Well, for that matter Freddie Mercury Must be the coolest dead pop singer. But I am not sure there can be a dozen who come under that category. However, this is about coolest Pop singer alive. I am going to give you a list of facts to prove Mike Posner is the coolest alive. Mike Posner on TEDx -> link Teardrops I am a big fan of TEDx talks. The guys who achieved some success in life come and spread their wisdom, so others can benefit. At least that is what I think about it. Maybe it is also commercialized now. Yet, when Mike Posner appeared on a TEDx stage I was surprised. That is new. For a fact he is a pop singer after all. What does he have to share other than a song? I was wondering. And my doubts were cleared listening half a minute to his speech. He has just travelled all across America on foot, literally 1/8th of circumference of the earth, and despite a rattle snake bite, he has survived and carried on until he saw the sea. A modern forest Gump. You can watch his talk in you tube and I greatly recommend it, as it is wonderful to listen to his sweet voice! For the lazy you I will summaries his five lessons of a happy life in his words here. 5 Lessons of happiness according to Mike Posner - And he had to walk 3000 miles to learn these. 1.) Not all crazy ideas are great, but all great ideas are crazy. 2.) Take one step. 3.) Reasons to not do something are excuses in disguise. 4.) True happiness comes from inside growth. 5.) Do not wait. (To do that you always wish you would do) Imagine this is coming from a Guy, who has become a Pop star not just a one night. With more than one and half a billion views on his best hit " I took a pill in Ibiza" he really had taken that pill and drove a sports car, just because he could. As he had made more than million dollars and fame, just in his twenties. Yet he sang because he did not find happiness he expected. You and me can only imagine the success he has had, if we measure by common values of humans. Why he is who he is? Coolest Pop singer alive I think he had come to realize life is not just making money and being successful according to parameters given by the society, as he had seen enough death around him. Once he talks about death of his close friends, in his circle. His dad died of a cancer; His friend pop singer Avicii died, and the list goes on. And with each death of his close circle of friends and family he comes to realize the life is not just about living in a dream. He was in search of a meaning. From yoga to meditation and climbing Everest! Yes, he has climbed Everest and Wrote a book of poetry by his name Teardrops and balloons (As teardrops turn to balloons when turned upside down). More you look into the life of this guy you are going to be more amazed. Turning to balloons when Turned Upside down. Inspired by his Ted talk I listened to a couple of his interviews with you Tubers. And it is amazing how he discusses his vision of life. And totally unexpected from a Star. Hence, I have no hesitation to label him as the coolest Pop star alive. As an example, in one of his interviews he discusses where he was living in a meditation center totally out of human touch for a couple of weeks. And he describes the moment he got Isolated how his mind started to make lists of things to do. And he had observed this, gone through his mind and he is totally being honest with what he felt. The atmosphere is beautiful as he is just like you and me trying to figure out life, as there is a problem . And I am sure he has achieved more by detaching himself, than trying to attach with things. His next ambition? to contribute to world peace . How cool that is? There are many more cool facts about Mike which I would leave you to find out. But here we will take a moment to contemplate our own lives. Pop singer Thoughts. The peace that you and I possess, that we take for granted is something that many people lack. So called busy elites of our society simply do not have time to relax on a couch or to see a bird singing out of their window. So, let's be mindful about this fact. Not all the battles in life are meant to fight together, and some we have to face ourselves, that we have to get off the roller Coster at some point. I am not asking you to take radical routes like Mike Posner had taken. I am sure he had loads of fans to follow even when he walked across America and was never totally alone except when he needed. Yet, life is a lone affair. We all are born alone, and we all have to face the death alone. And it urges us to be prepared as best as we can. I think Mike should have listened to the Passenger more often, it could have avoided him a long walk and a climb 😁 Be as you are Lyrics. Song -> Link (song starts at 2.30) But in times of trouble I can turn to my mother And I know that she gon' understand So at age 18 I cried to my mother And she told me, "young man" [Chorus] "There are moments when you fall to the ground But you are stronger than you feel you are now You don't always have to speak so loud, no Just be as you are Life is not always a comfortable ride Everybody's got scars that they hide And everybody plays the fool sometimes, yeah Just be as you are"

Since the beginning of this millennium our lives have completely changed with the rapid development of information technology. From a civilization of books and mechanics we have moved into an era of software and AI wars and drone attacks. How many of us are involved with this coding, and teaching our machines how to function? Even a basic understanding is necessary for a business to flourish, and an article to be published, even for a prescription by a doctor nowadays to reach the patient. It is not only here in the developed world, but we can also see dance moves of rural African children in front of their homes, with smiles on their faces, to Michel Jackson's smooth Criminal. It is obvious that programmers of the new era are very capable of what they are doing. Intel would develop more and more advanced processors with more and more in Gigahertz than previous generation, even by the time it reaches the client there are new ones being launched. Like a bunch of bees in a honeycomb, thousands of programmer's log into their workstations online and start building on hypothetical projects to attract the clients although they are separated physically, and without human touch for days. They factor and re-factor C++ codes of thousand lines long per day and Oh how good they are at their job! And at the far end of it, our senior engineers in Silicon Valley with PhDs and doctorates, brainstorm new ideas, to develop faster and faster compilers, and faster and faster processors, to give a fraction of a second advantage. It is time to look back at ourselves, at the teatime and coffee. Haven't we done enough already? Aren't our processors fast enough already? Aren't our compilers good enough so far? And what can we learn from these artificial battles of 1s and 0s of the Boolean world? Now let's look at the clients in this process. All they see is inputs and outputs. They see nice diagrams, windows and input fields on their user interfaces ( or forms ) hidden behind walls and walls of abstraction levels, ultimately everything represented by a string of Boolean values passed through a processor to give a meaning. And our software engineers are masters of this illusion, the Jack of all trade in data abstraction. And they hold the power to create a world that no one has ever seen before thousands of years into the past. Let's look at ourselves now. We see some similarities, if our brains are processors and compilers and software, we can see our inputs as sounds, pictures and tastes. We can see our outputs as thoughts, cravings, greetings, hurting, moving, eating and drinking. But are we masters of our machines? Can we code ourselves for the better? At least what is our programming language? Is it C++, Java or Python? Is it Mathematics, Philosophy or science? Is it religion, culture or nature? It's a deep question for philosophers and thinkers, however for each individual to answer as we are already being replaced by the next generation of intel processors, some are developed in factories of mothers woumbs while some are already out in the market! In pre schools. End of Part 1:C++ compilers and intel processors from programming to life Part 2: How to program ourselves?

