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.

Train of thoughts.. Thoughts have layers. You do not believe me? They do. At least from now on they will have. Because once you learn something you cannot unlearn it until it happens naturally. Just like layers of a drawing program we can use the analogy to understand thoughts. Train of thoughts - Trans American Type Where do you think the phrase "Train of thoughts" come from? We kind of knew it from early days. Imagine the engine of a long, long trans American cargo train, is like the initial thought. And followed by this there will be a lot of follow up thoughts. And just like a train, once started to move thoughts will carry on like a train without brakes! Exactly like in the film Unstoppable! It might crash on the platform either killing half a dozen people or breaking into tears. But now we have established thoughts have layers, we can see this phenomenon carefully to improve our understanding of them. Why? Because we are naturally inclined for truth. Most of our minds are just work like that. They are in search of some truth, in a sea of lies. Summary so far. Thoughts are like a train. First thought is like an engine. Next thoughts are like carts And more the momentum engine gives longer the train of thoughts would stretch It's difficult to stop once they start to get going Deeper understandings on train of thoughts. Imagine you took a walk in the park. There is a little pond in the middle of it surrounded by green bushes. In the pond you saw some ducks. Some were black. Some were white some were small. Some were big. It was a sanctuary for the ducks. Unlike the last summer where you went with your office colleagues for duck hunting with a group of hunting dogs in high mountains. These were not afraid of humans. Yesterday you were singing the duck song with kids in the back of your car driving from the school. How does that stupid little cartoon get a million views? And you notice the bush where two ducks just went in and maybe they are mating. Is it the mating season? Now lets analyze.. the Train of thoughts Duck in the pond -real or Imaginary? Seeing some ducks in the lake was the engine. Thinking about duck hunting, duck songs and duck mating were the carts. And if you look carefully, you would appreciate the experience only belong to the so called "Now" moment in mindfulness. Rest of the things we imagine is either past or the future. More importantly our values are associated with these follow up thoughts. Just like valuable cargo is carried in carts of a train. Values can be either positive or negative even neutral. If you do not have these follow up thoughts, you would not be able to enjoy ducks. Or be sad about them even. But the engine of the train, or our observation is inherently valueless. It is the past or the future, which is not there, creates a value for the present experience. That is simple and easy to understand 😌 explanation of train of thoughts. Sea of lies. Watching over the Mountains in Mindfulness But there is more depth to this. Some do tend to understand this truth and lose all values and try to live with the experience. As they find peace there, in the present moment. Without judgement. Yet the truth is even the duck that we first saw is there due to the previous ducks that we have seen in life. If we have never seen a duck before, and came from a different planet we would not see a duck. Just something which moves and quacks. If we forget all our past, we would not even be able to walk, in the park, just waddle like a newborn duck. So, living in mindfulness in the present moment isn't possible technically as we need past to interpret the present moment. It's just logic, but still we do live in a relative true reality made by our own minds.

