There’s absolutely no need for you to have an opinion on something. In fact, your and the outer world is much better without it. The political party, music band, movie, and the soccer team don’t need your validation. Save your breath and anger.
3 Things from Rocky Balboa that changed everything.
We all know the famous Rocky speech which he gives to his son about life and how it knocks you down.
The resilience and hard mindset of Rocky are truly inspiring and life-changing indeed.
I saw the movie when I was in high school and since then the wisdom has been around in my ears. Here are a few of them
- 1)Quitting is never an option.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you are hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!—Rocky Balboa.
This is perhaps the most inspiring line I’ve ever come across. Rocky teaches about the value of persistence. It’s easy to quit if you think about it. Life knocks you down with that business failure and you go on alcohol and drugs. That’s simple and a safe way out to your La-La land.
But to continue to dream and standing up is hard because it forces you to accept the responsibility and mistakes you made which almost and always shatters your ego. Being sedated is secure and un-troubling.
No one is immune to failure and has a vaccine shot to prevent hits that life throws at you. It’s part of the process and remember the world is NASTY and very mean. People will stab you and put you down unless you take the charge.
Drink that bitter cup of responsibility and be a champion.
- 2)The Doors of change are open to all.
“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.” —Friedrich Nietzsche.
This is probably the only idea that matters in your life. It’s not Lao-Tzu-type old irrelevant philosophy but a noteworthy one. Once decided, you can be whomsoever you can be and do whatever you can.
Gandhi was an ordinary lawyer but when he was kicked out from a whites-only carriage in Pietermaritzburg, the incident changed him completely. He changed himself into an activist to stand up against racism and subjugation. That change later liberated millions of Indians from the colonization of the British empire.
Likewise, Siddhartha vexed by life’s shallowness decide to change and sat under a Bodhi tree. Well, he became the Buddha by finding enlightenment and went on to be the light of Asia.
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” That’s what Albus Dumbledore wants you to hear to change your life.
- 3)It’s never about winning.
“The journey is the reward.”—Steve Jobs.
Winning matters but what matters more is the process and the journey. Because the journey changes you like nothing else. Take Elon Musk and Tesla. Even if he had failed, his insane work had already transformed him and place him at the peak where the 1% are.
Suppose you worked for 5 years and the writing career didn’t take off as you expected. You still have less traffic and don’t have enough money. But think about your skills. Five years surely means something. Writing skills made you a better thinker and no one can articulate words as brilliantly as you can among your peers. And you can still go freelance or work for a magazine with that skill you got there in the mind.
Never think that all was a waste in the end. You never know how the dots will be connected in the future.
Hang on!
Banned
Osho once remarked that prohibition is an invitation. This is absolutely true!
The natural curiosity gets the best of us. We crave to read banned books. This is why one of the worst things that government can do during protests/revolutions is to censor or ban a book. Likewise, the government blocking access to documentaries/movies/songs/poems or any form of expression will encourage its further expression or instigate otherwise bored common man in it which if not vetoed by authorities would have lost in the sea of information. Perhaps they haven’t read the quote- “So many books, so little time.”
Goodness
Nature is never good. The tsunami and earthquakes don’t bother about the lives they take away nor does the cyclone care about the crops it damages which puts hundreds of families in misery. Likewise, the lion doesn’t pity over the life of a deer baby. It hunts mercilessly and eats belly-full. In fact, the viruses and bacteria families kill millions of humans every year, and not even kids are spared. We never judge and question the character of nature. However, humans are judged left and right and are given the highest form of judgement.
Learning
Battlefield is the greatest teacher. Training sessions give basic knowledge but not crucial and critical insights on mastery. Coding competitions, Exams, Marathons, Wars, and Businesses instruct more than the lessons we learn within four walls.
Putting yourself in the game and waging your life on the line with 100% accountability and everything to gain and nothing to lose attitude will speed up the process of evolution and improvement.
Forcing
People often force their worst personality traits onto others. If they are liars then they demand you to tell a degrading lie on their behalf to others. For instance, a friend goes on an exotic and enjoyable trip and then portrays it as work stuff and make you a part of their lie when he/she needs convincing it to boss or partner, to give a simple enough example.
Our loyalty and friendship then are dependent on us mirroring and adapting to his/her bad personalities.
Restrictions
Once you devised a plan, try to put as many restraints as possible in terms of time, money, place, infrastructure, people, technology, and others that you can think of. This actually improves your plan and subtracts unnecessary deviations and extra resources we added without any need.
If you have put the time restriction and are forced to complete much sooner then automatically a smart idea pops up in the mind suiting the constraint. Try to go as hard as you can and increase the pressure on the plan. In the end, you can’t help but improve the original game plan you had on the board. Restrictions move the needle!
Architecture
How people build houses, what they put in them, and what colors they use reveal a lot about their personalities. The artistic decorations or the minimalistic styles show what kind of lifestyle they choose. Likewise how they organize space, arrange toys, and clean windows show the importance they give to the details. The green-minded ones putting plants, the film geeks displaying classic movies, and other such bizarre tastes tell the stories of people. The things we own reveal what we are. For instance, a person having a great audio setup at home or vintage paintings convey their hobbies and the balcony chairs exhibit the philosophical bent of the people living there. The smell, the marks on the floor, and the dining table all give clues about the individualities and their preferences. Next time when you visit someone’s house, try to pick the life they created in these items. of course, this is not to judge but to better understand them.
Plans
Jiddu Krishnamurti in his work “The book of life” remarks that reality is simple but escapism is complicated. The boring day is pretty normal with coffee sipping, book reading, and sleeping on the couch. However, we won’t let that happen. We won’t let simplicity flow into our lives. The escapism we seek on Sundays further exhausts us. The constant screen switching, partying, surfing everything on the internet, traveling to mosquito-ridden places, and shopping don’t give space for relaxation that we hanker. These weekend plans are so complicated that in the end, we have to figure out what exactly made us happy and if not, carry on the dissatisfaction to Monday. Neither body nor mind is well rested.
Putting aside these weekends, in real life too, the book, walking in the park, conversations with loved ones, cooking and eating tummy-happy foods, and ending with the reflection on life are far better than the above-mentioned list.
Don’t break the chain
Once you have built momentum, don’t break it. Save it at all costs. Avoid the empty-zero days where you do nothing. If the task that you are supposed to do is damn hard, then at least do 10% of it. The 100 push-ups are hard but we can pull off 5 push-ups that day when the motivation is quite low. Sickness might not push you to write a lengthy essay, however, try to aim for 50 words. The point is not to make you proud but sustain the work so that you can pick it up tomorrow.
Thy Vox 