The Power of LESS

In last few months, I read couple of books on human psychology, Organizational behaviour and motivation. And more importantly I am getting used to hit the last page now. In past, though I read numerous books on these topics, but somehow could not digest the RULE-Book way to live life.

There was one such book "The Power of Less" by Leo Babauta, which I found an easy read because of its simple and practical approach towards de-cluttering one's life from un-necessary stressful objects and habits.

This book deal with handful of principles that could be applied again and again to any life situation; and those principles are the core of this book. Some of them I really liked and attempted; especially things like singletasking (avoiding multitasking), avoiding un-necessary use of email and internet, de-cluttering from unwanted things, eliminate every possible distraction and allow you to get in the flow with the task you want to complete.

Having said that, it would be unfair to expect this book to change your life because ultimately it depends on your way of living, thinking and last but not least - your ATTITUDE!

Now I would refrain from writing anything about the core content of this particular book; you can read if you think it would be worth reading. For those who get discouraged by the no-of-pages, it has approx 170 pages and max 6-7 hrs read (don't hurry up thru pages, 6-7 hrs wud be max time).

Now based on all these books, I tried to put myself on observation desk and see how these simple principles can make so much sense in life.

I am definitely not on a mission to do a clinical research on myself, but some of the observations have surprised me big time and thought it worth mentioning here.

I have kept my mobile on silent for almost a week now and observed how many times I received\missed a call which was in a sense distraction as I was not expecting call at that time for whatever reason. There were few calls after midnight too and I had slept before that.

I realized, all after mid-night calls were because of a simple reason - I have made others believe that I don't sleep before darkness prepare to kiss the light. First, I need to learn to respect my time before I expect anyone else to respect it!!

One more thing I found common among such behavioural books, somehow they over emphasizes on changing habits and how to inculcate good habits in life.

Practically, changing a habit may not be always easy; it need great amount of dedication, over the time practice and will to do it.

However, it should not be perceived as an impossible task and most of the times it may not really be as difficult as making Tushar Kapoor act or even Mammohan Singh host a Talk show. Some book talks about 21 days principle which says, "If you try something new for 21 days, it becomes a habit".

Trust me, it’s not a rocket science and very much possible. Don't try to form multiple habits at a time. One at a time; it would work. Just start small and focus on present.

Everyone during one's life time goes through various failure and transitional phases. Sometimes, it becomes so difficult and apparently impossible to get over that phase. It results in the fact - screwed up life".

I was surprised to read that biologically it is normal behaviour to react in an unexpected manner. Further I did retrospect chronologically on some past event and got the answer for most of my insane reactions during those phases.

Meta-thinking. Yeah! Most of the time "meta-thinking" spoils your present, which is nothing but thinking about what you're thinking, and whether you're thinking in the right way, and whether there is a right way... and so on, until you're no longer in the present.

Understanding the human behaviour, at least to some extent, made me realize - such meta-thinking is perfectly normal. We all do that. No need to beat ourselves up about that. No need to get discouraged and loose sanity.

I know I am sounding purely theoretical and it is always easy to say than to do; but my own experience made me believe - If you really want something, you can do it. Had that not been the case, I would not have mentioned here anything even distantly related to those few months. Simple reason, I was over cautious because of those meta-thinking. Should I write here, I might offend someone (even if I don't intend to) and those meta-thinking tore me apart, kept me disconnected from myself for months.

It was little tough to put break on those meta-thinking especially when I did not want to form any conclusion about who so ever was part of that. I just wanted to stop with the fact that it was a plain mistake from both of us. THAT’S it!

Does not a pilot make a mid-air mistake and results in loss of hundreds of life including himself? Doing non-intentional mistake is not a crime at least not big enough to keep losing sanity in life.

It took little time to bring myself over all these but end result is so satisfying and encouraging. People around you definitely help you in your effort but it’s you… only YOU who can bring your smile back from any unpleasing situation.

Only you can motivate yourself and you have to. Life is so beautiful and the medium to enjoy it are infinite. Someone rightly said - "It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives."

It’s nothing about inculcating some fancy thinking just respecting one's own neurological behaviour and believes in oneself.

I don't know how you are feeling after reading this nor I want to bother about; still I would be happy if this helps any one in any manner.

If at all you feel this is just another crap. Congrats! Dude\Baby you are already perfect... BHUJIYA KHAO AND SO JAO.