about making life better
When I compare myself with my 2021, this year(2022) went great even without keeping any specific goals. Here are a few things that I am grateful for this year. Break (I was on a break from Sep 15th 2021 - Feb 11th 2022) Travel (Jan 1st to Feb 11th is quite a time + Devkund …
Continue reading "Year Review 2022 – Break, Travel, Books, Work, Fitness & Miscellaneous"
Phew. You are alive. I am alive. Congratulations to both and all of us for making it into 2022. I know last year feels like 2019 and the next year is already 2022. We all have either time travelled or lost in time. Gladly, we didn’t lose ourselves (I hope). In the last couple of …
If you are growing. You may piss off a few people and get a few haters too. There could be one or more reasons for this. Here are a few reasons. For some people, you are not supposed to be anything. When you grow, it’s a hit on their belief system. They will start searching …
Almost from 2010 to Two years ago, I was on the overweight or obese side. In my initial years in Hyderabad, I was someone who would skip my breakfast. I was having pizza and coke every alternate day. On weekends I would add garlic breadstick with mayo dip to that list. I stopped having pizza …
Continue reading "My not so linear healthy lifestyle[How I screw it up and get back]"
Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not - Anna Neagle Loneliness is not just common among humans, but it is also among monkeys, rodents, and fish. Neuroscientist John Cacioppo, who has made a career out of studying loneliness says - “The absence of social connection triggers the same primal alarm bells as hunger, thirst and physical …
Continue reading "Loneliness – [How to identify and deal with it]"
I am writing the facts first and the truth later. Facts are numbers and comparative(from Point A to B). Truth has the story about how it went from A to B (Hint: it won’t be linear). Facts are cold and end results. Truth is what the journey is about, you can feel it. Feel free …
Continue reading "A year in review – 2019[Health, Travel, Books, Writings, Runs, Work, Others]"
All our brains from early humans evolved in the same wayWe have the same fearsWe have the same craving for survivalWe have the same emotions towards wanting to fit in a groupWe have the same kind of emotions of love, hate, empathy We think we are uniqueBut when we keep our lens wider and searchWe …
George Washington is a Military general, Founding Father and First President of America. His face appears on U.S Dollar Bill and the capital is named after him. Such a tremendous man should have tremendous Self-Confidence. But George Washington had his share of self-doubt. He offered Congress with his acceptance of the appointment with the speech …
One of my friends wanted to do a 30 day no sugar challenge, after some negotiation, we made it for 100 days, after a few days and I added a few more of my own and made a 90-day challenge. -> Here is what I took up as a 90-day challenge No Movies or TV …
Joe Bartley , age 89 got a job in a bar after he put in advertisement in paper which said “Save me from dying of boredom!” and that he needed a job. As Dr. Sandi Mann, the author of The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom is Good, explains: “The more entertained we are, the more …
Continue reading "Embrace Boredom[For Creativity and Mastery]"
James Lawrence completed 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 states. It is an impossible bar set for anyone to achieve(An Ironman is 3.86 km swim, 180.25 km bicycle ride and 42.20 km run, raced in that order without a break). For the first three days, he was traveling from one state to the other …
Creating something valuable takes time and most creators fail a lot of times. The torturous thing is to let go of your own baby you created into someone else hands. This is the classic Steve Jobs story, who got kicked out of his own company, Apple. Yet, in his commencement speech at Harvard after getting …
We are going remote with our lives along with remote work. We are losing the human act of seeing people eye to eye and talk. We may lose the ability to touch someone's hand and talk to feel connected and show that we care for them. These are our small magical acts of being humans. …
Other than the prodigies that nature has gifted human beings, if you need to master something, you need to do a few things that others won’t do. Malcolm Gladwell in his Outliers book wrote about the Beatles who spent more than 10,000 hours in creating music. They did more than 1200 shows back to back …
Continue reading "Why and how to be effective at a few things"
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the old seven wonders of the world. It is 481 feet tall with 23 Lakh blocks of milestone and Granite. It looks great on the outset. But it took the workers 20 years to build and with hundreds or thousands of workers. At the Atomic level, it …
Continue reading "Atomic Failures – How to overcome Daily Failures to achieve Great Work"
Hey, If you like my writings and found them useful, you can buy me a coffee here. Link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/manojsurya Thanks in Advance 🙂
Hey, Here is how you should return my book. I might be having a OCD on the books I lend though. Don’t keep the book upside downDon’t write anything on itDon’t stick any sticky notes or anything in itDon’t make the book dirty by spilling some food or coffee on itDon’t make dog ears to …
How many times have we told someone we are busy? We fooling ourselves with bad planning and no priorities. We tell people we will work on something tomorrow Or meet them a week later. Can’t we do it today? We spend tens of minutes on social media every day and binge-watching movies on weekends. We …
Years ago, I went to a startup event in Bengaluru, it was a workshop and post that they had 3 speakers, all of them successful and one of them is gray and white-haired and has a funny name that I can’t recollect now. Someone from the crowd asked him, what makes people successful. The speaker …
Reading habit comes with its own personal confessions, here is my 10/10 score confession list. Writing them in no particular order of guilt or preference. Feeling guilty about buying more books but buying more books anywaysWant to give away books but not giving them away for months or yearsWant to re-read books but not doing …
Continue reading "As a Reader, What’s Your Confession Score?"
New Year has come and you are celebrating, wishing everyone and getting wishes saying Happy New year, May this new year bring you great things, etc. You make resolutions to do something new like going for a gym, thinking to meet friends more often or sleep early. If you are like most people, you would …
Stoics practice objectivity throughout their lives, to see things as they are, nothing more, nothing less. Research shows that while we give advice to others we think rationally but while we think for ourselves we become emotionally attached to the problem. We need to do as stoics do, that is to see things objectively. Here …
Continue reading "Four bad reasons your brain makes you seek for advice"
Before 2018 ends, I want to share 3 things that I learned this year (and sometime last year) that I feel you can connect with. I feel these are extremely helpful but basic things that most people miss out on. 1. Weight Loss A couple of years back I was trying to lose some weight …
Continue reading "3 basics I learned that are commonly Ignored"