Why Most of the Ideas We Conceive Do Not See The Light of Day

Why Most of the Ideas We Conceive Do Not See The Light of Day

I once had an idea to author a book that would cover the third football season of Manchester United under the tempestuous reign of the Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho while interjecting some of my daily philosophical musings of life. I sat on the idea for a while, wrote some twenty-five pages and then stopped. A few weeks later, the club sacked Mourinho.

Why Most of the Ideas We Conceive Do Not See The Light of Day
Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I also once had an idea to produce chocolate in cocoa-rich Ghana (where I live) under a brand that would be fresh, environmentally friendly and tastes great. I did some research but never followed through. The idea did not as much die as vanish from my memory.
We all have ideas. However, how many of us act on them? Some think they have the next billion-dollar idea, hoarding it as if Facebook views it as a potential competitor. Others do not believe enough in their opinions.

Whether it is the fear of it not being good enough, procrastinating on it so that it is perfect, or fear of ridicule from others, 99% of ideas never manifest. They remain imprisoned inside our heads.

Below are six ways on how to make an idea come alive:

1. Execution is all that matters.

No one dreams up an idea in his head and it materializes immediately. No one knows whether their idea will turn out to be excellent or terrible. We have hunches, but nothing is definite. We do not get a divine definitive message that our idea is a winner. So, what it comes down to is the execution of the idea. If it works, then so be it. If it does not, onto the next one.

2. Perseverance

Ideas have become plentiful with the advent of the internet, modern ‘open’ capitalism, and angel investors willing to back them. This does not necessarily mean that ideas survive the initial coming out period. Instead, there is much noise out there that it has become even more challenging to make our ideas work.

What we need is a strong dose of perseverance. We cannot crumble at the first sign of adversity as so many do nowadays. We need to have faith and an inner trust in ourselves and the idea to keep it going.

3. Pivoting is part of what makes an idea work.

Often, an idea will not work. We can believe all we want but beating a dead horse into the ground will never make it come alive. And so, we need to have that gut instinct to know when to pivot. Be open-minded to viewing our idea as a door to others and change direction quickly.

Most businesses do not end up as the one they envisioned. Jeff Bezos’s grand idea was to sell books online, but he quickly sensed a much bigger opportunity to sell everything online and make Amazon the everything store.

4. Marketing is key.

No idea can survive without developing the skills to Market & Sell. The internet has made sure that the world of buying and selling has changed. In that, traditional ways of selling have changed. We can no longer secure the best physical location and hope to sell a product, align ourselves with prominent market leaders, like publishing houses to sell books or rest on the laurels of a well-known brand.

We must become audience marketers rather than marketing the product or service itself. When we find a group of people interested in what we offer, then we must communicate the value we are giving them. We must do it ourselves. No one else will do it for us anymore.

Steven Pressfield, a well-known writer of books like “The War of Art,” “Gates of Fire,” and “The Legend of Beggar Vance,” said in a podcast recently that he now cannot rely on any publication house to sell his books. Instead, he does his marketing. If such a famous writer needs to do his marketing, what about aspiring writers like me?

5. Just do it.

Instead of talking up our ideas or wasting time beta-testing them, we must ‘Just do it,’ as Nike professes. There is something magical in taking action. Put the idea out in the world and let the world and the feedback guide it and us. There will be a few bumps and bruises along the way, but at least the idea has taken off and has a life of its own.

In Jeff Olson’s book, The Slight Edge, he explains how the Apollo rocket flying to the moon was off course 97 per cent of the time. It was only on course three per cent of the time. Continually re-adjusting itself, it reached the moon—safely—and returned to tell the tale. Similarly, we need always to readjust our stored information but can only do so with received feedback.

6. We are human, and we make mistakes.

It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay if we keep making mistakes, but what is unacceptable is making the same mistakes repeatedly. We must be vulnerable enough to notice these mistakes and accept our roles in messing up the process. This awareness then helps us not make the same mistake again.

I have been trying to say throughout this blog that when we have an idea, we must go with it. We cannot allow our egos to sabotage it. Instead, we must view ourselves not as the creators but as the caretakers and mediums for that idea.

We are responsible for bringing it out in the world. We must make sure that the idea has the best chance to survive. Just like a mother would feel when birthing a child. She is the means entrusted by the universe to bring a new life into the world.

Go work on your idea today. Whether it is the next New York Times best-selling book, or a million-dollar business idea or simply a new cooking recipe you have thought of, just do it.

