3 Reasons: Highly accomplished people are serious hobbyists You already enjoy doing this Gives you more opportunities. Why should you restart your hobby? Yes. Nobel prize winners are highly accomplished people from all of the planet, and they are serious about their hobby. I will give you a list of such hobbies at the end of the paragraph. More importantly why? It could be due to the fact that, learning different domains of knowledge gives you an edge over others who are just having a tunnel vision on their own subject. Maybe the reason is a serious hobby lets your mind to relax like in a meditation, so it can wander deep into the memory and make new connections and hypothesis while doing that (diffuse mode of thinking.). Maybe hobby is a form of mental rest. As there is no pressure of achievement hobby teaches your life is not always about results. So, maybe you should too. Even if you do not win the Nobel price (it is a mathematically impossible task for everyone to win a Nobel price) you might enjoy little bit of your own music today, if you just remind yourself how important you felt just doing that. Albert Einstein — played the violin and piano, particularly enjoying Mozart. Richard Feynman — played drums, drew, cracked safes, and explored different crafts. Alexander Fleming — enjoyed painting as a hobby. Santiago Ramón y Cajal — was an accomplished artist as well as a scientist. Niels Bohr — was interested in philosophy and football. Rabindranath Tagore — wrote poetry, composed music, painted, and worked in many artistic fields; he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kenzaburō Ōe — had strong interests in literature, philosophy, and music. Hobby - reading Dictionary You already enjoy doing this. Play is an essential component in any progressive career. Sometimes you may be restricted by professional boundaries, where you can engage in play while you are at work. Although you have a creative idea, you may not be able to put it into action, as that is a new risk for the company you are working. Do this repeatedly you will lose your enthusiasm for life and opportunity to feel fulfillment. And the work will become boring, hence that is the only thing you are doing for all your adult life, life would be hard and everyone will be hearing your complaints. But with your hobby there is no restriction as such. You already enjoy doing the act. There is no performance anxiety, and there is no risk you shouldn't be taking as there are no rules when it comes to hobby. Any rule you follow is just yours to make and alter as necessary. If you would not know, this is an essential part of any skilled person. The hobby if you are serious can take off, if given enough momentum, like an aero plane. Once it is flying in the sky, you just have to relax and enjoy the sceneries rest of your flight as, long as you are up in the sky. It is when the flight tries to land there would be a crash not while it is in the sky in a smooth flow. Smiles that you create would fill over to other parts of your day. It gives you more opportunities. Imagine two people are climbing mountains. One is a professional climber, a sherpa. And the other one is a hobbyist. Both of them apparently climb the same mountain, same views and same atmosphere, same snow-covered caps rise all around them. Who would you think enjoy most? For the Sherpa, it is work. He is climbing with the responsibility, and this will drain all his mental power throughout the climb. He will have less chance for enjoyment as he is stressed just like a cleark in an office. But for you this is a novel experience and there is no pressure of performance. You will enjoy everything along the way. And this is not the only mountain you climb. Your family life, and your professional life are some other mountains you aim to climb simultaneously. Each will help you to have more opportunities which were not there, as always when you climb a mountain, a rock or even a big tree you will get a bird's eye view of everything surrounding you. You are less confused about destinations and directions you follow. Slowly your hobby will make your day more fulfilling, even if you do not score in your other domains. These are not the only 3 reasons, why should you restart your hobby. But the idea is to motivate you for a start, in few minutes.

