Contents

Chapter 1: Human or Drone? ........................................................................................................ 1

Chapter 2: How your Life Came to Be ......................................................................................... 9

Chapter 3: Gratifying Work ........................................................................................................ 13

Chapter 4: A Composed Mind .................................................................................................... 40

Chapter 5: An Invigorated Body ................................................................................................. 61

Chapter 6: A Meaningful Existence ............................................................................................ 80

Be Politically Incorrect ............................................................................................................... 95

About me ..................................................................................................................................... 97

Endnotes ...................................................................................................................................... 99

Chapter 1: Human or Drone?

Sanity is not statistical. - George Orwell

For four years at university I looked forward to the day I would join the „real‟ world and finally

earn my way by climbing the corporate ladder. And then after I completed my postgraduate

degree I considered myself fortunate to get an apprenticeship with a prestigious assurance firm

called Ernst & Young. I had opportunities that many graduates coveted. Funny then, that after

just a few weeks at work my outlook took a 180 degree turn.

The first realisation was that you don‟t work for a company, you work for people -- mortals

with shortcomings and moods. There‟s always someone that you take orders from and your life

centres around making this person happy. This isn‟t to single out Ernst & Young, it happens at

whatever company you work for. The name of the company you work at is little more than a

logo on your email signature.

The second thing I noticed was the way employees get pushed to the limit and beyond to meet

often ridiculous targets. Doing your best counts for nothing if you go home and the job is

incomplete. There is no such thing as leaving what you can‟t finish for tomorrow if you feel

tired; it always has to be done now. You are goaded into working long hours by overused

catchphrases like be a team player and go the extra mile.

“They want their people to be creative and self-starting, [yet] they‟re burdening them with a

mind-numbing workload that precludes the freshness of mind required for creativity. We can‟t

think hard and think smart all the time. That‟s exactly what causes burnout," remarks cognitive

psychologist Shlomo Breznitz on the situation faced by employees in the workplace.1

Studying at university I had no idea working would be like this. Was I just weak or spoiled? In

meetings you find employees saying “Okay,” to demand after demand. Not once did I ever

hear someone say, “My plate is full, I cannot do this.” Saying such words just once can

eliminate all hope of promotion. No matter how overloaded they are, employees just shut up

and put up. It‟s apparently what mature adults do.

I changed career paths and went to work as a cost controller at Toyota. On paper it looked like

a second chance: billion dollar company, a three-fold jump in pay, and a pretty senior position

for someone just starting out. But again, the lack of creativity coupled with unreasonable

demands made this little better than my first job.

From my experience, the three lessons I consider most important are: #1: You can‟t spend eight hours a day doing something you aren‟t interested in.

#2: Taking orders from other people is not in anybody‟s destiny. Most just accept it as the only

way. #3: While stress and “handling the pressure” are glamourised in our modern society, the levels

we face are damaging. It is a myth that pressure brings out the best in you.

The perils of round-the-clock communication, undefined working hours and ubiquitous social

pressure to succeed were highlighted at the 2011 World Economic Forum. “In the future, the

greatest challenge to the global health system will be stress-related diseases,” said Heinz

Schuepbach, director of the school of applied psychology at the University of Northwestern

Switzerland. “We are never satisfied with what we‟re doing. We have to do things faster,

better…Deadlines have to be met and it doesn‟t even matter where you do your work

anymore. I used to go home at 5 p.m. and if my job wasn‟t done, then that was fine. Now you

can work around the clock.” 2

I didn‟t receive any consolation from my parents and friends if I complained. “That‟s the way it

is,” everybody said. Working hard in the right context is actually good, but we work too hard at

the wrong things for the wrong people.

You can look at someone in morning traffic and often you will see an expressionless face with a

tired, lifeless gaze. Everybody is so jaded, we‟ve become a race of drones. Many say that they

will start living again as soon as that deadline is met, examination passed or project

completed. Happiness is always just over the hill. That day never seems to come though and

more days in the year are spent on meeting that one last deadline or giving that one last push

than on living life itself.

Life today has become about working to your limit and beyond for five or more days a week

then squeezing in personal errands and a couple hours of extra sleep on the weekends.

“More days in the year are spent meeting that one last deadline than on living life itself”

What makes us happy? As different as our tastes and preferences may be, there are a few elements embedded in all of

our lives that makes each of us a typical modern human. When these fundamentals are right,

you can confidently call your life complete. These aspects are:

• Gratifying Work • A Composed Mind • An Invigorated Body • A Meaningful Existence

Gratifying Work

With work consuming most of your energy and time, you should only do something if it causes

your eyes to open wide and brain to light up. Yes, you have that luxury even in a recession

because your options in this day and age are numerous. Careers have exploded beyond the

usual list of choices.

The bedrock underlying what rich people do is, “doing what they love and finding a way to get

paid for it,” says Steve Siebold, author of How Rich People Think.3

Previously insignificant or non-existent avenues like mobile application design, cloud

computing and 3D printing today make money for a lot of people. Research company

IBISWorld has listed biotechnology, environmental consulting, recycling facilities and video

games among others as the industries that will offer the most growth and opportunity in the

immediate future. Environmental consulting for instance is projected to grow by 120% by

2019.4

With the corporate sector becoming ever more stifling and demanding, I recommend that you

start your own venture (initially part time) with the objective of becoming

independent. Mainstays on the Forbes rich list like Larry Ellison and Eike Batista are founders

of companies. Warren Buffett is an investor. The majority of their wealth was made from

capital appreciation, dividends, exercised stock options and profit sharing…not from a

salary. “Most family fortunes are created by business,” wrote Bill and Will Bonner in their

book Family Fortunes, “Not by professions.”5 Professionals work for money, while investors

and businesspeople have assets and employees that earn money for them.

Entrepreneurship and investing are the paths that will allow you to control your time and

financial destiny. You need to free yourself of the notion that they are only for the brave, lucky

and talented. See it as choosing independence, no more, no less.

They are career choices like any other.

A Composed Mind The sun rises and sets each day, but how many times have you sat to appreciate it? You‟re

usually too busy to notice. The typical human mind is a chaotic space where restlessness and

anxiety rule. Thoughts are seldom processed properly -- most people are perpetually distracted

by noise and media. This distorts your perception of the world. Our thoughts jump from place

to place and this prevents us from fully appreciating anything.

A composed mind is one that is still in the face of outer turmoil. It finds happiness and sees

magic in the most basic workings of life. In the right state your mind is able to conjure up ideas

and map a way toward a desired destination. In other words, a composed mind is the answer to

every important question and challenge that will face you.

An Invigorated Body

There‟s a large physical dimension to life, there‟s no getting away from it. This physical

dimension is, in turn, linked to the emotional and spiritual aspects of your life. Emotions,

physicality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. Your body is more than a vessel of

blood and organs; it is an intuitive, sensory and spiritual instrument that forms part of every

experience you have.

From the food you eat to the sex you have, your body is the first point of contact in every

earthly experience you engage in. Physical pleasures abound and there‟s nothing wrong with

indulging in them. Your experience can be enhanced or blunted, depending on the state of your

body because this in turn affects your state of mind and your life. It doesn‟t matter what your

bank balance is, how enlightened you are, or even how loving your family is: if your body is

not healthy and fit you are not fully engaging the human experience.

A Meaningful Existence

Your identity is not as defined as you have been led to believe. I believe that God is an ocean

and every sentient being is a cup of the same ocean -- meaning we are each God in human

form. Everything is interdependent and linked. This planet and in fact the whole universe is

ultimately an extension of yourself. Contemplating such intricacies adds deeper meaning to

your life. These dimensions (people, earth and God) set the context of your life.

The Large Hadron Collider, a giant particle accelerator, has been installed near Geneva to

mimic the conditions subsequent to the Big Bang that created the universe. This gigantic

experiment seeks to unlock the secrets of the universe and answer life‟s most fundamental

questions. Spirituality and Science are not contradictory as we now use Science to understand

the meaning of life. Partake in the discovery, join the discussion, and evolve your

consciousness.

Positively Psyched

With be positive and visualise your reality talk so prevalent in contemporary culture, many

force themselves into thinking that they‟re happy when their mutterings and body language say

otherwise.

Is this you?

Are you quick to rise out of bed on a Monday morning the way a child wakes up half

an hour early for his Saturday morning cartoons? On the way to work, do you enjoy the drive instead of anticipating the fires you will

have to put out?

When on vacation, can you take pleasure in watching the sun go down or do you feel

that time is scarce and consequently pack your schedule with activities and sights to

visit?

These indicators are more truthful than any affirmation or visualisation exercise you may use to

coax yourself into being happy. Many are living lives incongruent with who they are. Perhaps

they fear naming what they really desire or have dropped their standards to a more „realistic‟

level.

Physical change rather than just a change in attitude is required too. Happiness is as much a

state of doing as it is a state of mind.

“Happiness is as much a state of doing as it is a state of mind”

My personal decision was to opt-out of a way of living I didn‟t believe, and that in turn has

resulted in personal and financial fulfilment that I would never have attained if I just accepted

what people told me about “the way it is.” Daily persistence now sees me earning my keep

through share investing, being a scrupulous landlord, and creating applications for mobile

devices. We‟re living in the sort of time that George Orwell predicted in 1984, a time where deadlines

and targets come before human well-being, and the screws are being tightened more and more

each passing year. Someone has to ask:

What‟s the point?

Stress-related illnesses cause depression and premature death. Family, friends and personal well-being have taken a back seat.

Mankind is rapidly depleting the very earth we depend on.

Our priorities are confused. We are killing ourselves.

Overhauls happen one day at a time

Ironically trying to make a sudden change will probably fail; instead a new reality needs to

come via consistent choices and commitments made every single day. Change is more than just

a possibility; it is inevitable if you commit to it. I use the word inevitable not to be optimistic,

but because there is truly nothing stopping you other than your own mental constructs about

life. Amidst the chaos, this world has more opportunity and choice than ever before. One choice at a time, day by day, it‟s time to become human again.

Chapter 2: How your Life Came to Be

The world often feels chaotic, but if you had to speak to most people they would point to the

tough economic climate as the cause of their stress and anxiety. It sounds feasible enough: jobs

are hard to come by, and those that have positions are being worked to the bone. It seems like

lose-lose. However, to call the recession the root cause of your problems is wrong. The

recession is just the straw that broke the camel‟s back. One needs to look at the events and

choices they took that led to the point they‟re at today.

“To call the recession the root cause of your problems is wrong” The richest one percent of Americans -- the ones who derive their income from investments and

businesses -- were 190 times richer than the average American before the

recession. Immediately after the recession in 2009, they were 225 times richer: an all-time

record according to the Economic Policy Institute.6 The gap widened. In 1980 a C.E.O. earned

50 times more than the average worker.7 In 2011, a C.E.O. made 325 times more than the

median employee, as per the Institute for Policy Studies.8 Times may get tough, but those at

the top still ensure they reward themselves.

People who run and own the companies that others work for enjoy perks like limited liability

and preferential corporate tax rates. Employers and employees play by different rules. I‟m not

here to argue the fairness of capitalism or lack thereof, I‟m just pointing out the status

quo. When a recession hits the rich folk cut costs and staff in order to maintain profitability and

their lifestyles. Throughout their working careers, most never take that step of becoming

independent; they remain bound and obligated to some big organisation or the other for their

entire working lives.

To finger the economy as the culprit is to take from the power you have over your happiness.

Formative Years and Education Each stage of your life -- from the time you‟re in kindergarten to your work life -- has

effectively encouraged you to make important choices based on what is ultimately, a narrow set

of options. Our behaviour, outlook and decision making process has been taught to us, leaving

most people with little free will even though they may think they‟re the ones making the

choices in their lives.

Picking a career, a cornerstone of your life, is treated similarly to choosing your bathroom

finishes out of a catalogue. From a young age you are schooled in what “good” careers are, like

actuarial science, medicine, engineering, accountancy…you know the list. Critically, you then

unconsciously narrow your choices down based on this Career Catalogue that was put together

for you by parents, teachers and wise uncles.

They -- your parents, teachers, and uncles -- punt the careers with the best mix of stability and

pay to you, usually paying no attention to what your actual strengths and interests are. If your

country has a shortage of civil engineers and the salary is good for instance, then that‟s what

you should become, no further analysis required. As a child you don‟t question. The scary

thing is that those decisions you made when you didn‟t know better (aged sixteen to eighteen)

will perpetuate themselves for the rest of your life if you don‟t adjust course.

Things like entrepreneurship or investing are boxed as a left field alternative for the person with

talent. It‟s a “calling” that is not for everyone. And so most high school students don‟t

entertain the concept of self-employment.

Joining the Real World

When you join the working world you are placed directly into a system and you need to fit in

fast. There is little place for individual desires; the business world is all about meeting

organisational goals and targets as a team.

One must be assertive, proactive, confident, well spoken, and keen to work under

pressure. There is no place for naturally introverted people or those who don‟t enjoy pressure

(which in truth is almost everybody). You need a can-do attitude towards everything thrown at

you. And actually this is all little more than propaganda telling you to work past your limit and

produce results while ignoring the personal cost.

