“At Soulo, we seek sound from the noise of world wisdom.”
In our present world, sustainability is important both on the personal and global level. Soulo wants to take the sustainable conversation out of its bubble and into the world.
Today’s world is hyper-competitive and so personal growth and change should also be sustainable and that’s why avoiding burnout is the number one sign of success.
Let’s live mindfully while engaging with the world through how we live. Let’s not fall prey to the hype.
Life is not a linear process, it’s a very dynamic phenomenon. This life is an opportunity to discover and experience this magnificent world of ours. Take it.
Navigate to chapter
► Chapter 1: Success thought process
► Chapter 2: Intuition
► Chapter 3: Discipline
► Chapter 4: Pranayama
► Chapter 5: Break out of comfort zone
► Chapter 6: Overcome Procrastination
► Chapter 7: Monster of the internet: Instant gratification
When I say the success thought process, by success I mean, a complete well-formed perspective about life as a life And continual growth.
To be successful you should be thinking the right thoughts. It’s a process and the only way you can be sure of following the correct one is by knowing if it’s a progressive thought process. Once you practice it deliberately and consciously for over a certain period of time, it develops a thought pattern.
Once a pattern is in place, then unconsciously all the time you will be following the same path to come to productive solutions. These productive solutions will allow you to make consistent progress all the time.
Let me share an honest opinion with you, I firmly believe being successful is not in our hands, it happens if it has to, so you would say why go through so much pain if it isn’t even guaranteed?
The reason is simple, you should be able to give yourself the opportunity to be in the best possible place and scenario which maximizes your chance of being successful.
Most importantly being successful is a state of mind, a way of living and a state of being. If you make an effort to be consciously in that zone all the time, you will make the most of your life, more than you ever thought off for sure.
You will be a human at your peak and satisfied with what you have become to the core.
Alright, Let’s jump into knowing how to get going on the path of developing our thought process.
Everything isn’t concrete and therefore you need intuition. Everybody has it but it’s like having a map which you cannot read. It’s also like a plant, if you tend to it carefully and nourish it properly then it will surely bear something. A fruit or fragrance.
It sounds mystical and so the skeptic might question its dependability. How reliable is intuition really?
Having a hunch, a gut feeling is something which we all have experienced some or the other time.
Signs and cryptic messages hidden in the mundane.
You were not looking for it but it just suddenly clicked.
Our life is very dynamic, every day a plethora of things happens to us.
Sometimes we find ourselves at a crossroad and wonder where do I go from here? Is it the right way? Should I wait for better guidance? “I don’t even know what I am doing I wish someone would show me the way.” “There’s just so much of confusion and so many options, I don’t even know what do I truly want?” is this the right choice for me?
Questions like that could drag you down and stop you in your tracks out of the fear of the unknown.
Or maybe could also make you run away.
Both of them are survival instincts, to keep you safe one of them is usually utilized and that is when you start procrastinating.
However, safety does not guarantee growth, it does not guarantee adventure and it definitely does not bring much satisfaction.
Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made with a hunch.
All things in life won’t make sense and therefore something equally senseless should be used to tackle such challenges.
Something just beyond our 5 senses.
In this post we will cover what is intuition, why is it important and how can intuition help you make the most out of your life.
So let us begin.
Discipline is as much psychological as it is physical. Therefore to develop and understand discipline, you need to understand both of its aspects.
How our thoughts shape our life is a pretty clear notion by now. Everyone has spoken about it and written about it.
Before action, there is a thought and after action, there is a thought. Each of them equally important.
How you think about what you have to do and how you think after you have done it, will determine if you continue doing it until you see the desired result.
So let’s dive into both of these aspects and more, to help us understand and develop discipline.
The immediate meaning of discipline is a little skewed. It is said that it’s a practice of training people to obey rules or behavior and using punishment to correct disobedience.
The Cambridge dictionary helps us with an alternate meaning, it says that it is the ability to control yourself or others even in difficult situations.
A Debate on the debate.org website about, “If people need discipline to achieve freedom” got some interesting opinions to share and it also clearly shows us that some people think, “Discipline means obeying what others tell you to do and it is living by the society’s norms and standards.”
71% of people said yes! Discipline does help us achieve freedom and 29% people said no, they think discipline causes stress, it takes away your freedom and you do not have any control over your life.
I clearly fall into the former 71% and would like to tell you, that discipline is nothing more than doing what you must and doing it when you must. Action and time.
In simple terms, you cannot say why I must do what I have been told to do at my office, school or home.
Everybody has their own personal duty to perform. It is called Dharma in Indian culture. It is not decided by anybody else, but it is simply your position in life.