Understanding Boredom. Have you ever come home after work, went to the kitchen, and opened the fridge only to find it's empty? You then return to mindlessly scrolling on your phone, and half an hour later, you find yourself back in the kitchen, opening the fridge door again. Which part of your brain didn't register that there's nothing interesting in there, first time around? Perhaps your mind was seeking something engaging, not food. Eventually, you'll do something to break this monotonous cycle. You might think it's abnormal to feel this way—lacking energy and feeling bored for an extended period. However, this is perfectly normal and physiological. It's as if your life is just a cycle of recurring boredom followed by quests. A pattern: Unsplash Boring cycle To find an answer to the question of what to do when you're bored, it's important to understand the cycle of boredom first. When the brain experiences low levels of stimulation, the mind begins to wander and becomes unfocused, leading to feelings of boredom. This wandering thinking mode takes you through tasks, memories, and images from the past, essentially taking a random walk through your memory bank. Once it discovers something rewarding, the mind sets out to recreate that experience. As you can see, this is a very basic and mundane pattern. You get out of bed and move like a zombie through the dining room to open the fridge. You either find something or nothing. Depending on what it encounters, the mind either feels temporarily delighted or temporarily experiences failure and sadness. This feeling will influence your emotions for the next few minutes. Over time, the mind gradually adapts to this sensation and forgets it, and guess what? It becomes bored again, starting a new quest. Sensory deprivation -> Boredom-> quest -> suffering to get it-> happy or sad-> adapt -> Sensory deprivation ->bored again So, what are you going to do when you are bored? As you can see, a boring cycle is almost automatic. You do not have a choice about what comes to your mind. Generally, a default thought that you had previously considered would trigger your next quest and stop the boredom. Yet, something interesting happens when your mind is out of options. Imagine instead you go outside your home and sit on a bench in a park. Here, the environment is different. Yet, your mind is looking for a fridge to open when it is bored on the bench. As there is no fridge, it gives up on this and is now left with nothing but to think about other things banked deep inside your brain, or in front of your eyes, making new connections, generating new ideas, and hypothesizing. And once it finds something very interesting, it will rise up from the bench. Without you even knowing it, you will be rushing out of the park to do the next task, as now the brain has picked up something to seek. Motivation is just aftermath of boredom. A lack of motivation or creativity during your day isn't an issue with your mind. It's a consequence of cutting off boredom too soon, before it can inspire more fulfilling thoughts. If you sit in a chair for half an hour, doing nothing but jotting down your thoughts with a pen and paper—without scrolling or repeatedly checking the fridge—your mind will naturally discover something rewarding to do. The paper in your hand would prove this. I suggest making this your next big experiment. Observe how creative and brilliant your mind becomes when it's truly bored.

The sea and the sailor - essay The sea was immense; it was so boundless that there was no end to it. People claimed there was no edge, that you couldn't sail beyond it. Even If you embarked on a journey with a ship stocked with dried fish, water, medicine and other essentials to survive, for months and years, still you would not reach the edge of the sea and would eventually have to turn back or perish in the vastness. The sea was so vast that such a ship is like an ant trying to conquer Sahara Desert, on bare foot, still the ant would not be able reach complete the journey it in its lifetime. A human with canteens of water filled on a back of a camel might barely be able to survive but the ant would scorch just a few feet from start of its journey, by the relentless sun and its sand melting heat. No one has ever made a map of the vast mighty sea. The sailor The sea was deep, so deep that even if a hundred British ships were stacked vertically, they wouldn't reach halfway to the bottom. No one knew its true depth. If you dropped a stone tied to a rope, it would never hit the bottom, and the weight might even drag the ship down. It's in these deep waters that the sea appeared calm on the surface, much like people deeply lost in thought who seem calm outwardly. It's like a focused athlete breathing slowly before delivering a powerful punch to a noisy opponent. These deep waters were the most turbulent when unleashing their power. When storms disturbed the surface, it was these depths that raised the highest waves, rivaling the Himalayas in size. The sea was lively and colorful, like a rose garden in the royal palace of a Roman emperor who conquered half the world to bring home the most vibrant and delicate roses, cared for by the best botanists, planted in their native soil, and nurtured to bloom in an unfamiliar setting for the prince's pleasure. The sea was teeming with schools of fish of various shapes and sizes, crustaceans, sea snakes, aquatic birds, reptiles, whales, dolphins, seals, penguins, seahorses, turtles, and octopuses. It was filled with plants, corals, rugged beaches, and smooth ones, with dangerous lion's mane jellyfish lurking to capture fish with their venomous tentacles. The sailor was wise; beyond his youth, he had a beard and curly grey hair. His forehead and cheeks were lined with wrinkles from the wind and toil of countless voyages. His hands were rough, his muscles as firm as bronze statues in a Greek city. His grip was strong and unwavering, able to hold on for hours without a twitch. He wasn't born this way; he was a gentle child shaped by the harsh paths he had traveled. His heart was heavy with regrets and the harsh punishments he endured for his life's actions and inactions. He loved the sea, evident from the faint smile that appeared around his eyes when the sea breeze touched his weathered cheeks. But the sailor was blind. His eyes, once fixed on the horizon he loved to watch, could no longer see the sun setting in the sky, and he had no hope of seeing it again. His days were filled with darkness, which only heightened his love for the sea in his mind, as there were no distractions from the sky. He could only envision the sea in his mind's eye. He knew its vastness, its depth, its vividness, not just from others' accounts but from years of experience. He could feel the breeze carrying the touch of its surface. He could hear the splashing water inviting him to swim. But he was on a ship, stranded in the middle of nowhere, yet it provided shelter. He knew he couldn't survive in the sea, even with sight, and now he was blind. The sailor was last seen on the upper deck, leaning against the railing one afternoon in the cold October dusk. A cold wind blew, and a thundering storm followed that night. He was never seen again, and he was forgotten within a week. People were content that he was gone.

