100 Paths

I’ve quit my job, and what I am going to miss most is the opportunity to be a mentor (not just a boss). I have cherished my ‘Monday tips’ sessions with the boys and girls at my office, and they’ve made me promise to write them down if not speak them out every week. So here’s my first of the lot, my Monday tips to my former team across the Internet, instead of real life.

1. A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow. – George Patton

A dear friend of mine was sharing her ideas for scaling up her enterprise, which is just a year old but has been getting great feedback from her clients. She was worried about the amateur quality of the videos and photos she has clicked, and the lack of a professional marketer to handle her social media. She said she needed lakhs of rupees to achieve that level of perfection before she could begin to scale up.

I shared this quote with her, and told her: “If you wait for perfection, you will wait forever.” Besides, I said, there’s nothing wrong with being a little imperfect in today’s fluid economy. The vendor who can give you a human touch is increasingly a rarity at a time when everything you read on your timeline appears hyped, polished, fake. Our imperfections are our strengths. Your non-Photoshopped promos will be far more appealing to genuine clients, and you don’t want the other kind anyway. Start with whatever resources you have – your internet-savvy kids, your knowledge, your skills, your friends – and just do it. The best time to begin anything is today. (Which is why even though I haven’t put much thought into how I want to structure these Monday tips, I decided to just go ahead and post whatever I had today, instead of waiting till next week.)

2. You build a new body every eleven months. Change your body by changing your thoughts and keeping them changed. – Dr Joseph Murphy in ‘The Power of Your Subconscious Mind’

Our bodies are the matter of our minds. Ancient wisdom and modern science tell us that we become what we constantly think about. In this book, the author says our body is made up of lots of individual cells, which reproduce by passing on the knowledge, so to speak. The genetic material that is passed on includes our ‘habitual thinking patterns’. So we have a great opportunity at any given time to look, feel and become whatever we want by literally brainwashing ourselves that we are already there. Keep saying ‘I am happy and complete’ and you will be so. Keep saying ‘I am useless and sad’ and you will be so too.

And it’s not just psychological states of mind. You can even change your body with consistent thought patterns; everything moves in the direction of the intention. Some physical changes can take longer than others, but they will happen if you are firm about it, if you believe that it is true. Haven’t we heard stories of people who were healed overnight by a saint’s miracle? What is that all about? It’s about the direction of the intention, the strength of the belief and the consistent, new thought pattern. It’s not that I cannot become slim in real life – I just haven’t thought myself into it yet!

3. Everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end. – character in the film ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’

John Lennon said something similar, and we also have a variation of this quote in Hindi. It’s a universal belief – that life is meant to have a happy ending, and if things aren’t looking so hot, don’t worry, a twist in the tale is around the corner and things will brighten up soon. I know we’ve all been through a lot lately and life seems to be upside down for most of us. But remember, ‘this too shall pass’. What does the heart-monitor look like when a person is alive? The graph jumps up and down. That’s life – it’s meant to go up and down, that is the beauty of it. Don’t expect every day to be consistent, for everything to look the same. The only time the monitor of our lives will be a straight line is when we’re dead!

Keep the faith and repeat this quote to yourself daily; things will begin to look up. I promise.

Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.