Unlock Yourself, Unlock Success

      What would your mindset be if you were to run a marathon? You know your limits, even if you have what it takes to come first would go in with a mindset of -

1. Beating the other guys or 
2. Wanting to finish first?

      Now it may seem that there is no difference between the two, but if you look closely you would find out that there is a lot of difference. The basic difference is that, when you go there to beat other people, that time you are limiting your preparation to some extent more than others i.e. if person A works out for 3 hours in a day, you might workout for 4 hours thinking you are working out more but instead you are restricting yourself, you are keeping a limit with respect to someone else, your point of reference is someone who is a different entity you cannot compare! Whereas if you work out for coming first regardless of what people are doing, you become limitless, you stop living in insecurity, in fear and what happens when you stop living in fear you break free have a renewed spirit of conquering your dreams.

Lewis Hamilton

      In a given situation, if Lewis Hamilton races to be faster than Nico Rosburg, he might win a couple of times but if he loses he would dwindle under his own wrath of first of all losing and secondly not winning. On the other hand if he races to come first he would just have a target of achieving it, not worrying to that extent from Nico, because his sole objective is coming first, and even if he loses the only regret that would haunt him is he lost and whatever happens to Nico wont distract him that much. Such is my point, we have heard from childhood that “Every Child is Special | Not everyone’s all fingers are same | Everyone has a different script written for themselves by God”, then why not implement it in real life? Why has life today become a race where the reference point is not yourself but someone else? I understand everyone is mature enough to know this, many won’t agree with my thinking or my point of view and I truly respect that, again because everyone sees the world differently, people may have similar opinion but it is impossible for two people to have exactly same opinion.

      As a student why is it necessary for us to compare ourselves with our peers? Why is that we take into consideration other people’s lifestyle and try to integrate it into our own? Steve Jobs was only one classy man, he had a vision, he was one of a kind. He didn’t care about lot of things that weren’t related to him or he just focused on what he wanted to achieve and didn’t see any limits to achieve it! 

His main objective was his vision, how he wanted to achieve his idea, he didn’t allow anything stand in his way, he went lengths and distance to achieve it! Again the point is what you want, not what others are doing and you have to follow, this is for those people who get depressed if they don’t score well. It is healthy being sad about your score if it’s less than your-self in-comparison to the past, but being sad because you scored less and your mates scored more is just allowing someone to stay rent free in your apartment (brain)! Person A, got 9.65 pointer and Person B, got 7.96 pointer. If B only cares to beat A then what is the use? B should aim for full 10 pointer instead of getting more than A, only then would B progress in reality. Everyone understands this but honestly ask yourself how many of you reading this article actually follow it? Keeping a tab on how much your competitors have studied is good, making it the sole reference is wrong. Hiding from people study material, if not helping others, then why do you take pride in advising someone “You know help someone with your knowledge it would help you revise!”, when you don’t intend to follow it. It has just become a myth! 

  

      Your life is not very easy, the reality is harsh, the life is tough it would give you pain in your ass! One other reality is our mindset, people who boast about being great without any real deal are faux, but people who boast about being great after they have achieved it are Achievers, Goal winners, Rule Setters, Out of the Box, misfits from others because there is a difference between them and reality! You have heard wise people keep their mouth shut, now look it from different point of view- even the people who don’t know stuff are also silent, so how should one differentiate a wise man from a fool? If you don’t speak up, always act dumb how is that the other person would realize your true potentials.

When the matters are of your career, it is better to boast and speak up if you have a substantial baseline, when Arjuna told Lord Shiva he didn’t know anything, he was talking to the almighty Lord/God. When you present yourself to someone you are not talking to GOD, you are talking to his creation, you can’t expect the one in front to be the Lord himself, who would already know your life history! It is necessary to understand that what you speak about yourself, what you think about yourself also gives you confidence, brings you unknown, unexpected opportunities and isn’t that good for your career and life? When before the exam a student comments “Oh shit! I have not studied anything I might fail” it can so happen that what he/she has said may come true, then what would you do? Instead if you speak the truth, maybe there are chances you may fail (if you haven’t prepared at all) but if you have prepared and know that perfectly you would have a self-reassurance, confidence and others hopes with you! When you speak up the truth, you help your peers also, they also get confidence speaking up then it may not necessarily mean your girlfriend/best-friend/boyfriend and it is not necessary to compare the preparations of two individuals since everyone is different. In a way you are helping them unknowingly, improving your karma and good deeds! To gain confidence first of all being truthful helps and secondly you have to reiterate to yourself stating- “Who’s the best? You are the best!” in front of a mirror but be careful there is a small thin line in between of being arrogant and confident!