Why do you feel disconnected from yesterday? Think about yesterday. What did you do? Did you plan some activities and did not follow through? Did you set your goals and could not achieve them? Does yesterday feels disconnected from today? Does every day feel like it is a new beginning and you cannot get over into a momentum and flow? There is good news, and that it is never your fault. All or non-neurons Why it is never your fault, is an important philosophy. That is due to the inherent nature of our mind. Human mind is dealing with binary data, yes, just like a computer CPU. Your mind runs through many impulses per day, even neurons in your brain follow an "All or non-law" And with these discrete experiences, brain tries to prepare a story for yesterday. As an example, what you think about yesterday is wrong. You just have few haphazard memory points in your brain as experiences. Trust me, these are very few of what happened and what you felt throughout the day. The problem is there is no way we can understand the continuity of yesterday, Other than by jumping back and forth within these data points. yesterday Tragedy of mind Tragic is unless you deliberately create chronological order and peg all your experiences in your brain it is unlikely that this happens naturally in your brain. Trust me there is a great importance in doing this. I know you like a messy desk and a mixed colors on your palate as it sparks your creativity. But meaningful work and meaning from work arise, when those chaotic experiences are streamlined. Why do you think most of the things made by humans run in rows and columns? Think about a vegetable plot, an assembly line, or chairs in a movie theater. Keeping the order against while the forces of nature (entropy) acts in opposite direction is not an easy task. But paradoxically it is very habit forming and also an easy task as you have been doing just that all day every day. You have done this before. If you played video games, had a chat in a WhatsApp messenger and Facebook. Even done some doom scrolling on your YouTube app. You have been creating the illusion of continuity by creating saved values. Saved value is what happens when each time you judge tiny thing as important and peg it with a like, a subscription and even an archive of messages. This archive of "Your" saved values act as an memory location which you cannot get rid of. Whenever you come back, they will, instantly create the illusion of continuity, feeling of familiarity and value. And this is the same method you should be using for your own creative endeavor. Creating the illusion of continuity in your life. Chose few projects you can come back repeatedly. A body of writing, painting, a garden, a personal philosophy discussion. And focus on the coming back habit. Whenever you return think "This is where I left off yesterday". Once you come back know exactly what you are doing during 20 following minutes. Something like 5 minutes for brainstorming, and 15 minutes of creative writing. Make sure you add to the saved value from yesterday, instead of starting new again today. Idea is to plant a seed in the brain which feels like it is growing day by day, not to plant a seed and not care for it. And go on planting another one. If you do that instead, you will never reap a crop. And once you finish, just relax and breathe and enjoy the feeling of continuity for a while before you fill your day with the rest of the things. This will create the continuity in your life, a fulfilling experience. I know this sounds a lot hard. Although it is 20 minutes, although it is a single task, there are lot more things you should be thinking about before you even start doing it. As your motivation and willpower after reading this article would not remain same, tomorrow. So, the task should be designed in such a way, that saved value is enough for you to return to it. Once you get the hang of how to do it, you can fill your day with tiny things which create continuously enjoyable day. As, what you did enjoy yesterday doing is certainly would make sense to repeat today, especially when you feel and notice something is growing. Few things you can try. Mandala technique Coming back habit. Commonplace book

Why I wish I had a mentor? Because life is short, and there is not much of it to live, yet it demands so much to accomplish, I wish I had a mentor. Not just when I am stuck with a domain-specific problem, in a narrow field where I cannot even stretch my arms and free my legs, but I wish I had a mentor to know the places where I should go, instead of struggling to find peace. Who would teach me to create my own pothole of mud in a field, to escape the constant attack of life's flies, if I were a buffalo. Who would teach me how to wag my tail and enjoy munching a mouthful of grass amidst the chaos of life. As I am inexperienced, anxious, and isolated when it comes to insecurities, I feel unsure about how to spend the rest of this life. Am I even doing the correct thing, which is judged by myself at the end of life? Or am I just wasting my time chasing rabbits that run away from me? Would a kind-hearted mentor provide me with insight and tips to make my pretty boring, ordinary life an unimaginably happy affair effortlessly? Not by falsified advice but by example, would he/she not guide me? Why should you have a mentor? Imagine you're an elite athlete. At some point in your professional career, beyond basic skills and regional tournaments, you would need a mentor to push you an extra mile into the national and international level. I am not talking about