How to keep your Brain Young?

Brain is the most important and vital organ in our body. Unfortunately, numerous modern age practices have taken a toll on our brain. But it is not only possible to reduce the aging of your brain, it is even possible to reverse the aging effect i.e get younger. The good thing is none of them are terribly difficult to do. Let us look at the the 10 things we need to practice to keep our brain young.

1. A Good Brain Diet

Brain needs numerous nutrients esp Omega 3 to keep it healthy and running. These nutrients are found in plenty in foods like Walnut, Avocoda, Brocolli, Bluberries etc. Eggs and Salmon Fish as well for those who eat them can be extremely good supplements for the necessary nutrients.

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Reference: Brain Super Foods

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Book summary: Work clean by Dan Charnas

Book title: Work clean – The life changing power of mise-en-place
Author: Dan Charnas
ISBN-10: 1623365929
ISBN-13: 978-1623365929
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Introduction

Mise-en-place is a French term that means that there is a place for everything and everything must be in its place. The use of French is because the term originated in culinary circles in France where chefs emphasise the importance of a clean and organised kitchen counter to do things efficiently and ensure high food quality. As a result, just like everything culinary, saute and hors d’ouvre, words from the romantic language stuck around in English too.

Having worked with leading chefs in the United States, the author Dan Charnas talks about how to plan, organise and clean up so that you get the best out of your activities. Throughout the book he illustrates stories and scenes from the America’s top restaurants that exhibit thorough planning, organisation, cleanliness, minimalism and maximum utilisation. Charnas extends the knowledge gained from cooking into his personal and professional lives. In this book, he teaches us how to do so. Continue reading Book summary: Work clean by Dan Charnas

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How to change a habit?

Getting Ready for New Year Resolutions?

New year is less than three months away. We will soon be drawing up our list of goals, aspirations, resolutions and hope this year would be different. But like Einstein said,

“Its Insanity to expect a different result when you do the the same thing over and over”

Changing an habit is hard. 21 days of will power is not going to magically get you over the hump. So what will?

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How to leverage your partner for your success?

When I talk about leveraging your partner for your success, I don’t mean marrying into money like ‘Who wants to marry a multi millionaire‘ or the ‘Millionaire Match maker‘. With the disclaimer set aside, lets see what I am talking about.

How can you guarantee Failure?

Once we can remove things that guarantee failure, success will eventually happen if you try hard enough. Following through and sticking to a process does not guarantee success. But not doing so can guarantee failure. We have already discussed about the importance of the process here, here and here. When I look at things and events in my life where I have guaranteed failure vs risked success, one thing stands out: An Accountability partner.

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Let’s fall in love with routine

In the post In Praise of Effort, Priya talks about the effectiveness of being consistent with your efforts as a habit. She shows how an overnight success is often glorified and untrue, when in truth those success stories ran several days, months or years in the making. In fact, more than your talent, it is your ability to show up and put in the work everyday that defines your success or failure. Martial arts expert and actor Bruce Lee summed it up as, “I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but the one who has practised one kick 10,000 times.” Continue reading Let’s fall in love with routine

Is debt bad?

We have seen finance experts like Dave Ramsay tell us to cut up our credit cards. We have seen how delinquent home loans not only caused people to lose their homes but also a systemic crisis that spread across several financial institution and countries during 2008. Repossessed cars and two wheeler are common in many low income households. To add to this trouble student loan defaults have become high all over the world as the income opportunities often don’t match up with the cost of some of these courses.

So is debt a bad thing? Should we indeed cut up credit cards? Save for 15+ years to buy a home. Never take a loan in our life?

From Shylock of ‘Merchant of Venice’ to today’s bank that offer Personal loans and credit cards with dubious terms the bankers have been portrayed as Vultures. It is often joked ‘Banks will only lend money to those that don’t need them.’. Are these Financial institutions just vultures that serve no real need?

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Book Summary: One upon Wall Street by Peter Lynch

One_upon_wallstreet_PeterLynch

ISBN-10: 0743200403
ISBN-13: 978-0743200400

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Peter Lynch, one of the greatest investors of our time has given ample time tested techniques in this book.

How retail investors can win in the stock market

-> Take advantage of what you already know. i.e invest in familiar sectors.
-> Invest in a house before you invest in a stock market
-> Ignore short term fluctations
-> Predicting economy or stock market direction is futile
-> 6/10 wins is a stellar record

Continue reading Book Summary: One upon Wall Street by Peter Lynch

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How Rajinikanth teaches you productivity, discipline and humility

Though raised in Mumbai, I am Tamil. People from Tamil Nadu have a huge affinity for their top actor of all time, Rajinikanth. Internet memes have been created in his honour. At every movie theatre in Tamil Nadu, be in Chennai or Kanyakumari, when a Rajini movie is aired, fanatic Tamils stand up and cheer his every punch dialogue. It can be comical, entertaining, bewildering or exasperating, depending on whether you like him or not. I am not a big Rajini fan, nor do I call him a superstar, nor think he is a particularly good actor. But even I cannot deny that his so-called ‘punch dialogues‘ are packed with lessons for life, especially in the virtues of productivity, discipline and humility. Add to that the music scores that accompany his every punch line and the words seem profound and immortal!

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Grow awareness, but nudge yourself

Recently, Maharashtra banned the use of plastic bags. Shops stopped handing out polythene bags overnight and people found themselves carrying things in their hands or going back home to set out with a cloth bag. It caused some confusion and friction for a week. Then everything felt okay. Carrying a cloth bag seems like second nature as Maharashtra has accepted and fully integrated the ‘no plastic’ rule.

Why wouldn’t people bring their bags before the ban? Why did it take a ban to spur them into action? And how could people change so quickly?

People already knew that use of plastic is questionable and that cloth bags are environment friendly. There were thousands of awareness programs about the ‘evils’ of plastic. But the systems were in favour of plastic. With polythene bags costing a fraction of a Rupee, shops would give you polythene bags free of cost. People didn’t need to carry bags with them and would set out empty-handed. Not anymore. With cloth bags being costlier, vendors stock up only paper bags. But paper is unsuitable for wet (curd) or really heavy (watermelon) grocery. People had to take stock of their behaviour and alter it. They needed a nudge.

And nudge, we too did. The featured image of this post shows our home’s front door, with a cloth shopping bag attached to the hook. It is nearly impossible for us to forget our bag behind. In this post, I want to emphasise the importance of nudges and triggers. I want to say why mere awareness is not enough and why you should have a system of triggers to make you really do something you plan. Continue reading Grow awareness, but nudge yourself

Why we write a blog and why you should too !!

Last week, we successfully published our 100th blog post in ‘We Are The Living’. The journey has been very transformative to say the least. To start this blog was a random whacky idea we picked from some online expert. The blog has been helpful in surprising ways. In this 101st post in ‘We Are The Living’, I would like to state these reasons and hope that they can persuade you to start your own blog too.

Encounter my devils

The lenses that in which we view our world as children often become some of the hardest filters to get out of in our life. Mine had been about my height. Even now when I write this sentence it gives me a little uncomfortable feeling. The first time I really caught this bull by its horn was in the post ‘The Joy of Acceptance.’ I can confidently say I felt infinitely better after I wrote and published that article. It was also reassuring to know that it helped many others with the same struggle.

Another of my devil was my stinginess which I faced in ‘Why we should celebrate.’ Putting my fears, inhibitions and guilt in black and white made me take a step back, accept and handle them much better.

Continue reading Why we write a blog and why you should too !!