"A man will get his first bouquet of flowers on his death." - twitter. Life of a flower. I would like to see myself in a casket. Would I be 😊 happy in it? Would I smell nice? Would my friends talk dirty behind my back? Or I would just go in a sack without any ceremony like countless others in past? In gas chambers. Death was jealous neglected like a criminal When we sing songs of love and life so eternal I felt sad 😔 for him, and asked him how he was Didn't expect him to break into tears. Like a child. I'm not afraid of you anymore death. I would hug you at once, If you need me, I would be there for you likewise. No need to hide in the dark anymore. Tomorrow we will go shopping and make love a bit jealous. Why wait tomorrow. We can hang out tonight, if you are up for it. Share our sorrows and fears while, munching popcorn Watching Netflix. I'm sure nobody will disturb, when you are with me You make me so fierce! Nobody told me its ok to die. Nobody told me death is a part of life. I had to figure it out who you are. By myself. Now I know you 😏 shall we be best friends? Will you bring me flowers? I like them white. The poem of Death. I am not going to attempt to describe death in philosophical depths here in this article. But just let you savor the moment with new angle from the poem of death. We all are afraid of death. At least that is how we were taught from early life, that death is there to grab everyone out of life. So, death is a demon for many of us. Who drags our loved fellow humans into unknown darkness or heaven, away from us. But when we are in mindfulness, wisdom lets us insights to see it otherwise. Just like love and life, the birth of death is also in our own mind. If it is not for death, there would be nothing called life, and we would just be talking trees of eternal immortal boring existence . So, in fact, the death is the beauty in disguise. Beauty of a flower I have made no attempt to hide the meaning of death, by making illusionary vision in an un-understandable language. I am not capable of making a play like Shakespear, although I would like to do so. More importantly I am curious of what is your experience on death. As a novice philosopher, a novice mindfulness student. I am more interested in planting a seed in your brain so that you would not fear death as I did in the past. And we all can be like hydrophobic leaves in life , when it rains.

Have you seen the upside-down world? It is very likely you have seen some form of it. Maybe you have seen a movie on upside down world. Maybe you have listened to the song 'Upside down' by Jack Jonson. This is collection on everything upside down. Who's to say What's impossible, well they forgot This world keeps spinning And with each new day I can feel a change in everything And as the surface breaks, reflections fade But in some ways, they remain the same And as my mind begins to spread its wings There's no stopping curiosity I wanna turn the whole thing upside down... Lyrics Jack Johnson Upside down on bed to upside down everywhere I saw the world upside down for the first time when I stood on my hands and head on the bed. Some say it makes good blood supply to the head. From what I know it makes my head throb from the feeling of blood flow. The world is different when seen upside down. Although it is for a few minutes, it is a strange experience as we always see things in a different orientation. I could never do a cartwheel as a kid. I saw some kids doing it on the nearby playground. Instead of still upside-down world surely, they must have seen a spinning upside-down world. If you cannot do the cartwheel like me, you will have to pay some money in a park to get the experience in a Roller coaster or you may bungee jump over a bridge in remote part in Switzerland. It may be too fast to appreciate the view. Maybe you can drop your head on the bed, without standing on hands. And you will find some way to get the experience and I think you should. https://unsplash.com/@billiebodybrand Upside down drawing Would you believe actually this is a new way to look at the world. The evidence comes from upside down drawing technique. It is true, artists knew it before us that there is so much to learn by seeing an image upside down. How do they do it, upside down drawing. You take an image which you want to draw. Keep it upside down and draw it. This way you are just looking at distances. It helps us to see what the relationships of likes, colors and spaces are. Images produced can be very bad, in context but you will learn to appreciate the picture as it is. Why does it work? When we look at an image we see, colors, lines and dark and bright areas. More than that after being sometime on earth we will see kids, men and women instead of those fundamental things. When this happen, we lose our ability to see building blocks of a picture is not what we see. So, when we look at a picture upside down, our mind would not be able to recognize common figures so easily that it has no other way than looking at it as we saw it when we did not know anything about men women and things. Like a child seeing the world you can open up another dimension. https://unsplash.com/@krisdeschacals Now, lets look at what the Copilot has to say about the left and right side of the brain. Creativity and logic of brain The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, each responsible for different functions. The left hemisphere is commonly associated with logic, analytical thinking, and language processing. It’s involved in tasks that are considered logical, such as mathematics, facts, and thinking in words. On the other hand, the right hemisphere is linked with creativity, intuition, and holistic thinking. It’s thought to be better at artistic, creative, and spontaneous tasks, including imagination, holistic thinking, intuition, arts, rhythm, nonverbal cues, feelings, visualization, and daydreaming. Can you see how it works? We are tapping into our right hemisphere to work with the image when we try to look at the world in upside down. It can spark a creative fire. And generations of artists knew it and now you also know. https://unsplash.com/@dimhou Upside down as A paradigm shift I'm sure you will see more and more upside-down illusions when you scroll through your Facebook, twitter or Instagram page. Similarly in