your coach. I am talking about someone who would inspire you, be compassionate about your progression, and only wish good for you, with relevant background experience in what you're experiencing, to identify and foresee your limitations, and to help you safely navigate across the unknown waters. Someone full of character like a pilot who trains pilots, a navigator who instructs a captain of a ship, a panel of advisors to a ruthless dictator. Would you not want such a person to exist? I am not talking here about self-help gurus who try to scavenge on your success. I am talking about a victorious person who has nothing but to give to society what he experienced in life, with the generosity of a philanthropist. A mentor: https://unsplash.com/@joshsonnenberg Advantage of having a mentor. Advantages are many. In early life, we were like a bunch of kids thrown into pools and asked to swim; if not, we would drown in life. We were like dandelions floating in the air, looking for fertile grounds to plant our seeds and grow our roots. If anyone was present during these golden days, we wouldn't waste our time. Someone who picks up our character and channels our positive energy into unexpected routes we did not even think possible. Consider Usain Bolt, the fastest 100-meter runner on the planet. If you screen all the people on earth for their running ability, you would at least find 100 more men and even a few women who can run faster than Bolt. These are the odds, but all those talented individuals are doing something without living up to their full potential, as they do not have guidance. They lack some ingredient in their soup, which they can never know without the fourth-dimensional look from an external interpreter. A mentor would just give that, as he/she is someone more experienced than you, has lived more life than you, and has more domain knowledge, which is transferable from other disciplines. Company, inspiration, advice, and non-judgmental feedback which you're free to follow if deemed true. (At the end of the article, you will find a full list of roles of a mentor - AI generated) How to find a mentor? You may have someone in your mind whom you wish to have as your mentor. But this is only a potential unless you act upon it. They are busy, they value their time, but if you are keen on building, most good mentors are approachable. You just need to ask relevant questions specific to your problem. Without asking "Can you be my mentor?" which is a huge commitment for them, you can ask, "I am working on this project, or becoming this in the future, is there any insight you can provide me from your experience?" This will give them the value of status, which someone cannot buy from a market. I am sure not many people would turn down such a request unless they are really busy or occupied. But not everyone is capable of teaching or guiding, so when they speak, you will have to be wise and choose what appears relevant for your path. Instead of one, you can have a board of mentors for your career, technical aspect, intellectual, creative, and business endeavors. What if You cannot find a mentor? Is there alternative? I would say a mentor is an asset that is irreplaceable. Because we are all biased in our own narrative, only an external observer can provide us with a bird's-eye view. However, the best alternative, I would say, is to read books written by them, read biographies, and study interesting people from the past. Critically analyze your own day each and every day, as if you are viewing from a distance outside your own ego, trying to figure out how others see you. If you ask your friends an honest question while having dinner, they will definitely give a critical analysis of your situation. Although these actions are helpful, they are not as sustainable as having a mentor. A mentor is like an emerald you dig up from deep underground and hold onto until you die, as they provide value to your life in many ways. AI generated list of advantages of having a mentor (Looks comprehensive :) Shortens the learning curve You can learn from someone else's years of experience instead of making every mistake yourself. Provides perspective When you are stuck in a problem, a mentor can look at it from outside and offer a different way of seeing it. Helps you avoid mistakes They can warn you about common mistakes before you encounter them. Challenges your thinking A good mentor doesn't simply agree with you. They may ask, "Why do you think that?" or "Have you considered this possibility?" Provides accountability Telling someone your goal can make you more likely to actually work toward it. Helps identify your weaknesses You may not notice your own blind spots. A mentor can point them out constructively. Builds confidence Knowing that someone experienced believes you can improve can make difficult goals feel more achievable. Offers practical knowledge Books can teach principles, but mentors can explain how those principles work in real situations. Helps with important decisions A mentor can help you examine the consequences of different choices without necessarily making the decision for you. Expands your network Experienced mentors may introduce you to people, organizations, opportunities, or communities you wouldn't otherwise encounter. Shows what the future can look like Seeing someone who has already travelled part of the path gives you a concrete example of what is possible. Provides emotional perspective During setbacks, a mentor can remind you that failure, uncertainty, and slow progress are often normal parts of development.