In his frank and unusually honest book How to Get Rich, media tycoon Felix Dennis referred to

teamwork as the “glue that binds the losers together.”9 His words were not meant to offend or

incite reaction. Dennis is saying that the teamwork analogy so prevalent at companies just

ensures that your individual ambitions are put last in favour of meeting your organisation‟s

goals.

Losing yourself Notice one thing that was largely absent throughout your younger years: your input. We try to

give a suggestion, formula or recipe to our young for every pivotal choice they need to

make. Your life is a culmination of many small choices: from the courses you picked at school,

to the person you chose to live with, to the finer details like what you chose to do when you had

free time on your hands after work or school. Michael Ondaatje in The English Patient

expresses it beautifully: “we are communal histories, communal books, we are not owned or

monogamous in taste or experiences.” Unfortunately too many of us allow our experiences to

be owned. For much of your early life experience you are nudged, guided, even manipulated

into picking what others thought was best for you.

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing,” goes the old saying. A

certain way of life isn‟t correct just because many live that way. That terrible quip “That‟s the

way life is” becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for those who believe it.

Happiness should be simple to attain, something that can be built into your daily stride, but

how, I hear you ask.

Chapter 3: Gratifying Work

What is the most precious resource in your life? It‟s not money. It‟s not even people. It‟s

time. Without time everything else is meaningless. One has to master time. And in the age in

which we currently live, we devote significant amounts of it to working, usually making

someone else richer in the process.

We work for most of our waking lives, so if you are experiencing stress and health related

problems, then perhaps you need to examine the stresses your occupation is placing on your

life. Dr. Paul J. Rosch, Chairman of the Board of the American Institute of Stress, points to

jobs as the leading source of stress for adults. Because so many companies have downsized,

those who remain employed are expected to work longer hours and each day becomes a race

against the clock that only really ends when they reach retirement age. The way we make our

living is a prime suspect for discontent, frustration and burnout.

“The way we make our living is a prime suspect for discontent, frustration and burnout”

Working for others has become demanding to the point where the breaking point is actually

here -- it‟s not just a sentiment, and it‟s not just because of the recent economic meltdown. The

following ingredients have been brewing for many years, to give the untenable situation we

have today: Globalization: China and other low cost labour countries like India, Thailand, and Taiwan can

manufacture practically anything cheaper than developed countries. When the Bamboo Curtain

lifted allowing foreign companies to set up their plants in China, most developed countries saw

their manufacturing bases reduced to practically nothing within a decade. Steel production,

automotive and electronics manufacturing -- previous bedrocks of Europe and the United States

of America -- are today highly concentrated in Asian countries.

Workers, engineers and procurement teams the world over are banging their heads against the

wall trying to somehow compete with these Asian countries on cost, when the hard fact is that it

is currently impossible due to their skilled, low wage labour. In addition to this people are now

also competing against robots and computers for jobs. “Thanks to the merger of, and advances

in, globalization and the information technology revolution, every boss now has cheaper, easier

access to more above-average software, automation, robotics, cheap labour and cheap genius

than ever before,” writes Thomas L. Friedman in a New York Times article called Average is

Over.10

“Globalization and the Internet/telecom/computing revolution together challenge every

town, worker and job…The credo of the Chief Executive Officer today is: „You only hire

someone -- anywhere -- if you absolutely have to,‟ if a smarter machine, robot or computer

program is not available.”

Everybody is trying to become “globally competitive” i.e. relentlessly cut costs. Meanwhile

multinationals continue to move their factories, call centres, I.T. departments and any business

function they can to where labour and skills are cheaper. Even the hallowed all-American

Apple, Inc. has most of its products made at the Foxconn facility in China. Make no mistake,

this migration of jobs is occurring at skilled levels too. Most jobs -- not only those relating to

the assembly line -- are under scrutiny and this places more burden on people to work harder

than ever to justify their positions.

Instant communication, information and email: Not long ago you could only be reached by

landline or post. Typically you would only receive work while you were at the office and

requests came in controlled, manageable lots. Now you can be reached while you‟re on leave

or after hours on your mobile phone. Work can be done remotely from home with your laptop

and company sponsored internet connection. The effect is that there is no cut-off point as you

work and receive information around the clock. Your mind struggles to keep up with this

relentless flow of information.

In their research paper titled The problem of information overload in business organisations,

Angela Edmunds and Anne Morris of Loughborough University11

noted:

“The machines we have invented to produce, manipulate and disseminate information generate

information much faster than we can process it. It is apparent that an abundance of

information, instead of better enabling a person to do their job, threatens to engulf and

diminish his or her control over the situation. It is now widely recognised that stress can be

experienced from a feeling of lack of control. We can unwittingly allow information technology

to become the driver instead of harnessing it as a tool to enhance our lives.”

Lean operations: The J.I.T (Just In Time) production system conceived by the Japanese means

that a company holds the minimum amount of stock and supplies to save on floor space and

other storage costs associated with keeping inventory. Having been involved with the company

that invented this system I can attest that J.I.T. is better from a profitability and efficiency point

of view. However, I can also tell you that because stock levels are so low, you‟re always

cutting it fine. If one component doesn‟t reach your factory in time it becomes a headache for

staff to ensure the assembly line doesn‟t stop. There‟s little allowance for anything to go

wrong.

The J.I.T. mindset has now extended well beyond the production line to businesses across all

sectors. Everywhere companies want to cut things as finely as possible: from the number of

staff they hire, to the machinery they buy, to the time they give you to complete a task -- it‟s the

bare minimum and nothing more. Bosses commonly refer to this as “running a lean operation.”

Shareholder pressure: In 2009, companies had the rug pulled out from under them by the

recession. Just one year later many of these companies posted near record profits again. The

economy didn‟t recover and these companies did not make any more sales, yet they still

improved on their profitability. This was mainly done through rigorous cost cutting -- mostly

by slashing jobs.

A company‟s board of directors and even the C.E.O. in many cases are employed by the

shareholder. Year in, and year out, shareholders want more profit so that the value of their

stockholding increases. Each year pressure is passed to employees to work harder, smarter,

faster…all for the same, or marginally higher, salary. Constant improvement: We are never satisfied. In business it‟s all about cost reduction,

higher revenues, and getting things done faster. (This isn‟t to say there should not be

innovation and invention, but too many management teams want to chomp away at what has

already been cut to the bone.) At home it‟s about making the most of our limited leisure time

by trying to pack in as much activity as possible. Every day we push the envelope in all aspects

of our lives.

We want to find something to do with every second and every penny. It‟s about doing more

than before, relentlessly squeezing more output from the same amount of time and

resources. This is more of a culture that‟s been engendered over time rather than just human

nature. Sure, corporations keep asking more of their employees, but we also keep asking more

of ourselves and this self-imposed culture of never being content is now more harmful than

good. When she was an Economics lecturer at Harvard University, Juliet B. Schor wrote a topical

book titled The Overworked American. She says that from 1948 to 1990 the productivity of the

U.S. worker has more than doubled. Improvements in efficiency of our methods, machinery

and computing power have enhanced our ability to produce. By 1990, every worker in the U.S.

could have taken off every other year with pay, yet still produce the same output they did as in

1948. Yet you won‟t find a company that has passed that productivity improvement on to

employees in the form of some extra leave or pay. If productivity increases then more output is

expected of you, but nothing is given to you. This applies to professional skilled jobs as well.

Being employed is not a matter of getting the job done; it‟s about having the maximum

extracted out of you.

The Tipping Point As Schor noted: “According to a recent review of existing findings, Americans are literally

working themselves to death -- as jobs contribute to heart disease, hypertension, gastric

problems, depression, exhaustion, and a variety of other ailments.” Her comments may address

Americans, but with standardised practises and most big companies operating globally, her

findings are applicable to most countries. From a human capacity point of view we are not

close to the tipping point; we are standing on it.

Year by year the above five forces relentlessly intensify that much more. It may sound

ridiculous that I dare speak of improvement as bad, but can something really be called

improvement if it‟s at such a high human cost? Entrepreneur, author and blogger Seth Godin

refers to this relentless drive for improved productivity and cost cutting as the race to the

bottom. Working at any company is now about doing more and more with less and less.

Stress management techniques and taking time off on the weekends are quick repairs that aren‟t

fixing the real problem. The way we bend our backs for our employers is straining us

biologically, spiritually, and psychologically. A fulfilling livelihood is one that is in harmony

with all three of these facets.

I want you to take two points out of all this:

#1: The world as a whole has become more demanding than any time in history. #2: In this new world, possibilities are narrowing and demands increasing for employees.

An Exciting New World Beckons

People refer to it as self-employment, entrepreneurship, investing…these different terms

ultimately all amount to the same thing. It is the principle of not being obligated to a salary and

other people that‟s at the core of the message here. You can spend your life fighting the

system, or you can become self-powered and create your own system. Individual initiative is

the way forward.

The best way to initiate the journey to independence and wealth is to start a part time business

venture. You need to start creating and disseminating rather than just working and

consuming. So why is a business a good way to start off?

♦

5 Reasons to Start a Venture

#1: Control. You exercise more control over your own business than anything else. Success or

failure mainly depends on how well you execute. You have no control over the stock price of

the shares you buy, for instance.

#2: Skills. Running your own venture will allow you to gain a very broad cross section of

financial skills like marketing, cost control and negotiating. This will stand you in good stead

for whatever else you may later branch off into.

#3: Confidence. When you get that first sale or deal, your confidence is boosted more than any

words of encouragement can. All the while you will be accumulating capital for future

expansion.

#4: Creativity. Nothing allows you to express your ideas and creativity like your own

venture. It‟s time you gave yourself a creative outlet and the opportunity to call the shots in

your life.

#5: Scalability. Things like real estate require large capital outlay. A business can be started

from your home and expanded as your customers or clients grow. Hence in spite of the

sentiment that business is risky, the risk can be controlled.

♦

Later on you can explore other avenues like the stock market, but as a starting point a business

is the best way to dig in and generate cash.

Changing the Momentum There were a whole lot of actions and turns you took to get to the point you‟re at today; and

while you may hate what you currently do, your boat has to be steadily steered toward the

situation you want. Start your venture part time and grow it to eventually supersede your day

job. If you‟re newly qualified and your parents don‟t have cash lying around to give you as

capital then this applies to you as well.

♦

The Gratitude Journal:

What $500 and some before-hour work can achieve Carla White created an iPhone application called Gratitude Journal during the hours of 5 a.m.

to 7 a.m. before going to her day job. Here‟s the interesting bit: she had no programming skills

and when she initially tried to learn Cocoa (Apple‟s application programming language) it just

didn‟t work out.

Carla turned to elance.com, a site that allows you to find programmers for hire on an hourly or

project basis. Here she posted the specifications of Gratitude Journal: an application (app)

that allows one to journal the good events and people in your life, which in turn keeps a focus

on the good aspects of life. She got the idea when she realised her own hardcover gratitude

journal was difficult to carry around. “I wanted to take the best parts of a gratitude journal --

the simplicity and ease of use -- and add the convenience of mobility,” she explained.

A company called Passionworks responded to Carla‟s elance.com post. They took on the

Gratitude Journal project -- a very simple app to design for a seasoned programmer -- for a

total cost of $500. In her first month she made $7,000 from the sales on iTunes, Apple‟s online

store which sells apps.

This illustrates two things:

#1: A lack of resources or even specialised skill on your part is no hindrance to starting.

#2: A world of opportunity, skill and technology are now accessible to you. It‟s a matter of

reaching out for it.

12, 13

♦

You are the Starting Point

Before any practical considerations, first list all the ideas that interest you, then filter out the

most economically and financially feasible of these ideas (elaborated on soon). This means you

must ignore any business idea that doesn‟t engage you intellectually and creatively -- I don‟t

care how lucrative it may sound. Make this a non-negotiable parameter from the outset.

Sport and singing may require talent, but passion and determination are enough to make you

good at practically anything else. Your mind learns with alacrity and excels at virtually

anything if it‟s interested enough. Every decision should start with criteria set by you; and only

thereafter do you look at the options that have satisfied your criteria. Having this attitude is the

only way your life becomes your own.

Accommodate yourself first, then the rest of the world.

This seems counter-intuitive and even wishful, but the more you live with this perception and

attitude, the more sense it will make each day. So if you‟re into mixing music, fashion design,

application programming, automotive customisation or even something as simple as baking,

then shortlist it as a possibility. If your area badly needs a salon but you don‟t fancy styling

hair for a living, then pass on the idea. If you really think about it, there‟s a wide array of

things you can do, and while not all fun ideas will translate into viable businesses, guaranteed

you will be able to make at least one of them work. Choose based on what you value internally

and make everything external work around those values. It‟s the order in which you proceed

that‟s key: emotion first followed closely by logic.

“This seems counter-intuitive and even wishful, but the more you live with this perception and

attitude, the more sense it will make each day.”

You don‟t need a ground-breaking idea. Ideas are overrated; it‟s how you apply something that

will determine whether it will be successful or not. Microsoft did not invent the spread sheet or

operating system, Toyota did not invent the car, Facebook didn‟t create social networking and

Google wasn‟t the first search engine, yet they all became billion dollar companies. Most

successful businesses are a perpetuation and refinement of an already established idea. You can

turn a very ordinary sounding, common idea into a financial success if you apply it

correctly. People often have similar ideas; it‟s about who fights hardest to make their ideas

successful.