previous article where I described a paradigm shift , American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn who coined the term used following famous illustration to show the fact, change in our views changes our interpretation of the world. Nowadays these optical illusions are so common, even AI is used to create these now. Do you see a rabbit or a duck? Two worlds in Upside Down movie 2012. In this fascinating movie 2012, Two planets exist, one up above, rich and developed, the other down below, poor and underdeveloped. Two worlds revolve very close to each other with following rules in play. All matter is only pulled by the gravity of the world that it comes from. An object's weight can be offset using matter from the opposite world (inverse matter). After a few hours of contact, matter in contact with inverse matter burns. There is a romantic story unraveled in the movie of a couple who belong to each of the worlds. Check out the movie if you haven't. More importantly when I think about this, I feel it is familiar to me. We do have dual worlds, although we all live on earth. We have Rich countries and poor countries. Rich countries buy oil and other resources from poor countries and sell them technical products. They enforce laws so rich, and poor mix up. Once you are born in one hardly anyone can move, unless you are extremely extraordinary. Even in a same country we see theses ups and downs of the society. Up never mix with down below. Isn't it fascinating, how insights from a child's play leads us to the adult's play? After all we all will play upside down games until we leave the earth. Have you been in an upside-down world? What are your thoughts?

What is a Mini Essay? A mini essay is a short paragraph to a 300-word article/essay where you formulate your ideas around a topic. It could be a single paragraph or several, describing a single topic. Here in my blog, I have many mini essays. Although most of the articles in this blog include around 1000-word articles, they all started as mini essays. And that is the most rewarding part of writing a mini essay. https://unsplash.com/@dancounsell Advantages of writing mini essays. It is easy, hence need little motivation- hence habit forming . If you would want to become a writer, you should start writing. Not just thinking about writing day after day. And if you are not able to write a poem, a mini essay would be a great place to start. It is easy to write a 300-word piece on any topic. You can write about a falling leaf, a floating leaf or some grass . More importantly it would not take your whole day, as many of us are just writing as a hobby, just for fun. It takes only 15 minutes per day. Like I have written earlier, we should just do it, to be it . Hence when you are writing you will be a writer for the 15 minutes of your mini essay writing. If you want writing to become a regular habit, writing mini essay as a habit can be done with minimal motivation. They have potential to grow- mini essays are like seeds. Although mini essays are small, they have a potential to grow. As they capture an idea, around a topic, it could be nourished. As you revisit, you can add and do your lateral thinking in a later date. And it could easily become a 1000–1500-word blog article. It is a snowball effect. Not only in the word count, but it also has ability to grow as a better habit. It can increase the organization in your mind. As ideas are not generally sharp when they initially arise in your mind. Only if you write them down you would understand things you even haven't thought about before. This often happens to me when I write. And even the ideas will start to Suprise you, as you start to see connections. As these mini essays accumulate in number you will start to notice surprisingly how they are interconnected . And this is learning, a higher order learning, which is happening effortlessly. You would not agree but, a mini essay can even become a novel. Think about mini essay as a little seed. If it starts to grow in a fertile ground, soon it will become a tree to shade and nourish everyone. Mini essays let you a deeper level of understanding. Yes, think about it. Just like Richerd Ferman explained, in his famous technique of learning anything, you should try to teach what you have learned to a kid. However, often you would find you skip this part of teaching someone that you have learnt. Mini essays are great, in this way as it allows you to formulate and organize those vague ideas into a comprehensible format. Even easy to understand. And when you do this new questions and gaps of your knowledge will be exposed and let you into a deeper level of understanding of the subject. Writing mini essays is pleasurable. I write about movies, jelly fish , even a piece of rock . It is pleasurable to write about these. As we all have our own consciousness, which is observing the universe with mindfulness , every perspective is unique. And only if you write them down that you will be able to share them with others. As half-life of thoughts is very limited if not taken out of its origin and put on paper. Once you realize that this simple act of writing it down creates a limited legend of your own, you will start to enjoy it more. Just like Achillis who battled for a legend, your mini essays will be your Sword in the battle. You can come back to your mini essays and think about them maybe years later. Like Jordon Peterson Once said, once you sharpen your skill of writing, you would be an unstoppable bullet. Mini essays let you be creative. Mini essays are a creative space, and creativity gives you wings . Consider this as a canvass for an artist. The canvass is blank when you start painting it with words. There is nothing, yet once you start drawing with your words, empty space will start to magically turn into a shape. Then you will start to notice a starry night, sunflower or a night street in Paris. And once you realize you can start to make it more and more into a masterpiece. You can come back and appreciate your deed. Even if it is just decorating your mind it doesn't matter. The first person who believes in his or her art is the artist herself. Hence, it doesn't matter. If something like a banana on a wall can be a conceptual art in the modern world, I bet words have more potential than any banana in the