Your position in life is your own personal quest and to complete it, you must move forward with intention and action. Focused and disciplined, because without it you are only making wishful progress.
Things don’t happen on their own, everybody takes care of their own survival every day. Every single person you cross by on the streets is undeniably at least earning his own bread and shelter. If you don’t want to do it then sadly it does not work.
In this world of ours, everybody has to fetch for themselves. Accept that and move on with it. Secondly, if you want to do more than survive with your life, if you want the adventure and glory, then you need to do what others don’t.
Like working for more than bread and butter, shelter and clothing, committing to learning something new, which will allow you to move out of your comfort zone and do something new with your life.
Our brain is hardwired only for survival. If you want anything more than that, then you must push your boundaries.
It could be for health, fitness, career, travelling, any other personal goal or ambition and most importantly living.
To push your boundaries you need discipline.
Discipline does not demand favourability. It only demands commitment to a cause above everything else.
“Man is a moving being. If he does not move to what is good,
he will surely move to that what is not. If this consciousness does not arise here,
another consciousness will arise there.
Man’s mind goes through multifarious changes and never stops.”
– Issai Chozanshi, The Demon’s Sermon on the Martial Arts.
Pranayama is something I would like to spread awareness about as much as possible. You ask why?
Well, the answer is I have been doing it since I was in 8th grade maybe from an even earlier time and it has shown me great promise, results and has been very helpful in maintaining my overall health and fitness.
No, it’s not something just about physical fitness, it’s not bound to some particular religion and it can do a lot more than just curing some diseases.
Now don’t be skeptical already, skepticism even before knowing or understanding something is one of the biggest obstacles to overall growth.
It’s a holistic approach to health, it’s well balanced, and from a 5-year-old kid to a 90 years old grandma anyone can do it. You will begin to experience its potency from the very first complete and proper session you do. Just takes about 30 mins a day, that too if you are pursuing it in a hardcore fashion, otherwise, a total of 15 mins a day is more than enough and the benefits are far-reaching.
Now let’s begin with an important question.
Unconsciously all your life you create a zone of action for yourself out of your daily habits. Depending upon how you have been viewing life as a person, the zone of action could be a very limited sphere or a very spacious one.
But no matter how huge the expanse of it is, it’s still your zone, born out of your life habits, beliefs, and social conditioning.
Our world, the world we live in is a vibrant and ever-changing space. You cannot always depend upon your previous judgment and experience to tackle the ever-changing new world. With the game, the rules of the game change too.
The philosophy by which you play might remain the same, but the scope of your actions should improve and expand.
Comfort zone is a thought process, a pattern, it has become intuitive for you and most of the decisions you make have become automated and subconscious. There’s no active thinking involved when you commit to a course in life or accept a belief. Now something so undetectable if not rewired in your favor, could constantly hamper your progress and growth in life, without you ever noticing, what’s going on wrong with you?
Know you are in your comfort zone when ideas like this make you uncomfortable. Know you are in your comfort zone when you reject an idea distastefully without even considering all its aspects or giving it a shot practically.
You are bound by your previous inhibitions. A change of perspective and thought process is much needed.
Comfort zone merely ensures survival, but never allows growth to happen. It might be difficult or wrong outside your zone, but trying is in your hand.
Procrastination is a fancy word used to describe “LATER“.
If you are avoiding things which require your attention the most and doing which demand the least, then you are procrastinating.
Up until now, you were not so consciously aware of it, but now, you want to get rid of this habit asap.
The internet has us believing that everything can be solved in 5 easy steps and you don’t even have to think “need a business idea? Here are 55.”
Inventing crazy names for things that make absolutely no sense just for the sake of making a sale and instilling the idea that “You yourself have to put in zero work for this to work, the one simple thing which you have to do is buy our product.”
This is the most redundant ideology the internet is feeding nowadays.
Everything will be done for you just pay the money, everything is easy and does not require more than 6 steps, 10 steps and so on, the crazier the number and the more audacious a claim, people are likely to believe it and fall for the trap of passive involvement.
You read the pitch, you bought into the idea and now you want to improve your life right away, this one particular product “Lose 10 kilos without exercising” is going to solve everything.
You click the buy button, the product gets downloaded on your system, you already feel positive and accomplished for buying something that will improve your life and you feel extremely gratified as things are going to change now.
You maybe try it for a day or two or at the most 3 and then the enthusiasm is drowning, the shot of dopamine was already taken when you made the purchase, it felt so worthwhile and accomplishing.
But nobody told you it’s going to take effort, time and consistency to work right?
The sales page said 100% success guaranteed but did you know if only you put in the work required?
Such is the monster of instant gratification.
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