Low Costs

When it comes to business, a concept or thought that isn‟t implemented is as good as having

none at all. You need to be able to execute your idea with the resources at your

disposal. Start on a small scale where you aren‟t committed to large overheads like rent and

staff salaries. Run things from home initially and don‟t hire any staff for the first few

months. Generate momentum first, then you can scale up by moving into a premises, hiring

staff, buying equipment and taking on some debt if necessary. For now you should put

resource intensive ideas on ice and focus on those with lower start-up requirements.

Keep it Nuts and Bolts Practical In this age of fast technological innovation, people still make money doing the most

rudimentary things. Chobani was founded in 2005 and launched its first product in 2007. Four

years later they had the third largest market share in the U.S. and became a $257 million

business. Their product? Yoghurt.

At the beginning of your journey limit your scope to established ideas -- don‟t do something

that is completely untested. Generate cash first, then get sophisticated when you have the

wherewithal to absorb the additional risk and capital requirements. Uniqueness and

sophistication can be phased in once you have established a trading rhythm, where cash is

turning over and your brand is growing.

“Build a business that is nuts and bolts practical and not complex. Create a simplified product

or service that sells X product to Y customer for Z profit,” remarks Scott Gerber, author of

Never get a Real Job.14

Therefore keep it straightforward initially by ensuring you have a

simple but complete offering: make a standard pretzel that you can sell, then while you‟re

generating revenue you can work on that special chocolate variant on the side.

Creating Demand

Typically experts will tell you to sell something only if there‟s a market for it and demand is

sufficient, but market demand is tricky to determine. They also encourage you to find a niche

for yourself; however trying to carve a niche is not just difficult but can inadvertently limit your

appeal to an unduly small segment of customers. All that said, you can actually create demand

for your offering. Demand is created when you provide utility, appropriate pricing and

customer engagement beyond the ordinary.

Utility Utility can be described as the functionality or satisfaction a customer derives from your

offering. People part with their money for something when it gives them convenience or

enhances their lives.

Providing convenience frees up time and energy for your customers to do other things with

their lives. People use tailors, hire photographers, frequent car washes and consult event

planners to take care of tasks or needs that they don‟t really want to tend to themselves. Most

don‟t even cater for any of their birthdays any longer: they hire someone to do it. Time is very

scarce and people have little energy left after work. This is where opportunity lies for someone

starting a business: consumers willingly part with their money for convenience, as the one thing

even more valuable than money is time. You may notice that convenience is largely service

driven.

When your offering enhances it makes a situation better than it was before. A network

connecting people with common interests, using your specialised knowledge to help another

business improve its product quality, or an application that allows one to track their daily

calorie intake and burn are the sorts of things that your customers would find useful and value

adding.

Enhancement usually (but not always) requires more skill and capital than convenience. When

you supply convenience you are freeing people of a burden. When you enhance something you

render lives and situations better as a direct result of what you provide. Both enhancement and

convenience make money though, so don‟t look at one as the poor cousin of the other.

You need to be practical about the way you start off. Convenience is usually the quicker way to

get going. You may need to take a few interim steps before starting that revolutionary robotics

company you want, because you might not initially have the capital to give things the kick start

it needs. While that‟s something for you to consider, often there is something enhancing you

can create with what you have in front of you (Carla White‟s Gratitude Journal comes to

mind). Ultimately the only important thing is that your planned business falls somewhere on

this convenience-enhancement spectrum.

Pricing

Use competitors to benchmark against and then match or slightly undercut their prices. Value

for money is crucial for any business, especially one that‟s starting off. As individuality and

uniqueness is built in, you will have more power to dictate your prices. This is why Apple can

charge more for the Mac: because they have differentiated their product, they have made the

packaging slick and the user interface uniquely Apple. Having an Apple product is a sign of

being different -- even though for the most part it shares its componentry with cheaper

computers. Word of warning: don‟t undercut by too much. Going in much cheaper than the rest of the

market can backfire. While consumers appreciate value for money, they also want to feel

they‟re making a quality purchase, and the price tag they see forms part of this perception. An

extremely low price will make many of them question this quality. Be competitive, but don‟t

be cheap.

Customer Engagement

Customers and clients need to be delighted, not just served. Do not underestimate how far old

fashioned goodwill can take you. This is your show now, so let the world know you fully stand

by what you do. Viewed this way, a great customer experience should come without you trying

very much. Loving what you do is not just a pleasantry. The dots will connect when you find

it so much easier to sell something you believe in.

People often ignore adverts and marketing ploys, so reputation is more paramount than

ever. We are more likely to ask our friends for recommendations because most of us trust

adverts less. Provided your pricing is in the same ballpark as your competitors, a person that

follows a recommendation from someone they trust is a guaranteed customer.

The Internet and electronic communication amplifies everything. A good reputation will spread

like wildfire, a bad one will see your business reduced to nothing. Each job you do then is not

just for the person you‟re doing it for; you need to look at it as a potential advert whereby a

satisfied customer will broadcast you to their friends.

Customer engagement can go so much further than mere kindness though. My friend Eran Eyal

entered the saturated t-shirt arena with a business called Springleap.com. Springleap.com

allows any willing party to submit t-shirt designs to them. If Eran and his team pick your

submission to go on their t-shirts, you will receive a royalty for each garment sold with your

design on it. With a basic product Eran and his partner Eric Edelstein built interest, customer

demand and community by engaging people in a way that most clothing retailers do not. They

created demand in a saturated sector with minimal marketing spend.

A balance of utility, pricing and customer engagement is how demand can be created for any

offering. The marketing is built into these facets. Competition exists in almost every avenue,

so don‟t try too hard to find something unique. True, there are lots of people selling things, but

then again there are also lots of consumers in this virtuous cycle.

The pie is always big enough for the player who can create demand for her offering. From the

day they bought a small yoghurt factory from Kraft Foods (because Kraft were exiting the

yoghurt business), Chobani became a dominant player in what was said to be a saturated

market. Founder Hamdi Ulukaya said, “What Chobani does is increase consumption levels and

bring more people to the category.” They create demand.

Two Weeks Gabe Rivera of Techmeme.com once posted on Twitter: “You could spend a whole day reading

blog posts and tweets on startup success, and the payoff would be startup success delayed by

one day.” Learning and application need to be done in tandem.

Make a pact with yourself to start within two weeks. You heard right: two weeks. Chances are

good you‟ve been fantasizing for years playing around with all sorts of ideas, yet haven‟t taken

a single step toward making any of them happen. Implementation needs to be a defined

exercise with strict timelines, without which your idea is likely to fizzle into nothing.

With this initially being a small start-up there are no major financial commitments being

made. All planning and pondering stops once these two weeks lapse, and the setting up of your

eBay store or baking that first batch of organic snacks, commences in earnest.

Compile a list of all potential ventures for the first week and write down every fanciful idea you

may have: it could be your own apparition or an appealing suggestion from a magazine, wise

uncle or friend… list them all. Then for the next week go through each idea you listed and

remove any with capital requirements that are beyond your means.

With the ideas that remain, it can be an open-ended question when asking yourself which one to

go ahead with. Make your final selection based on the business you can most easily create

demand for. This is the test of viability. So if the idea is convenient or enhancing, can be sold

for a competitive price and provides potential to facilitate great customer engagement, then it‟s

all systems go. Decision making needs to be simplified and most importantly remember: the

perfect answer or solution does not exist. It's up to you to vindicate your decision after you‟ve

taken it.

Instead of perusing the Career Catalogue then, your decision making process needs to start with

you and follow this sequence:

That Elusive Secret Sauce

People always think there‟s some secret sauce they need to uncover before commencing trade,

but in today‟s age anything you need to know can be found out from the right book, tutorial or

online community. This is why you can start and then find answers when obstacles

arise. Through experience you will also develop your own tricks of the trade.

You don‟t need to know the whole road ahead. When I decided to retail portable and designer

light fittings I spent three months trying to get everything „just right‟ before actually starting. I

mapped out a complete internal control system for the simplest of businesses that was to be run

from home with some stock in my spare bedroom. When I finally commenced trade, all that

groundwork and elaborate planning counted for little and the most intensive learning took place

while I was actively doing business.

When your business expands and grows in complexity, you will have money to hire or consult

people to take care of the things you cannot. You can‟t anticipate everything and when the

unanticipated happens, it can be dealt with.

You can begin right now.

What you do two years from now can evolve into something very different to what you started

off with, so don‟t fall into the trap of thinking you‟re restricted by your initial idea either. Your

vision will clear and ideas start to flow after you act. It is your daily action, rather than just

daily contemplation, that will uncover the path that is yours to travel.

Forget the State of the Economy

The economy, customer demand (whatever that means), or business climate will never be

perfect, yet a typical middle class person looking to start a business or invest has never had as

much free knowledge, opportunity, and channels to support them. Excuses are few for those

who live in a democratic, free enterprise country.

Dynamic is a clichéd but appropriate word when describing the commercial

landscape. Industries change and opportunities are cropping up at a faster rate than ever

before. The Information Age saw companies like Yahoo, Google and Oracle rapidly

develop. Robotics, 3D printing and environmental technology are gaining traction as capital

flows into these industries at an unprecedented rate. The past ten years have brought more

change than the previous thirty. Growth and decay both happen faster than ever and that spells

opportunity for you. We are at the point where change is happening at such a fast rate that

nobody can keep up with all the opportunities that appear. Therefore there will always

untapped markets.

Ideas to make money lie in every challenge we face (there are plenty), inconvenience we live

with, as well as in the difference between your vision of an ideal world and the one in which we

currently live.

The Internet and social media continues to democratise influence by the day. The average

person has never had this much voice. The most interesting news, worthy causes and best

products come to the attention of the people as we share it with each other. You can broadcast

yourself on YouTube, sell your goods to someone across the world from you using eBay,

publish yourself with Amazon, and express yourself on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and the

like. Democratic content aggregators like Reddit can spread news and ideas faster than giant

news networks like CNN. Anybody with the right message or story can be heard: it is no

longer just about who can afford to take out the most front page adverts or prime time

slots. Each one of us is now a broadcaster with an international distribution channel. The

Internet has become a ubiquitous part of our lives, but that doesn‟t mean you should forget how

powerful it is when properly harnessed.

But, the job market is unlikely to get back to the levels we were used to. When the economic

crisis hit, companies retrenched staff and cut costs. During the next economic upturn they will

not hire as quickly as they retrenched, because these companies will still manage to function

without the staff they cut (“lean operations”). Furthermore, most of the jobs that have moved

overseas in this time are unlikely to come back to your country, at least not for many decades.

Wealthy venture capitalist Nick Hanauer said that “Anyone who's ever run a business knows

that hiring more people is a course of last resort for capitalists.” Add to this the increased use

of robots on production lines and systems automation in the office, and it‟s not inconceivable

that employment will no longer be an option for millions. Self-employment may very well find

you before you find it. Apple‟s new data centre in Malden, North Carolina, U.S.A. is 11.5

acres big, yet employs just 50 people. “Big companies are no longer the engines of job

creation,” said Seth Godin in his memoir, Stop Stealing Dreams, “Not the good jobs anyway.”

So the complexion of the job market is changing before our eyes, and the reasons run much

deeper than the recession. Like most adversity though, good will come out of this structural

change in the job market as it kick starts an era of self-empowerment. The road to self-

employment has never been this well-lit. It is a time to be pragmatically optimistic.

♦

From $5,000 to $1 billion: The first woman to join the Forbes billionaire list without help from a husband or

inheritance Sara Blakely‟s first job involved wearing Mickey Mouse ears while guiding customers onto a

ride at Disney World, Epcot. She lasted three months before commencing her second job

selling fax machines for an office company called Danka. Door to door sales and cold calls

were the order of the day.

“I was the delivery department too,” she says of having to carry heavy machines to customers.

“It was very high stress with (the bosses) always asking what you‟re going to bring in next

month.”

A problem of her own provided Blakely with a business idea. Pantylines are “a real problem

for women…I couldn‟t figure out what to wear under my clothes. The body shapers were too

thick at the time…So I cut the feet out of control top pantyhose one night, threw them on under

my white pants and realised that the toning and shaping was perfect and that the hosiery

material is thin enough that I could make shape wear out of it.”

Thus the basic idea of footless pantyhose was dreamt up when Blakely was 27. It would be

something comfortable yet flattering to the female form. She remained at Danka working from

9 to 5, while she researched pantyhose design and patents after hours and on weekends. She

knew nothing about patenting, marketing, manufacturing and online commerce. Yet with

$5,000 to her name, Blakely got a prototype designed, found a manufacturer and legally

secured her product. Spanx was born. She worked out of her apartment with no business

premises, staff or even a website initially.

Sara Blakely was a one woman show without financial backing or partners. Manufacturers

turned her down but she didn‟t relent until one finally agreed to take her product on. (Yes, she

outsourced the manufacturing, she didn‟t build an entire factory.) From that fateful day that

she cut her pantyhose to the time she had a product ready to sell, two years had passed. “I

must have heard the word „no‟ a thousand times.”