world! Don't you think so? So, use the creative space provided by mini essay and I am sure you will start loving the experience so much that you would come back again tomorrow. Just to enjoy the silence and the flow. https://unsplash.com/@jay_rembert How to Write a mini-Essay. This is easy. Choose a topic, Any topic. Something you believe, or something you were taught, you heard or saw on your way home. It may be an idea you just saw in a YouTube video. And start writing. Once you have written down, come back to it later and do some lateral thinking. And reform until it becomes a really polished. Idea -> write -> reorganize and refine. Do this process repetitively and you will have a nice mini essay. And comment me yours once you have done it! It is better if you have a place and time when you start writing a mini essay. Rather than specific time each day (Eg: 8.pm everyday), you can start specific location and place it after your established habit (Eg: after dinner), So that you would not forget about this. And also, I suggest you start writing on a diary or a notebook. Because the phone is not a good place to hang around as it is a beast to destroy your creativity. Even a tablet for that matter. Desktop may be better as long as it doesn't have internet connection! You can start writing and then do the research when you start to get problems, and you are stuck halfway through. Do not start with an internet search! It will get you hooked for hours and hours of endless scrolling and after some half an hour you will realize you have written nothing. More often I revert back to my notebook to avoid this kind of internet hazard. But I agree, internet is like a knife. Problem is we have a monkey in our mind. Not a well-trained barber, most of the time. Examples of mini essays. You've just read my mini essay on "mini essays". Follow links in the article to see more examples. And following are a few. Rules and ethics Where is my right Upside down world How to have a mindful shower

Origins of rules and ethics. Which one is earlier? Rules or ethics? Of course we may argue this for a long time. However, it seems origins of ethics seems to be far deeper than rules. As rules to be established there has to be a proper language, at least a way of communicating the rules. Most often there should be a governing body , it may be a king or a leader of a Clan. And for enforcement of the rules there should be a monitoring system. Hence, we can assume rules were established after humans evolved into social animals. However, ethics, were there even before rules. As ethics are more fundamental aspect of any interaction of humans with others. Consider the fact that, we as humans take care of the elderly, kids and diseased individuals. This has been the evidence for social species. https://unsplash.com/@britishlibrary There is a story that once, an archeologist asked a group of students what is the earliest evidence for our species have evolved into civilization? Some said it was pottery, some said it was the evidence of metal work, evidence of language. However, as the story goes, it was none of the above. Surprisingly it was a femur bone , which was healed. As the archologist explained, a fracture can heal on its own. However, it takes time. Specially in the era of ancient world, a person cannot live without walking for a few days unless there is someone else to care for you until the fracture heals. So, the femur bone which was healed was a definite sign that other humans cared for the injured one throughout this time. Which is evidence for civilization. So, Now, we are sometimes requested by the law to care for our elders, kids and diseased. However, in the ancient world there were no rules but there is evidence somebody did care about the disease. Indirectly this is evidence for ethics as well. Somehow ethics is carved into human nature than the laws. If the ethics are by nature, why force with rules? The problem is the outlaws. Although the nature of ethics is deeply engraved in us, there are some who naturally do not have this in their system. If allowed they can play havoc in a so called, civilized society. Because a society cannot prevail and flourish if 5% of the population became thieves and gangsters. They can suppress the majority and induce terror. So, any civilized society should maintain the common rules, so that peace and harmony prevail. So, by establishing rules, we suggest that our society is not 100% ethical. So, the rules, are humanoid, while ethics are natural. It seems rules are made by humans. As such are not seen among any other animal species. However, evidence of ethics you may even see in a BBC documentary of wild Dogs. Have you seen these packs hunt? They hunt as a group, organized than any other species, even surpassing the wolves. And once they hunt everyone gets their fair share. Although there are no rules, these dogs are bounded by ethics. Just like our ancestors who had only ethics to guide them when they started trading between different ethnic groups. So, it seems Ethics are natural. While rules are humanoid. Only in recent years that we figured out these ethics and tried to write them down. And this is a difficult task, just like anything which is associated with heart. It is not going to be easy to define something platonic , so often these are only vague guidelines. https://unsplash.com/@jontyson Future of ethics. As we have looked at the past, and the current state of affair between rules and ethics only thing left is future. Obviously, by now, you have understood the future is about ethics. As, attitude matters, ethics matters more than rules. As if everyone in a society can behave ethically, there would be no need for rules. At least this is what we should aim as a society although it will be an impossible dream. Imagine such a society which without a judicial system. As judicial system prevails only because there are unethical behavior prevails. Such a society would be nothing but a heaven, with humans living like Gods. Rarely I find such beings live in our society, and they are hard to come by. Often, they are labelled as fools when they do not take every opportunity as they weigh themselves against ethics. And I think it is fair them to be reborn in the God's realm once they are dead, not us. Question When are we willing to change?

