Quest For You

What percentage of potential would you like to have? This is the question we need to ask ourselves when we decide between risk and reward, between short-term fun and long-term gain. I devised an equation for risks and rewards which shows that the risk is minimized when we look a little harder for the reward that may not yet seem obvious. And that is - our potential.

I am busy. But I am afraid to say so because the somehow the word busy has a bad rep. I look at it a bit closer in this episode and thanks to a recent post by Seth Godin, I have come to terms with busy. It never feels good to the person we are to busy for. But when we are busy, we are, ideally, doing something important. And this has to take priority.

A recent email by meditation guru Light Watkins revealed 4 truths about conflict that I find helpful. Any difficult encounter with a loved one contains these 4 truths and before we jump into judgement, react with strong emotions or make incorrect assumptions, we need to go through these truths. They have the power to redirect the outcome of the conflict into an unexpected direction.

I have learned that most conflicts in my life are my responsibility. I can always make a better effort through my responses, my expectations, and my actions. But we have to do the inner work. We have to look for the lesson in each conflict and then reflect on it. If we are not willing to work on ourselves, conflicts will continue to repeat themselves.

Two recent articles made me reflect on the subjective nature of our experiences. Yet we believe they are the universal wisdom. And the we try to impose our views on others, or fail to listen when they share their experiences that may be different from ours. This episode is a gentle reminder for all of us that just because we know its true, its not true fro everyone else.

When you allow your mind to pick the station, it will play whatever it likes. It will take you down memory lanes and before you know it, you're in a bad mood, frustrated, depressed or even angry. 

Our mind is powerful because it can determine how we feel and act. Therefore, it needs to be controlled. Don't allow it to seek whatever it wishes. You decide where you want it to go.

How do we know who to listen to in critical moment - the brain or the heart? Often we dismiss the heart as irrational. But yet, we all at times go by our intuition. Science supports the notion that our heart should be included in our decisions and I share a few tips on how we can balance heart and brain better.

You don't have to start anything. You can wait until the circumstances are perfect, until you feel ready and everything falls into place. Or you can start. Somewhere. Anywhere. With a terrible first effort. But its an effort. And it will get better as you keep refining it.

We argue, we fight, we get all fired up in our often difficult interactions with other human beings. We want to be right and we want to control the outcome somehow. I have found that a simple apology is the best ending to a challenging interaction. While it sound like you are giving in or giving up, an apology allows you to let go of managing the outcome.

When walking on a lonely beach, many of us turn around and admire our footprints in the sand. We admire the path we created. Its the unbeaten path - the one we have not walked before. Thats the one we create because we don't follow someone else's footsteps - we forge our own way.