“There were days that I‟d be at Danka all day and the semi trucks would drop boxes of Spanx

outside my apartment,” Blakely recalls. Finally convinced that Spanx was destined to become

something substantial, Blakely resigned from Danka after a seven year stint. Less than three

weeks later, she appeared as a guest on Oprah. 15, 16

♦

Hard work

To become financially successful hard work is required, there‟s no getting away from it. Only

if you have rich parents handing you down an inheritance or win the lottery can hard work be

bypassed. However, there are different types of hard work. Few things are more painful when

hard work is done under the shackles of obligation, but few things are more satisfying when

hard work, passion and autonomy come together.

♦

Working for Others Vs. Working for Yourself

Working for Others

• Financial reward is limited to your salary and a few perks. • Your personal life goes on hold e.g. personal errands/calls/emails are very difficult to

tend to.

• Your creativity is stifled. Your ideas are drowned by other employees and needs to

undergo approval by others before being implemented.

• You have little or no control over your workload. Deadlines are determined for you.

Working for Yourself

• Financial reward is derived from the profit you make and is potentially unlimited.

• You answer to yourself. You can take care of personal errands without anyone‟s

approval.

• You can implement an idea very quickly without anybody‟s approval. Your creativity

develops and expands quickly.

• You have the freedom to choose what work/projects to take on. You also have greater

control over your workload and deadlines.

♦

The Pill you must Take

Uncertainty is the pill you must swallow if you are to taste financial abundance. Make peace

with the fact that you have control over the work alone, never over its fruits. The outcome is a

by-product; therefore all you should focus on is the process and factors within your circle of

influence. Focus on excellence and relinquish desire to control the outcome.

Failure can be interpreted in many ways. Some see it as a sign that they aren‟t good enough

and quit; others call it an opportunity to start over. Whatever your view, it isn‟t a good feeling

when it happens. Your greatest ally will be the ability to keep working when the clouds of

doubt get so dark that all logic will tell you to quit. This ability will be the main determinant of

your success. It‟s pretty stark: do this or be enslaved working for other people for the rest of

your life.

“It‟s pretty stark: do this or be enslaved working for other people”

Take Ownership Either Way

Ensure you take full responsibility for both failure and success. If things don‟t work, accept

you did something wrong. It‟s not about luck or being in the right place at the right time and so

on -- those things are incidental to being prepared. Much is also written about corruption and

the nepotism rife in business, but if you go into anything believing these to be determinants of

success then you‟re dead in the water. You have to believe the system is fair, that good

execution is rewarded. There are plenty success stories where no luck or corruption were

involved, but such stories don‟t attract as much attention as the ones where crooks make

money.

What about the Risk?

Leaving the perceived security of a job is often seen as a plunge into the deep sea without a

lifejacket. No plunge is necessary if you‟re smart and prudent about the way you make your

entry. Conservative people make money too; it‟s just that their stories aren‟t sensational

enough to make headlines.

Statistics and averages almost always point out that most start-up businesses fail. It‟s true:

venturing out on your own has no guarantees and few statistics will make you feel sure about

what you‟re doing. The first quarter of 2010 saw a net loss of 96,000 companies with fewer

than one hundred employees in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics.17

But so

long as you control risk by adopting a scalable model to expansion and you‟re willing to

constantly evolve, success becomes probable to the point of likelihood. There are no

guarantees in life, but you can influence probability. If averages and statistics about the failures

of others dictate your actions, your life will be nothing more than mundane and average.

You have to trust that you are resourceful enough to start turning over a profit sooner rather

than later. You will not do every wrong thing possible before finding your stride. The mind

learns quickly from mistakes -- it‟s a survival mechanism -- but you have to allow it some slack

to adjust and learn. You will need to adjust your course of action as you go along, it‟s

inevitable, but the important thing is to never stop and to keep the overall vision alive. You

only truly fail when you give up.

Think big, start small, act fast.

Pick Yourself

You have to back yourself to win. The part of Steve Jobs‟ now iconic 2005 Stanford

Commencement-Address that stood out most for me was this excerpt:

"Don‟t lose faith. I‟m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I

did. You‟ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your

lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied

is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you

do. If you haven‟t found it yet, keep looking. Don‟t settle. As with all matters of the heart,

you‟ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as

the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don‟t settle.”

You can make the way you earn your living a seamlessly integrated, fun and financially

rewarding part of your life: this is more than an ideal, it‟s the truth.

Chapter 4: A Composed Mind

Your mind perceives and creates your world at the same time. It can be the greatest source of

wisdom and guidance in your life, or your greatest enemy. If your mind is uneasy, you will

find that the circumstances and situations around you reflect what‟s inside your head. Scientist, Doctor of Medicine and stem cell research pioneer Robert Lanza‟s theory of

biocentrism18

has seven principles, one of which states:

Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably linked. They are different sides of the

same coin and cannot be divorced from one another.

Your mind doesn‟t have the mere potential to create situations and circumstances that come to

you: it is doing so whether you acknowledge it or not.

The state your mind is in, is imperative to creating opportunities around you and perceiving the

world in a beneficial way. Perception is important: when you can see life through a clear mind

there is no need to adopt a positive attitude because the truth of life is positive in itself. The

modern mind is a murky, chaotic place, where creativity, intuition, and inspiration are drowned

out by noise usually in the form of music, television and the Web. A murky mind has no

attention span and it misses the link between today‟s thoughts and tomorrow‟s circumstances.

Your thoughts and actions today, create your life tomorrow. Just remember: Your thoughts do

attract situations and opportunities, but only your action will complete the circle to make it a

life changing event.

The Overwhelmed Mind

We have more on our minds now than ever before. The typical 21st century mind is a restless

and distracted place. Time seems scarce; we always seem to be playing catch-up. What‟s more

is we‟re forever plugged in. There is so much choice, information and noise that your mind is

perpetually pre-occupied with processing it all. It is never allowed to just contemplate. The

Overwhelmed Mind is so overloaded it becomes incapable of coming up with a single good

idea or insight.

Is this you?

Is there always some song playing in your head that you can‟t stop?

Do you perpetually live in anticipation of hypothetical situations and permutations such

that your mind is everywhere but the present? Can you complete a train of thought to a satisfying conclusion or does your mind jump

between different topics without reaching closure on any of them?

These are symptoms of a restless, murky mind.

Causes:

#1: Engaging Pixels

We have added many layers of complexity to our lives in the form of devices.

Information transfer is instant. First there was your personal computer and television. Now

your laptop, tablet and mobile phone ensure there‟s always a screen for you to gaze at. There is

always a message you just have to respond to, article you need to read or video you must

watch. These tools offer convenience and utility but they can adversely affect your productivity

and state of mind. Seeing someone‟s lunch or images of their overseas holiday on Facebook

may seem social for instance, but if you‟re doing such things every day it ends up becoming a

timewaster.

Social interaction can be less meaningful when mostly done through cyberspace. We‟re

engaging pixels, not the real world. The real world is always better, but it is less convenient

and more energy consuming to step out of your house so many would opt for a second hand

experience through the web.

When you passively live life through what you see on screen you engage in social dissociation -

- yep, there‟s even a term for it now.

“We‟re engaging pixels, not the real world”

In his Newsweek article called Tweets. Texts. Email. Posts. Is the Onslaught Making us

Crazy?, Tony Dokoupil wrote: “The current incarnation of the Internet -- portable, social,

accelerated, and all-pervasive -- may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more

depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even

outright psychotic. Our digitised minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people

are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways.”19

Online communication and social media potentially form the seeds for discontent. Social

networks let you know what your friends are buying, where they‟re eating, where they‟re

holidaying and just the general fabulousness of their lives. Do you feel happier after you log

off your Facebook account, or do you feel strangely discontented? Spending excessive time on

social media sites as a voyeur watching what others are doing retards your progress. There is a

saying:

There is no competition in destiny. Run your race and wish others well.

Many prefer to fill their heads with drivel instead of anything useful. People would rather

know who‟s dating who or the latest signing made by their favourite sports team instead of

using that time to sharpen their minds and progress their own interests. There are so many

skills one can gain online -- think of all the free video tutorials and informative blogs -- but our

culture tends toward indulgence in the irrelevant.

Meredith Perry invented a device called UBeam: a transmitter that uses ultrasonic waves to

wirelessly charge nearby mobile devices. Here‟s where it gets interesting: Perry studied

astrobiology in school; she does not possess any formal background in electrical

engineering. Using Google and Wikipedia, yes you read right: Google and Wikipedia, she

taught herself to build a working prototype of UBeam. Today you can learn to program, value

a company or make just about anything if you would type the right words in the Google search

box. Coursera and the Khan Academy offer free courses in mathematics, computer science,

finance, music, film and audio engineering, physics, economics, and chemistry, to name a

few. The age of autodidactic learning is truly in full swing and open to all.

All these electronic devices we have are not at fault per se; it‟s the way we use them, the

information we seek, and not knowing when to switch them off that‟s the problem. Dokoupil

related the situation to “a horse that has sprinted out from underneath its rider, dragging the

person who once held the reins.”

#2: Too Many Choices and Desires

When I finished my Honours degree and started working, I was advised that I needed even

more qualifications to stand out from my peers. I undertook to study for a Chartered Institute

of Management Accountants (CIMA) accreditation while working a full time job and running

my business part time. It was too much, I had to streamline, and so after a year I de-registered

from CIMA. Once I de-registered my mind felt unclogged and I was freer to pursue and grow

my business. I also had some time to indulge my hobby of share trading. My progress leapt

forward once my mental capacity was freed.

Of course, we are quick to point out someone who doesn‟t set goals for every aspect of their

lives as directionless and lacking in ambition. Well this is not asking you to float around

aimlessly; it‟s just that you just can‟t have goals for every single aspect of your life because the

process of attaining your goal is meant to be a balance between challenge, fun and your

capacity to work for it. Singular focus on one goal is more powerful than scattered attention on

several.

#3: The Myth of Multitasking

Companies love employees that can multitask. People in turn love talking about how “busy”

they are. Most think it‟s cool to do many things at once: but all multitasking really entails is

jumping from one task to another and completing each one in little bits. For mundane tasks this

is fine, but if you are to produce real life-changing work you inhibit yourself if you don‟t focus

on one thing for an extended period.

Multitasking does not allow your mind the time and space to complete its train of thought. The

problem when you return to Task A after jumping to Task B is that your mind has lost its focus

when you get back to Task A. You crank your mind up for the task at hand and just as it‟s

firing on all cylinders, you turn the ignition off and start something else. It‟s stressful to multitask too due to the constant re-orientation your brain has to undergo when

changing activity. Personal experience has me agreeing wholeheartedly with cognitive

psychologist Shlomo Breznitz when he says, "Multitaskers face the greatest stress threat, as the

constant effort to switch tasks [also] hampers the formation of short-term memory.”

At home it‟s not uncommon for people to watch television, read the paper and chat to their

spouse all at once. When you do this you aren‟t enjoying or fully engaging in any single

activity. The quality and intensity of your experience diminishes when you keep shifting your

attention and energy from one thing to another. Call me old fashioned, but we were meant to

do one thing at a time, at work and at home, and to do it well.

♦

The Brain:

How it changes with us Our brains adapt according to our experiences. The brain does not simply function in a static

environment -- it grows and changes to better process the surroundings and information it is

presented with. In other words, your brain actually changes the way it works according to

what it is exposed to. The Internet and explosion of information has produced some changes in

the modern brain that are frankly detrimental:

The average attention span at present is 5 seconds long. Ten years ago it was 10

minutes. Younger people have shorter attention spans than the elderly, which implies

that the Internet and social media rather than just age have an effect on attention span.

A study done on comprehension found that people who read text only understood far

more than those who read text integrated with video. At one stage Facebook users were installing 20 million apps a day, most of which are

distractions. The brain of an internet addict looks similar to the brain of a drug or alcohol

addict. Researchers have found “structural abnormalities in grey matter” i.e.

shrinkage of ten to twenty percent in the area of the brain that processes speech,

emotion, motor control and memory. This shrinkage did not stop: the more time people

spent online, the more signs of atrophy their brains showed.

Students asked to give up media for 24 hours had the following symptoms: phantom

phone vibrations; reaching for a phone that wasn‟t there; fidgeting and restlessness.

Observe changes in your own attention span: can you watch a movie at home without anything

but a bowl of popcorn in hand, or do you find yourself fiddling on your mobile phone while the

movie is playing? Also, do you commonly skip a song before it is finished? 19, 20

♦

A Still Mind The solutions for life‟s fundamental questions lay with you. When an idea is needed, a peculiar

challenge arises or an important decision needs to be made, the only place to look is

inside. Sometimes your best friend, wise uncle or even Google cannot help. Sometimes it has

to come from a still place within. The answer will be expressed via a simple but clear feeling

that you can only notice when your internal dialogue is still. This is intuition.

Foresight isn‟t the only thing that a still mind brings. Your intentions become amplified when

they emanate from a mind at peace. With a clear simple intention on the fertile ground of a still

mind, your thoughts will have immense power behind them.

This power is inherent in you if you would only allow your mind to settle and find its bearings.

What is Intuition?

Intuition is guidance from your unconscious mind. It‟s also referred to as the sixth sense or

extra-sensory perception. You can use this faculty when faced with a fundamental decision or

conundrum that logical thinking can‟t give a clear answer for. Maybe you don‟t know what

course to study at college or you cannot decide what area to live in. Completely logical

reasoning can provide pros and cons for any possibility or solution, but it can also render you

undecided as it leaves you unable to weigh between your options. Intuition tells you to do

something without providing much evidence, but it doesn‟t leave you under any doubt. And

while your conscious mind struggles to take the future and the unknown into account, your

intuition can.

