Whats the aim of my life? Rather our life,now that I am married & blessed with a kid on September 3rd 2009. Personally I think the aim is to live a full of happiness.A life where you can sleep peacefully. A life rich in personal relationship with family & friends. A life that accepts the difficulties as an inherent part .A life that magnifies the physical & mental wealth that we possess right now . A Life that does not rue about the missing things in the life. After all Life is too wonderful to be spent worrying. Life is too wonderful to feel stressful.
Too often my personal energy is drained off by the short term things in the official life like the project work, weekly meetings etc., This affects my personal life too when I get irritated even for minor issues. Vasumathi has rightly pointed this aspect of several times now and I need to do some corrective action
That I need to do some Root Cause Analysis for this or else it may lead to a burn out due to stress.High achievers do an exemplary work because they truly love what they do….from their soul.Thats what Michael Jackson seemed to have told to AR Rahman after the latter’s meeting during the OSCAR ceremony. (King of Pop sometimes speak sensibly too!!!) They do not work only for pay cheques or some reward. They do it because of their passion. I think that’s true for all Great Sportspeople, Artists, Scientists , Leaders . They are not driven by the statistics ….how much do I earn from this? Greatest…longest…strongest…richest…most powerful……etc., These are just the by-products of the passion. So the bottom line seems to be feel passionate about the things you do. Results will ensue.
So what are the things that turn me on? What are the things that seem effortless to me ? I need to focus on them to be really happy , however weird that thing might be. Things that are passionate to me are :
A) Toastmasters
B) Teaching
C) Lectures
D) Writing
E) Reading
F) Humor
G) Generating New Ideas
H) Mathematics….mental Computing
I) Personal finance
J) Mutual Funds
K) Solving simple problems in FEA
L) Helping others – Philanthropy
M) Cooking
So that seems to be a good list and looks multi-dimensional. Now can I call them my strengths? Yes I think they are. So its better if I focus on these to attain the all elusive contentment. Yes of course. But will it serve the bread & butter? As of today ….a BIG No. but If I do take one of these things as a career, I feel that I got a good chance of succeeding & earning the bread & butter.
I feel its an apt time to test my writing skills . The best way to publish myself is using the blogs.I will try to churn out material week after week ….not the gibberish stuff but real ones of worth to the readers.
Teaching!!! My first attempt ended rather abruptly. I taught for 2 months as an lecturer in mechanical at a private engineering college. I did not do justice to the students with my teaching. But I feel that if I get another chance I would be able to do better as I have enough background about what they expect in the corporate world. Also EOTO students have told that I explain things better.That seems to give me confidence.
I have to attribute my association with toastmasters for my interest in writing & in humor. People feel I have a sense of humor, which obviously vasumathi will not agree with. But according to Edward De Bono, Humor is one of the highest forms of creativity.Hello World!!! Read the previous sentence again. I am creative!!!I won an award in the humorous speech contest in the Local toastmasters club at malleshwaram.the only award I have won ever in my lifetime.
Reading: I have had few friends in my life so far (I am a torrid personality to deal with & an introvert and a bore).Arul ranks one among the top. He was the one who took me to the Bangalore bookfair in the year 2005. From then on book reading caught on with me. I essentially read non-fiction because I can re-read them again & again (you have guessed correctly I am a miser).I read mostly personality development stuff. “The monk who sold his Ferrari” ranks among the top .I also read novels in Tamil which is my mother tongue. My favorite author is “sujatha” a.k.a. Rangarajan. His short stories with subtle humor are a delight to me. In addition I read his prose that range from “Naalayiram…” to the nano-technology. He passed away in 2008.I dearly miss his writing.
Cooking:”necessity is the mother of invention & cooking”. My first attempt at cooking was when I was in US for 3 months. Mother had given me a bunch of recipes written in a diary. Obviously most of the attempts were disastrous. However I began to get hold after I returned to Bangalore. Eventhough the aroma would not tickle your taste-buds , I would say most of my dishes are palatable. Arul again would vouch for my cooking skills. Vasumathi , How about you? There seems to some satisfaction whenever I cook even a simple food at home that I cannot describe in words . Have you also felt that? I have the recipes still. I plan to put them in my blog soon.
Personal finance: I was not born with silver spoon in mouth. I was also not born with wooden spoon either. My middle class background grounded me the basic reality of economics. Savings was an essential part of the family however little it was. It was my elder maternal uncle ,nambi mama, who exposed me to the mutual funds. We invest regularly in mutual funds eventhough myself & vasumathi have a disagreement on the amount that we should pump in. I reckon that it is the best savings instrument I have seen till date for anyone with a long-term investment horizon.I also do a fairbit of savings on tax savings like PPF ,Pension plans. I plan to add gold into my portfolio through investment in gold funds for which I am in negotiation with vasumathi!!!
Mathematics :mental computing : I got this habit of mental computation ever since I remember. I like to do this mental computation especially squaring , multiplication . I used to surprise my friends challenging them & giving quick multiplication factors. For ex: I know the square of any number from 1 to 100 by-heart . Not so strong in square root though even though its reasonable.There is no particular technique that I follow. Its purely brute force method. If the number are not prime I would split into smaller numbers and then square them up followed by a multiplication. If its prime, I struggle a bit.
Generating new ideas: These days I am so much enthusiastic about generating ideas for a side business!!! I have been following the simpledollar.com website and have been inspired by the articles. It may be because it emphasizes the need to be frugal.It may also be because these days I am too much stressed by my day job that doesn’t seem passionate to me. So I am in quest for ideas about that “One thing” I feel passionate about. This article list has most of them. The objective to do get a passionate idea. Develop a startup as a side business. See how that goes on. And slowly move away from day job to the one that I like to do day after day.