Have you ever heard the term reverse or backward goal setting and wondered how to do it? Here is a quick guide to set your next goal and start crack on the tasks. I will first introduce the main concepts in reverse goal setting and key ideas and then we will go through and example. Outline: Traditional Goal setting What is not reverse goal setting. Advantages of reverse goal setting Doing it right - reverse goal setting Example In summary Traditional goal setting Imagine you have a goal to become the top graduate in the class, or to become a writer or excellence in whatever the career you are struggling with right now. Or even it may be a spiritual goal or a health goal you are going to achieve. In traditional goal setting you would write down your goal and then kind of do a SWOT analysis. Then create and action plan to adhere to achieve the goal. (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). And that is a good way of doing it. But sometimes it seems tiring to achieve the goal by this means if you are not clear of what you are going to achieve. The goal seems too far away. Hence reverse goal setting is used. Some people define a reverse goal setting as to go back from the podium, backwards in time sequential to determine each milestone you need to pass before you achieve your goal. However, this method is essentially the same as pre- planning method. What is not reverse goal setting. Reverse goal setting is not writing down your goal and thinking backwards in time. It is not putting down milestones from biggest to smallest. It is not about chronology at all. really speaking you may still want to do some traditional goal setting even if you brainstorm with reverse goal setting. Instead, Reverse goal setting is a method of brainstorm ideas, so you have better understanding of the end results you are going to achieve. Advantages of reverse goal setting Reverse goal setting we focus on the goal, in an indirect manner. More focus is non the process, not the final outcome. It is more holistic approach. Compare this to a mission statement of a company. Mission statement does not directly talk about outcome targets, yet a broad picture. By combining it with traditional goal setting we will have all the tools necessary to improve ourselves. And also, reverse goal setting is reducing the mental burden of the target by not giving direct inputs about it. However, there will be wide areas of improvement which will combine together once you have done it. Only drawback I can think of currently is that it is somewhat time consuming than traditional target method So, how are you going to do it. How to Achieve Your Goals by Reverse/ backward Goal setting: A Step-by-Step Guide with Example Doing it right First step is to write down your goal as in any case. Do it on a piece of paper or on your board. Second and most crucial step is to imagine a person who is inevitably going to achieve this goal. And list out all the characteristics of this person. And weigh each of these characteristics in relative importance. If you are an organization, you can think that this is a person and write down characteristics of such organization which achieves this target easily. This will need lot of study of other similar persons, or systems. Hence might take more time than simply writing down goals and setting up quarterly targets by breaking it down. Thirdly, you can Do a SWOT analysis and identify areas of improvement, from your current status to the type of person who achieve to become your goal. And this will lead to identify and action on these areas. (here you will use ideas from traditional goal setting to put down a plan) But instead of focusing on the target, you are looking at holistic improvement of your process. Or the personality or characteristics in general. Can you see the difference of these two methods? fundamentally here in proper method of reverse goal setting we are trying to become a person who is capable of achieving your goals rather than trying to achieve goal in your current status. You are changing your life, to be a better person. In the long term which is not only get you to achieve your goal but make you feel better every day as you become a better person. Example. Let's do a reverse goal setting, I will do the first two steps and most important steps. You will be able to figure out the rest. Goal: To lose 10kg weight in 6 months and be a healthy person. Type of person: A person who is energetic, happy and strong. A person who enjoys exercise daily and have healthy eating habits. A person who enjoys running, with or without company of similar healthy beings. Caring for others and loving the work that Do. Mentally and spiritually strong. Good healthy friends and family supporting to achieve the goals. As you can see losing weight seems to be not easy. Idea of losing weight is inherently bound to lot of other areas in your life. If you do not achieve overall physical, mental and spiritual healthy lifestyle even losing weight will not be easy. Initially it will work but it will fail at some point as it is not sustainable. You may have a different person in your mind, I suggest you write it down so you can identify areas of improvement. It is not about losing weight of 2kg per month starting from next. That is a start. Now you can write down what you can do to become such a person. And that will be your action plan. You no longer have to worry about the goal as when you become that person, the goal will be achieved anyway. . In summary: Reverse / Backward Goal setting Reverse Goal setting is brainstorming ideas about holistic view of the process you want to improve than focusing on the end result. This will open up views about different areas of improvement than seen by traditional target goal settings. It will make you less paralyzed about the goal but will give more control over achievable. Reverse Goal setting focuses on the minor areas of improvement so the achieving the target is inevitable, if you fulfil these. It can be combined target approach, for better actionable steps. Thank you for reading Reverse / Backward Goal setting - how to do it example. You may also like to read: Process is more important than results? What is there great beyond? afterlife, sausage party

Do you want to become a professor? Reasons does not matter, if you want to become a professor, you can. And there is a way, you just have to find this out. I am here to give you a little bit of wisdom, a push, an idea. So, the first part of this article is for the young, like you. Who wants to achieve something in your life. The second part is for the ones who already did achieve something or just got old achieving nothing. In the Park- thinking Nope, I am not going to list out ten things you have to do to become a professor, like doing well in your college and getting a degree and PhD. As a confession, I never wanted to become a professor. But I had this little moment, where I thought about it, how one would actually achieve such a monumental success in life? If that is easy, everyone would have done that. As you can see, everyone is no professor. Hence, even when I tell you the secret, it is likely 99% of you would not become one. Yet you can use this wisdom as it is not just about being a professor of academic achievement, but a professor in anything. Are you up for a challenge? The moment. At one moment in my life, I was faced with this daunting task of a competitive exam which will determine the trajectory of life. Never was I naturally concentrating on studies. I knew, I am on a wrong path halfway through the study