Staying the course

Recently there were a lot of things happening on the professional front. Huge demands meant 24 hours per day are not sufficient..at the end of each day it was the same feeling that something more could have been done...in short, it is like "Hey God, can I have one more me please?" Difficult times, indeed.

And then, when I stopped working for an hour in the night to catch up on personal mails, I had the regular mail from simpletruths.com. Well, I call it regular because I get such mails regularly but the content of that mail was nothing regular; it seemed like it was written specially for me, considering the messed up state of mind I was having at that time.

The mail was talking about BJ Gallagher's book The Best Way Out is Always Through. It had a poem excerpt from the book that seemed to fit in so well...

Our journey of life is about progress,
not perfection.
It's not about doing one thing
100% better -
it's a matter of doing 100 things,
1% better each day.

Progress is evolutionary
not revolutionary,
and most days we measure our progress
in inches,
not miles.

What matters most
is showing up for your life
whether you feel like it
or not.

Ask yourself,
"What two or three little things
can I do today
that would move me forward?"

You'll be amazed
at how much distance
you can cover
by taking it in increments.

The little things add up;
the inches turn to miles;
and we string together our efforts
like so many pearls.
Before long,
look what you have -
a whole strand!

It was definitely a WOW! moment.

We should never forget what we all have in common. That is...at some point in our life, we will face adversity. It's not a matter of if, but...when. And when adversity strikes, it's not about what happens that will determine our destiny, it's about how we react to what happens. And so many times, it'll be about...staying the course

- Mac Anderson
Founder, Simple Truths

Moving around

Throughout May, I had a great time going around a lot. Starting with Ahmedabad, I moved on to Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad and finally ending up at Bangalore. It's only when one travels to such diverse locations within a short time that one could really appreciate the diversity in culture, language and almost everything we experience. The bonding is so immense.

There were many moments of interaction with people and their unique ways of responding are really interesting. The most common situation of asking someone for directions...it brings out so many unique behavioural traits. The underlying tendency to help someone who is asking for directions is universal. Needless to say, responses for directions at Kolkata were the most friendly and colourful; elaborate explanations and so much more additional information that made me smile on a number of occasions. Genuinely lovely people out there!

Today on the TV, there was lot of bad news; Air France flight's crash, incidents involving Indian students in Australia and such things. But, the news of 3 trains being burnt in Bihar by angry mobs was so shocking.

On NDTV Prannoy Roy was asking pertinent questions about this incidence to Kiran Bedi and Laluji. What a contrasting set of people! KB was in her element when she pointed out that the people who created this situation in the past and the people who changed it now acted only to gain political mileage for them and should be held accountable for the damages caused now. Laser sharp, really. I agree with Prannoy's comment that India needs people like her now. The most repeated statement during the program was "India is a punishment free country". Sadly so.