Intuition does not speak any language, it speaks in feelings. Your unconscious mind silently

controls your autonomous bodily functions like heartbeat and breathing, so it is a primordial,

instinctual part of you.

When your intuition speaks, it is the right path for you to take -- no exceptions.

People often say “follow your heart,” but most have no idea what their hearts (a.k.a. intuition)

are telling them. The question is: if intuition is a feeling then how do you know whether what

you feel is your intuition speaking to you, or if what you are feeling is merely a reaction like

anger or excitement?

“People often say „follow your heart,‟ but most have no idea what their hearts are telling

them.”

The answer is that it‟s all about your degree of stillness. Intuition comes out of hiding when the

conscious mind recedes. For most of your waking day your feelings are merely reactions to

what‟s going on outside of you. A waiter infuriating you with bad service or the ecstasy you

feel when seeing your baby are such reactions. These are everyday on-the-spot feelings

emanating from your conscious mind, not intuition. When your mind is perfectly still, with

nothing outside to grab your attention and the conscious mind is doused, then the feeling you

have about something is your intuition.

Once your mind is still, contemplate each possibility or option, one by one. It becomes a matter

of having a better feeling about one option over another. The feeling you experience is a strong

yet detached feeling. There will be no mistaking it for a reactionary feeling or whim. You will

know it is the real thing.

Settling your mind is a personal endeavour that you simply need to commit to for as long as it

takes. Sitting in a quiet room alone for an hour can be enough to still one person‟s mind, while

someone else may need a week. Intuition is nothing mystical; it is merely a dormant power we

all have that comes out when we are in the right state.

Intuition is incidental to inner stillness.

You can’t Control your Mind

“How do we rein in the mind?” you may ask. You cannot control your mind the way you

control a car or squash racket. Like a river, the mind is a flowing current of thoughts. If you

erect a wall, all that happens is that the current keeps colliding with the wall and there is a

resultant swirl -- the wall doesn‟t bring the current to a standstill.

A river‟s current only settles once it flows into an open and unrestricted space, usually a dam or

ocean. A current settles when no boundaries are imposed, when it is allowed complete

freedom. It‟s the same with your thoughts and the mind. Freedom, rather than constriction or

any attempt at outright control, is what will tame your mind. Like flowing water your mind can

be diverted or re-directed, but never dominated in the same way you could manipulate a piece

of modelling clay in your hand.

So what is the best way to free and still the mind? It requires a multi-pronged

approach. Mental stillness does not come from working solely on your mental

conditioning. Your physical life has to be simplified. Your mind perceives your physical

reality; and your physical reality is affected by the mind -- it‟s a reflective mirror.

Stilling the Mind

• Meditation

• Simplify your Desires

• Reduce the Noise

• Clean, Minimalistic Surroundings

Thirty minutes of silence can be undone by eight hours of chaos in the outside

world. Therefore, creating tranquillity in your everyday life is just as important as meditation.

Meditation

Imagine your mind as a wild stallion in a small enclosure. The stallion is going to jump, kick

and act wild for much of the day simply because of the frustrating boundaries imposed on

him. You can try any number of disciplinary techniques and to force him to comply but your

success will be limited. If you opened the enclosure and let him run free, he would dart out and

run like the wind for a few minutes. Soon enough though he will realise there is no need to run

because nobody is trying to capture him. He will then slow down and peacefully graze. It is

freedom, not confinement or control, that tames the stallion.

You should follow the same principal with meditation. First and foremost, find a quiet

place. Then sit on a comfortable chair and keep your eyes open. Just sit still for five minutes,

wide awake. Let the thoughts flow, don‟t try to control anything. Simply observe your

thoughts without judgement or opinion. Let your heart rate and breathing drop. Then close

your eyes, continuing to permit the thoughts in your head complete freedom. (Important: do

not lay on a bed because you‟re very likely to fall asleep.) In the silence, start listening to your

breath: the air entering and exiting your lungs. Place all your attention on the simplicity of your

breathing. Your mind will continue along its train of thought while your attention is on your

breathing. Let the thoughts flow without judgement, fear or fondness.

When you concentrate on your breath, your mind will start to see that it‟s futile to think because

your attention isn‟t following it. Your mind will finally start to settle. Your chest will feel

lighter and so will your head. All you will hear and think is silence. It will be liberating to say

the least. You are now in a state of meditation or thoughtless awareness.

Meditation is the most fundamental way to still your mind. It is a state of thoughtless

awareness where you aren‟t observing any particular thought or possibility. In meditation you

are simply aware that you are alive. This is meant to be a primordial experience. When you

revert to full consciousness and face the usual hustle and bustle of life, it is easy for your mind

to lose its bearings. Stillness is therefore something that has to be gained then maintained. I

recommend that you meditate at least four times a week for half an hour at a time, or even

daily.

Reduce the Noise

Music, movies and online content are ubiquitous and you need to make a conscious effort to

control your exposure to them.

On the drive to work, see how far you can go without switching the radio on as a sort of

challenge. Make it a point on certain trips to leave it off for the whole route. Keep assigned times to watch television. Don‟t just switch it on at the first itching of

restlessness. Kanye West, George Clooney and the English Premier League must only

be allowed into your living room by invitation. Floating around the Internet following links can become addictive. It‟s the simple

things: don‟t compulsively check your email inbox every few minutes and stop logging

on to social networks every hour. Don‟t comment and argue with readers about every

article or posting. Occasionally go on a digital diet where you stay off all online activity

for two straight days at a time. This is a much simpler, more powerful way to control

your digital consumption. These diets will reveal that life goes on perfectly well

without plugging in to cyberspace and will re-direct your focus to what‟s important:

your life. You might also find yourself happier.

Sometimes the temptation to play with one of your electronic toys is too great and the

only solution is to just unplug it and put it away. Nothing focuses you like a lack of

options. When something is conveniently at your fingertips you are much more inclined

to do it. Many will retort that it‟s about self-control and moderation, but we are

creatures of habit and convenience. Unplugging something is much easier than trying to

fight the temptation of using it. We are addictive by nature; it‟s just a question of

building an addiction to worthwhile pursuits.

Simplify Desire

We overwhelm ourselves with desire: get a sports car, find a rich husband or model wife, visit a

new country each year... Ensure that your desires are what you want and not a copy of what

your peers want or what someone else‟s idea of “the life” is.

Pick one, maybe two things you want to achieve each year. The weight of too many goals ends

up being more prohibitive than motivational.

Simplify your desires:

#1: Prioritise: You may want to reduce your blood pressure and buy a new car in the next year,

but reducing your blood pressure must be the one you prioritise. Pick those that are important,

and take on less important ones (like getting the car) after your top goals have been met. Take

goals one at a time as often two goals can counteract each other. Chances are good your blood

pressure will increase if you take on debt to buy that car, for example. In instances like these

you must prioritise one over the other.

#2: Have a sponsoring goal: Have a few sponsoring goals that drive you rather than many

small ones. A goal that can meet many of your desires if it is achieved is called a sponsoring

goal. If you want to simultaneously furnish your apartment, buy your first new car, and change

your wardrobe for instance, you could replace all those goals with one goal to make a specific

sum of money which will allow you to buy all these things on your wish list.

There‟s a double whammy effect when you have too many goals. Firstly it becomes near

impossible to achieve any when you have so many on your plate, because you can‟t give any

one of them the attention they need to blossom. Secondly your disappointment is compounded

when you see you weren‟t successful at attaining any.

With your energy and time focused on a few things, you can actually work slower and create

beautiful work rather than doing something just to get it done and push it out.

There are also many things you cannot and should not set goals for. Sometimes you need to

give spontaneity some slack and go along for the ride instead of being rigidly attached to many

different goals.

Clean, Minimalistic Surroundings

We have many stereotypes relating to creativity. One is that creativity is restricted to

artistically gifted people. Stereotype number two is that such people typically work in chaotic,

untidy surroundings. Remember, I mentioned that your mind and outside-reality mirror each

other. Your brain is always assessing your surroundings. When your surroundings are

cluttered your brain perceives clutter and starts to think in a cluttered fashion.

As an example: in a war zone your brain would be pre-occupied with survival as mortars

explode and guns fire around you. There‟s no way you could have a single constructive

thought in this setting. Your brain‟s thought patterns mirror that of its surroundings -- it‟s a

survival mechanism. Now take a less extreme case: sitting on a bench in a busy shopping

mall. Here people whizz past you and your ears are peppered with a variety of noises. Though

less chaotic than a warzone, your brain still wouldn‟t be able to conjure up anything half decent

in this setting. Why? Because it is still too busy processing everything going on around

you. It‟s your instinct.

Now, a cluttered home and workspace is visually and spatially chaotic. It‟s worse if you‟re in

an open plan office. You can be riding a decent train of thought and inevitably your name will

be called out by someone across the office or your phone will ring. Stringing together a decent

sequence of thoughts is impossible if you don‟t eliminate distraction.

Organisation is key to success in anything you do. In my office the only visible items are a

framed painting, my laptop, a desk and a chair. Anything else is in a cupboard, drawer or

another room. I find that my thoughts and ideas flow much more easily when there‟s less to

distract my attention. You will too.

Living with no Regrets

Bronnie Ware, author of Top Five Regrets of the Dying, has worked in palliative care for

several years.21

She has spent much time caring for people that were in the last few days of

their lives. Ware was well placed to gather what these people regretted and what they would do

differently. Below are the top five regrets she has listed. Below each regret, I have placed a

countermeasure.

♦

Regrets of the Dying:

What do dying people regret the most? Regret: I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Countermeasure: Take input from others, but limit this input. Once you feel you want to do

something and your intuition is speaking to you, ignore what other people say and go ahead

with your plans.

Regret: I wish I didn‟t work so hard.

Countermeasure: Working for yourself gives you control and discretion over your workload.

Regret: I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. Countermeasure: Of course, you can‟t raise a flag every time you‟re unhappy with someone,

but if it occurs more than once you need to be frank and bring it up. If that person cannot see

where you‟re coming from, terminate the relationship.

Regret: I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Countermeasure: Devote two hours a week to visiting or phoning people that matter. Nobody

regrets not watching more television.

Regret: I wish I had let myself be happier. Countermeasure: Know that the world continues to spin and that people continue to live

whether or not you meet that “critical” deadline or goal. Stop taking everything so seriously.

♦

Regret is the by-product of wrongfully allocated time. A major cause of wrongfully allocated

time is choosing what to do based on what others say. I know they say a good leader or C.E.O.

takes all feedback into account, but in your life there is no democracy: you are the lawmaker,

judge and jury. Your heart already knows what it wants to do, there is no need for advice when

it comes to direction in your life. A cornerstone of a regret-free life is to make your own

decisions irrespective of outside opinion.

“Regret is the by-product of wrongfully allocated time”

There is no need to live with regret if you substitute pointless indulgences with fruitful

ones. Choose real interaction over virtual encounters. Work on your business instead of

working overtime for someone else‟s company. With the foresight to choose wisely and the

courage to see those choices through, life can be everything it‟s cut out to be and more.

Chapter 5: An Invigorated Body

Physicality is a seminal and the most immediate dimension of life. Interaction with this planet

and other living beings initially takes place on a physical level. Your body is the tool you use

to engage and sense this world with all its physical indulgences.

When you‟re healthy and in shape your body is more attuned to experience and participate in a

range of activities: from going for a hike on Table Mountain to playing three sets of tennis to

having awesome sex. A better body equates to better earthly experiences. None of these

experiences can be enjoyed as much by someone that is unfit and obese. Such a body is one

that is out of tune. The physical condition of your body therefore has a direct effect on the level

of experience you enjoy on earth.

“…from going for a hike on Table Mountain to playing three sets of tennis to having awesome

sex.” If you have been born with no genetic challenges then there should be nothing special about

being healthy. It‟s being unhealthy that‟s abnormal. The idea is to make physical well-being a

simple ordeal that can be seamlessly built into your life. When it comes to physical health there

are three aspects that affect your body: exercise, eating and sleeping. A more obvious sentence

you may never read, yet so many people are unfit, tired and much less attractive than they

should be. Given the way we live now, most have their triumvirate of exercise, sleeping and

eating misaligned.

Exercise

A fit, strong person walks in an assured and confident manner. Their face glows from good

circulation and his or her eyes are alert. Healthy people look more alive, because physically

speaking they really are. A better respiratory system means that more oxygen flows to their

brain creating quicker thinking; greater physical strength and flexibility means they can partake

in more activities like dancing, hiking, and sex as they have the body to derive more from these

activities. A well exercised body stands you in good stead for a longer life with delayed ageing

diseases. If ever there was an anti-aging pill, it‟s exercise.

Working at a desk all day becomes frustrating because in addition to mental application we

were made for physical labour too. Our bodies need to be physically exerted. Even your face

changes when you lose weight and become fitter: it becomes more chiselled, your skin firms,

blood circulation improves and you look younger.

Strength Training Strength and muscle gain can only be achieved with resistance training. Resistance can come

from weights or your own body mass.

