The Game Of Life

This article is part 3 in my ‘I turned 20’ series. Check out the first two at I turned 20.

In the entire ‘I turned 20’ series so far, I’ve been sharing a whole lot of personal motivation and advice more than anything else. Now, I know I’m not qualified the least bit to do that, but I felt that I had to share some of that, simply because it makes me feel good when I write it. I’ve had a lot of times in life in which I’ve been confused, frustrated and unable to ‘get my act together’, my bad mood becoming much better when I take a different view of things. Whether it may be a motivational quote, the picture of a sunrise or a talk with a close friend.

Tip 1: The best thing to do when you feel bad is to sit down and write a list of the top 5 things that piss you off. Right now. Once you’ve defined them, they become much too easy to tackle and overcome. It always works. Writing a list of things to be accomplished the next day before you go to sleep seems to be touted by a lot of people too.

Tip 2: Another trick that I’ve very recently found to be successful is using a scoreboard for those tasks that require that extra push. Instead of simply applying brute force to and pushing ourselves to do things that we really don’t want to do either, it would be much easier if you could channel your enery in the right way

Let me illustrate that with an example. In the beginning of the year like many others, I too decided to exercise daily. But it was difficult to maintain that level of motivation. I was scouring the internet for a solution when I found this method. (Nerd Fitness) I created a scoreboard with points for :

1. Strength

2. Endurance

3. Willpower

4. Consistency

5. Flexibility

6. Innovation

Initially I started of by writing these each in a column in a sheet of paper and stuck it to the wall. I also gave myself a starting 5 points in each category. Currently, I’m working towards my goal of 50 in each category

I started writing this blog as a commitment to myself this year, to give me a reason to read the newspaper (to get topics to make fun of) and to improve my writing.

The feeling of accomplishment is a great force of positive energy that only you can give yourself. I believe that each person needs to spent atleast 15 minutes of quiet quality time with themselves in a day. If there’s something that bothers you now, then stop moping around and find a way to fix it. Because nobody else can help you unless you’re ready to help yourself. No excuse me while I go earn some points.

Let’s Talk Heart To Heart

Today, I’d like to address the 3 p(s) I hear most frequently (which I have done myself too) when a person wants to start his/her own blog. (Or any personal project for that matter)

1. Perception

When I first heard a person say what a blog was, (an online diary which anyone can read was the description I was told) I briefly wondered to myself how a person could keep one. To expose the delicate intricacies of a person’s mind inside the cold and inflexible HTML angle brackets seemed like a stupid choice that attention seekers would do. Why would I want to give out my personal details in such a way? More than anything else, it was the privacy factor that kept from doing that for a long time. But after a point of time the realisation hit me. People don’t care. Unless it someow affects a person directly, they don’t really care about your life or what you say. Sure, if there’s something interesting, they want to know but that’s about it. Your life is your own, and nobody else’s. If your worried of what people will think, say or do because of the choices you make, then I feel sorry for you. But remember, there’s only one life you get and all the things that you do regret in the end are those which you don’t do, not what you’ve done.

2. Perfectionism

All the blogs I have seen, have, over the years, changed their external formats atleast once. I remember snickering to myself after seeing a website which had been modified for the tenth time thinking that if I had been the admin of that website I would have ensured the entire thing was perfect from the beginning so that I wouldn’t have to spend my time correcting it. What I didn’t understand at the time was that “perfect” was a relative word. Perfectionism unto itself is fickle. As our experience of the world around us grows, so does our description of the “ideal” in our life. I’m sure you must have that experienced it in your life too. So go out there, make some mistakes, because heaven knows we all do. You can’t walk without falling atleast once. I dare you to find me a person who has done everything perfectly from the beginning of their life. It just doesn’t exist. Stop searching for perfection blindly. Start today and enjoy learning from your mistakes.

3. Procastination

Ah, the most common vice of all. Just when you’ve made peace with perception and perfectionism and are all set to start comes the realisation about the homework due tomorrow. Or that budget report. Or your friends call you for a night out. Or whatever else it is. You postpone the creation of your personal project once, then again, and the cycle continues. Sounds familiar ? The solution? Put your foot down, do it now. Seriously. Just google blogger or wordpress and signup. Now. Because if you’re free enough to be reading this, be sure you have enough time to start your own blog.

This is part 1 in my “I just turned 20! series”, for more posts, check this out : https://cutencrazyindie.wordpress.com/i-turned-20-yay/