How the ‘Stick Figure’ Diagram Helped Reprogram My Mind

change
Photo Credit: Chris Lawton/Unsplash

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”—James Allen, As A Man Thinketh.

Eight years ago, I was taking anti-depressants. I wanted to desperately get off them. I wanted to change from the inside out. I just didn’t know how.

One morning, I received an email from the Bob Proctor Matrixx event, which promised me all the strategies and tactics that I needed to change. The email also said there were only 2 places left. I had to confirm that day or lose my chance to meet Proctor. I bought the ticket.

In one of my earlier blog posts, I criticised the teachings of Bob Proctor on the use of affirmations. However, I’m indebted to him for teaching me an idea that I haven’t forgotten and which has become the foundation to all my personal growth—The Stick Figure diagram.

Stick Figure
The Stick Figure Diagram

The room of thirty plus people went quiet as the lights were turned off and a single light ray zoomed onto the white board. Proctor grabbed a marker pen and drew one big circle that he divided into two: The Conscious Mind at the top and the Subconscious at the bottom. This circle signifies our head. This was then joined to a smaller circle, which is our body, and then he drew out of it hands and legs, which signified our behaviours—the point being that our mind controls our actions.

My mind wandered off as he continued the teachings.

I can control whatever I think of.

I can control my feelings.

I can control my actions.

It was an aha moment that literally changed my life. I don’t know if it was the setting or that the timing was right, but I got it emotionally and not just intellectually. I now knew that I had the power to not only examine myself, my actions and my dreams but to also change them.

The Stick figure diagram was created by Dr Thurman Fleet in the 1930s but was later used and taught by Bob Proctor. It’s simple and yet so effective. When we understand it, we immediately grasp the underlying foundation of self-help—We have the power to change our thoughts and that means we can change our behaviours.

We have two separate minds:

The Conscious mind which represents only 5% of our mind is the thinking mind, where we think freely and can accept or reject any idea. It gets information from our five senses and is rooted in the present. E.g. When crossing the road and we hear a car approaching, we immediately stop.

The Subconscious mind is like a super computer stored with a database of programmed behaviours, most of which we acquire between birth and the age of six. Almost 95% of our thoughts, decisions, emotions and actions are influenced from the programming in our subconscious mind. The subconscious is basically running our lives. Most of the time we are unaware of our behaviours, and if not addressed quickly enough, our thoughts crystallise into core beliefs, which become almost impossible to shift. E.g. how automatic it becomes to brush our teeth at night having done so for so many years, or how we can drive and listen to a podcast concurrently.

Many of us know that our minds control our actions and yet, only few of us actually change. Why do many us fail miserably with our resolutions? Why are we stuck within behaviours we dislike?

I think most of us don’t want to accept the real truth. The cold truth. The uncomfortable truth.

Our mind is truly a programmable supercomputer.

When we accept that fact, then we start to recognise that what we put in, we get out. It’s like our mind is the hardware and our thoughts, beliefs and paradigms are the software. Change the software or what goes into the hardware and what we see is something different.

If we set our alarms for 5am, every day and get up without fail for the next three months, we magically become morning people who enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping, the wonderous sound of silence and the inner peace that brings to us. We have reprogrammed the supercomputer with new software.

I came back from the event with a plan. I didn’t want to be that hard-nosed businessman who was driven by numbers, ‘bling’ symbols and prestige but instead I wanted to work on myself and help others do the same.

I looked back at the last few traumatic years—before I had my panic attacks that led to the anti-depressants—with new eyes. I saw that the beliefs I grew up with had affected my every action. Of course, I would follow the path of my forefathers in following money, success, prestige, and stress. I knew no other world. That was my software.

The drugs helped calm me down. The stick figure diagram showed me how I could now recognise that most of the time I am not my thoughts. Our rampaging mind is often bipolar, where we can go from one end of the spectrum to the other. Thoughts control all our body’s functions and our emotions, which in turn affect our behaviour and results.

I kept reminding myself that almost 95% of our thoughts being formed are done so without our conscious consent.

I now understood that the ambivalence I felt was merely how my new way of thinking was fighting with the old way. The anxiety I felt, and the panic attacks were just a message to me that I was going the wrong way against what I truly wanted from within. The anger and rage I felt was my frustration of not knowing what was wrong with me, and what to do about it.