year, and exam rapidly approaching. I thought about it. The exams were tough. The question papers were prepared by professors. Who are individually geniuses of their own subject. Yet, I am supposed to face this exam, prepared by professors. That is unfair! How can I answer questions, prepared by professors? And in all the subjects. I took a moment, to contemplate my thoughts. I wanted to answer the questions 100%. Only another professor would be able to do that. What does it mean? Then it hit me. I have to become a professor. Not in one subject. But in all of them. Then it would be inevitable I would pass the exam. How does a professor conduct? That is easy, It's all in movies I have watched. A day of a professor I thought about a day of a professor. He would wake up in the morning. And think about his latest experiment. He would start reading latest articles from Elsevier while taking his morning coffee. Then he would go through his notes for the lecture he is doing for his students. He would look at answers to previous class and critically mark and evaluate them. Would he stop there? No, He would think about his next experiment while taking lunch. And in the afternoon, he would spend in his laboratory doing some experiments. And after that he would peek into the library and read about one or two hours, on the history of Mathematics and science! Would he stop there? No, he would be back home, and he would be in thirst of more information. He would take a nap. And an afternoon walks, enjoying the nature while still thinking about equations. He would do some more reading and studying at night. He would read from where he has left yesterday. And even dream about his subject. In the Study Basically, the professor lives with information , related to his subject of expertise all his day. And If I wanted to become a professor to answer all the questions, I would have to do the same! So, that is the answer, to become a professor it is easy. You just have to do what a professor would do in his day. In fact, there is theory behind this, which is called Reverse, or backward goal setting . And I have article written previously about this, yet at the time of the exam I did not know the theory. It was totally my invention, and I felt a little proud about myself when I had the idea. Implementation and results. I implemented my theory by carrying a list of topics I am reading, all the time in my pocket. I would take it out and read and think and re-read when I go back. I would read for interest, to improve my knowledge not to pass the exam. And I would deliberately mix things up to see how things are interconnected. I would think while in the bus, while washing my cloths. And as expected the results were great, and I achieved results I thought I could but only dreamed I would as I had doubts. Now I have given out the way, if being a professor is your thing, you should try this. If you are willing to devote your time It is possible, and Richard Ferman will second my statement. “I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There are no miracle people. It happens they get interested in this thing and they learn all this stuff, but they’re just people.” ~ Richard Feynman Living with infromation Second part - Living with information. This observation leaves us two important lessons. One is the obvious. If you master the information, you can be an expert in anything. Human consciousness is a potential. What you put in will bring out the change in the output, which is thoughts. Hence, if you live with criminals and master that information, you will become an expert criminal. Like what happened to Frank Abagnale in the movie Catch me if you can. If you change your environment, it will affect the outcome of your life. Second important lesson is it challenges the free will in a Subtle way. As you already know, this blog is about mindfulness and philosophy and truth about life. Imagine what I have said is true. If we live with information, and it will shape our future, there are no geniuses. There are no mystery people. It's just a matter of reasons. A mind which is capable of being a criminal or a mass murder, is also capable of becoming a saint. And that just makes no sense. If that is true, becoming a professor is just circumstances. There is no victory in it. But we do not have to come to conclusions. As someone really said the following, there is enough time unless there is a hailstorm in your life. Life begins at forty - Walter Pitkin (after you become a professor :))

I read a zen story which was a nice little wisdom story. Yet, the message was wrong. So, I had to rewrite it. Let's go through that and find out the meaning. Drawing a perfect Circle - Zen story. Drawing a perfect circles On sand Once upon a time there was an old man. And he was on a beach drawing a circle. With a stick he managed to draw a perfect circle. A little boy who lived by the beach saw the man. And he was amazed looking at how perfect the circle was. And he spoke. "Dear old man, How are you doing it? How are you drawing perfect circles? Can you teach me?" And the old man replied, "Well, It's just practice, I was no better than you. And I practiced and practiced and without even knowing I perfected the art of drawing a circle. You can do the same" Little boy had no reason not to believe him. And he said " Thank you, will do the same" And he started drawing with a stick. Initially it was a ragged circle, and as he practiced more it became near perfect. And one day he drew a perfect circle. And he heard, "Dear old man, how did you draw a perfect circle?" When he looked up, he saw a little boy with eger little eyes. --End of story-- Meaning 1 - Practice makes you perfect. There are a couple of meanings to the story. We can go through each to find meaning. The article I read looked at the story in a positive attitude. And said the meaning was "Practice makes you perfect". And It really made me laugh. How shallow the meaning of a zen story can be? Nah.. it is not about practice makes you perfect although this is true. It is due to the practice that the boy learned how to draw a perfect circle. Yet he got old just doing this. Which leaves the second and more deeper meaning. And I am sure you also thought about this. Meaning 2 - Getting old Drawing circles. The man got old just learning drawing circles. I am sure he did a job as well. And he mastered his occupation. If we compare the doing an occupation to the drawing circles, we can laugh at ourselves. All we do by living a life is learning to draw circles. More perfect our circle is more successful we are to the society we live in. In fact we spend 10000 hours mastering our skills of drawing circles to the perfection, and we write books about how just to learn to draw cirlces. Yet, we do not understand it is just a circle at the end of the day! A statue is a circle for a Sculpture artist A circle may be, A million hit song for a singer. (well you should hear Mike Posner singing about it) A perfect statue of David for a sculpture artist A unsolveable 3n+1 equation for a mathematician We do not realise that we give artificial values to drawing circles, in fact we knew, yet we forgot on the way. And that I think is the true meaning of the zen story. Infact, even in mindfulness practice, someone can get into the same rabbit hole of drawing circles. Which was illustrated in the previous story of the monk who did not learn to prioritise . I invite you to read, unexamined life is not worth living , as this is the more direct way of passing the same massage as above, and this time by Socrates.

