Month: December 2023

 

” My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again “- Richard Branson

 

Contrary to public perception, acceleration can also happen by taking the foot off the gas pedal. A marathon is never run on full flat out mode from start to finish. By doing that, you also take the risk of hurting yourself. The undulations include planned decelerations and accelerations. That way, you have a far greater chance of finishing the race rather than drop out mid way.

 

 

The opportunities for change and growth comes during periods of acceleration and deceleration. When you are on full stretch mode all the time, the shortcuts, the potential, the synergies, the opportunities etc get overlooked. A one dimensional outlook of being at full tilt all the time is like missing the wood for the trees.

 

A state of high alert(which is what being at full stretch demands) deprives us of the opportunity and the flexibility to ramp up or scale down based on context or situation. We short change ourselves in the process.

 

 

The ‘ jury for productivity ‘ in the court of modern life would have us believe that being at full stretch is the need of the hour, every hour. Don’t fall for it.

 

 

Burnout is not a badge of honour!

 

 

ENDS

 

 

Psychology 101 would have this to say ” The brain remembers what it least expects, so deliver the unexpected “.

 

 

If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail. If one were to give into the naughtiness of phonetics, the word surprise itself ends with prise (easily identifiable as prize). Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

 

 

A stream of beautiful experiences remain hidden in the untried, the untread, the unexplored. Be it an unusual concept car parked in a mall, a work of art, a new item on your restaurant menu, the conversation that you have with your daughter..distill them from the routine and see the essence that stands out. When we begin to wear a lens that looks at things NOT in the way you think it to be but in the way it actually is, without any bias or prejudice, pleasant surprises begin to present itself.

 

 

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” – Ellen Burstyn

 

 

A quick Pop Quiz – Do you prefer when:

 

A) Things go according to plan?

B) When the unexpected happens?

 

Most of us pick control and predictability. Yet research reveals a counterintuitive truth: surprise is the key that unlocks growth, innovation, and connection. It is also the secret ingredient in our best memories.

 

 

Surprise is perhaps the world’s least understood and most intriguing emotion. Shifting our perception of surprise lets us thrive in the face of uncertainty. Surprise acts as a shortcut that turns a typical product into a meaningful experience, a good idea into a viral one, awkward small talk into engaging conversation, and daily life into an adventure.

 

 

Our understanding of predictability needs an upside down look. Embrace the unpredictable and engineer the unexpected.

 

 

Ready to be surprised?

 

 

ENDS

 

 

” Everybody is entitled to her own nostalgia “- James Wolcott

 

 

Nostalgia has this strong fixation with the status quo. The fetish for things to remain the same. Mired in the belief that the past was perfect. Are you sure?

 

 

Disintermediation is nature’s strategy. Something that is unstoppable. Culture changes, technology advances, people’s expectations change- and the old gives way to the new and gets left behind, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.

 

 

It is not just the gadget brands( of course they resort to planned obsolescence ). Everything comes with a shelf life. The technology that we are struggling to come to terms with now will soon be a relic as something new will invariably replace it. Moving on from the past is a given certainty, whether it is moving on for the better remains a question.

 

 

Nostalgia is a beautiful lie dressed up in sepia…the saddest form of glee. It is, be definition, the least authentic of all feelings, an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories.

 

 

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson; you find the present tense but the past perfect. Where we often visit the land of lost content, you see it shining plain, the happy highways where you went and cannot come again. The vice of the aged, a seductive liar..a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or some of some past period or irrecoverable condition.

 

 

Nostalgia and a growth mindset are at loggerheads, so it is not a Hobson’s choice. Nostalgia is the enemy of optimism..

 

 

Either you believe nostalgically that the best years were in the past..or you believe optimistically that the best years are in the future.

 

 

Time to go past the past!  Knowstalgia?

 

 

ENDS