With that knowledge came the passion to change my software and with it much of my behaviours. I also know that software needs constant updating. So, change or growth doesn’t end, it’s continual.

Why are you not updating your software? What are you waiting for to change?

Why We Must Feel Insignificant Before We Become Significant

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Photo Credit: Greg Rakozy/Unsplash

“We are inconsequential cosmic dust, bumping and milling about on a tiny blue speck. We imagine our own importance. We invent our purpose–we are nothing.” — Mark Manson

A few years ago, I was under pressure at work, and I was impatient for results. I berated and belittled the efforts of an employee at the company I manage. I kept my tirade going for a few minutes until I realized that tears were flowing down her cheeks.

My ego was in survival mode, screaming at me that my company’s problems were the only significant thing right now. Nothing else mattered. Not the hurt I caused. Not the fact that I embarrassed her and myself in front of the rest of the team.

True, the ego is a survival mechanism. If we don’t see ourselves at the centre of the Universe, we won’t protect ourselves and would lose the incentive to stay alive.

However, the reality is that we would be better served to zoom out, taking a step back and realize that most of what we perceive as fears, dangers or problems pale into insignificance with perspective.

We overcome many of our fears. Most of the perceived dangers never materialise. Most problems get solved sooner or later.

Instead of fooling ourselves into believing our self-importance and wasting our energy putting others down, it would be better to act with humility, be kind, and supportive of each other.

The Pale Blue Dot

On February 14, 1990, the ‘Voyager 1’ probe was about 3.7 Billion miles from Earth and approximately 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane, when it captured this portrait of our world. The result was a hazy image of Earth surrounded by the enormity of space.

pale blue dot
Photo Credit: medium.com

In seeing the image, the late astronomer Carl Sagan said:

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

The ego is the total of all our fears, worries and negative thoughts and provides the incessant inner voice that doubts us and holds us back from whatever opportunity of bewilderment, intuition and awe we might have come our way.

As such it’s always looking for validation and wants to convince us that we are the most important organism in the world when the reality is that we are nothing, but ‘inconsequential cosmic dust.’

If I had taken a step back from my anger and fear, I would have realized that my tirade was unacceptable. The ’tough boss’ image that was a mask didn’t reflect my real inner being and the compassion that I have for my employees.

The mask was instead the false self-image that we represent, and we get trapped into negatively living our lives, which usually means thinking we are the sole reason for the creation of the Universe.

This false self-image is built early on in our lives by the many conditioned beliefs we carry with us. All those paradigms when not worked on crystallize into limiting and self-defeating beliefs and so create the mask that we wear throughout our lives.

For us to acknowledge our uniqueness, power, and authenticity, we must overcome and transcend the ego and go to a place where our truths reside.

We can do so by accepting our own insignificance and that in the grand scheme of things, we hardly matter.

Only then can we start appreciating the Principle of Entanglement that states, “everything—humans, stars, galaxies—is connected to an invisible energy in a place beyond space and time.”

When we give to others, we bring them closer to us, and we also feel connected to them. We feel a sense of universal community, rather than a short-lived feeling of self-importance.

Let’s be kinder with one another, and “cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

How Michel de Montaigne Inspired me to Continue my Self-Examination

How Michel de Montaigne Inspired me to Continue my Self-Examination
Photo Credit: ashley-batz/unsplash

The reality is that when it comes to ourselves, we presume we know it all, without dedicating enough time and effort to research who we truly are. We allow the world to judge us, give us titles and names that don’t apply to our true selves. We end up being tagged and put into a compartment that isolates us for many years and stops us from finding what our true aspirations are.

Not many in our history, epitomized observation of the self than Michel de Montaigne, the creator of the essay. A blogger before there was the internet.

In 1571, Montaigne at age of 38, retired from public life and retreated to his ‘Citadel’, in the Dordogne, where he isolated himself with thousands of books and began work on ‘Essais’ (Essays).

He had a Latin inscription carved on a beam in his study; “Worn out with the slavery of the court and of public service, Michel de Montaigne … retires to the bosom of the learned Muses … to pass what may be left of a life already more than half spent, consecrating this ancestral dwelling and sweet retreat to his liberty, tranquility and repose.”

Though, at the time, Montaigne was seen as self-indulgent when he declared that, “I am myself the matter of my book.” He was a man before his time. All he was seeking was the freedom required to free his soul, and to do so means to study thyself.