Lift the heaviest weight you can while maintaining the correct form and full range of

movement, using only the muscle you were meant to be training. If you‟re arching your back

or moving your elbows to finish the last few inches of a bicep curl for instance, then you should

reduce the weight you‟re lifting.

Strengthen everything in tandem. Balance will be lost if your legs, back and core are ignored in

your training regimen. Everything needs to be strengthened at the same rate or you risk

injuring yourself and doing more damage than good. I was thrilled with my progression to

heavier weights when one day I felt a painful jolt in my lower back when doing shoulder lifts. I

realised my lower back was much weaker than the rest of my body as I wasn‟t exercising my

back at all.

Women often don‟t do weights. They just want to be skinny even if it means being weak. But

a thin person can still have a high body fat percentage. Some women think that they‟re going to

gain too much muscle and fear looking Amazonian, but to become one of those female body

builders takes much more than just normal weight training. Just remember, nothing burns

calories faster than lean muscle, so having more of it will in fact speed up your weight

loss. Weight exercises also lead to better posture, bone strengthening, and better muscle

tone. For what it‟s worth, many men find an athletic woman more attractive than a thin

one. Skinny is out, strong is in.

Cardiovascular Conditioning

Besides fitness benefits, cardiovascular exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Good

exercise that walking is, I feel it is not enough. Unless you are recuperating or aged you should

work up a sweat and get that heart pumping. You must push your heart beat to a high rate,

preferably for at least twenty minutes a day. This is the only way your fitness and

cardiovascular functioning will improve. When it comes to cardio, there is very little to match

running. Walking burns calories; but running makes you fit. Bruce Lee referred to it as “the

king of exercises.”

With anything exercise related, you have to go slightly past the comfort limit for sustained

periods if improvement is to be attained. Becoming fit requires one to go beyond the point

where their lungs burn and the body feels like it must slow down to catch its breath. Regularly

pushing past this threshold will enhance your ability to persist, and this is how fitness builds

your mental resilience.

Flexibility Manchester United is consistently one of the best Soccer clubs in Europe, and Ryan Giggs is its

most decorated player ever. He has played over 900 games for Manchester and credits yoga as

a reason for his prolonged career. “Yoga has definitely helped me,” he said, “it gives me the

flexibility and strength not only to play the game but to train every day as well.” Shaquille

O‟Neal and Sachin Tendulkar -- prolific athletes with long professional careers like Giggs --

also practice yoga.

Yes, being able to do the splits is quite an achievement and it is something I still try, but

flexibility is about much more than the wow factor associated with contorting

oneself. Stretching strengthens joints, tendons and even the muscles.

You‟ve heard it all before: only stretch when your body is warm and loose. Take the stretch to

the point where you feel slight discomfort, and hold it there. Feel that burn and slight

discomfort: it‟s good for you. You can become flexible within six months, if you dedicate just

fifteen minutes three times a week to stretching. Of all physical exercise, stretching is the least

taxing on your time.

You can‟t visibly see the benefits of stretching the way big muscles from weight lifting are

instantly recognisable, and for this reason many people ignore it. Later on in your senior years

though, the dividends from stretching will pay off big time when you don‟t feel the usual aches

and pains that other older people experience. Freedom of motion is something young people

don‟t appreciate. Stretching is not just for your older years however: a supple body reduces

injuries and strains that you commonly get from working too much at a desk or even weight

training.

Discipline is Misunderstood If you see exercise as sacrifice or pain that you have to endure then in the long term it isn‟t

going to work out for you. It should be incorporated into your life in a natural way: as

something enjoyable rather than laborious. Our sedentary lifestyles are the only thing that‟s

unnatural in this arrangement. Exercise becomes a healthy addiction once you get a rhythm

going and you feel good after every workout. Your endorphins go up, the heart beats strongly,

oxygen circulates, blood flows and your body relaxes because it has no other option after being

physically exerted. Simply put, it‟s one of the best feelings you can have.

Everyone knows they should exercise and getting over initial lethargy is the problem most

have. People are usually knackered after work and it seems a better option to go home, watch

some television, eat, then go to sleep. When you‟re mentally tired, you feel physically tired

even if your body was hardly exerted. Your drained mind fools you into thinking that your

body is fatigued too.

Here‟s the thing: Once the initial choice is made, the hard part is done. When you start jogging

in the mornings for instance, you don‟t have to think about the fatigue and sweat that comes

from a run. All you need to do is get your cross trainers on and walk onto the road -- don‟t

think further than that. Once you‟re on the road you will simply start running. You‟re unlikely

to go back into the house now. The toughest choice you had to make was to get your shorts and

shoes on. Breaking your choice down to the essential parts is a trick you can use to coax

yourself into exercising. Making the choice is usually harder than actually doing it. Soon

enough these decisions become habit and then your routine (and physical condition) will start to

change.

Discipline is the cornerstone of success. It is the ability to repeatedly take the right choice over

the convenient one. A disciplined person is one who will choose working out over going to the

bar after work, or learning a new skill instead of slumping in front of the television. In short, a

disciplined person is one who chooses the option that will yield longer term benefits over the

one that will provide instant gratification.

Be self-aware when you are faced with more than one option. This expands to every facet of

your life, not just health and fitness. Measure the benefit each choice will give you and keep

picking the one that will take you places.

Join a Group

I recommend joining a group -- perhaps a martial arts or yoga class -- something where there‟s

philosophy and some spirituality involved. A group becomes a support structure: an obligation-

free place where you interact with like-minded people who share the common goal of physical

and mental well-being. I crave the distinctive vibe from my Kung Fu class with its great set of

training partners. The problems you have are left outside as soon as you enter those doors and I

suspect you will find this to be the case with many other group activities too. Most martial arts

have a near perfect mix of cardio, resistance and flexibility training to boot.

The body is one of the few things on earth that looks better the harder you work it. All of this

talk about stretching to a point of slight discomfort and pushing your heart rate to the highest

tolerable level may sound sadistic, but this is the only way improvement can be achieved. And

when you‟re actually doing it, it‟s more pleasure than pain. It‟s the thought of it that sees most

people psyched out before they even start. The human body is designed to be exerted, so relish

the burn.

Eating

Every cell in your body was built using the nutrients you fed into it. Nourishment at the

cellular level is the root of having a robust, long life.

♦

The Curious Case of Okinawa 103 year old Seiryu Toguchi rises at 6 a.m. each morning in his home in Motobu, Okinawa. He

opens the shutters “as a sign to my neighbours that I am still alive.” While listening to the

radio he does stretching exercises. Breakfast then ensues: whole-grain rice and miso soup.

For two hours he picks weeds in his field of goya and sweet potato crops. Lunch is served at

12:30: goya stir fry with egg and tofu. After a one hour nap Seiryu will then spend two more

hours in his field. As a night treat he has a sip of wine he makes from aloe, garlic and

turmeric.

Seiryu is typical of elderly Okinawans. They get plenty of physical and mental exercise, and

most tellingly their diets are low in fat and salt, predominantly comprising of fruits and fibre-

rich vegetables. Their diets are rich in antioxidants that protect against cancer, heart disease

and stroke. They eat 60 to 120 grams of soy per day, compared to 30 to 50 grams for the

average Japanese and practically zero for the average American. Unprocessed soy is packed

with flavonoids, which are antioxidants strongly linked to the low rates of cancer.

Just as telling as their diet is how much they eat. Okinawans practice a dietary philosophy

called hara hachi bu -- meaning eight parts out of ten full. This means they eat until they feel

80% full. Their daily calorie intake is 1,800 calories, compared to more than 2,500 that the

average American man consumes. Based on tests with lab animals, scientists will tell you that

the simple act of calorie restriction has a significant effect on lifespan. The Okinawan islands

contain the world‟s largest population of centenarians: nearly 600 out of its 1.3 million

inhabitants live past 100.

Senior Okinawans have lower instances of senility e.g. Alzheimer‟s than their elderly

counterparts in the U.S. and Europe. Their diets are high in vitamin E which is said to be good

for the brain, but Okinawans also have a sense of community and purpose that must surely

affect their mental health as well as increase their desire to live.

22

♦

Eat to Win

• Eat less, full stop. People eat until they‟re stuffed. We are getting too much fat,

carbohydrates, and salt.

• Eat less meat. It takes long to digest and putrefies in your stomach if your body is

unable to digest it quickly. This can lead to all sorts of problems including

diverticulosis and stomach cancer. Farmers also pump animals with growth hormones

and antibiotics, so bear that in mind when looking at that well presented piece of steak. • Red meat, even if organic, should be eaten only once a week. White meat is better i.e.

chicken and fish.

• Legumes, grains, and fruit and vegetables should form the bulk of your diet. Your body

can consume the nutrients faster from such foods. • For non-meat foods, the more raw it is, the better.

• Don‟t eat any carbohydrates after 3 p.m. • Eat six small meals every few hours as opposed to three large meals per day. You will

notice that personal trainers make their clients eat smaller meals on a more regular

basis. When you go without food for more than three hours, the stress hormone called

cortisol rises. Cortisol signals the body to store fat in the abdominal region. A study by

the New England Journal of Medicine showed that people who ate six small meals as

opposed to three, showed a seventeen percent decline in cortisol levels after two weeks.

• Oats is the breakfast of champions: it releases energy quickly and has low calories. • Grill, steam or bake food. Avoid frying.

Generally people don‟t eat properly because:

#1: They think healthy food is harder to prepare.

#2: They think it‟s more expensive. #3: They think it tastes dull. There‟s no getting away from the fact that a health wrap doesn‟t have the richness of cheddar

melted steak, but when you think of the stuff a non-organic steak is injected with, combined

with the health ramifications, you will start to see things differently. Something strange also

happens when you change your diet. Being of Indian origin I had to diversify from curry in the

interests of healthy eating, so I now limit it to one dish a month. I moved over to “bland”

health food; my taste buds adjusted and I found the taste in what I was eating.

A spicy Thai chicken soup, magma wrap with sweet chilli sauce or a well thought out stir-fry

cooked with a teaspoon of olive oil are far from tasteless. Where before I was only looking for

the spicy taste I would find in curry, my tongue now started relaying other taste sensations to

my brain -- sweet, sour and everything in between. Your palate adjusts and assesses the taste of

anything in relation to whatever else you eat.

Nutritious food is cheaper -- red meat costs more than vegetables and fruit. And your diet

becomes simple with rice, chicken, fish, grilled vegetables, oats, water and fruit making up the

bulk of what you consume. Cheese, French fries and milk shakes are pushed to the

wayside. This is not about eating the bare minimum and starving your body into shape; it's

about eating healthy portions of the right types of food that will efficiently fuel your body

without adverse side effects like fat build up. The results come quickly when you eat right.

The Calorie Equation: Why people don’t lose weight We see them at the gym: the overweight folks who have been coming to gym for years yet they

look no different to when they first started. Why aren‟t they losing weight? Answer: they burn

fewer calories than they consume.

In the same way that you don‟t need to know how an injector or double wishbone suspension

works to drive a car, when it comes to weight loss I‟m going to tell you what you need to know

and nothing more.

“We see them at the gym: the overweight folks who have been coming to gym for years yet they

look no different to when they first started”

According to food research from Stanford University, Dr Dena Bravata says that “the

overwhelming body of science continues to show that any diet will succeed if you take in fewer

calories than you burn.” Different foods have different calorie counts. A serving of lasagne has

about 500 calories, while an apple has around 53 calories. Your body burns these calories to

function. The more strenuous an activity, the more calories you burn. This means performing

acrobatics burns more calories than playing darts. Critically your body stores the calories you

don‟t burn in the form of fat.

There is no diet pill or quick fix to lose weight. If there was then personal trainers and gyms

would be out of business. The weight loss equation is simple:

Calories Burned > Calories Consumed There are two sides to losing weight: minimising calorie intake when you eat and burning as

much as possible. Those perpetually obese people you see at gym are usually ignoring their

calorie intake. The saying, “You can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise” is

untrue. You have to keep count of your calorie intake like an accountant if you are on a serious

weight loss drive. There are plenty of resources around that will give you the calorie count of

all the foods we eat. Here is the calorie count of some:

Food Calorie Count

Mars Bar 190

Draught Beer (500ml) 182

Small French fries (130 grams) 296

Big Mac burger 492

Smoke Haddock Fillet (100 grams) 98

You can see why the top four items are regarded as bad for your waistline: their calorie count is

high. Now compare it to how much exercise you would need to do to burn it off:

Exercise Calories Burnt

Jogging/sprinting for 20 minutes 250

Walking for 20 minutes 100

Watching television for 20 minutes 40

It would take a forty minute walk or around fifteen minutes of jogging to burn off one Mars

Bar. You need to jog for twenty four minutes to negate the effect of a serving of French

fries. If you have it with a Big Mac burger then you need to run for a full hour to undo the

damage. If you don‟t follow up your Big Mac with exercise, those excess calories get

converted to fat.

Now consider that a serving of haddock with a hundred grams of broccoli and carrots will give

you 130 calories. You could sit still for an hour and the calories from this meal will be burned

off. The average person consumes between 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day, but that‟s because

most of us eat the wrong things in excessive quantities. Throw in a low calorie, low

carbohydrate meal every day, lay off unhealthy foods like fried burgers, and you can very easily

bring your daily intake to around 2,000 calories.

