nlightened.me

“God does not play dice….”

This famous quote from Einstein has always intrigued me. He of course said it in reference to Quantum Mechanics and the randomness it implied in nature. But the unintended consequence of his quote was sparking a quest within me of articulating what my Life Mantra is. A mantra not as some sacred connotation but more as learnings and experiences that help me govern my life. In many ways they are sacred to my life and define me. But unlike religious mantras that tend to be absolute, mine will hopefully evolve.

So, do we even need a mantra in life? Is life not best enjoyed in serendipity? A mantra doesn’t have to be a substitute to serendipity, on the contrary it can be complementary to   life governed by choices and chance. This thought is liberating and inspires me to make choices that open up new unseen chances & opportunities. So what are these choices that form the construct of my Life’s Mantra?

Lead Life Intentionally

This mantra is about having a Leader’s mindset. We can either go through life or grow through life and both are choices. A positive choice like leading my life intentionally helps me take responsibility as well as always seek inwards for shaping the direction of my life. This thought resonates beautifully with the last verse of William Henley’s famous poem Invictus where he states “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. Each time I adopt this mindset, opportunities arise from the fog of uncertainty. The only training such a mindset requires is of the mind, because we are conditioned to believe that things & events happen to us rather than life being a collection of a number of small and consequential choices. Visualise life like a game of Jenga; the choices we make lead to a new events, sometimes slowly and sometimes in a flash.

The Portfolio Approach

There are many aspects to our lives and these are not isolated but interconnected. This mantra helps to give the best across all aspects. My life has 5 key aspects or pillars:

1. Spiritual: The time I give to my inner self. This could be in the form of meditation, introspection or rumination. This helps to bring balance and calm to my life because a strong structure requires a stable foundation. This is the first priority, the rest of the aspects don’t follow any specific order.
2. Fitness: A well rested, nourished and strong body can be a huge multiplier across any and every pursuit. We often under-estimate the role of fitness and this is why we sacrifice sleep, exercise and nutrition for many other immediate gratifications like an extra helping of dessert, an extra hour of unproductive browsing or an extra press of snooze to avoid the morning run. It is now amply clear that fit people start with an advantage across various aspects of life. My fitness goal is not a particular weight or calorie target but to maintain a strong, lean and active body at every age. My workouts, nutrition and sleep are subservient to my fitness goal and adapted to  age.
3. Work: The jobs and vocations we pursue can be great avenues of learning in life. We get to meet new people, learn new crafts, explore our limits, develop meaningful relationships and often find our purpose amidst this. And we get paid to do all this! With such a lens, Work sounds more fun that a bondage. But I still prefer calling it Work because adopting this mindset requires an effort. It is easier to see work as something that you have to do but it is far more rewarding to see work as something that helps you explore & learn interesting facets of life. The short poem My Wage beautifully exemplifies this approach.
4. Family: This group contains all the people who provide us valuable companionship – parents, spouses, children, family members and even close friends. We share our greatest joys and deepest fears with them. It is now proven that longevity depends on social integration as well as social connections; the quality & quantity of our companionships directly impacts our well-being.
5. Pursuits: While our vocation may deliver purpose, it is our avocations that could give us avenues to explore and extend ourselves into new areas, even if briefly. Human expression gets better with constant challenges and pursuits provide such opportunities by constant stimulation.

So this is how my balanced portfolio of life looks, and my greatest returns come when I am able to grow each part of my portfolio over a period of time.

Life Principles

After having defined intentions and pillars of importance, there are certain principles that I have arrived at that drive clarity when things get muddled. While rules tend to be constraining, these principles are liberating. I am sharing a few principles to expatiate further:

1. Live in the Present, Invest in the Future & Learn from the Past: The only moment that we have on hand is NOW and only certainty is that we can make it the best (or not). So don’t dwell on the past or the future, live the moment. The future is to be invested towards; a plan that can get you from here to where you need to go. The past is a great teacher, so learn from the past to get a little better today that you were yesterday.
2. Pay Forward: It is my belief that what I am today is in huge measure to circumstances and people who helped me at critical moments of life. These occasions are far too numerous to list. But that doesn’t mean I can’t express my gratitude. And the best way to do so is to pay forward. Therefore, I try my best to help whoever comes my way. It is not the likelihood of outcome, ease of effort or the kind of person that I decide basis, my only metric is did I try my best.
3. Care about what people who care for you think: A large part of our life goes into worrying and trying to please everyone around us. But when you try to please everyone, you please no one. So how does one decide whose words to heed more versus less? The criteria that works for me is whoever is invested more in me in a larger shareholder to pay heed to by virtue of their investment – this investment is not monetary but the investment of care, love and friendship. This doesn’t mean I ignore the people who don’t fit this criteria, it just means I give more weight to the large shareholders while still listening to the words of the one time investor!

So that was a brief summary of my Life Mantras, the set of beliefs, practices and principles that give me satisfaction and peace of mind. I end here with a serene quote from Buddha

“The mind is everything. What you think you become”