Stefan Zweig’s biography of Montaigne captures the essence of Montaigne’s life philosophy:

To be free, a man must feel no obligation or connection to anything, and yet we are all connected to the state, the community, the family; our thoughts are subject to the language we speak, making the isolated man, the absolutely free man, a phantom. It is impossible to live in a void…We do not need to cut ourselves off from the world, to wall ourselves up in a cell. But we need to make a distinction: we can love this or that, but we cannot “form a marriage bond” unless it is with our own selves. Montaigne does not reject everything we owe to passions or lust. On the contrary, he always advises us to take pleasure as far as is possible, for he is the earthbound man who accepts no limits: whoever has a passion for politics must involve himself with politics; whoever loves books must read books; whoever loves to hunt must hunt; whoever loves his house, his soil, his lands, his money, whoever loves things must devote himself to them entirely. But the most crucial is this: you should take as much as brings you pleasure, but not just to acquire things: “In the home, at study, hunting and all other forms of activity, one should strive for the fullness, the limits of enjoyment, but not exceed them, for then suffering begins to encroach.

Over the past ten years, I have asked many questions, delved deep into myself. I’ve experimented on myself seeing what piques my interest and what doesn’t. I’ve found that I need a lot of solitary time; I’ve found writing to be the best way to share parts of me in this world and recognising that what my soul needs more than anything is inner peace, presence and freedom.

It’s like we’re a river flowing effortlessly downstream, manoeuvring easily around any obstacles that get in our way.

We must like a river understand ourselves deeply enough to become self-accepting and thus free.

On Life & Authenticity

Driving back home one evening, I listened to a podcast featuring David Sedaris, a famous author, who is very clear about his wants and needs. After his readings, he spends a long time, sometimes up to 6 hours till the early hours of the morning signing books and having conversations with his readers. When asked why he does so, he doesn’t say it’s because he wants to give his fans something for standing in line and buying his books. Instead, he wants their love, acceptance and approval. He explains that it could be some deep void within him that drives his actions, but they are what they are.

I love how honest and refreshing he is, not only to the public but to himself. He doesn’t paint an evangelical picture of himself trying to save mankind as so many other people do, but instead, he is honest enough to say that he does it for himself.

In being so authentic, he ends up serving his community and is universally loved.

The Authenticity Project | Mo Issa | Africa Dialogues

The Authenticity project focuses on being authentic, which is not about being honest or working hard. It has a much deeper meaning—to live with a purpose and come from a place from within where our actions and words are congruent with our beliefs and values.
Find out why I’m passionate about Authenticity in my talk at the Africa Dialogues Conference.

 

Unleash the Real, Raw, Uncensored You Series

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
― May Sarton

If you have been part of my community for a while then you will know that authenticity is a concept that is very precious to me.
My journey has not always been a smooth one. I have struggled, I have fallen and I have failed.
However this adventure has taught me invaluable lessons which I’ll share with you in this free interview series with Stacey Hollick.

How Walking like a Parisian Flâneur opened my eyes

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But the beauty is in the walking — we are betrayed by destinations.

― Gwyn Thomas

Featured on Elephant Journal

It’s the sixth day of a writing course, and I haven’t written a single word yet. Deadline day is looming, and I’m finding it difficult to get started. Writers surround me: teachers, colleagues and weird people in cafes. I’m in Paris for God’s sake! This is where everyone gets inspired to write. I’m away from the stress of my business and the mundaneness of my life. The environment is perfect for writing.

I read somewhere there is nothing like writer’s block, but rather it’s when there are deeper issues that trouble us which then impend our freedom to write.

I take a break from staring at the blank computer to get some fresh air and decide to take a walk to clear my thoughts, and without knowing where I’m going. The sun sets late in the Parisian summers and the long days make walking not just appealing but also soul nourishing. I decide that there will be no writing today and that thought alone frees me.

I wander through the streets of Paris like a true flâneur —a term coined by Charles Baudelaire. It means to saunter through the city aimlessly experiencing it through our senses, removing ourselves from the world and putting ourselves into the heart of a city and becoming one with it.

I find myself in front of the Jardin du Luxembourg. The gardens are spread over many acres. All kinds of flowers bloom in different colors, offering differing scents that urge creativity whenever you breathe. I look around and see people laughing, children playing and lovers kissing. Most of all I see and feel life, and it’s everywhere. No one seems to care that I can’t write.