      My ideologies are different than maybe all of you reading this draft, I would appreciate you guys sharing your views on the topic hopefully I was clear enough in what I as a student come across and feel sometimes! Comment down below with your point of view and I may not make a great difference in your life, but if I am able to make even 0.000001% of change in how you view things my this article would be successful.

Innovators of Tomorrow

      Indian Government is busy putting some bans and TRAI been trying to change the rules of Net Neutrality. Out of all these,the scary and important thing is, if TRAI is successful in changing Net neutrality rules then the big companies website will be fast enough to be loaded properly and the information related sites won't be in a position to load faster.

      It blocks the learning pattern of an individual if all the websites on the internet are not equal and websites started paying to load their sites faster. There are few young innovators who are trying to solve one of the many biggest problem which the world is facing and it can help a lot, if implemented in a large scale. Young innovators like them who live in India won't be able to come up with such great innovation if net neutrality doesn't exists.

      Let's take my own example, I and students like me learn almost a lot of things from the Internet from the things like java and coding related stuff to the things like making our own new cool video and uploading it on YouTube. If net is not neutral then it will loose the meaning of its existence. To support and read more information about Net neutrality you can visit this link: Net Neutrality

Now let's take a look at some of the young innovators I'm talking about:

1) What do trees know that we don't? This was the question that a 13-year-old inventor Aidan Dwyer asked himself and realized that trees use a mathematical formula (i.e Fibonacci Sequence) to gather sunlight in crowded forests. Then he wondered why don't we collect solar energy in the same way? He then built a small solar panel model which collected solar energy efficiently throughout the day. Project Link

2) Mihir Garimella thought of mimicking Fruit Fly Response Patterns for Threat Evasion. His only aim was to save lives with flying robots and use computer science and robotics to make a difference. After making such a great product, he said that "This is the world that I would like to be part of. But more importantly, one that I like to help create". Project Link






3) Viney Kumar witnessed emergency response vehicles (ERVs) stuck in traffic, unable to respond to urgent calls. Instead of relying on sirens, Viney built a system using mobile technology and GPS to give earlier warning signals to drivers that an ambulance was on the way, increasing alert time from 7 seconds to 67 seconds. Project Link


4) Elif Bilgin created Bioplastics from Banana Peel when she realized that Petroleum based plastics are creating a lot of pollution which was a serious problem.










5) Shrishti Asthana came up with "A Green Method to Clean Water". Her project uses a sustainable method to clean water of detergents and other contaminants. It all started when she visited one of the many textiles factories in Ludhiana. What caught her attention was the huge amount of waste of the factories that was thrown into the nearby drains. She asked the owner, "Is the waste treated before leaving the factory?" And he jokingly replied, "Do you treat the detergent water that leaves your house after washing clothes?"
And that question made her realize that enormous amount of detergent water that leaves houses also causes huge pollution in our cities. This inspired her to come up with a GREEN method for the degradation of detergent water and she was successful in doing so. Project Link

      They all proved that for innovative things age doesn't matter. What matters is observation skills and trying to contribute to the well being of the world. If we only observe the surroundings properly, then we can learn a lot from them. Also, a lot of Innovations has only been possible because of nature and the huge amount of information that is available on the internet.

      Creative and genius people don't have great intelligence or great answers to questions of life. They just have good questions in their mind. If you pick up any of the great innovators from the entire world. Then you will realize that they were not the people having great intelligence but instead they were the people who had great questions in their mind to ask universe for it.

