And at night gazing stars for hours,
Doing nothing just lying.

Yeah, I am dying,
On my deathbed, here I am lying.
I did all sorts of things in my life.
traded tuition for a degree,
traded risk for profits,
traded happiness for security.
traded principles for politics.
traded ethics for cash.
But trading time for money was the worst trade of my life.

Yeah, I am dying,
On my deathbed, here I am lying.

When you are bad at saying NO

YES, I am bad at saying NO and it is worse than it looks. When you are bad at saying no, you waste your most precious non-renewable resource, TIME. In the office, you completed assigned works before time so that few hours can be used in learning Python on YouTube. At that moment, you hear a colleague's voice " Hey man, enjoying YouTube, looks like you are free, help me to complete my presentation buddy". 

You: " Yeah..sure "

Somewhere deep inside your cerebrum: Go to hell you piece of shit, I am not enjoying YouTube and I am not free, these hours are managed by working hard to complete my work before time so that I can do something productive. Yuk..I am bad at saying No.

The problem doesn't end here. You waste your energy and rhythm by doing something you hate to do and don't need to do. One fine weekend I was reading my new book 'Skin in the game' and getting goosebumps by Taleb's wisdom. Then just then I picked a phone call of a close friend. He said: "Get ready we are going for a movie, I will be at your place in an hour."

 From the point of doing something I love, to wasting almost 5-6 hours in watching some crap and roaming in hell of traffic I was back in my room. But now the mood is ruined. I wasn't able to hold that book again the whole day. I could have said no for the movie, I am an idiot. 

What can be done? Well, more than 50% problem is solved when you realize there is a problem. One wise man said, " In old times most of the struggle was the struggle of scarcity, in modern times, it's a struggle of abundance." The abundance of calories, information, society, entertainment, addiction, etcetera. So you need to be good at saying no to most of these.

"The way to survive in modern society is to be an ascetic. It is to retreat from society. There's too much society everywhere you go...The only solution is to turn it off." @naval

How can you become good at anything, speaking English, playing guitar, chess, maths or saying no? Simply, by doing it more. Like any other skills, to become good at saying no we need to practice it. Yes, initially others may think that you are arrogant, rude, selfish or whatever. But eventually, they will realize that you just value your time more than others and will be available for them when they actually need you. And others stop asking your favor for shitty things. 

You will just love this hack :)

Life is hell

Life is hell, when things will be well?

Past is packed with regret, guilt, mistakes, disappointment, failure.

Future is full of worry, fear, greed, ambiguity, anxiety.

And the present is not offering any present, it's very unpleasant, whom to tell?

Life is hell, when things will be well? 

Things which are scarce is love, family, friends, time, money, vacation, peace, honored promises.

Things which are abundant is loneliness, missed calls, exhaustion, unpaid bills, chaos, liquor, cigarettes, and I just want to yell.

Life is hell, when things will be well?

What are you good at ?

What are you good at? But the question is, is this question is important enough to invest time and energy in pursuit of an answer? HELL YESS!

Every individual is unique. In our fast-moving world, full of intense competition, the most probable way to succeed is by becoming YOU. You just eliminate the competition, because no one can be you better than you.

30-40 years before, opportunities to create wealth were limited. So people were forced to do a set number of things. But in our time, with the miracle of the internet, you can live by becoming you. Just see around, successful YouTubers,  bloggers, freelance photographer, gamers, etc are minting money just by doing what they are good at. Who can compete with Bhuvan Bam? 

What are you good at?

This question is not new to me, it arises time and time again, consumes a lot of time and energy but never got the answer. Maybe I am not thinking as much as I think I am thinking.

What I am great at? Maybe, I need to do something different instead of just giving thought about it. Like, I have to start recording my thoughts, my thinking. Thoughts are by nature are unstructured and it's tough to derive some meaningful observation from unstructured data. Another thing I can do, instead of asking myself I should ask the same question from people who know me. My thinking is biased by my perception of myself.

I get my answer. What about you ??