The gardens are full of pigeons that look merry and busy. One approaches me and turns its head towards me, and it must be the fattest bird I’ve ever seen. I’m sure it’s all the croissants and baguettes the birds get to eat when people flock to the gardens. This big one looks me straight in the eye as if mocking me, then hops away, too lazy to fly off.

I walk towards the huge colonnades of trees on the other side. The gardens in front of the trees are beautifully mowed and look like one big green carpet. I look at the trees now directly above me, and a slight breeze brushes my face. I’m in complete awe of this moment, and I feel all the stress I’ve brought over with me, slowly dissipate into the thin air.

I’m feeling much better now and continue my discovery of Paris, and I’m astonished how history finds me on every road, nook and alley of this city and I find myself outside the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where Victor Hugo and many other notable figures went to.

I take a right at the end of the Pantheon and walk for a while to find myself in Place Contrescarpe. I’m in front of a Patisserie Pascal Pinaud, and a strawberry tart jumps out at me. I sit down for a coffee and the sugar that I crave.

On my right, an old lady is reading an English book and she smiles at me. I ask her if this was the area that Hemingway frequented and she points out to a plaque that is approximately twenty metres away, which shows where Hemingway lived with Hadley, his first wife when they moved to Paris.

I recall how one day my son asked me why my sudden passion for writing. Was it out of loneliness? Perhaps, but maybe, I finally reached a time when I couldn’t bottle up any more of my thoughts, feelings and words and they had to come out.

I had lived most of my life pursuing success, money and prestige. I had been like a robot using only my mind to keep my feet firmly on the material side of life while ignoring my heart. Writing seems to have been something that lay dormant in me; it was hidden deep in the crevasses of my heart, waiting to explode like a wild volcanic eruption.

At first, I started journaling early in the morning, trying to decipher my dreams and to look at my previous day’s actions. However, it then grew into something much more, helping me to look at my feelings and how they affected my actions.

I have been transformed emotionally and slowly releasing myself from the shackles that have held me back since childhood. I’ve started aligning my feelings and actions. The more I do that, the more I feel free and the closer I get to my true self. And the further away I get from my old inauthentic ways of living.

I think about Hemingway and how he would write early in the morning before hitting the cafes. I loved the way especially in those early Paris years how dedicated and passionate he was to become a great writer. It was true he loved to drink and have a good time, but many forget the hours he “bled on the typewriter,” and the joy he got after writing a few good hours.

It must have been a wonderful time to live in this part of Paris surrounded by the”lost generation”–the many writers, poets, painters and musicians that would shape our world for the next hundred years.

I turn around to say goodbye to the old woman, but she has left. I get up and stroll around to notice a vendor wearing dark trousers and a navy blue shirt with a short apron on top. He is beaming, and his smile is not only inviting but exudes joy. He talks in rapid French to a couple of locals, and I can’t understand a word. He holds a purple aubergine in his hands, and I imagine he is explaining how fresh it is (having just received his consignment only a few hours ago) and how best to cook it.

He does this with such passion that I want to buy the aubergine, myself, even though I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I just keep watching him for a while as he connects with people. He obviously loves what he is doing.

I am envious—I want to be free enough to get lost in the present moment. I wonder if writing could become the platform that would make me feel authentic to myself, where I could finally lose my analytical thoughts and become more present.

All the walking not only cleared my mind but allowed many new thoughts to surface. I was now having a hard time containing all my thoughts.I enter one of those quintessential Parisian cafes, La Gueuze, and bring out my laptop to capture my thoughts.

I sit next to three youngsters drinking beers that are larger than their backpacks. Everyone sits facing the outside; it’s like no one in Paris wants to miss out on what’s happening out there.

I sip my glass of Bordeaux and wonder if this is how my future is going to be, walking, discovering cities by foot and then sitting in cafes writing all about it.

5 Ways to Practice Mindfulness and “Be here now”

5-Ways-to-Practice-Mindfulness
Photo Credit: Fernando Brasil

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Published by Elephant Journal

My travel date is fast approaching. For some reason, I begin to worry and fret. I start postponing everything I’m doing or I need to do till I return. It’s as if the world stops because I’m travelling in a few weeks.

The funny thing is that I don’t have a fear of flying. Travelling to Paris on a writing course will be exciting, fun and rejuvenating. It’s more like a journey of self-discovery than a holiday and its something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ll be alone for a month without family, friends or the worries of work that I’m glad to leave behind.