My goal is spend the weekends on the above list I am energized for the week to follow.Vasu, I need your support on this.
Too often my personal energy is drained off by the short term things in the official life like the project work, weekly meetings etc., This affects my personal life too when I get irritated even for minor issues. Vasumathi has rightly pointed this aspect of several times now and I need to do some corrective action
That I need to do some Root Cause Analysis for this or else it may lead to a burn out due to stress.High achievers do an exemplary work because they truly love what they do….from their soul.Thats what Michael Jackson seemed to have told to AR Rahman after the latter’s meeting during the OSCAR ceremony. (King of Pop sometimes speak sensibly too!!!) They do not work only for pay cheques or some reward. They do it because of their passion. I think that’s true for all Great Sportspeople, Artists, Scientists , Leaders . They are not driven by the statistics ….how much do I earn from this? Greatest…longest…strongest…richest…most powerful……etc., These are just the by-products of the passion. So the bottom line seems to be feel passionate about the things you do. Results will ensue.
So what are the things that turn me on? What are the things that seem effortless to me ? I need to focus on them to be really happy , however weird that thing might be. Things that are passionate to me are :
A) Toastmasters
B) Teaching
C) Lectures
D) Writing
E) Reading
F) Humor
G) Generating New Ideas
H) Mathematics….mental Computing
I) Personal finance
J) Mutual Funds
K) Solving simple problems in FEA
L) Helping others – Philanthropy
M) Cooking
So that seems to be a good list and looks multi-dimensional. Now can I call them my strengths? Yes I think they are. So its better if I focus on these to attain the all elusive contentment. Yes of course. But will it serve the bread & butter? As of today ….a BIG No. but If I do take one of these things as a career, I feel that I got a good chance of succeeding & earning the bread & butter.
I feel its an apt time to test my writing skills . The best way to publish myself is using the blogs.I will try to churn out material week after week ….not the gibberish stuff but real ones of worth to the readers.
Teaching!!! My first attempt ended rather abruptly. I taught for 2 months as an lecturer in mechanical at a private engineering college. I did not do justice to the students with my teaching. But I feel that if I get another chance I would be able to do better as I have enough background about what they expect in the corporate world. Also EOTO students have told that I explain things better.That seems to give me confidence.
I have to attribute my association with toastmasters for my interest in writing & in humor. People feel I have a sense of humor, which obviously vasumathi will not agree with. But according to Edward De Bono, Humor is one of the highest forms of creativity.Hello World!!! Read the previous sentence again. I am creative!!!I won an award in the humorous speech contest in the Local toastmasters club at malleshwaram.the only award I have won ever in my lifetime.
Reading: I have had few friends in my life so far (I am a torrid personality to deal with & an introvert and a bore).Arul ranks one among the top. He was the one who took me to the Bangalore bookfair in the year 2005. From then on book reading caught on with me. I essentially read non-fiction because I can re-read them again & again (you have guessed correctly I am a miser).I read mostly personality development stuff. “The monk who sold his Ferrari” ranks among the top .I also read novels in Tamil which is my mother tongue. My favorite author is “sujatha” a.k.a. Rangarajan. His short stories with subtle humor are a delight to me. In addition I read his prose that range from “Naalayiram…” to the nano-technology. He passed away in 2008.I dearly miss his writing.
Cooking:”necessity is the mother of invention & cooking”. My first attempt at cooking was when I was in US for 3 months. Mother had given me a bunch of recipes written in a diary. Obviously most of the attempts were disastrous. However I began to get hold after I returned to Bangalore. Eventhough the aroma would not tickle your taste-buds , I would say most of my dishes are palatable. Arul again would vouch for my cooking skills. Vasumathi , How about you? There seems to some satisfaction whenever I cook even a simple food at home that I cannot describe in words . Have you also felt that? I have the recipes still. I plan to put them in my blog soon.
Personal finance: I was not born with silver spoon in mouth. I was also not born with wooden spoon either. My middle class background grounded me the basic reality of economics. Savings was an essential part of the family however little it was. It was my elder maternal uncle ,nambi mama, who exposed me to the mutual funds. We invest regularly in mutual funds eventhough myself & vasumathi have a disagreement on the amount that we should pump in. I reckon that it is the best savings instrument I have seen till date for anyone with a long-term investment horizon.I also do a fairbit of savings on tax savings like PPF ,Pension plans. I plan to add gold into my portfolio through investment in gold funds for which I am in negotiation with vasumathi!!!
Mathematics :mental computing : I got this habit of mental computation ever since I remember. I like to do this mental computation especially squaring , multiplication . I used to surprise my friends challenging them & giving quick multiplication factors. For ex: I know the square of any number from 1 to 100 by-heart . Not so strong in square root though even though its reasonable.There is no particular technique that I follow. Its purely brute force method. If the number are not prime I would split into smaller numbers and then square them up followed by a multiplication. If its prime, I struggle a bit.
Generating new ideas: These days I am so much enthusiastic about generating ideas for a side business!!! I have been following the simpledollar.com website and have been inspired by the articles. It may be because it emphasizes the need to be frugal.It may also be because these days I am too much stressed by my day job that doesn’t seem passionate to me. So I am in quest for ideas about that “One thing” I feel passionate about. This article list has most of them. The objective to do get a passionate idea. Develop a startup as a side business. See how that goes on. And slowly move away from day job to the one that I like to do day after day.
My goal is spend the weekends on the above list I am energized for the week to follow.Vasu, I need your support on this.
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