The Snowball effect

                   Wikipedia defines the snowball effect as following :” A Process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger (graver, more serious), and also perhaps potentially dangerous or disastrous (a vicious circle), though it might be beneficial instead (a virtuous circle)”

                  You can easily identify the snowball effect with respect to your thought process…..Say something is disturbing your mind…like the pending debt. The mind depending on who you are, would start this ball rolling by adding consequences to the scenario of not paying up the debt resulting in a disturbed feeling of helplessness. The next time something or someone is bothering you, stop at once to think if you are gathering the mental snowball. At that point you got to stop your thoughts on the issue and instead focus on the action…for example to identify the ways to clear up your debt. And this is not easy…but at the least the self-awareness is the starting point.

                 Snowball effect is not always bad, especially when we talk about Action. Let us take the example of forming a new habit…Physical exercise. You set the “snow” rolling by starting small on physical exercise for just 10 minutes per day. You then need to attain the sustainment of exercise as an habit, no matter if it is Hot summer,Rain or Snow. This is the state where the exercise habit has enough mass and momentum in it that even if you had to break the habit you would feel bad through out the day. And then the benefits follow-up naturally. In the above example, You need not chase health nor curse that you do not have the time to do the physical exercise.

                Snowball effect for action can be easily applied in the financial world as well. The compound interest on Money is a classic example of snowball effect of how your money grows (of course…if you stay focused on putting in the money year after year). “The Snowball:Warren Buffett and the business of Life” by Alice Schroeder is a nice book that would explain the snowball concept much better than I did.

               So, be aware of the Snowball effect…It can be vicious when it comes to negative thoughts…be self-aware and stop the mental snowball of negative thoughts; It can be virtuous when it comes to affirmative actions such as Exercise or Financial Investing

Traffic Thoughts...

I like travelling...especially from East to West and I do it daily ! I am talking about my home to office commute (Bangalore East to Bangalore West). In the melee of the commute,I need to retain my sanity .Therefore I resort to Thinking...Most of the one-liners below keep coming at me with regular recurrence during the commute. If you find them inane,I would blame it on the traffic

1. Driving in India is easy…You just need to know Mind-reading followed by Telepathy

2. “Experience is the accumulation of mistakes that you do not repeat”…heard from a Colleague

3. You can find craters on Moon and on Mysore Road

4. It does not matter if you are on fast track or slow track as long as you are on the right track

5. Priorities Change…Purpose does not

6. Every road has a speed and every person

7. If you love what you do, you need not chase money …moneybags will chase you

8. Sail your boat on the Ocean called Life with Purpose as the beacon

9. If you are not motivated by what you are doing….perhaps it is time to ask “Why am I doing this?”

10. “Talk does not cook the rice”…Chinese Proverb

11.  Do not think speed…think Velocity…because Direction is more important than pace

Risk and Reward ? Is it?

In the financial world ,Risk and reward is a well known term used for evaluation the return on investment.The general percept is that Higher the risk ,Higher the return.This is also true  about our Life in many ways as can be seen in the following real life examples

•                 Sachin Tendulkar, the finest batsman of the modern era made his International Cricket debut at the ripe young age of 16
•                 Warren Buffett ,the iconic investor started investing in stocks at age of 11 and he thinks he started investing too late!
•                 Srinivasa Ramanujan, the mathematical genius without formal training displayed tremendous math skills even at the age of 11

We all know that these folks attained the pinnacle in their respective fields, which is purely high reward in the financial parlance.In terms of the effort,as seen by the layman, Tendulkar,Buffett & Ramanujan took tremendous risk. If you personally ask them how they took the risk, they might as well ask you back “Risk….what risk?”. They would as well call it as Focus.

Yes…they were all Focused…Focused enough that they found out the purpose of their life when they were still young and put in all their effort on that single minded purpose…you could see that in the height they reached in their life….

Sachin flunked in his school ,but never let the Education interfere in Cricket.Warren Buffett had enough money at age of 20 that he could have diversified into 100 different businesses…but he stuck to Stock investing. Ramanujan,flunked in many other subjects other than maths and landed in a  clerical job,but his flair for Numbers helped him to take Cambridge by storm

So, my conclusion is this….Risk is what you perceive when you do not know what the purpose is ...a layman's way of looking at the Things…If you know what you are doing  (Purpose) & combine it with single-minded attention despite hurdles ,Rewards are sure to follow.

Breathe !

As I go through the jogging routine each day, I can feel the breathing pattern setting in after the initial lap. As any trained runner will tell , you need to be first aware of your breathing process & then control it to stay longer in the race. This is not only true for racers but also for each one of us who want to stay longer in the life race !

In modern day life, as we rush through each activity we forget to breath effectively. The result is shallow & quick breathing. Shallow breathing means we are not taking in enough oxygen & eliminating enough carbondioxide.As a result,our body is oxygen starved and a toxic build-up occurs. This results in a vicious cycle of Stress & lack of breathe and vice versa…

One solution is learning the Pranayama in Yoga (Breathing exercise). It is a proven exercise that provides you with rejuvenation. The second solution is to take up a physical exercise for a long enough time in a sitting (!!!!) that will impact your breathing pattern. The key in both the approaches is that there is a mental faculty involved in a way. When you want to practice the deep breathing, you have to mindful always of how you breathe. You become self-aware and need to take corrective breathing actions after say every 10 or 12 intakes until you become an expert.

I will wrap it up here with Leo Babauta’s words (http://zenhabits.net/more/)

Breathe.

If you feel overwhelmed, breathe. It will calm you and release the tensions.

If you are worried about something coming up, or caught up in something that already happened, breathe. It will bring you back to the present.

If you are moving too fast, breathe. It will remind you to slow down, and enjoy life more.

Breathe, and enjoy each moment of this life. They’re too fleeting and few to waste.