      Scientists, technologists, innovators, are just like you. They love trying things. Uncertain things. Ambitious things. Things that sound as crazy in our heads as they do out loud. Those are the things that make us get up, brush our teeth, and go risk our reputation on a hunch. Trying something new is the only way to make the next great thing. And the best part is, we all know how to do it. When you were a baby you unsuccessfully tried that new walking thing, for like, four months, and now you walk like a champion. Same with talking, swimming, riding a bike,etc. The desire to try new things is built into you. Now to take that desire, apply some science, and get ready to change the world. From earth's brightest builders to her bravest explorers, every accomplishment, every accolade, every bit of this round of applause started with a love of trying things. 

So, I would like to end up with a small question,

Disability is the new ability

      Often people with disability are regarded as people who cannot do anything in their life, but if someone encourages them to do something then they are the people who could make the most out of their lives.

      You might have heard about Stephen Hawking. A British theoretical physicist, whose world-renowned scientific career spans over 40 years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by motor neuron disease. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs and voice, and as of 2009 was almost completely paralyzed. As you can see, with those many disabilities anyone would think of dying as the best option. But people like him are the ones who show the rest of the world that disabilities are not meant to stop someone's life, they are meant to make you stronger and more stronger.

      If we think of learning disability there are many great people who had learning disabilities but have achieved a lot more in their life. You might know a few or almost all of these people who had learning disabilities, they are as follows: 

1. Walt Disney who was an American business magnate, animator, cartoonist, producer, director, screenwriter, philanthropist and a voice actor and yes, he was co-founder of "The Walt Disney Company".                                                                                                                 
2. Albert Einstein, you all know about his achievements in the field of science and technology.                                                                                                                                                    
3. Alexander Graham Bell who was an eminent engineer, inventor and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.                                                                                                                 
4. Thomas Edison a great inventor who had over 1000 patents and his inventions are in various fields used in our daily life could not read till he was twelve. His most popular invention is the electric light bulb. He also developed the telegraph system.                                                                                                                 
5. George Washington could barely write and had very poor grammar skills and the list goes on.

      As you could all see the achievements made by these great people have an immense effect on the world even after having disabilities in their life. We should all learn something from them. If we don't get something in life or lack the skills to do something or even if someone is better than us then we blame the other person, our luck, our destiny and our knowledge. But this should not stop us from achieving what matters to us. A quote by John Burroughs which is rightly said, says,

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame someone else. -John Burroughs

Life is all about doing what you like and spreading happiness in the world. Disability is disability for those who look at it as a disability while some other look at it as a challenge. The meaning of disability varies from person to person. A man named "Jahid" who doesn't have one leg, came in Roadies(a youth-based popular reality television show in India) and got selected, and when you see his audition video and episodes from Roadies then you will be shocked. He has done all those things which would be difficult for even a normal person to do. For his audition video, you can click here.On the day of audition, the judges asked him, "How would you perform tasks when you don't have one leg and you are disable?" to this he replied that "I don't have one leg but I'm not handicap. A handicap is a person who cannot do anything and I can do things and can perform task". It is all about how we look at each other and how we look at things. If we have right attitude towards every other person then we can help each other out and make this world a better place to live in.

      So, here comes a quote which I would like to say,

Why we do what we do?

      We all have Great Minds and we can achieve anything if we believe in it. Why we do what we do? This is the question surprisingly many of us don't think about. But when you sit down and think about it, you can feel the change you need. We as human beings tend to achieve our goals either by our passion or by putting everybody down and climbing up the ladder. These are the different paths which people take, they are either going to achieve their goals by helping people or by putting them down. Both of these have the same goal but what really matters and is right is the first path. When you contribute to people and help them achieve their goals, you are actually helping yourself to be a better human being and as a result you will be achieving your goals. We human beings are meant to help each other out. For example, your friends and family, who help you at your difficult times. But why do they do it? because they know that you will be ready to help them when they need you.