What is it that makes me so anxious and worried about my impending travel date?  Is it my deep-rooted fear of getting out of my comfort zone? Or perhaps my fear of uncertainty, which allows my mind to wander about the future and picture different scenarios and situations?

It’s probably both of which drive my monkey mind into overload and lets my thoughts go to my memories where I judge my previous actions and reactions or project forward, analyzing what kind of mishaps and problems await me.

The identification with our thoughts is a tiring process and the more we complicate our lives and busy our minds, the more restless we become. To make matters worse, we become aware of our thinking and overanalyzing, and this makes it even more exhausting.

We need to remind ourselves that we are not our thoughts, which can often appear from thin air and disappear almost as quick. The best way to stop going back to the past, or project to the future is by focusing on the present–Practice Mindfulness.

This is when we zero in on the present thing that we are doing, such as watching a sunset, playing with our children or writing poetry where we lose ourselves completely and every minute becomes joyful and soul nourishing. Time just stops and nothing else matters. There is a stillness and a certain form of inner peace engulfs us. We stop talking to the outside world and more importantly we stop listening to our incessant inner voice.

According to Thich Nhat Hanh “Mindfulness begins with an awareness of the simplest action: breathing in, knowing that you are breathing in; breathing out, know that you are breathing out.”

These are the things I do that have helped me become more in the now:

1) Meditation

I’m no Meditation expert, but my practice has helped make me more peaceful, less stressful and much more mindful. I use the breath technique, which is not too complicated. I sit still for twenty minutes first thing in the morning.

I’m not always successful as thoughts do wander in but completing my practice every day is a discipline that sets my day on the right track and becomes the support for the rest of my conscious, mindful acts during the day.

2) Mindful moments

I’ve consciously set out to have more presence in my day-to-day life, where I try to lose myself in sporadic moments throughout my day. This not only makes me feel good immediately but also has a compounding effect on the way my mind learns not to jump from one thought to another.

For example:

  • I set my alarm for three different times in the day where I stop whatever I’m doing and take ten deep conscious breaths.
  • Whenever I see the birds flying above, I stop and take a few moments watching them fly in absolute awe.
  • If I’m lucky enough to be in a city with a lovely sunset, I make sure I witness its splendor.
  • Every time I drink an espresso (3-4 times a day), I don’t do anything or think of anything. I inhale the aroma of the coffee, I sip it slowly and I savour every moment of this.
3) Doing one task at a time

“Just focus on the next hour, the next thing, the next task. Do it will all your heart and do it until the end.”

This little trick has been advocated since time immemorial from Benjamin Franklin to Warren Buffet. It simply means don’t multitask and start by doing the most difficult task first and only when finished with the first task, should you move to the next one. I do this till I finish all my designated tasks for the day and I try to keep my tasks as few as possible so as not to exceed three per day.

4) Reading Fiction or Poetry

 “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” -Joyce Carol Oates

I love reading fiction, especially the epic novels like Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, and Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I also love the works of: Tolstoy, Murakami and Hemingway. No matter how stressed I am in my life, it all just slips away when I lose myself in a great story where I’m transported to other realms I never knew existed.

Reading poetry by Rumi or Gibran especially at night before I sleep or any of the sacred texts like the Bhagavad Gita allows me to connect deep into my being, compelling me towards my inner hidden truths. This puts me in such peace that I wake up with my mind completely serene.

5) Strategically schedule emails, Internet use and social media

Getting notifications of email, instant messages and social media on our phones is not the ideal way to calm our swaying thoughts. They add fuel to the fire and keep us hooked into the never-ending information loop which gets us addicted to our phones or computers making us anxious and edgy.

We need to be disciplined and smart in how we control technology rather than allowing it to control us. It’s not easy, but the best way I’ve found to take control is by scheduling my use. I check emails, social media and use the Internet only twice a day; late in the morning and late in the afternoon for a limited time of 30-45 minutes.

Our state of being is intimately connected with our minds. We can’t stop the triggering of unhappy memories, self-critical thoughts and judgemental ways of thinking, but we can stop what happens next.

The more we put ourselves in that present moment, the better chance we have of calming our minds and relieving the anxiety and worry that surrounds us.

‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.’ – Thich Nhat Hanh

3 Great Books that remind me that my Ultimate Path is Freedom

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Photo credit: Bertvthul

 

“One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking — a detour, an error.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Published by Elephant Journal

After my third reading of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, I closed my eyes, drinking in the words and thinking of how these words had unconsciously influenced my self-discovery journey.