The calorie equation means that every day you‟re climbing a hill. The calories you consume

form the incline of the hill. To climb this hill you need to burn calories through activity and

exercise.

At the top of the hill your calories burned are equal to calories consumed (represented by the

scale). Any more physical activity will require your body to access its energy stores i.e. your

fat to sustain itself. This is when you start to lose weight as the fat gets burned to keep your

body going. If you‟re overweight you should aim to burn off between 200 and 500 more

calories than you consume each day, if you do this you will notice tangible weight loss within a

month.

It may seem difficult to climb the calorie hill. If the typical person consumes between 2,000 to

3,000 calories per day, and a twenty minute run burns just 250 calories, then that run seems like

a futile exercise. However, you‟re forgetting that even sitting still watching television burns

calories. Your normal activity for the day excluding exercise already burns about 1,800

calories, depending on certain variables like your size and age. Exercise is little more than

intensified physical activity. Strictly speaking you‟re active the whole day. All that run or

cycle is meant to do is speed up your calorie burn to help you get over the calorie hill for the

day.

Years ago I had an obese friend who dropped a lot of weight in six months. His appearance

changed beyond recognition. When he told me how he did it at the time I didn‟t believe him

because it sounded too simple. All he did, he said, was run like crazy on the treadmill every

day and eat a predominantly vegetarian diet with very little starch and bread. He trained at high

intensity for thirty minutes a day. The rest was down to his diet. And that‟s the timeless creed

of losing weight: burn more calories than you consume.

Sleep

“Too often, not getting enough sleep is seen as a badge of honour in our society,” remarked Dr.

Charles Samuels of the Canadian Sleep Society. Sleep deprivation is a silent pandemic

becoming more prevalent as we disdainfully treat sleep as an option rather than the critical, holy

function that it is. “Some highly successful people boast of only needing a few hours sleep

every night, or not having enough time in their busy lives to sleep properly,” Samuels

continued.

“Sleep deprivation is a silent pandemic” Many go-getters are proud of getting by on four to six hours of sleep a day. “The reality is you

need adequate sleep to function properly, to be able to drive safely and just be healthy. There is

nothing noble about not getting enough sleep,” concluded Samuels.

Sleep is nature‟s rule, not man‟s. It is as unbreakable as the law of gravity. People try all sorts

of tricks to bend this law -- from drinking Red Bull to power napping for fifteen minutes at a

time to breaking their quota of sleep into two sessions. Damage is occurring for every

prolonged period that sleep is missed.

At home people choose to stay awake for a couple of hours extra to watch television or surf the

net. Another major reason people sacrifice sleep is the work round-the-clock mentality society

has adopted. When you work until 2 a.m. you feel a greater sense of accomplishment compared

to working until 5 p.m. like other mortals. You then pat yourself on the back for burning the

candle at both ends. But having slept for only four hours, you can‟t think properly and the only

things you‟re good for the next day are mundane tasks. Not one decent idea or piece of work

will be produced from you. Pushing for those extra hours renders you useless for the following

day. 45.8 percent of physicians in a survey published by the Archives of Internal Medicine

report having at least one symptom of burnout, largely thanks to the long shifts that can reach

24 hours.23

There are rare instances (like during the infancy or growth phase of your business) where you

probably need to work more than eight hours, but normality must be returned to your working

schedule as soon as possible. Eight hours should be the norm and overtime the rare exception.

How many Hours of Sleep? Firstly, only one to three percent of the population can get by on six hours or less of sleep per

night, and that‟s purely because of genetics. Therefore the remainder of the population who

think they can function on five to six hours of sleep are in denial. For the rest of the population

(including me), you need to start at seven hours and slowly extend that time if you feel you

need more sleep. It‟s simple: you should feel alert and vigorous throughout the entire day and

the only time you should feel tired is minutes before bed time. Keep adjusting your sleep

duration until the first time you yawn for the day is synchronised with the moment you cover

yourself with your blanket.

In an interview with the Red Bulletin, billionaire Sir James Dyson unashamedly stated he needs

ten hours of sleep a day. “There‟s no secret, it‟s just how I‟m built. It can‟t be too wrong,” said

the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bag-less vacuum cleaner when asked about his sleeping

habit.24

Physical

When you sleep, damaged tissue is repaired; hair, skin and nails grow -- overall rejuvenation

and replacement occurs on a cellular level. Your immune system also replenishes its white

blood cell count. People who sleep more have better immune functioning.

Mental

Your brain processes and stores the events of the day while you sleep. After a hectic day,

notice how composed you feel after a good sleep. This is because the brain uses sleep to

correlate and collate the events of the day, linking each experience to other past events in your

life to give everything proper perspective.

Spiritual and Esoteric

Sleep is the soul‟s opportunity to explore beyond the confines of the body. During sleep your

soul connects to a deeper level of consciousness that it cannot access when you‟re fully

awake. Sleep could be seen as a deeper form of meditation, but it isn‟t a deliberate and

conscious exercise the way meditation is. Where meditation is thoughtless awareness, sleep is

thoughtlessness without awareness. This means that sleep is not a substitute for meditation, as

the two present different levels of consciousness for you to experience.

I suspect this is also why you feel better after a good sleep, as when you awaken your soul

remembers that it is indeed unbounded and infinite, and it is reminded that any daily anxiety or

concern you may have is only temporary. And now for the harm a lack of sleep brings:

Weight

Hormones quietly go about their business while you sleep as they synchronise various

metabolic activities. Sleep deprivation can disrupt the hormones that regulate glucose

metabolism (insulin activity) and appetite. Excess glucose gets stored as fat and effectively

increases your appetite. Imbalanced insulin activity can also lead to diabetes.

Blood Pressure, Cardiac Functioning Sleep can be used as an “exercise” to reduce blood pressure. When you sleep the heart slows

down and allows the blood pressure to drop. A study at Mailman School of Public Health

(Columbia University) revealed that people who slept five hours or less were significantly more

likely to develop hypertension (high blood pressure) after controlling for factors like obesity,

physical activity and diabetes.

Delusion

Harvard Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley both established a link

between sleep deprivation and psychosis (i.e. hallucinations and delusions). Just as your brain

places events into perspective when you sleep, so it becomes incapable of making suitable

responses to events and maintaining a balanced perspective on even the simplest of events

when sleep is sacrificed, this is not to say that you will become psychotic but it is a caution

against burning the candle at both ends.

How to Sleep Well

Many people struggle to sleep. The first major stride toward getting good sleep is to leave

work at work. When you walk into your home, forget everything. Cut off the outside

world. Sleep starts before you lay in bed and your mind needs to slow down. Keep the house

peaceful. Any device with speakers must have the volume set low. Also, eat at the dinner table

with the television switched off. All these little things place you in a better state to

sleep. Fifteen minutes before you go to sleep, turn everything off, do not read, and just let your

mind cool off.

Bed time is when your body and mind reset and put things back into balance. Being awake can

be a tough business from which you need a daily retreat. After a full day of talking, reading,

decision making, fighting and running around non-stop, sleep is indeed the sweetest form of

surrender there is.

Health should be your Default Setting Give your body the fuel, exercise and sleep that it needs and it will repay you by allowing you

to revel in the physical dimension of life. A healthy body will make you happier, there‟s no

doubt about it. Your financial fortunes and relationships are sometimes subject to fluctuations

in spite of your best efforts, but a healthy, beautiful body is something that cannot be taken

away from you, come what may.

Chapter 6: A Meaningful Existence

Everything must have a context if it is to have meaning. A car driving fast on a road randomly

taking turns with no particular waypoint in mind has no context. Place that same car on a race

track with other vehicles, define the number of laps that need to be completed, and suddenly

there is a context to the fast driving.

In the way a race track, other vehicles and defined lap count gives context to a speeding car,

there are four fundamental relationships needed to provide context in our lives:

#1: Personal Interactions. We depend on each other. Life would mean little if we didn‟t have

others to share with, and learn from. It is the existence of others that forms the most important

point of reference for you as a human being. The people in your life also influence your mood

and state of mind, and consequently your overall success in life.

#2: Mother Earth. Everything you use and consume came from this earth. The planets and

universe are inextricably linked to each of us. The way we collectively manage this

relationship will determine whether our lives on this earth continue for much longer or if the

very ground underneath us becomes barren. This relationship needs urgent attention.

#3: The Cosmic Force (aka God). When you look at this entire system of life, you have to

wonder what balances everything from the tides, the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun,

to your body‟s own natural rhythms. This force can be understood as the unseen hand that

keeps everything in balance. It is all-encompassing and omnipresent yet

mysterious. Spirituality is about discovering and understanding such forces as best as you can,

given your limited human perception.

#4: You. This is the most intimate relationship you can have. Life becomes a lot easier once

you don‟t just accept yourself, but rather start to love who you are. Most resistance and lack of

progress is the result of a reluctance to live and act in accordance with who you truly are. Life

will have no meaning if you‟re all things to all people yet aren‟t true to your inherent character.

If you don‟t acknowledge and expand your relationship with the above four, your life is not as

meaningful as it could be. Like any good relationship, they require conscious effort to blossom.

However important, rich or powerful you are, never forget that you had help along the way:

coincidence smiled at you at some point and other people had a hand in your success. In this

world, you don‟t achieve anything all by yourself. Strictly speaking, nobody is “self-

made.” Jeff Bezos wouldn‟t have been able to build Amazon.com into the empire it is today

were it not for the pioneers and engineers that developed and continue to refine the World Wide

Web, or the millions of individuals that buy from Amazon. And don‟t forget the sand from this

earth that was used to make the silicon chip. We stand on the shoulders of those before us, on

each other and most importantly, Mother Earth herself. Existence is literally interdependent.

Your Fellow Human

There are seven billion of us on earth and this presents opportunities to network, collaborate

and expand like never before. By the same token it is also easier than ever to gain exposure to

toxic people. For the most part, managing your relationships is easy. There are a few, like a

romantic relationship or parenting, that require some circumspection.

Deepak Chopra imparted the best advice I ever read on people. He said there are just three

types of people in your life: Type #1: Those that help you.

Type #2: Those that harm you. Type #3: Those that leave you alone.

Each person you know falls into one of these three categories. Avoid the second type. By

default the others can only be a good or neutral influence. You can still love those in the

second group from a distance -- sometimes they may harm you without meaning to -- but do not

associate with them or even bother trying to “save” or change them.

This must be the guiding philosophy behind all your relationships and interactions with people

because your relationships have a very strong influence on the success and quality of your

life. People must either be in your circle or out of it. While sometimes you are temporarily

forced to associate with someone you don‟t like (like at a family gathering), you still, for the

most part, have control over who enters your circle and who stays out.

Many say that you shouldn‟t let the negativity or cynicism of others affect you, but if you‟re

exposed to it regularly then it‟s near impossible to resist. “Just ignore them” can work when

somebody is on television, but when they‟re in your proximity addressing you directly then it‟s

not so simple. You assimilate your surroundings because that‟s what humans do -- you can‟t

just stop doing it. Negative influences in your surroundings have to be eliminated rather than

fended off.

The difficulty can come when you aren‟t sure whether a person is harming or helping you. A

partner who occasionally abuses you verbally but shows tenderness 95 percent of the time is

such a case. Here‟s your solution: if you find yourself pondering for weeks what category

someone falls into, it‟s the harmful one. If that boyfriend verbally abuses you once every three

months and is good to you for the other ninety-odd days, he is harmful.

We are always told to think before speaking; to see things from the other person‟s standpoint,

and not to make rash assessments but when it comes to people, indecisiveness will see the

wrong ones creep into your life. People who are good for you have a way of giving that vibe

off immediately upon meeting them. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Who you are speaks so

loudly I cannot hear what you are saying.” This is true of friendships, acquaintances and

commercial partnerships alike.

You have millions of years‟ worth of evolution to thank for your highly developed ability to

assess people, and you have to use this ability as a quick assessment of whether you wish to

allow someone into your circle or not. So long as you don‟t have undue prejudices like racism

or sexism, your early feelings about someone are right.

Service

Is it fair that a child born into poverty in Sudan or Bangladesh doesn‟t even know where his

next meal is coming from, when we throw away what our kids don‟t finish? As advanced and

civilised as the privileged sector of the human population may think they are, the true test of

our humanity is reflected in the way we treat the suffering as well as the animals that share this

planet with us.

When I was younger I would switch off when the topic turned to serving others. I thought I

could build my own little bubble of prosperity and happiness. My view was that I owed

nothing to anybody and that nobody was obligated to me -- every man for himself.

Is it pure luck or by design that you weren‟t born destitute? That‟s what you must ask yourself

every day, because I don‟t have the answer. For reasons unknown millions are given an unfair

beginning to life.

Most charitable organisations accept online donations, making giving as easy as anything else

you do the Internet. If you have little money to spare, volunteer your time. It is worth as much

as any money and often worth far more. The sick person in the hospital never sees your

donation but they appreciate you sitting next to them and reading.

Life can start feeling „heavy‟ when you‟re only concerned with yourself. Looking after another

person or cause takes your mind off personal issues, and the knowledge that your existence is

supporting a greater cause than just yourself will energise you to jump out of bed every

morning.

Service is as good for you as it is for the person you‟re helping.

