Start Here Archives - We Are The Living

How to Learn just about Anything? – Part I – Acquiring Knowledge

Schools, the hub of education has taught us what to learn. But has surprisingly never taught us ‘how to learn’. So often kids with different learning requirements are labelled ‘slow’ than find compatible teaching methods. No wonder Einstein, Edison, Graham Bell were all labelled ‘learning challenged’.

Process of Learning - JK Quote — Process of Learning

So how do we go about learning. I’d like to broadly divide into acquiring knowledge i.e on subjects of chemistry, philosophy, investing etc and acquiring a skill. In Part 1. let us focus on acquiring knowledge. Continue reading How to Learn just about Anything? – Part I – Acquiring Knowledge

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 !!

The ONE thing you should do every morning

Grab any magazine, read lifestyle sections of newspapers, go through productivity blogs or read productivity books. Everyone tells you the importance of morning routines, a regular sequence of actions you do every morning to build up to peak performance. Without the rhythm of a morning routine, you may mindlessly fumble through the day.

Most morning routines (including my previous one), fall under two categories: getting physical so that your body grows energetic (jogging, workout, yoga) and getting mindful so that your mind can focus better (meditation, journaling, worship).

However, Benjamin Hardy and Bedros Keuilian hit the nail on the head by suggesting that the first thing you should do every morning is an activity which takes you a step closer to your life’s most important goals. This activity most likely changes every week or month and is the #1 activity for that period of time. Continue reading The ONE thing you should do every morning

What is your Networth?

Forbes list of Billionaires and their net worth never fails to gather interest of one and all. We often read with great interest, news that ‘Mukesh Ambani ‘s net worth is 36 B USD, Sachin Bansal is over $1 B USD etc. Let’s explore what this means and why it is important.

What does a Net worth Mean?

Net worth is the net of what you own over what you owe, i.e Assets over the liabilities. For a company this information is captured in the Balance Sheet and is updated at the end of an year.

Why is Net worth Important?

While your personal Income and Expenses statement that we earlier saw captures your current earning, spending and savings on a monthly basis, Net worth is the end result or your progress card of how well you have done so far with your Income and Expenses.

Your Personal Balance sheet/Net worth is an indicator of your resilience to impact in your earning ability. This is why bank’s ask for surety when they extend a loan.

Continue reading What is your Networth?

How to travel the world in a Bicycle at under $10 a day with JKB

Two and a half years back, Jonathan @ JKB set out in his bicycle from his home in London to meet his mom in Denmark. He has since cycled across 4 continents and ___ countries on his bicycle. Before the journey,he had never cycled more than 10 Km at a time. He truly set off with no experience or even a plan and has literally come miles together. He travelled across Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand and is currently pushing his pedals somewhere in USA. I had been closely following his FB page and blog for a while.

JKB’s blog has a wealth of information for any novice biker aspiring to prepare for a long distance cycling trip. It immensely helped me in planning my recent 405 Km bicycle trip where inspired by JKB, Hari (my husband) and I biked and camped on our way. JKB’s humble beginning and story gave me a lot of confidence that anyone can do this. But how? I had a million silly and not so silly questions and he generously responded to all of them.

Continue reading How to travel the world in a Bicycle at under $10 a day with JKB

The Four Phases of Successful Habit Building !!

You probably already know that building good habits is the shortcut to building success. Determination and Willpower are good traits. But they are fleeting and limited and to count on them for building a habit is like having Hope as a strategy.

setyourselfupforsuccess_grande

Most people rely on their will power to stick to a new habit. No wonder new year resolutions don’t even last a few weeks. We have all set resolutions to get fit, study harder, spend more time with family, travel more, start a business and we clock another year without doing any of it.

How can we create and sustain change? How do we set our self up to succeed ? If will power does not work, then what works ?

Continue reading The Four Phases of Successful Habit Building !!

The one habit that enabled me to quit my job and become my own boss

Good habits are, often over a period of time, the difference between a roaring success and a crashing failure. Good habits make things possible by setting you in the right direction step by step instead of a whimsical leap of faith. But, there are often habits that once practised and reviewed, DO help you take that leap of faith! One such habit helped me quit my day job, eventually freeing up my time for working on the kind of projects that I had always wanted to work on and do things that I had always wanted to do without worrying about leaves. In this post, I help you discover what that habit is and how much it can liberate you to follow your long put-off dreams.

Continue reading The one habit that enabled me to quit my job and become my own boss

How a calendar trumps a to-do list to boost productivity

Ask yourself the question, “What activities do I want to complete today?”. You will most likely whip out a pen and paper to start listing all the things you want to get done today.

Hmm, so should I write the blog post for this week? What about my bathroom with its white tiles no longer looking white? Oh, I am out of sugar and unless I buy it, I cannot have tea with sugar this evening. That reminds me, I am out of milk too. I have to get it if I want to avoid having last-minute black tea. Okay, so in summary, I must write the blog post, clean the bathroom and buy milk and sugar. Okay, my to-do list is nicely mapped with a list of things I want to achieve today. Good job! Okay, let’s check Facebook now for just 10 minutes. Then I will get to my to-do list.

Soon, I realise that my Facebook checking has gone on for a couple of hours, followed by a link in one of the posts which took me on an endless spiral of hyperlink-chasing until…… tea time!!! Oops, I want tea and I don’t have sugar and milk. Goddammit, not bitter black tea again!!! I knew it… I need something better than just a to-do list to keep me focused!

There is something better. A calendar.

Continue reading How a calendar trumps a to-do list to boost productivity