Humble beginings of Money I am going to write a little story about money. As I have mentioned earlier, finance is the main driving force of modern world, for anything massive. Maybe it is the war, maybe it is the religion, maybe it is skyscrapers or environmental protection mega projects, even the trajectory of our space race is even determined by the modern finance. And fundamental to the process is money? I know you are interested in Crypto, yet we can assume this also has the properties of a printed, traditional bank note. Let's go back to the humble beginnings of money. Fish Market. A bucket for a fish - exchange of goods Well, we do not have to time travel. You just have to watch a film on Netflix, on medieval times. Maybe one episode of Robbin Hood series, where there is a market. And in these markets, the exchange of goods was the norm. You exchange whatever your excess production, with someone else. You give your fish in exchange for a bucket. And fish and bucket, both served the purpose of money. As you can understand there were no, rules. So people needed standardization. It makes no sense, when you can exchange fish with a bucket and you can exchange same bucket with two fish with the next vendor. There is no specific "Value" for a fish. Which is the fundamental problem solved by "money". Story of Tobacco and inflation In some colonies of ancient USA, people solved the problem, by using Tobacco leaves as money. So instead exchanging your fish for a bucket. You can standardize your price of a fish with two tobacco leaves, and price of a bucket as three tobacco leaves. Then from any vendor, will have the same price, and you are guaranteed not to be scammed. However, there were more problems to come. As some landowners, started to grow some Poor-quality tobacco in large quantities, and this leads to the "Inflation". As you would need ten tobacco leaves to buy a fish now. The problem was sloved by authorities. They banned growing large quantities of tobacco. And gave license. Inflation Gecko What is money? Storekeepers would store your pile of tobacco and give you a note. Where the amount of your tobacco and the quality is printed. You can now walk to the market and buy some fish in exchange for this note. And these became form of "Bank notes" or money. Later tobacco was replaced by gold, and the security notes, became printed money. I am sure, there is more to the story. By the way I am not a historian. I just wanted to understand money, just for philosophical reasons. Let's look at the money to understand its value. As an introduction we can assume, money has value as long as it has the ability to buy something. Let's take a different angle to understand money. What is worth? Apples or dollars? If you give a 100 dollar note to a toddler and an apple. What would he choose? Let's assume you present this to a freshly captured tribal man from the heart of Amazon jungle. I am sure this hungry toddler, or the tribal man would choose the apple. Not the dollar bill. As he doesn't know that the dollar bill, can be used to buy dozens of apples. For someone who doesn't have some knowledge, and social agreement that we have on money, or the trust, money has no value. Infact, even you would choose an apple over a dollar bill if you were stranded in a middle of a desert for days in thirst and hunger. Money has no inherent value. You simply cannot eat a dollar bill. Inflation in modern world. The natural way of this happening is the inflation. If there is less production of items, and abundance of money, either way this artificial value of money will start to decrease, and we would need a half a barrel of notes to buy a half a loaf of bread. This almost happened to us in massive scale when there was covid, as all the production lines were stopped, people had less value for money and prices suddenly sky rocketed. Fortunately, it stopped before people start to kill each other for a bag of rice. And exactly what happened in the island nation of Haiti, after it was hit by a hurricane Mathew in 2016. With already plummeted economy, I saw group of people gather to grab a bag of rice with a club in the other hand to kill each other if wanted. Apple on a dollar Where do our values come from? Now to the most interesting part of our argument. I have showed you money is just a number in your bank, or more precisely in your memory. It is just a social convention, which can be broken in extreme situations. We can apply this knowledge to anything. Value of a diamond is a social rule. Value of a Ship is a social convention -> as it can be converted to dollars in your bank. Value of a Swiss watch for that matter any branded or non branded item is a social convention. What I want you to do is to apply this principle even to other things you value. An experience, a relationship, a family.Point out exactly to where is the value? I have previsouly done a case study of a Pot , and a Shmidth Tunnel. If you are finding it hard to imagine I suggest you imagine an extreme situation. Imagine you are on a ship in a boat, which is sinking, like a titanic, with all the family members of your extended family. And there is one who will come out alive. And you are given the task to choose by God, and you are included in the cohort. Who would you choose to live? It is natural you would choose, the most "Valuable person" from the lot. Maybe it is your parents, or you, or your children. And see the value of others "disappear". And your friend would choose otherwise. And make an eternal argument with you as, nobody knows true value as it is just relative.