What is the worth of a pound of flesh? Well, if you have done a google search today, what is the most valuable thing you can possess, and it will come as The History Supreme Yacht 4.6 billion dollars. And this is the most likely answer when we consider dollars. Or it could be a B2 bomber aircraft which could carry nuclear weapons. However, as value is subjective if we consider individual consciousness, we can say the most valuable thing differs. And I can give you examples. And for that matter I have to remind you the play by Shakespeare in the name of the merchant of the Vanice. A pound of Flesh Plot "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare is a play set in Venice and Belmont. It revolves around Antonio, a merchant, who secures a loan from the Jewish moneylender Shylock to help his friend Bassanio court Portia, a rich heiress. The loan terms are harsh: if Antonio cannot repay, Shylock may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio wins Portia's hand by correctly choosing among three caskets, a test set by her late father. Meanwhile, Antonio's ships, which are his wealth, are reported lost at sea, making him unable to repay Shylock. The trial scene sees Shylock demanding his bond, but Portia, disguised as a lawyer, saves Antonio by arguing that Shylock can take his flesh but not spill any blood, making the bond void. Shylock is punished, though some of his wealth is redistributed. The play ends with the couples reunited, but it leaves questions about justice, mercy, and prejudice, particularly through the treatment of Shylock, whose character has been interpreted in various ways regarding anti-Semitism. Philosophy of values We can leave aside the questions about justice and mercy as it is not relevant for our discussion of value . The fact I wanted to point out is a hypothetical scenario of a worth of a pound of flesh could actually exceed more than all the wealth on earth. It doesn't appear so to us as long as it is someone else's flesh. A cow, a chicken or a dog. An African, American or a Chinees. But if it is your pound of flesh we are talking about, I am sure you can say it is priceless. Modern version of the same question was asked from Mathew Breger, by Mickey Pearson (Drug lord) in the film The Gentlemen (2019) just before he was locked in a freezer. What is the worth of his pound of flesh? If you haven't watched the movie, it is one of a kind with action packed drama crime - Like all Matthew McConaughey films! If a pound of flesh worth millions or billions to the person who poses it, undoubtedly, we are the richest people on the planet earth. Wherever you are your flesh would worth than anything else in the world. How about your life? Timing of this article could be no better as just the other day I argued money has no inherent value as it is just a social convention. And here we are arguing limitless value of human flesh. Philosophy of values really seems deep! Yacht Dreams Shattered Once I have seen a girl who came with a crushed arm from an occupational injury to the ED. A really mangled limb. In her twenties, with all life ahead of her, and I saw her dreams when shattered as the Surgeon told her that he cannot fix the arm, which should be amputated immediately to save her life from sepsis. I am sure she would have given all her wealth if anyone could save her pound of flesh. Sometimes money and wealth cannot really solve human problems. Specially disease and death, and tragedy which are not foreseen. Like a mass murder on a new year day ! With all your limbs, and good vision and smell, what can you do today to overcome such tragic happening? One way is to become anxious and panic about all the unforeseen dooms which can happen. Other way is to improve mindfulness of this moment to understand there is no such problem now! And appreciate the pound of flesh we possess and its true value, noting the question is unnecessary and excessive to your near perfect life.

I can remember the first time when I had my hands on a book written by Albert Camus 'The stranger' It was a translated copy of his original work. I can still feel like what it feels like to be in the mind of the Stranger, who lost his mother. It was exactly what Albert Camus wanted us to feel. Dull Nill feeling of the absurdity of the life. After reading the book I can exactly remember I left with nothing, there was no message. Unlike happiness or sadness curiosity which are the outcomes of the other novels. However, there was nothing gained, nothing lost, by reading the novel. If it is like what you feel like about your life, I would invite you to read the rest of the article. https://unsplash.com/@joshwithers What Is absurdism? Recently I learnt the term absurdism. You know what is absurd, wildly unreasonable, illogical or inappropriate. Absurdism is slightly different because it is the term used in philosophy to describe the belief that universe is irrational and meaningless. Imagine this is true, there is no meaning to the happenings in the universe. Then when a rational man tries to find the meaning of an irrational world there will be a clash. Which gives rise to problems. Can this be the root cause of all our problems? It is a good candidate. We will look at this idea further to better understand the world. Now imagine according to the theory everything happening around you is irrational and meaningless. So, except for the process, which is happening in your mind now, everything else is irrational, this meaning, things including other living beings. This includes everyone else around you are irrational and there is no meaning to what they do. But if you look at yourself from their point of view whatever you are thinking rational and meaningful should be irrational and meaningless too. Is it true? Can we believe what you are thinking now is not logical conclusions about the universe that you made but only a fluctuation of energy in the chaotic universe? https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske Death and absurdism In his book, 'The Stranger' Camus talk about death of the Stranger's mother. Where the Stranger did not feel anything, any remorse about mother's death. And during the course of the book, he killed a man. And he was imprisoned for this reason. Did he have any guilt on this crime? I was not sure he did. Death makes our lives absurd as there is no way we could know what is there, afterlife . Life seems to be a fluctuating buoy or a wave of the sea or a random walk , in between the birth and death. How are we going to find a meaning in between when the outcome