Tech Addict I am addicted to screens and technology. Just like you, I am a zombie to the algorithms. It is not my fault, as these tech companies like FB, Google, and Microsoft have spent billions of dollars researching human behavior and hijacking our natural thought patterns and boredom cycle to feed new information they want directly into our brains. So, let's be careful not to lose our happiness to someone else's dream. However, counteracting this force is also possible if we become choosy in what we are going to search, look at, and remember. This is why I bombard my blog every day with new ideas that are worth remembering, instead of calisthenic ads. My record keeping habit Everyone needs record keeping. If you are going to be a king, there must be a record of all your peasants, taxpayers, and numbers of soldiers, their place of living, etc., etc. Otherwise, your memory will not suffice. Part of any professional body is to maintain good records; otherwise, sophisticated systems cannot function. So, if you are trying to live a life, other than like a monk, you need records to keep everything in line. Memory is notoriously unreliable, and every civilization started with some form of record keeping at its core. So, when I started writing this blog, I needed a place to keep my thoughts as they would arise in unusual places, like in the bathroom or when out for a walk. It seems the phone was the correct place to go, so I saved these thoughts on the phone in a note app. It was a harmless habit at first. Other than ease of access, there was no advantage over a book. But recently, I have noticed that this system has more problems than a traditional book. So, I moved to pen and paper. pen and paper: https://unsplash.com/@atelierbyvineeth Why I moved to pen and paper. These apps are too complicated; a simple notebook is elegant by design. There are no unusual pop-ups demanding your attention when your book is open in front of you, but with the phone, I would always end up watching YouTube after 5 minutes of writing. There are so many other apps demanding attention that there were not enough times per day I was motivated to open the note app. The pen and paper feel remarkably physical. After a few days of continuous journaling, I can see ideas in my brain have skyrocketed in number. There are so many things that I have noted down, that during the day, I often come back to it to savor myself with a thought. I can call it a treasure trove, a fertile ground, and a philosophical garden. Part of the reason why lies in its structure. I can flip through an entire month of thoughts in a few seconds. Every thought is in a designated place, and I can create maps and connections of ideas, as they are all there staring at me each time I open the book. Naturally as it is very rewarding act to put it on paper, it has become a habit. I can literally see the notebook is getting bigger each and every day creating an illusion of continuity. I would not go back to the notetaking on the phone. I am sure, if you are a person, you should do the same. Let us give less opportunity to these tech scammers, to steal our time. A book is a proper place for a thought to be planted. I wonder it would become a forest in a decade.

Rosy, Red received a gift for her birthday last year. It was a set of dominos. They were colorful, with all the seven rainbow colors. And there were some colors which were not even in rainbow. Like brown and black and white. Rosy loved to play with them in the living room. And when she did, she made the whole living room available for her. But she had a problem. Before she puts her last domino on the line something would happen most of the time. There would be a wobble, and accidently a domo would fall. Mostly the one she is trying to put straight. And dominos, they do fall one after the other. And everything would fall before she finished building them ! Dominos "Ah they fell again" She cried. "I can't do it, that was almost the last domino. I wanted to see it fall when I hit it." She felt deeply unsatisfied inside. "Dominos are meant to fall, that is why they are called dominos" Father said. He was reading a book on the couch occasionally watching Rosy play. "I know, but I wasn't ready. It always falls accidently and it takes so long to build again" "Maybe you should be more careful when you do the last pieces" "I WAS careful. I was very careful. It still falls. Father, can you help me?" "Hmmmm.." "Maybe you should pause, and keep gaps" "What do you mean keep gaps?" "Let me show you Rosy" So, father got off from his comfy couch finally to help Rosy with her dominos. This time he kept gaps in between streaks of dominos. And Ooops, one was wobbly and fell. Half of the dominos fell. But half remained in formation, as there was a "PAUSE" "That's great! shouted Rosy with excitement. Everything did not fall due to the Gap. Now I get it!" "There you go Rosy. You just have to fill the gap, at the very end, so you have less chance to knock it all at once." So Rosy kept working with her dominos, until she was bored and went to the kitchen to bother her mother again. And at night she wrote in her Diary about GAPS. GAPS: GAPS are spaces we keep when we build long streaks of dominos. Father told me how to keep a gap. So, when dominos fall accidentally, which happens a lot of times, they stop at gaps. I wonder where else I should keep gaps? Maybe I will come back and write it here when I see one again. I will made the biggest train of dominos because of the GAPS today. Lily white stories by MML Dominos

