We is liking running

Me and my body that is. After two weeks of proper conditioning, I fell ill in the middle of the month. Down with fever and weakness. Although that was not the infamous swine flu or H1N1, I stopped running for some time none the less.I recovered by the weekend and was raring to go again. Its the longest I have been keeping a wish alive.

Then it started raining. At the exact time of running that is. Couldnt go.

I am back to running now, after 15 days of inaction. And I dont feel the break. Its like my body has picked up from right where it left off. Funny I say, with a happy face. I dont have to go through the building phase again.

Anyhoo, I am going 3-4 k now, with 75% time spent on actual trotting and rest is to recover and walk in between. Now that I have pushed myself for three days, tomorrow would be cross training. Sat would be the long, hard push to break the wall and to move on to the next level. Sunday is well deserved rest day.

Influences in my life

I am 24. Almost 25 now. Time to order a custom made quarter life crisis.  I cant help but to look back and see what made me the way I am now. Good, bad, the whole deal.

My parents, of course and obviously. I appreciate and imitate the social skills and understanding of my mother. Also the love to gather around relatives and yap about nothings. I take the love of exercise and physical sports from my father. Also the rational thinking mind set. I normally does not lose my cool just like him. I also like esoteric  things like reiki and yoga.

The impulse to spend was initially taken from my granny, but the thriftiness comes from father again. I am mostly like him i guess. But not quite.

The next set of influences were local group of friends. Not much taken from there, maybe a liking to get together and laugh of anything and everything.

Another set would be my school, college and MBA friends. Not much from that side too.

The main influencer apart from my parents are the books that I have read across my age. I have really appreciated non fiction variety that makes you think. So just make you think, so make you change your thinking in certain ways.Not rarely have I actually tried what is preached in a book. Not to mention, during my engineering, I have been a avid reader and follower of self help books. I have absorbed random information and ethics from them. They have been my most helpful guides on the road of life.

I have always stood on and hopped around on the shoulders of the giants.

I am changing. I have moved on from blindly following any advice given in the books anymore. Moved on from self help books to true self help. Towards GTD, towards setting goals and finding specific solutions to specific problems rather than copying the algorythms to life from someone else.

I have learnt to question everything in my mind before I accept it. And question my beliefs sometimes. As I experiment, I find a whole new world, waiting to be discovered.

The world that is me.

Why I run

I run because… I like to run. I want to be healthy, to see places I have never seen before. To better myself and my self image. To achieve in real what I know I can achieve from the inside. I run because I have too much fat in my body now, and fat is not welcome any more. I run because muscles are my beloved children and I want to watch them grow and become strong and support me through everything.

I like to run.

Running takes me in my personal space… no one else is allowed. I am myself, no external comparisons… just plain self competition. Its not even a competition anymore, just a propulsion in a direction.

I am developing my mind. Training it just I am training my muscles. To think what I want it to think. To push hard, and to grow. Grow up and be counted. Be counted by the character I display. Its all about doing better, going longer and faster than before. No one else is allowed. Its me against me. The human growth in purest form.

I run because running lets me think. Think abot what I am doing, where I am going… in the run, in the life.

I run because, I want to reach farther, see farther… test myself… and dream. Dream of running longer farther and faster.

I am not a runner. Yet.

Run!

My better… is better than your better….

Causality,Correlation and Success

We all have heard great stories of great people, always with a morale at the end. The end usually captures the virtue, character trait they so ceaselessly inculcated that led them to the glory forever.

Or did it?

Most ( if not all) the achievers have had a dark side, just like the rest of us mere mortals have. The examples are abound on the net. Now, no one builds a case of having a bad habit leading them to achieve what they had achieved.

The story actually goes like this. In the beginning, there is a theory. The theory links trait A to result B. If you do A long enough and doggedly enough, you are sure to achieve the pinnacle that is B. Now I feel we should listen to Mr. Holmes here. Although we are not twisting the facts in some cases, but just being extremely selective.

Such offerings are littered with stories. A specific theme links these stories. They all confirm the theory. As it is said ” People in the graves do not give evidence”. The winner shines for the world, the loser is just plain ignored.

Now, we need to ask a couple of simple questions here:

• Is there correlation?
• Is there causality?

Simply put, does the trait always occers in the achievers, and most importantly does NOT occur in the losers ?

Secondly, does the trait cause the success? or the trait and success are both caused by a background entity ?

These two questions will help you rip apart most such claims.

In my opinion, success is culmination of three things:

• Luck/opportunity
• talent
• practice

And I believe any of the three can increase the incidence of the other two. Given opportunity, your hidden talent can manifest, or you will get to practice more. Given talent, you will be tempted to practice since you will do well from the start and will face less resistance to progress compared to others around you,and also you will have a better chance of being noticed and given a chance. Practice can also unlock your hidden talent and practicing will have you noticed by the relevant persons in the same field as birds of a feather flock together.

Three pillars of Health

There are three main parts for being healthy.
Food, exercise and sleep.
I have been guilty of violating the most basic rules regarding all three.
No more.
Rules:
Sleep is important. Get it.
Exercise is important. Get it.
Food is important, But don’t get too much of it.
Its that simple.