is not so sure? Albert Camus -Why absurdism feels so real? We will do some case studies to find out why Absurdism, put forward by Albert Camus feels so real. Case of Happiness. Happiness is good when it lasts, but it often disappears so soon into a memory. So, the chase for happiness is always present. Even when happiness is there I can 100% be sure that it is going to change over time. Over time it will become euthymic and then at some point even turn into sadness. So, 'Pursuit of happiness' is there but not happiness. Case of Sadness Like happiness sadness is not going to last. I just compare the sadness, and what we can see is it is also going to change and become happiness. Even if you suffer till your death, death will create happiness then. (or the thought of death) Can you see, it's just the other side of the coin happiness. It just flips around seemly in a random pattern. So, the 'Persuit of the avoiding Sadness' is there but not Sadness, not always. Similarly, if you look at the world carefully you will see there are lot of similarity. War and peace. Justice and Injustice, Faith and nihilism. We tend to argue about these choosing one over the other. Yet, it seems these are just two sides of the same coin. What it seems to be true is the coin will be flipped in an eternal timescale whether we like it or not. Whether we prefer it or not. If it is not absurd what? https://unsplash.com/@heycrisso What if understanding absurdism is the meaning of life? If this is true, there would be one thing at least which is not absurd. That is 'Understanding everything is absurd'. Ok, maybe I have confused you enough for a day. If you did not grasp the core messages now is time to re-read. And if you ask me personally whether, I believe absurdism, I say no I do not. What each and every one believe is unique, but there can be only one truth in the world. It's our responsibility, to find this out in a lifetime. That what I believe is the true meaning of life, instead of racing for the moon. Conclusion. In conclusion, Absurdism according to some philosophers is the idea that there is no meaning to anything happening around us. There are solid real-world examples to absurdism like, interchange of happiness and sadness in our lives, haphazardly. Understanding true nature of ourselves is the meaning of life.

Happiness. Imagine a happy place you have been. Maybe it is the last vacation you went. With an empty mind, you are at this marvelous tropical mountain resort with an infinite pool over the jungle edge. Overlooking beautiful valley with misty waterfalls. You are just there, woke up early morning to the sounds of birds, and ordered your breakfast. And you forgot, all the stress and pressure of being at work, and sighed knowing this is just a beginning of such two weeks. Plenty of places to see, plenty of tastes to flavor, and plenty of space and time. You do really feel the freedom, for the first time in a Year! since your last vacation. And you ask, is this happiness or what? https://unsplash.com/@adrienolichon And I totally agree, that is happiness at its best. But there is a catch. If we both agree that is happiness, relative to that, all other 50 weeks that you spent at work, should be sadness, right? Maybe not sadness, but less happiness. So, what is the alternative? Life is a journey not a destination This summarizes one such attempt at resolving problem. I have seen different versions of the same solution over the years. Some say it is getting to the 'Flow' state of mind. The fine balance between your ability and the difficulty of the task, which can make a feeling of progressive improvement. As suggested by the popular book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Often it is hard to find such flow states. And life seems to be inevitable with ups and downs. Compare this to the Journey of a boat. Imagine a range of boats. From a simple canoe to, a fishing boat, a troller boat, a luxury boat and a big, cruise ship. Imagine they all travel from Port A to port B some X miles apart. Living in a flow state is like taking the journey in a cruise ship. It is easy, not much turbulence and, there is balance in everything. However, when we consider the population, the momentum in our minds is different. None of two people are having same states of mind. Hence, just like the same wave hit differently to each boat, waves of life will hit with different forces on us. For some, whose minds are unstable like a canoe, even small waves seem to bring and exhaust them. So, achieving a flow state is difficult for some, then others, for whom it is naturally present. I consider myself, a canoe rider. Ups and downs I feel daily are marked. Often out of proportion to the experience itself. I was jealous of those who travel in cruises. Who seems to be happy with everything that they do. How can I be happy when daily troubles exhaust me? How can I enjoy a sunset, drinking a cup of coffee on the deck when I struggle to keep my canoe from falling over with each wave? Peace as a solution? Peace seems to be a promising solution. That is a stoic way of thinking. If you target peace instead of happiness, you will come across happiness ultimately. This I have explained in detail as a solution to the happiness paradox as well. As the struggle to happiness is not always giving us a pleasant experience, maybe we should not seek this. Someone can argue just like the opposite of happiness is sadness, opposite of peace is chaos. So, if you are not at peace, there must be chaos. If peace is such a state of mind where there is calm and clarity, of course, a canoe ride would be the last place on earth where you can achieve some peace. https://unsplash.com/@mroz Why peace is ultimate happiness? This is where mindfulness and wisdom come into play. When you observe your life in mindfulness, you would understand the waves are inevitable, and you would observe your journey. You will observe the violence of the sea, and the reactions of your boat. And ultimately will come to peace with life. I think this happens with a lot of men and women, when they get older. When they become wiser, they calm down, the violence of youth, calms down, and they learn to respect the nature, the sea. But the mindfulness is the faster way to achieve such peace. This peace is standalone. Because even when the sea, is calm and quiet, or violent with storms, the peace is a pact with yourself and the environment. Hence, the mind will remain peaceful even in chaos. If you would like to achieve some of this peace, I suggest you start with mindfulness today.