The first and Greatest victory is to conquer yourself. - Plato. No doubt about Plato is one of the greatest philosophers of his era. Followed by a long line of his disciples, philosophy is a massive tree which flourishes generations. I am here to drink a drop of wisdom which it provides, and to understand the meaning of life. Let's look at the above quote with mindfulness wisdom we have to understand it better. Why? Because we should not believe anything anyone say without thinking for ourselves , and that goes to Plato as well. I am sure you are in fear to think, So, I will help you with imagination. You cannot step into the same river twice. How to conquer something? Let's look at conquering, for that matter countries. Latest, example is provided by Putin. He would tell that is not easy to conquer countries and he learned it the hard way. My personal opinion on that matter is the war is absurdism and stupidity at its bet. But that is for the discussion on another day. As Putin is not good at conquering countries we will ask from Napolean Bonaparte. He will tell us if we need to conquer a country, or for that matter enemy, you have to know as much details as possible about them. You have to know their move, their tactics, their weaponry and their plans. Allow them to make mistakes and strike them when they are weak. Even in modern warfare, information plays a huge role. Unless it is a nuclear war . So, the bottom line is we have to know our enemy if we want to conquer them. Why should you conquer yourself? This raises two more questions for me. First one is why should we consider ourselves as enemy? Answering this will also provide us information on why Socrates wanted us to conquer ourselves. I am sure we all have some Idea on this. Our minds do not behave the way we want it to be. Sometimes, it is like dealing with a monkey. Monkey mind. It jumps when we want it to sit, and it laugh when we want it to cry. There is no limit to the stupidity it does when we closely follow up its actions throughout the day. This is why we are ended up in places where we are now. It has been like this in the past, and in the future, I see no better, unless I follow wisdom of Plato. Maybe when Plato uttered these words, he may have just realized his mind is no other than a monkey mind. If this is true for me and Socrates, I can assume this is the case with every mind, hence yours as well. Fortress How can you conquer yourself? The second question this arises is, how can I conquer myself? And there is the problem. With the wisdom of Napolean, we can understand first we have to know the enemy. In this case it is me, and for you its yourself. If we do not know who we are there is no point trying to conquer anything as we will be battling in the dark waving our swords while the monkey mind plays havoc with its night vision goggles and cut everywhere killing everyone. As we can see, to do what Plato said we first need to understand ourselves. I can refine the quote now to a better version. First and Greatest victory is to understand yourself - magical mindful living Second and next greatest victory is to conquer yourself. - Plato. Now, for countless people who have been searching for the former, they have found nothing. I cannot tell you how and why, because this experiment of finding yourself is totally subjective . But first we have to point out exactly where the monkey hides before striking. I can tell you being aware of yourself, or as we call it mindfulness is the tool which is used to understand yourself. And more and more you are searching more and more wisdom you will gain. Like the brave lion who turn back , or the one who wanted to wake up like Carl Jung suggested, you will dig deep into yourself until you find something. And if you do not find anything I would not be surprised either, as that will nullify the second victory of Plato and leave the first as the first and only victory that is there to have.

Achillis and Trojan War. The great warrior Achillis the son of Nereid Thetis and Peleus, is one of the greatest warlords of the Greek mythology. He fought fiercely in the Trojan war and slayed the opponent prince Hector outside the gates of the Troy. He himself was succumbed to the death at the end of the war, with a deadly arrow to his heel, ending the legend of Achillis. If you haven't watched the movie Troy, I suggest you have a look, where Achillis is pictured perfectly with bravery by Brad Pitt. There, in the movie Achillis reveals his reasons for fighting. He did not fight for his king He did not fight for his country He did not fight for his friends or family He did not fight for the feeling of victory He fought for a legend. why? https://unsplash.com/@frausnippe Why did Achillis choose legend as a reason for his fighting? Because he knew that, kings, would not last long, Neither boundaries, nor countries, not even family and friends, not even victory. But legend will last longer, maybe centuries, and in his case, it lasted thousand and more years! He was right! And who made is possible for Legend of Achillis last for thousand years? Not by himself of course, but by story tellers. Story tellers took the task into their hands and kept the legend alive until it was written in books. Painted on walls and sung in songs. Now we hear the Achillis and continue to watch him alive in movies. Why do we write? There lays one important reason for writing. I can give you benefits of writing, a full list. Like all other articles do. But I believe one good reason is enough for you to start writing. Look at all the thoughts you had today. They will fade away with time, completely forgotten and