-lily white story - Once upon a time there lived little Rose. She lived by the river with her family. As they lived far away inside the woods, she was lonely. There was no one to play, no one to talk. So, she used to walk to the river and talk to herself. She talked about stars, The moon at night, she talked about the trees and butterflies. She talked about her loneliness. And one day, a fish came to her feet, and he spoke. "Oh my dear, Little Rose. Would you be my friend? Hearing your stories and pretty songs, I wanted to be your friend." Rose was surprised. She had never seen a talking fish. But she was enormously happy that he could talk. She jumped in joy and spoke. "Of course, my lovely little fishy friend, you are my friend from this moment on. What is your name?" Rose by the window "I am Freddie, I am one-of-a-kind fish." So, the Freddie the one-of-a-kind fish and Rose became friends. And they met almost every day by the river and talked about things and neither of them were lonely anymore. As time went by, one evening when Rose was about to go to the river, there came a thundering storm. It got dark like the night, and it started to rain and wind, started to blow. Trees swayed this way and that way. And Rose could not leave the house to meet her friend. She sat on her bed by the window and with a sigh looked at the water that flowed down the gutters. A rainy day Rain and thundering did not stop next day. Even day after that. And she forgot how many days she was stuck inside the house. Rose was lonely again. And after so much rain, the river started to overflow. Little by little water spread along the riverbank and in a matter of hours, it reached the window of Little Rose's home. And guess who came swimming along with the flood!. It was Freddie the One-of-a-kind fish. Rose was so happy having seen her friend by her window. After all, this was the first time Freddie came to visit her. They had loads and loads of things to talk about. Rainy day was not lonely anymore. So, once the flood water went down again, after rain stopped, Rose went to her father and made a gutter from the river to her window So Freddie could visit her any day he wanted. And they were never lonely again.

Ever since her mother made crepes for Lily she wanted to make them on her own, whenever she was hungry. So, the other day she wrote down the recipe on her diary. And kept it with her. One Saturday, she wanted to make some crepes. First, was to melt some butter into a bowl. That was easy, she just cut some butter put it in a bowl and heated it in the oven. Second was to crack an egg to another bowl. She hit the egg with back of the knife just like her mother asked to do. Kept it over the bowl and cracked it open with fingers. Oppps! suddenly the egg cracked with force and egg was spilled everywhere except into the bowl! Crepes :https://unsplash.com/@maxniceman "Oh dear" Mother said sympathetically, and Lily was sad. "Egg is spilled all over my frock, and on the floor, and I ruined your cooker mom. It is everywhere!" "Do not worry dear, why don't you go to the bathroom and change your dress, we will crack another egg" So, Lily white cleaned herself and let her mother crack the eggs and mix the ingredients. She did not want to do it anymore as she was very sad. "I am never going to crack the eggs; it is so hard!" So, Lily did not, crack the eggs next time they made crepes, or waffles, or anything which needed eggs to be cracked. It was about a fortnight later, they were at the kitchen, and this time Lily wanted to crack the eggs again. She had almost forgotten last time, what disaster it was to spill eggs all over the kitchen. And she cracked an egg and this time it was far worse. The egg was broken again with so much force that it even went on her hair. She had a full change of clothes and a bath, before eating "Mom made" crepes again. And she told rosy "I am never going to crack eggs ever again". "Oh, Lily that was just an accident, I want you to learn how to make crepes. So, we can make them whenever we are hungry. Grandma doesn't know how to make them, so when Mom is not there, we can do it with her" "Hmmmm... I will think about it. I will try one more time. Cracking eggs is the hard part!" So, in a few days, Lily was seen in the kitchen with her father this time. She wanted to show him how to make crepes. And once again she tried to crack an egg into the bowl. Blooooob... The egg did crack this time, half went into the bowl with butter, quarter of it on the floor and quarter of it spilled all over Lily's dress and even on her face. And it was a rotten Egg ! It was stinky like a dead rat. Lily was crying and everyone tried to console her. Rosy was looking at everything from the dining room with her nose closed. It was the worst of all. Project crepe was an utter failure. They stopped working in the kitchen. Father ran a bath on Lily and sprayed water on her, like she was a puppy. Half and hour rubbing with all kinds of soap did not make the odor go away. It took almost one day for it to completely gone. "I am never going to make crepes again" She was sobbing and crying. "I think you should try again Lily" "Why?, it is going to happen again" Lily said. "I know it is going to happen again, but what is the worst can happen? You have cracked a rotten egg! There is nothing worse than that. If you want to make crepes. I guess there is no way out. YOU NEED TO CRACK YOUR EGGS! " "Hmmmm.." It was only after another two weeks Lily finally cracked her own eggs, completely into the bowel. And she already knew how to do the rest. They did a cooking demonstration to Grandmother next day on "How to make Crepes". There was a note on Lily White's diary, and it was about Crepes. How to make crepes Ingredients 1 cup (125 g) flour 2 eggs 1½ cups (360 ml) milk 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 tablespoon sugar (for sweet crêpes) ¼ teaspoon salt DO NOT PUT BAKING POWDER! Mix the ingredients, until it is smooth. Like mom says, no amount of butter is less or more. And no baking powder. After mixing I ask my mom or dad to cook it for me. Hardest part of making crepes is breaking the eggs. I am getting better at it. It is good that I did not stop after I cracked the rotten egg. Although I feel stinky when I remember it. We love crepes. Me and Rosy would never ever be hungry again when MOM is not here! The best part is how Rosy loves it when I make them instead of mother.

