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Daily Journal of Life 13.05.23

 

Let Kindness be your North Star

In life, the concept of kindness is more important than success, money, fame, and power. Often, we forget to be kind and become selfish, rude, and harsh on others to achieve the latter.

I have noticed that whenever things don’t happen as I feel they should I get unkind. I get unkind to my driver for not doing a thing a particular way, a motorist gets my wrath for behaving like a dick on the road, and a subordinate may get shouted at for acting smart or disobedient. It is moments when I get irritated or frustrated that I get unkind to people.

We get unkind in our small talk toward our colleagues, bosses, and subordinate. We become unkind to our partners by not apologizing when we should. It is the emotion that is easy to give but difficult to accept.

Being kind is a conscious choice. It is not easy to not pass a slur at someone driving rashly. It is not easy to not get angry when someone gets rude to you. But it is important to know where the other person is coming from. If someone is aggressive in his tone towards you, you may have not acted in the way they expected from you. But by picking up a fight we reinforce their belief that you are at fault. It only leads to a deadlock.

In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, Siddhartha is faced with the anger and wrath of his young son who doesn’t want to live with him. Siddhartha is kind, but he suffers from the torment of his son. He chooses to be kind but suffers. He is a sage who knows the importance of being kind and is ready to suffer than punish his son.

For mere mortals like us, we can choose to not suffer just for the sake of being kind. We can find an alternative to the situation. But being kind in our approach and not becoming embroiled with destructive emotions like anger and hate.

So, the next time you feel disgust and anger towards someone, remember, to choose the tough choice- kindness, over other easier but inferior choices. If all of us choose kindness, we can remove a lot of suffering from the world.

Learnings of the Day

Authority through Building Trust First

I am currently reading “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. Today the key idea learned was how to wield influence by first generating trust.

For a business, if a customer comes and says that the competitor is providing a cheaper product tell them that Yes! the rates may be better there but we are providing quality assurance. We are charging for what our products are- uncompromised quality.

In an interview, if you are faced with a situation where you do not have the knowledge of the subject, it can be stated openly that you do not know this aspect but that you are a quick learner and will perform as expected shortly.

A salesperson can say that yes, the competitor is good or even better in these aspects but then go on to show how his product is good. Now that the customer trusts the salesperson for his openness, he may push the aspects which may not even be true about his product. The customer having increased trust in the salesperson may blindly believe him.

I am reminded of a movie named “Pursuit of Happiness” in which Will Smith goes for an interview and when asked about the technical stuff related to the job, he flunks all of them. He then asserts confidently that he may currently not know this stuff but he will pick up everything in a flash and even be great at it. It shows acceptance of his current knowledge and determination that it is not a thing that he cannot excel at. The interviewer is firstly impressed by the honesty which builds trust and then by the confidence that ultimately influences him to hire Will.

Homework for life

Heard the great news of the permanent commission of Daljit in the Airforce. He got what he wanted. Stable and easy life to follow. Uncertainty goes. He can enjoy Golf, Fauji life, and of course Pension. Great for the family. He deserves it. Realized that stability and certainty are important aspects of life. Happy and proud of him.

Exercise

Strength: Rest Day.

Needed to rest badly as my body had become stiff after 6 days of Gym and Running. It is stiff from many years of workouts and no stretching. The mobility is badly compromised. Went to Dr. Amit at Gurgaon for adjustment. Pohap attended to my assessment.

He stated that I have a stiff hip area which is affecting the Lumber area thus causing pain in my lower back. he said that I have tight Hamstrings with a tight Iliopsoas muscle and restricted hip internal rotation which may be causing the Hip impingement pain. I need to do proper hip mobilization to squat better and get pain-free from Hip impingement. He showed 3-4 Hip opening exercises. 

Frog pose with widened knees and foot placed outwards. Seated Leg Split forward bend holds. Legs up against wall with ankle flexion. Bend legs in lying position moved to sides. Iliopsoas presses.

Rehab: Lock Big 3 at home.

Cardio:  Running

Zone 2-3 Training: 0 mins. For the week 91 mins. Last week 95 mins. Target 180 mins for the week. I will go to Sanjay Vann in the morning and do trail running. Try to complete the challenge tomorrow itself which may be a little challenging.

 

Anything I like to share/ Habit Tracker

Clean for 120 days. Yay  4 months.

Weight today: 87.45 Kg. Target weight 85.40 Kg by 31.05.23.  

Pic of the Day

Nusa Penida, Bali.


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