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Good evening!
What a day I've been having. I was to crack this AV script and I could not. I was to call three friends that I haven't spoken to in a while. I could not. I was supposed to do 20 things in the day. I could not do those. I was to work on #book2, I could not.
The day is full of could nots.
Hope your's was better and there were only coulds and no could nots.
And I hope tomorrow is better for me.
A day full of coulds and no could nots.
Could. Could not.
Yes. No.
Black. White.
Come. Go.
Yin. Yang.
Heaven. Hell.
Lemme talk about Heaven and Hell.
So, today's idea of this Heaven and Hell has been inspired by a talk from Dr. Peterson (I can't find the link to the talk despite so much effort).
In the talk, he says that most people tend to make this rosy list of things that they want to achieve with all the hard work that they think that they can put in. Let's call that rosy place at the end of grind Heaven.
You know, you want to publish a book, make a billion dollars, learn how to play the guitar, get that six-pack and so and so forth. Each of those things is like a personal version of respective slices of Heaven. You do whatever it takes to reach there. You hang that large goal, that Heaven on a huge wall and you look at it every day. You make affirmation notes and cards and ask your friends to remind you, so that you get to your heaven.
That heaven becomes your rallying cry. Your entire life gets designed around it. It is that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that you are chasing. You get so obsessed with the idea of your heaven that you can't seem to stop yourself from going in that direction. Anything you do that does not take you closer to your heaven, you abhor it. You become a monster that is trying to breach that heaven. You want it so bad that you can kill for it.
And yet...
Yet most of us can't seem to reach that heaven that has our salvation.
Why?
Because apparently as we grow, we start getting comfortable.
You know, how a room that has AC running at 22 is far pleasant that going for a run in this humid weather. You want to watch a sitcom for just five minutes as you take a break. And who gets up early at 4 AM? And arent nights so romantic? And you know, I just got my monthly salary. Saving can happen next month. Lemme buy that iPhone that I've wanted to buy last month but could not because I bought a TV back then.
Life starts getting comfortable. And that picture of heaven hanging on the wall starts to fade away.
And one of these days, you just forget about it.
Now, Hell, on the other hand, is THE worst thing that can happen to you. If you don't do what you are supposed to do. It is the price that you pay for your inaction. If you don't work out, you will get fat and you will die in your sleep, choking onto your own spit after you get a heart attack. If you dont work hard, you will not be able to give that life of comfort to your loved ones.
Think of the worst that can happen to you. And the way you visualise your success, visualise the failures as well.
Shahrukh Khan, the epitome of success, said, "So I believe the true path to success is through the fear of failure. If you aren’t scared enough of failing, you are unlikely to succeed. It’s not pleasant to fail, it’s tough. All of us experience it. You will too if you haven’t already. So use it to succeed."
Tim Ferriss as well has a take on this. He calls it Fear Setting and he lists the worst that can happen as an outcome of his actions and inaction. Tim's post and TED talk is a fascinating study in fear setting. And thus, a fascinating study in identifying your hell.
For me, hell is a life of mediocrity where I am not challenged on a daily basis.
As we speak, this phase of life, I am the most challenged that I've ever been and this is as close to hell as I can be. And if you see me often, you will know how much I am pushing myself to stay away from the hell. And of course, I am mindful of the heaven I want to seek. So, for me, the two work in tandem.
In fact, I think it is the best situation is when you have the carrot of the wild success and the stick of grandest failure moving you. You move fast. And in a direction.
Identify your heaven.
Identify your hell.
Let them scare you, inspire you and motivate you.
That ladies and gents is the message for the day.
Heaven. Hell.
Oh, and this is what Harshit sent a few months ago. I asked him to pull this out and share...
And if you want to read more on related topics, here are some hand-picked links...
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Thanks for reading about writing!
Till next time,
@saurabh
2050, Starbucks Wall Street (no kidding - there's a building called Wall Street in Mumbai). SoGv2-46.
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TAGS: Fear, Failure, Success, Dr. Jordon Peterson, Larry Smith, Steve Jobs, SRK.
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