If you want to compare life to a game, baseball would be the one to go with. In baseball rules are simple, in life it is the same. However, the way we should be playing the life game would be slightly different from what happens in a baseball match. You may say, wait a minute. Why am I reading this? Why should I know about rules of the baseball and life? Life is like a baseball game - Scoring with Homeruns. The fact is I do not care, if you like baseball or not. But rules of life we all have to know, as we all are part of it inherently. If you do not trust me, ask Jeff Bezoes. Everyone knows him, and he is kind of a modern legend. He did talk about life as a baseball game. "In baseball, if you hit a home run, maximum you can score is four runs. But in business if you hit a home run, it could mean 100 points, 1000 points or even a billion." If you feel like demotivated to get up from the bed, to work on your start-up or engage in a new skill. Even to stop scrolling and start reading when you have five minutes of free time, remind yourself of a homerun. The fact that you haven't scored a home run ever doesn't mean it is not a possibility. As future is formulated by steps you have taken today. So that creative project you have been thinking all your life is the correct thing to do. Baseball How to hit homerun every time you play. Is it possible to hit a homerun in every play? Yes, it is. As in life compared to baseball you get unlimited number of throws. There is no strike-out rule in life. This is a very important rule to remember. It talks about being consistent, repetitive and iterative in what you're doing. As there are unlimited number of swings you can take, and if you are prepared to swing at ball after ball, continuously throughout your career without giving up with reasons of failure, ultimately, you will hit a home run. It is just a mathematical probability. The odds of you hitting a homerun would increase rapidly after a certain period of time, just like boiling water. Once your skills developed enough energy and momentum, it will take off like Space X origin. The trick is to know this outcome beforehand and keep swinging at every ball the life throws at you. So, what are these unlimited opportunities? Every day you wake up is an opportunity to do something, you love doing. Making someone else happy and sharpening your creative edge. Every spare hour you have in a day is an opportunity for you to read about something you always craved to do. With vast experience databank, things will start to make sense if you are willing to put an effort. Give something for your mind to work on every day. If you are a writer, every day is an opportunity to write. If you are a singer every day is an opportunity to compose great music. If you are an athlete every day is great opportunity to train your muscles and brain. Make sure whatever you are trying to do has no upper bound to it. If you foresee, a limitation, on your maximum score of a homerun, you may move onto a different game altogether (Power law). It is like changing a broken bat. But your swings are going to be with same enthusiasm, and power. What happens if you do not swing? Well, nothing bad. Your team would lose. You will be scoreless in life. But you will never regret that you haven't swung at every opportunity when you could have done. The perfect ball comes really fast and there is only a split-second time for you to swing at it, unless you are skilled by enough failed attempts you will not connect it with enough power (Champion Mentality). Forget all the opportunities you have missed. Start from today, I can guarantee you the future is going to be far more entertaining than watching a batter who leaves ball after ball in fear. So, are you ready to play some baseball today? :)

Rosy, red was bored. She was smart but had a habit of watching too much television. When it is turned off, that was when she really felt bored. Her toy basket was full of stuff that she didn't use anymore. Boring stuff. She had plenty of unread books on her shelf, but she was too bored to pick any of them. It wasn't rainy last night she could walk outside - But she was too bored. So, she sat on the couch and started complaining. Mother was cooking in the kitchen. "MOM, I am bored." "Why don't you play with your sister". "She is doing her homework, and there is nothing for me to do." She was still complaining when she opened the fridge for 20th time of the day. There was nothing new in the fridge, just like in her life. Last time she was not bored was when she went a safari into the woods Looking for Elephants! How strange, there are no safaris and elephants at home. Not in the fridge anyway! Safari Elephants "What am I supposed to do? I finished all MY homework. And father doesn't bring us a pet, even if I said that 1000 times. Maybe a pet is Just what I need not to be bored." "Boring is actually Good Rosy. Do you know what I do when I am bored?" "What do you do when YOU'RE bored