      Many of us have failed to achieve something in life and when we ask them why did you fail at something you wanted so passionately? The Answer will be that they didn't have the Time, Money, Technology, Experience, Contacts,etc. But if you think about it, those are not the reasons they failed, it is that Inner Drive/force which helps us to achieve something in our life. If someone really wants to achieve something they will find a way to achieve it, no matter what. Even if the person doesn't have money or technology, despite that, he will find a solution. It is not about all the things that I mentioned above but it is about that Inner Force which you need, to do something and contribute to the society. Though the things mentioned above can be one of the obstacles but obstacles are overcomed by people who dare to dream and dare to achieve their goals.

      Sometimes you have all the creativity,technology and time and you are ready to do everything possible to achieve your goals and contribute to society and help each other out, but maybe you are missing that inner force you need in order to boost you up and start achieving it. That Inner Force can be easily activated either by watching a video, talking to someone, reading stories, reading books or even reading a blog.

Let me give you some examples:

      Steve Jobs who started Apple in his garage(do you really think people were going to take it seriously that time?), Mark Zuckerberg a college dropout who made one of the most popular social networking site, Facebook. Also there are Indian Inventors, whom you might not know well, they are Vinod Dham (popularly known as the Father of Pentium Chip) who contributed to the development of the highly successful Pentium processors from Intel, Sabeer Bhatia who founded Hotmail email service, Ajay Bhatt who helped define and develop several widely used technologies like USB (Universal Serial Bus), AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), PCI Express and various other technologies, and the list does not end here. They all faced obstacles while inventing those things, but they didn't give up.

      Albert Einstein, when he was at school his teachers told his parents that he would not be able to contribute much to society and now we know how much he has contributed to the whole world. Obstacles didn't stop them from achieving their goals. On the contrary, most of us do a job or study only because of the money. They don't want to achieve something in life or chase their dream. They might be having passion to do something else, but because of the peer pressure from the society they could not do it. But, if that had stopped Albert Einstein from learning and inventing things then the world would not have developed much.

      If you still don't know why you are doing what you are doing, get up and follow your heart because it can lead you to things which matter the most and the things that you love doing. True Happiness is often achieved when you love what you are doing or when you do what you love. And that happiness will lead you to success and your life will be amazing. At the end I would say with the help of a quote that,

The Power of Storytelling

      If I told you that there was a guy named "John Montagu" who loved to play cards and he was so much into it that at the time of eating also he used to play cards with one hand and eat with the other. This was one of the problems that he used to face because he can't eat properly with only one hand. So he came up with an idea to eat meat putting it in between slices of toast, which would allow him to finally eat and play cards at the same time. Eating his newly invented "sandwich", the name for 2 slices of bread with meat in between, became one of the most popular meal inventions in the western world.

      John Montagu was a British politician and aristocrat in 1748. You will notice that you will never likely forget the story of who invented the sandwich ever again. Or, you are very less likely to forget it and if it would have been in bullet form or presented in other information based forms then you are likely to forget it faster. That's the power of storytelling. For over 27,000 years, since the first cave painting were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.

      Here is the science around storytelling and how we can use to make our decisions better.

How our brains become more active when we tell stories:

      We all enjoy a good story whether it is a novel, book, movie or simply anything one of our friends is explaining to us that they've experienced. Why do we feel so much engaged when we hear the narrative about events?

      In fact if we see it is quite simple. If we listen to a powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points in it, there are certain parts of the brain which gets activated and that is Broca's area and Wernicke's area, which is used for language processing. It just connect words with meaning and that's it, nothing else.

      When we are told stories though, things drastically changes found researchers in Spain. They found out that not only does the language processing area of the brain gets activated, but also the other areas of the brain which would have been activated if you had actually experienced the events which are told to you. A story can put your whole brain to work. And yet, it gets better. When we tell stories to others that have really helped us shape our way of thinking and way of life, we can have that same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and the person listening to it can actually synchronize, says Uri Hasson from Princeton:

“When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized.  When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too.  When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains.”