Proof of this good energy is in a person like the Dalai Lama who owns few earthly possessions

yet has an unmatched lust for life, as he loses himself in service to others.

We‟re in this thing called life together, and the burdens it presents would be greatly reduced if

each of us could live with the knowledge that we‟re not alone. Service to others is not

socialism, communism or Marxism; it‟s basic decency, empathy, and something your

conscience craves.

Mother Earth

It‟s no longer a debate: the earth is being destroyed and global warming is real. When each

person lives in a bubble of mindless consumption and opulence, all our lives lose context. We

point our fingers at large corporations and car factories for damaging our planet. What I want

to draw attention to though is our own impact as individuals.

We‟re the ones bleeding this planet dry.

It‟s easy to say that big companies are to blame for problems like pollution, over-fishing and

excessive mining, but individuals like you and me are the ones buying and consuming what

these companies make. They merely manufacture to our demands. People want to keep living

the consumptionist dream of the good life without any thought as to where their goods come

from. While fingering corporates for not caring about the planet, individual consumers make a

few small lifestyle adjustments on their part, like buying energy saving light bulbs and

installing solar geysers.

We need to collectively manage our relationship with planet earth. The lazy response would be

that one person doesn‟t make a difference: “Billions of others aren‟t doing anything, so what I

do won‟t make a difference anyway.”

For mankind to reduce his footprint, all that needs to happen is for each individual to conduct

their life in a way that is as earth-friendly as possible. If each person just becomes more

conscious of what they consume, that is enough. Long ago we could each consume as we

pleased because the earth had bountiful resources. Now though 7 billion of us are placing strain

on the planet and we have to pull our socks up.

Forget the Vehicles, Look at what we Eat The automotive industry comes under never-ending scrutiny for the emissions they‟re

responsible for, but it‟s food production that requires more resources than anything else humans

make. So should you eat less? Possibly, but the real issue is what we consume. Producing

meat for instance is a resource intense, hugely inefficient and low yield exercise. It takes

around 4,500 litres (1,188 gallons) of water to produce one meat based meal. Cattle consume

sixteen times as much grain as the meat they yield.

Think of the whole supply chain: grain has to be grown for the animals to feed on, and the

growing of that grain requires tons of water and acres of land in addition to the requirements of

the animals themselves. Each person in the U.S. can prevent the emission of 1,485kg

(3,274lbs) of carbon dioxide every year if they reduced meat intake by twenty percent.

♦

The Hamburger Effect:

Even one less hamburger a week has a huge impact

• In America alone, cows produce more greenhouse gas than 22 million cars do per year. • If each American eats three burgers per week, 158 million tons of greenhouse gasses

per year are produced for the beef in their burgers. It's not the cow's fault this is

happening. • Reducing by one burger per week will reduce pollution by as much as taking your car

off the road for 350 miles (563 kilometres). • If all Americans ate no meat or cheese for one day in the week, the climate change effect

would be the same as taking 7.6 million cars off the road for one entire year.

• It takes 1,800 gallons (6,800 litres) of water to produce one pound of grain fed beef.

• The smallest choices make the biggest difference to our environment and to our own

health.

25

♦

Producing animal based foods requires much more energy and resources compared to grains,

vegetables and fruits. I‟ve thrown a few numbers at you, but the long and short of it is

worldwide (not just in America) we're growing and farming too many animals, and earth does

not have the wherewithal to keep this up. The resultant emissions and strain on water, soil and

grain supplies too are immense. I urge you to reduce your meat intake. Meatless Mondays is a

good way to start. In addition, eat one less hamburger per week. Like I said, if each person

makes some small adjustments on their own accord, our collective impact will be

immense. The more you substitute vegetables for meat, the lower your footprint on our planet

will be, and that‟s the truth as inconvenient as it may be to hear.

The Protein Argument

Most of us get too much protein. In the U.S. most people get twice as much as the

recommended daily allowance. Beans and legumes are rich sources of protein. Besides,

producing one kilogram of animal protein requires a hundred times more water than one

kilogram of grain protein does. After changing to a predominantly plant based diet for health

reasons, American Footballer Tony Gonzalez has managed to maintain both his weight and

strength. His kitchen is stocked with fruits and vegetables (which he makes into a shake each

morning), organic oatmeal and Brazilian acai juice. He is known to be one of the best tight

ends to ever play the game, so just remember this guy when people talk about a loss of strength

and mass if you eat less meat.

I am not a vegetarian but my meat intake is about one third as much as it used to be. I eat four

meat based meals per week and I find that with reduced meat intake, my digestion is better,

energy levels way higher, stomach flatter, and conscience clearer.

This is a call to get introspective on the footprint you leave. Let our politicians debate ad

nauseam at conferences. The real change will come from us, not from their policies. They

want to impose emission caps and taxes on companies, but will not tell us to change our habits

because that will lose them votes. If you want to change the world, look inward, not outward.

Cosmic Force

Why are we here? How did life come to be? Why do we die? How are the tides, seasons and

all of nature‟s processes so perfectly synchronised? Who or what is synchronising it? These

are perplexing but important questions. Many choose to go through life ignoring them. Others

choose to follow religious scriptures and reject any train of thought that doesn‟t agree with their

religious beliefs.

Life is an open-ended question. I have my own beliefs and ideas and you need to develop yours

based on what makes the most sense to you. Answers to your questions should appeal to your

sense of logic as much as to your sense of belief and emotion. Ultimately spirituality is about

synchronising both emotion and rationality.

People don‟t do anything without having a reason: eating at a restaurant, working out or

watching a live performance; yet so many refuse to indulge the broader context of their

existence. They look away when the “difficult” questions about life, death and spirituality

come up. To do this is to stifle a very fundamental part of you: we‟re naturally curious

creatures. Meaning and understanding begets a deeper, more permanent form of happiness than

transitory satisfaction like entertainment or delicious food does. With technology advancing at

breakneck speed, it‟s time for us to explore the ultimate frontier: ourselves. Technology has

progressed way ahead of our social and spiritual understandings and the gap needs to be

bridged.

That nobody can conclusively answer these fundamental questions at the moment is not a

reason to ignore them. The voyage of finding the answers is half the fun anyway. Answers

will be uncovered from a combination of science, intuition and observation. Insight may speed

up once the existence of intuition and spirit have been proven scientifically. “The day science

begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all

the previous centuries of its existence,” remarked Nikola Tesla, father of the alternating current

motor. We will then begin to rely on our innate powers -- an area largely untapped because

they aren‟t regarded as credible or reliable -- and from here answers about life will start to come

in thick and fast.

Magic is found in pockets of uncertainty and the unknown. You should not limit your scope

based on verification that‟s been done by others. If you do that, then by definition you are

limiting what you can be based on other people. This is why I say you need to actually develop

your own beliefs.

Your spiritual evolution does not happen haphazardly. It happens based on the commitment

you give. In that respect it‟s very similar to any earthly endeavour. This is a journey each

person must consciously choose. Time devoted to meditation, reading and contemplation will

drive the transformation of your consciousness. There are varying levels of consciousness and

part of the mystery of life is for you to uncover these layers systematically.

You

For every facet of life there‟s a script available for you to follow. People love professing about

“the way the world is.” They also love saying that you need to be a certain way in order to be a

success at one thing or another. When I was a cost controller for example, the directive from

my superiors was that an effective cost controller must be “assertive.” When I became a

procurement specialist after that, the direction was to be “firm and persuasive” with the

suppliers we brought from. For the most part, people who took this firmness and assertiveness

to the level of aggression were lauded for their approach. Sometimes we unfairly squeezed

third parties we dealt with but this was considered to be “good negotiation.” How often are you told to be one way or another in order to be successful?

Geil Browning, founder of Emergenetics International and holder of a Ph.D. in Education from

the University of Nebraska, did a powerful post for Inc.com titled Power of the Quiet

Entrepreneur.26

She remarks, “In our culture, expressiveness plays a big role, and people are

generally rewarded more for being chatterboxes than silent observers. Being a confident talker

and a persuasive speaker can get you attention in meetings, get you the sale, and even get you

elected. No one gets kudos for sitting quietly, or saying, „Let me think about it and I'll get back

to you.‟” I‟m sure you can relate. From school we box people with terms like “the quiet one,”

“bubbly,” or “well spoken.” Browning concludes: “People will appreciate that your solutions

are always thought out well. Your calm demeanour and ability to listen will serve you well if

you can harness it. You don't have to change who you are...no matter what your report cards

used to say.”

It is not in my character to be assertive. Problem was I had a job that apparently required this

trait, and yet I could not pretend to be someone else. I resolved to at least try being true to my

characteristics and values for the first few weeks. Guess what: I managed to get whatever I

needed or requested without having to be aggressive or firm all the time. As a buyer I was

persuasive without being overbearing. I could be just as effective as anyone else. You‟re told

to be many things every day: confident, proactive, spontaneous, fun-loving…they sound good

but they‟re all effectively telling you to be someone else. Allowing external scripts to mould

you is a quick and sure way to reduce the meaning of your life. It then becomes a tired plot

that‟s lived out to please others.

Discounting an abnormal or abusive upbringing, your personality is something you are mostly

born with; it isn‟t something that can be manipulated to fit an ideal. If you look past

appearances you will often find twins to have very different personalities for instance. They

would have had the same upbringing, schooling and even social circle, yet they can behave and

sound like completely different people. Certain qualities can be cultivated but for the most part,

you are who you are.

You are a certain way for good reason and to question or change this will never work,

never. True meaning is only derived when you speak, choose and act in line with what you feel

for.

Find Meaning Beyond the Physical Your lifespan on earth is limited. You can‟t have every experience and possession you ever

wanted, even if you had unlimited money. Life should not be measured just by the experiences

and possessions you accumulate. Measuring your life this way means you will inevitably die

with regret.

Find deeper context within your life. Intensify your relationships, become intimate with this

planet, find God and be who you are at all costs. In this way you find meaning beyond

possessions and earthly experiences. Yes, life on earth means you should enjoy what this

planet has to offer, but you can‟t base your life solely on things you see, touch and do. None of

these things are permanent. When death knocks these things count for little in any case. Seek

the things that are true and eternal, rather than only the fleeting gratitude of possessions and

earthly experiences.

Be Politically Incorrect

Life isn‟t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. - George Bernard Shaw

The above ten words by Shaw say so much:

Firstly, you hold the answers to all the important questions in your life. People can help, guide

and advise, but they cannot give you the answer. The same question or conundrum usually has

a different meaning across different people.

Secondly a destiny is not found, it is lived out. You uncover your destiny when you create and

do what comes naturally to you. According to me, that is God's plan for each of us.

Thirdly, you are a work in progress. You can develop and grow in any direction you choose.

When your time on earth is done, you need to be able to look back at what you did as fun to you

and helpful to others.

We need to revolt and take back a life we can call beautiful. People moan “I have no choice,

that‟s the way the world is” in protest. Yet we are the ones who have made life the way it is

today. Nature did not dictate to us that we must work for other people, drive in traffic or eat

fatty food.

Don‟t accept things and just carry on hoping for tomorrow to change. This is why being honest

and true to your feelings instead of trying to paint them with positivity is important. In the end,

it takes a stronger person to pursue a life they want than one who chooses to remain stuck.

Become the dictator of your life.

People compromise too much and try too hard to appease the world. They‟re excessively

diplomatic and politically correct with their personal decisions. The world needs to pivot more

around you than you around it.

Remember that your mind and physical reality mirror each other. Change on both fronts

therefore is what you need. A better life is not really about working harder; it‟s about making

different choices and diverting your time and energy from fruitless activities to ones that are

beneficial. Once you are conscious of your choices, you will by default pick the right path each

time there is a choice. The important thing is to be aware of the power your choices carry.

A world where the subordination is replaced by egalitarianism; where a clear mind is cherished

over an overloaded one; where the way we make our living is underpinned by joy; where we

synchronise perfectly with each other and the earth is not Utopia. If we choose to pursue these

avenues, such a world will become an inevitability. This world is being built or broken based

on what we each choose to do today. When you conduct your life differently you persuade

others to change theirs. Then when a critical mass of people changes, the very systems and

rules that govern us will have no option but to transform as well.

~

About me

I‟m pretty uncomplicated. I‟m a businessperson, share trader and writer. I have an Honours

degree in Commerce, but my real interest lies in living a meaningful yet light-hearted life. My

tenet is simple: get as close as possible to being a child again.

I believe in active writing. This means that I feel a non-fiction writer must practice what he or

she preaches.

I feel we are right at the beginning of a global renaissance, and that we will get there together

largely thanks to the catalyst role the Internet is playing and a new wave of consciousness that‟s

sweeping through our species. Things will not be handed to anyone though: you need to stretch

out your arms and take it. Utopia beckons.

Stay in touch

All my details, content and resources can be found on my site: LishenNair.com

Endnotes

1. Giang, Vivian. "Workplace Stress Is Killing All Of Us." Business Insider.

http://www.businessinsider.com/expert-shares-how-stress-in-the-workplace-is-killing-all-of-us-

2012-7#ixzz213QgXV4v (accessed July 22, 2012).

2. (AFP), Richard Carter. "AFP: Exhausted Davos delegates hear burnout warning." Google.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hJ6mkTT7_IQOZ6iMWVgQSyFZXJh

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