mommy?" "I sit on a chair with a pen and paper, stay being bored for a while" "Ok, then what happens" "You know Rosy, being boring is actually good. It is like having an empty canvass. You can start doing anything, when you are bored, you just need to give time it to figure out what to do" "I don't understand" "JUST SIT ON A CHAIR WITH A PEN AND PAPER. You will understand what I am saying" And off went Rosy red. She sat in her doll house with a pen and her diary. And she wasn't seen complaining more on that day, she was very busy and silent. She was seen searching for a Map of the World on her bookshelf, nobody knew why. She didn't tell anyone anyway. Looked like she knew how to stay Bored ! Forever. This is a part of her diary, the boring stuff that she wrote. Boring.. Boring.. Boring.. Boring.. La la la la la... La la la la la.. Boring.. Boring.. Boring.. Boring.. La la la la la.. La la la la la.. I wonder what Lily White is doing? Where is my Big coloring book? I used to love painting boats in it. And what is that noise coming from outside. I really want to go and check it out But I am still bored. Maybe a little less now. La la la la la.. Maybe I should write a story. That was fun last time I did it. Maybe I will write another story like Izzy and Nizzi I wonder Izzy ever came back home. What was that thing father said yesterday? hmmmmm He said Greenland is not so green. I wonder where Greenland Is Maybe I should check on the map book

Mind is a stupid machine. Trust me, earlier I thought mind is a brilliant machine. That can identify everything, even engage in abstract thinking like mathematics, and quantum physics, until I saw some scientists teach a group of pigeons how to diagnose breast cancer, in the accuracy of a qualified pathologist. Mind seems to be a stupid machine with a pigeon brain. The average random access memory capacity to remember something is about seven seconds. But I agree it is remarkable in some ways, as human brain is capable of making connections with those seven second memory locations than any other animal. As long as there are enough things previously memorized this process of pegging new information to older ones will happen throughout anyone's life. new information -> pegged to old information What is seen, read, and heard, is what is pegged. At the front end of this stupid machine, we have sensory doors to acquire new information. These seven-second-long bits of information is compared against the old information, if it makes sense, it will be pegged immediately, if not discarded immediately. In this regard we can say mind is efficient. Creating enough base knowledge is difficult (we call this schema). Especially when it is abstract. This is why children take ages to understand some information, which takes few hours for an adult to master. So, if you want to remember something, a piece of information, you have to make it relevant by thinking about its importance. This little step of trying to make connection is the actual learning. Mind Mapping: https://unsplash.com/@charlesdeluvio What is processed is what is pegged and mapped in the brain What is thinking? Thinking is nothing but processing previously pegged items in your brain. When nothing new comes into the front end of the stupid machine, it takes one item from the previous basket of items and jiggle around it with few more items. Once it makes connection it registers this back in memory locations. You can enhance this process by putting things on paper and drawing connections manually, as mind is not a big canvass to do it all by itself, a little bit of visualization would help. This process is called mind mapping. Exactly mimic what happens inside our brains. Fundamentally mind mapping is not about information, it is about connections and their relative importance. These are higher order thinking abilities everyone should have if they wish to get good output after thinking. (blooms taxonomy) Process of pegging -> making connections / mapping. What is processed is what manifested as identity and behavior change Something remarkable happens at the end of this process. Once you have gained enough information and juggled with it enough times the process of retrieval becomes very easy. After some time when new information is met at the front end of the machine, the mind will easily make connections, and it becomes a positive feedback loop. Whenever there is a similar problem which needs similar answer, mind will pick up clues, and your problem-solving ability will efficient and faster. These happen automatically, but you have the ability to choose what information goes in (by making sure to engage in new and relevant subjects) and also by improving the process of thinking by helping mind to map. Slowly the information will start to change your behavior and make your life, measurably better each year, making your new year resolutions a reality. mapped relevant information -> gets retrieved at correct times -> changes behavior