      Anything you have experienced, you can get others to experience the same. Or at least, get their brain areas that you've activated that way, active too. Why does all that happen? The simple answer to this is: We all are wired that way. A story, if broken down into the simplest form is a connection of cause and effect. And this is exactly how we think.

      Storytelling is one of the most powerful techniques that we as humans have to communicate and motivate. And lastly, I would finish this post with a quote and here it is,

What makes a Good Leader?

      When you go back in the Paleolithic era, you will find that there were dangers everywhere trying to reduce the lifespan of humans. But, as the people live in groups/tribes that time because human beings are social animals. We love to interact with each other and help our people. The groups which were there in Paleolithic era used to have at least 1 leader which was brave and would do anything so that the people around him were safe. That feeling brings a good leader in someone. Actually back in that era they used to have deep feelings of trust and love towards each other. As there were dangers everywhere, they used to protect their people when they are sleeping at night so that the people can sleep in peace and feel protected. It is the sense of trust they had between them, that if someone felt asleep then the other person will protect them if some danger arrives. If I ask someone to trust me, will the person trust me? NO, because just by saying someone to trust you doesn't bring the trust in them, it is a feeling which comes from our heart. The tribe leaders tasted the food first before letting the rest of the tribes eat, so that the tribe would be safe from any toxic elements present in the food.

      This is the difference between a leader which is Good and the leader which is not. If you see in banking or business world then you will find that the people in the organization don't trust their fellow members. That's why a lot of people have visceral sense of hatred towards their bosses. It is not because they have a huge amount of difference between their salary and their bosses salary, it is because the employees know that the bosses had sacrificed their organization people to gain and get promoted. It is not about the numbers but it is about the people. Imagine if Mahatma Gandhi had got 100 million dollars for his contribution to the country by the government, will anyone disagree or think why the government is giving such a huge amount to Mahatma Gandhi, not at all. Like I said it is not about numbers it is about the sense of feeling towards each other because people know that Mahatma Gandhi had sacrificed himself so that the people may gain.

      There's a company named "Next Jump" in New York and his founder is Charlie Kim. Charlie says "If you get a job in Next Jump then you will never get fired". It is not because everyone in their organization is excellent or perfect, it is because when an employee gets into problem they help them and try to solve their problem rather then firing him. It is just like when you had a fight or issue in your college/school, your parents try to solve it. By doing this the morale of the company rises and the people in the organization try to help and coordinate each other more than ever. People like Charlie Kim are the people who believes in heart counts and not head counts. And when in the same organization someone asked a group of people individually that "Why would you help other employees around you? What makes you do that?". Every one of them replied the same and that was "Because they would had done it for me if they were in my place". It is this sense of trust and feelings that brings development and love towards each other.

      Further more if you want to know how a good leader is, you can take an example of your parents. They do everything for you, they provide you with good education, good opportunities, good food and teach you good things. They do everything that you couldn't imagine and they do it simply because you can achieve higher goals then they could have ever achieved or could have ever imagined. They motivate and inspire you, so that you can become a great person. They don't get anything in return except the happiness to see you achieving your goals. Good leaders are these people who sacrifice themselves so that you can live and be happy.

     And to conclude the post, here's a quote.

    

Heart touching Video

      This is one of the best video which I had came across while surfing on the Internet and I thought to share it with you all.

Watch it till the end and you will feel happy that you had seen this video. Hope, you will like it.

Fixed Mindset V/s Growth Mindset

    A lot of people face difficulties in their life but from that difficulties the people who stood up and face the difficulties are the actual winners. Winners are not the people who never failed, they are the people who choose not to quit. Recently, a study was conducted on students to see how some students can do very well in their academics while some don't.

    A group of researchers tried it out on 5th standard students at first. They had divided the students group into half and they were given a puzzle to solve which was an easy puzzle. After they had finished solving the puzzle and everyone has solved it, the researchers said the first group of students that "You might be very intelligent to solve this puzzle.", at the same time the other group was said that "You have worked really hard".