buried by Duenes of dust of time. Once forgotten they will dissolve and never be found again. There may be treasures that humans can thrive, unless of course. Unless of course you write them down, sing a song or paint it on a wall, nobody would ever see. Not even you will know. That I think, is the most important reason for you to write about it. Make it written in rock solid words, that vague idea, in a blog, in a journal or in a novel, crafted in perfection. Write a mini essay like I call it. Sing a song about it like Anna Kendrick did. It doesn't matter you are a cook in a forgotten busy kitchen, facing the dumpsters in the alley in a crowded city. Your perspective is unique. I've got my ticket for the long way 'round Two bottle whiskey for the way And I sure would like some sweet company And I'm leaving tomorrow. What'd you say? When I'm gone, when I'm gone You're gonna miss me when I'm gone You're gonna miss me by my hair You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh You're gonna miss me when I'm gone -Anna Kendrick Cups song Truth is you would not be missed, unless you write a song about it. People are busy, they rarely find time to concentrate on others. Unless your words are copied in thousands nobody will look at it. But it will matter to you. It will be your legend. You can come back and see how it evolved. How you battelled in your Trojan wars in the past and Won! https://unsplash.com/@shane_young Do not be a crow. Make it easy others to discover. As your mind is the most difficult place to hide something. Have you seen crows or squirrels. I have seen, when they find some tasty food, they go and hide it in some place. Often in pockets of banana leaves, and they forget. They never comeback, and it becomes rotten in a few days. What a waste! So, I suggest you learn the lesson. Forget you have been a crow or a squirrel and make it last a little longer than the few months from your funeral.

Texas Tower mass Murder I'm sure of it, the Texas tower- in university of Texas Austin is associated with many and more triumphs than tragedies. But as majority of all of us are negatively biased most of the world will recognize Texas tower as the place where a mass shooting happened. In this article I am not going to describe brutal killings of a crazy man but how life can change in a matter of few seconds at any time during any day of our lives. To understand better, I recommend you watch animation movie Documentary Tower 2016 . Image taken of the Main Building of UT, as pictured by R. Perryman at 12:53 on August 1, 1966, some 31 minutes before the end of the massacre. - image wiki public It starts with describing lives of few ordinary college students and some men and women who lived nearby. And even an ordinary day of a cop, who finally put an end to the massacre of killing 15 men and women even unborn child on August 1st, 1966. I wondered what could have happened if I walked in the garden that day. With ambitions in my head to become a future artist, trying to be graduated with colors. Trying to be a writer with Shakespear in my hand I would be walking like any other ordinary student that day. And out of nowhere I would feel some pain in my stomach and collapse to the ground like a log with blood. It could have been the end of everything which I call life for myself. Or it could have been worse that I survived with severe injuries and disabled for life. I'm glad that I wasn't there that day. It was even few decades before that incident even happen. Now when I think about it, who walked on the same premises 70 years ago as students, most of them are no longer living. Time is the greatest silent killer. And for this demon which is called time would shoot every one of us eventually one day. So, death is part of life. It can come when we are young rarely, and old, commonly yet inevitably. It's not just in autumn leaves fall. At the times of storms even green leaves does fall . Thinking about life and death Taking Off If time is the greatest killer, how can we avoid him? Where can we hide? Where can we run to? I am sure it will find us if we hide even 100 feet underground bunker. It will happen to dictators, billionaires and Beggers. Temporarily we can forget this fact and get on with life. But when I see the news on TV yet again a Jeju Air, plane crashing onto a concrete wall and turn into a fireball with 180 people in it in Korea, I have to imagine. What am I doing today to understand life. What are you doing today? To understand life? I refuse to accept any temporary solution given by the mind. Like Descartes does, I invite you to question everything. Even the question itself . Ps: As the time of this writing, I noted another mass murder has happened in New Orleans US. Timing of this article is not good I think, yet as always for mindfulness, it is the golden hour for everyone who is living. Not forgetting to pray for the ones who are diseased. The real problem is we see only part of the deaths which happens around us. Which comes to our consciousness by news. Yet if we look at the real numbers time takes out thousands of consciousness daily from a pool of billions (170463 is the exact number per day or 2 per second). It was apparent during covid . Even today. Why anyone is not worried about natural death, more than unnatural death? It makes no sense. This is not to make anyone anxious and Panic so you would even not board an airplane. It is just the opposite. To make everyone a seeker so we seek truths about life, and question until we find out it is nothing but truth. It is to invite everyone to conquer yoursel f like Socrates urged us to do some 2000 years ago. .