I’m certain that everyone needs to embark on a self-discovery journey in his or her lifetime. After all, isn’t that our ultimate purpose in this physical world?

Going to school, finding a great job, parenting, setting up businesses, creating art and admiring beauty are wonderful things, but they are only the means for us to live our journeys.

The end-goal will always be freedom. Freedom to live the way our hearts desire. Freedom to discover who we must become. Freedom to ask why we came into being. Freedom to change our lives and start again, if we are not satisfied.

We tend to lose track of our freedom and get distracted by our fears, circumstances, and the society. We allow the noise around us to drown the whispers that speak of our inner hidden truths.

This is why it’s so important to take a step back every now and then, review our lives, and question our life’s philosophy. Why are we here? Where are we headed? What are the obstacles standing in our way? Can we change our direction?

In The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson argues that:

On its way to landing astronauts safely on the surface of the moon, the Apollo rocket was actually on course only 2 to 3 percent of the time. Which means that for at least 97 percent of the time it took to get from the Earth to the moon it was off course. And it reached the moon—safely—and returned to tell the tale. The Apollo, at the time, was one of the most sophisticated, expensive, and finely calibrated pieces of technology ever devised and was always correcting its own off-course errors twenty-nine minutes out of every thirty.

We always need reminders to keep us on track. We need to be more like the Apollo and constantly correct our course. The three books summarised below are the ones I read regularly so that I’m nudged into self-correcting my direction, path and journey.

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

“I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha.” He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Siddhartha leaves his home and family in search of enlightenment and starts as an ascetic wandering beggar of the Shramanas. He then meets and learns a lot from the Buddha but he believes that everyone needs to learn by his experience. He cannot accept the Buddha’s teachings even though they are full of wisdom.

Siddhartha renounces his spirituality by falling in love with a beautiful courtesan called Kamala. She introduces him to a merchant called Kamaswami, Siddhartha learns the trade and becomes incredibly successful as the years go by. He now becomes materialistic, starts to gamble and loses his way and his sense of purpose.

One morning after waking from a dream, he reflects upon his life and realizes he is tired of his present life and that he has discarded all that was valuable within himself.

He leaves everything behind and finds himself sitting in front of a river. He befriends the ferryman, allowing both the ferryman and the river to become his spiritual teachers. It is here that he becomes enlightened and learns that all his feelings, experiences and sufferings are part of a great fellowship of all things connected in the cyclical unity of nature.

He now understands that one’s path in life is not only about seeking but also finding. We can learn from great masters like the Buddha, but we can’t mimic their lives, rather, we apply what we learn to our experiences and feelings.

The true Nirvana is by understanding that only the “Now” exists, and the past and future exist only in our minds.

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

“When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”-Paulo Coelho

Santiago, a young shepherd from Andalusia embarks on a journey after having a recurring dream where a child tells him to seek a treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. He travels far and wide, learns a lot from different teachers while meeting obstacles. He finally discovers the treasure he was looking for was underneath his bed in his village the whole time.

The underlying message in the book is one of hope and that all roads would eventually lead to a single path that takes us towards our “Personal Legend” or our freedom.

Life is about the journey, the process, the means and not necessarily the outcome. It’s about walking our path, one that we need to create and craft on our own, without any influence from our environment. The book teaches us that the real treasure lies in our hearts thus there is no need to go outside to search for treasure.

The only path to freedom is through our inner world.

3. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull  by Richard Bach

“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way”.”
― Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a parable about a seagull who works hard to become the best flying seagull within his seagull community. He withstands being shunned and ridiculed for his dream, and keeps on pursuing this dream driven by his inner craving to be authentic.

All he wants is to be free in order to be himself. He knows there’s more to life than eating and surviving like all the other seagulls and he’s determined on becoming the best flying seagull ever.

Jonathan listens to his inner voice and senses that freedom can only be had by the pursuit of perfection in flying. He continues to follow his path despite the odds, and is courageous and dogged in his pursuit of freedom of his true self.

Every time I re-read any of these books, I’m reminded that I need to seek and find my path, my road less travelled—My freedom. The numerous teachers and heroes around me can inspire me, but I can’t follow their paths.

I am a unique living being and I have to create my unique Path. It won’t be given to me or handed down to me, but it’s for me to forge it, working with the raw materials of whom I am and the understanding of why I came into being.