I am planning to *run* the SCMM- half marathon in Jan-10.
I will wake up at 5.30 to go out and run.
Upper body exercises, yoga during evening.
Sleep latest by 11. (means in bed before 11, winding down from 10.30)
Develop rituals.
Watch what I eat, watch before I eat. Say No. No, thanks to be polite.
Chew. Meditate.
Learn.Change.Enjoy.

Take care.

Another year begins…

I am totally caught up in the day-to-day work to complete the ideation activity I was longing to do at the year end. I guess tomorrow would be the day after all. It sucks when you have to come to work on holidays, and my productivity is on a decline since long.

Till now, my resolutions are: no booze, and no non veg but fish.

I am feeling bored in the current job, in just 8 months. I feel a major factor for that is the time. I spend 4 hours a day just travelling, and I simply cant do stuff during travelling but to put in the earphones and listen to whatever. I tried listening to audio book, but if u drift even slightly while listening, the book is done for. I cant read anything, I cant practice anything. Hell, I can barely breathe in such a crowd.

Mumbai, in many ways is a suffocating city. Be it the hot n humid atmosphere, or its speed of life. For me, the main irritant is the traffic. There is just too much crowd in mumbai. Overflowing from every open door. After some days, it gets to you.

In the last two months,I have broken every long standing health rule I had imposed on myself. One tends to rebound after a few unsuccessful efforts to inculcate a habit I guess.

The task in this year is cut out. Get healthy, get going.

This is where I need to start. Again. It begins today.

Wish me luck this time.

Take care…

yummy!!

Finally I am eating the food cooked by my mom!!! the legen-wait for it-dary dabbawallas are to thank for this miracle of course.

Then again, all is not well. The person who maintains the tiffin delivery leg on my side is full of attitude. He is very strict in the sense that he would just keep the tiffins for my floor outside the lift. He wouldn’t even take a few steps it takes to keep it separately. The neighboring office ( jewelery shop or some such secret society )  houses some millions of noisy ladies and all of them get their own tiffins as well. The brainiac watchman just scoops up all the tiffins and takes them inside. By the time the error is discovered, the tiffin angel is back to collect them. He wouldn’t even wait for a few nano seconds, in case he would lose the race against photons….

Enough is enough sometimes. I had to rise to this matter of life and death. As the clock ticks towards one pm, my ears are perked up. Like a hunter in the jungle, I am sitting at a my place, without any movement.My focus flows in a zenlike state ( aided by the growing hunger of course). The second the lift door opens, I make out the difference in the noise made outside. After practicing and lots of false alarms, now I am a pro. This time the lift door opens with ‘THAT’ noise, I am already out, taking out my tiffin bag from the plethora of others strewn around. I sometimes catch the door closing…practice does make a man perfect…

Then, the sweet taste of victory lingers on my tongue…. not for long though, the tiffin needs to be out within half hour….

The race continues…

Take care…

The lifestyle change…

As I recall my engineering days, specially the 2004-06 period, one thing that comes vividly to my mind is the discipline I had inculcated. I used to be a regular yoga practitioner, worked out regularly,  had proper control over diet, and sleep cycle properly oriented. I was working on a very high energy level during those days.  I still remember the mental clarity I achieved during those days or when I was properly working out in MDI.I know I can and must do much better.

I wish to replicate the same over next few days continuing to the infinity , although through baby steps.

A proper sleep pattern would be the top priority. Increase in raw food intake, coupled with reduction in the consumption of tea and junk food would be introduced. ( This reminds me of the coffee free days during MDI ).

The diet change will be complemented by regular exercise and yoga. Also a form of meditation I am (used to actually) practice during those days.

I will track these things on a daily basis ( so much the reason to blog regularly again!!!). Wish me luck!!

Take care…

update 12-12: errrr…all this maybe from monday

Take care…

A book and lots of articles…

Very recently I have joined an online library. It does have pretty decent collection of books, and a facility that books are delivered and collected from your door step. The first book I got in my hands is ‘Faster than the speed of light’. Its a book with two structural part, written by a physicist. In the first part, he explains the historical developments in relativity, cosmology and such. He delves into deep yet simple explanations which are completely non mathematical. The second part deals with the radical idea that is the title of the book. While explaining the concept, and the ramifications, the author also weaves his personal story along with. He is brutal at places, but true to the story he is trying to tell. Interesting book, but it will help immensely if the reader has a firm grasp on the basics of relativity and cosmology.

I have just received another book, written by Jared Diamond. its titled ‘ Collapse: hows societies choose to fail or survive ‘.

I am also following a lot of economists through the ever useful google reader. The opinions are same, and getting gloomier by the day. Then, I look at the news papers and see prediction of job losses, liquidity crisis and forcast downgrading. Yet the government is predicting 7-8% growth… There is something drastically wrong somewhere. I have no clue as to how India will survive the recession if the whole world is already in one,and most knowledgable pundits are claiming that this is just the beginning….

Anyway, as my favorite line goes… ‘this too, shall pass’

Take care…