Where is consciousness? It was a rainy day. The consciousness was wondering in a park. Looking at everything and thinking about everything which it sees and hears. First it was the Bricks. The bricks laid on the pavement made a nice tessellation. Which reminded you of the same mathematical concept you learned about 20 years back. Which you are sure that the Brick layer had never heard of. On top of that the little bit of rain drops created wet spots making it more artistic in nature. And you just felt the breeze which made the consciousness to move forward like a drifting boat on the lagoon with the fisherman. And the far away, in the lagoon, there is the fisherman. You cannot see what he is doing other than sitting in his boat like a little statue. Which is a scene you have seen numerous times. But this one is fresh, fresh as the breeze which pushed your consciousness. And you wonder what the consciousness on the boat is thinking about now? Hmmmmm.. It's just another floating consciousness Predominently thinking about fish Maybe not fish Maybe it's just water Waves Or nothing Fisherman in the boat - This is the best my not iPhone could do Next is obviously the sky. Sky which is cloudy and full of flying consciousness. They are also thinking about fish, maybe sleep, maybe about sex. Yet you are not sure which one it is and know that this has nothing to do with the two boys. Two boys are there taking photos. At the prime of the youth, they are enthusiastic in the appearance they would make on a photo. More conscious about the appearance of the cover of their consciousness. They really do not know about the little man they carry, and no wonder they are happy. You feel a little jealous, yet you sit down with all the information to contemplate a theory on consciousness. Understanding Consciousness. First when you look at what you have observed you realize, they are outside. The other consciousness is just outside. Like the trees, like the clouds, like the birds and fisherman. Next when you look at carefully you find out that they are not outside at all. It is just ripples of your own mind about a possible outside world created with layers of information from past. About the observations you have made. It is just a story of your own mind. Cream on top by your own consciousness. Finally, you realize, it's all secular. That the Observer and Observed, were born and dead at the same time, inside a single consciousness. And it had been like that, and it will be in the future. What you see is not what it is but who you are. And with this thought, you get insight that if the observer is observed, and the observed is the observer, then there cannot be a truth about either. It is just relative to each other. And you apply this truth to everything you have thinking about consciousness so far. It doesn't make sense. And maybe it doesn't make sense is the correct answer about consciousness, which is again cannot be the truth as it is something you observed. It's about to rain PS: Observer is observed is one of the conclusions about consciousness in understanding it. That everything is just a reflection of an outer world. But mindfulness doesn't let us to stay there. Previously it created two worlds, now it creates a singular world, and both seems to be true at the same time. The inevitable conclusion is that maybe mind is just a magician. It can create both a singular and a dual world. It can create a heaven and hell and give a value to collection of atoms of carbon (called diamond more popularly) which even cannot be eaten. Ha ha ha. I am really not sure how much you understand from the above. It is just an argument which occurred in my mind. And a relative truth for myself. What about you? Have you been thinking about consciousness lately? If you are curious, yes, I saw the bricklayer, yes, I saw the birds and the boys. But they are just different from yours, a relative truth for me, just like conclusions about consciousness , which makes no sense.