    After that, the 2 groups were given a choice to choose from, 1st problem was an easy one while the other was difficult. Most of the students which was from the 1st group choose the easy problem while the other group choose the difficult problem. After the evaluation of the marks on the basis of the solved problem the students were told to report their marks and the astonishing fact was that the students from the 1st group has shown a decline in the results to that of the students in the 2nd group and not only that, the students from the Fixed Mindset(i.e. 1st group of students) reported their marks wrong because they feel threatened seeing the success of others, while on the other hand the students from the 2nd group(i.e. Growth Mindset students) not only has done well as compared to their previous performance but they also had reported their marks correctly, because they were not having the fear of failure in them.

    This is where the concept of Fixed and Growth mindset came. Fixed mindset are the people who think they are intelligent, even if they are intelligent or not, but the fact is that they somewhat restricts their development of brain. They see efforts as something which is a waste of time and they see no point in making efforts to solve something, while on the other hand Growth Mindset people are those who see efforts as hard work and they try their best to get things done. Their intelligence is what we called a developing intelligence.

    If you give a challenge to a Fixed Mindset student and to a Growth Mindset student, you will see that the Fixed Mindset student will try to avoid the challenges and the Growth Mindset student will not only accept the challenge but will try his best to complete it. Studies has shown that the first group of students has shown a decline in the academic as well as logical thinking process while the 2nd group of students has shown increase in their academic as well as logical thinking process. The following image illustrates the difference between a fixed mindset and growth mindset.

    

And this is how the Growth Mindset people brain works:

    But, Fixed Mindset people can try to do what a Growth Mindset people do and with some efforts, they can convert their mindset into a Growth Mindset. Remember one thing, growth mindset people see failure as an opportunity and works hard to achieve their goal. For Growth Mindset people, intelligence is not fixed. It can rise or fall and that depends on how hard you work. If you follow what a growth mindset people do then you can also be a part of Growth Mindset and you will feel happiness in what you are doing.

  At the end I would say,

Curiosity

         You maybe thinking that how can a person be curious about things around them?. The Answer is "You are born Curious". Curiosity is that skill which is present in every individual. Recently, I heard a quote saying that "If you can light a spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without further assistance". This is because children are natural learners and so are we. Curiosity doesn't need anything for its existence. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. 

        If we pick a very basic example of Thomas Edison, then you will know that Thomas Edison tried almost 2000 different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When all the materials didn't worked as per his expectations, then his assistant complained, "All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing." to that Edison replied very confidently, "Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that there are Two Thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb." Thomas Edison was determined and curious about what he was doing. He didn't stopped even when failing so many times, which most of us would give up. That's the Power of Curiosity.

        Few days back I saw a small child about 7 years old, his mom was teaching him something about environment and she told him that when the sunlight falls on the water, the water transforms into water droplets and evaporates in the atmosphere thus forming clouds which later on give rains. Listening to this, the child immediately went to pick up a small cup from the kitchen, poured some water in it and kept that cup in the balcony where sunlight was coming. When I asked him, "Why are you keeping this cup filled with water in the balcony?", he replied to me smiling, "I'm giving water to clouds". From this incident we can learn 2 things from that child:

1. He was keen to know how it works (i.e. He was curious to know that how water can be transformed into water droplets and later on form clouds).
2. He actually tested whether what he heard just now was right or wrong.

        Many researchers and scientists, invented new technology not only because they have knowledge but they were curious to know about things and they were not afraid to fail at times. If you remember, when we were young and we don't know how to walk, at that time we had fall many times while walking, still we had tried our best to walk without any assistance and we did succeed. Some started walking early while some started a bit late. It is not about when you started, it's about whether you had given your best shot or not. If Biologist were not curious enough to know about How the Human Body Works then doctors were not able to save lives of people which they are doing now with such an ease. So, try to be curious and explore the various things around yourself. 

        If I'm able to spark curiosity in you by this post, then I will be happy because making someone curious is like contributing to the whole mankind.

Best Motivational video

      Recently, I had seen a video which will motivate you in just few minutes. It is one of the best motivational video that I had ever came across and I would like to share this video with you all guys.

After seeing this video you will surely do what you want to do and make the most out of your life.

All the Best for your future!

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