Mediocre to great

 

Levels of living life are usually classified as survival, mediocre and great.

I believe, in reality, there is a huge amount of people in the zone between mediocre and great.

So, what is this area all about?

In survival, you have no discipline and no success.

In mediocre, you have discipline and control over some things.

In great, you have discipline and success in most of the areas of life.

The yellow area in between is where you have a good discipline in some areas but do not have discipline in the other areas which is not giving the compounding effect for the areas you are disciplined to make your life great.

Let me give you an example. You are great at saving money and investing. But you smoke heavily causing you ill health and making you spend a lot on Healthcare, thereby reducing your financial success instead of allowing it to further grow.

To live a great life, several things matter: mindset, what you focus on, what you learn and improve, earning well, investing, health, spouses mindsets and habits, spending habits, friends, networks, time management, vision, motivation, etc.

To move from mediocre to great requires one to master and discipline from a minority of things to the majority of the things and that is where the real struggle and effort is.

Ingredients to an exploring nature

I am an explorer at heart and mind.

I find, get, tune into things that hit me with new and varied information.

I like finding new things and find out how they work and how they connect.

It can be any field - Law, Weapons, Food, Places, Behaviours, Culture, Looks, Science, Politics, Geography, War, Business, Movies, Psychology, Scripts and lyrics, Music, Finance, etc.

As an example, many people go through the same newspaper or the same road as me but I have discovered more interesting things than them.

How come?

I think an exploring nature has 5 key skills:
1. Curiosity to know and use the information

2. Patience to keenly observe

3. Understand at the base level

4. Think about it at a deeper level of how and why

5. Engage / play / experiment with it by connecting the dots / varied information already known

The world is full of interesting and new concoctions for the curious and patient person.

Funny Business is not Funny

One may find Jimmy Carr as a very controversial stand up comedy. If you have heard him for an hr, you may describe him as any or more of the following:
Disgusting, Offensive, Loser, Pathetic, A**hole, Shrewd, Insulting, Abusing, Tacky, Cheap, Trashy and more.

The topics he chooses are all adult themed and more on the taboo side of the society.

He has chosen that as his speciality and he is a master at it.

An "ok" joke by his standard is "Every night, after the show, I have many attractive women banging on my dressing room doors. Sometimes, I let them out."

To get an idea of it, here is one of his live stand up comedies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD7xoJxn8TA

Now, there is a totally another side of him:

https://www.instagram.com/wealthytools/reel/C83ryW8vVOE/

Here he is telling us how we take life's pleasures for granted and that 100 years ago even a king could not take a hot shower to relax which we can do instantly. He questions how we are living like kings and yet life is objectively better and subjectively worse.

These contrasting topics have a few things in common: Insights, Perspective, Deep understanding.

Through this post, I am putting a point that stand up comedy is actually about insights about human behaviour and expectations and is put across from a non-common perspective.

To be a good comedian requires that they become a good subject matter expert in their area of specialization. And that is not funny, and should be respected.

Connectedness and Feelings

 

Friendliness and professionalism

Power of timely love

 The 8 minutes catch up with a friend by Simon Senek:

The 8 min catchup

The perfect hug:

5-10 sec hug

A concept by John Gottman

The 6 second kiss

In conclusion, spend at least 8 min with a friend, a 10 sec hug to a loved one and a 6 second kiss to your partner.

Good Love v/s Bad Love

Good love sets you free. Bad love enslaves you.

Good love changes you for the better. Bad love forces you to unwilling changes.

Good love is supportive. Bad love is dominating.

Good love is empowering. Bad love is disempowering.

Good love is based on trust. Bad love is based on jealousy/ fear/ need to fit in/ not to be alone.

Good love doesn't demand you to give up on friends/ colleagues/ family. Bad love is obsessive and demands other sacrifices.

Good love helps you grow. Bad love enslaves you physically / mentally / sexually / emotionally.

What is a good photo?

I love good photos.

I love good authentic photos.

But what is a good photo ?

I googled to check.

The top answers were:

1. If you always consider these three variables, light, subject, and composition. You will have mastered perhaps the most critical part of photography, and learned how to actually convey an emotional message with your shots.

2. What Are The Qualities Of A Good Photograph?

• Timelessness.
• It doesn't need to be explained.
• Tell us a story.
• Be selective about just what you allow into the picture.
• Attention To Detail.
• Unusual Point of View.
• They create emotion.

3. What is the definition of a good photo?

“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” – Irving Penn.

So here is my view of what is a great photo.

Photos consists only of a few things like the game we used to play as a kid: People, Places, Animals & Things.

To understand what a photo is, we have to understand that it is a slice of time. Everything is so unique about it because it is that unique slice of time we have captured. 

But, any photo is not a good photo.

If it is a person or people, it has to capture an emotion. It has to be candid so that the emotion can be captured in all its honesty and reality, in the moment and unconsciously by the subject. An emotion that when looked at later brings nostalgia to the person and brings back the feelings in them what they experienced at that point in time. It should be like a time travel. If any other person sees it, it must convey the story and the emotion of the person and what they were going through.

If the photo is of a place, it should take you back to that place mentally (good or bad depends on that place) and give you the highs or the shivers.

If it is an animal, it is must be about it doing something unique or focussed and about to do something.

It is a thing, the contrast of it vis-a-vis other things should define the traditions, culture and context of the human civilisation.

If a photo captures more than one of these 4 elements together, it would be an outstanding photo.

Success & failure - A difference of Motivation

We all have goals in 3 categories - stated, unstated and undefined.

A stated goal could be buy a house by next year.

Unstated goal could be vague as in get healthy.

Undefined is something we have not even given a thought of it yet.

To achieve goals, there needs to be motivation.

There are different levels of motivation:

1. Determined by self motivation 

2. Determined by external motivation

3. Work for pay (clear give and take relationship)

4. Voluntary (doing partially or half heartedly)

5. Needs nudge to do

6. Doing with push from other(s)

7. Doing after a threat

All goals or activities can be classified under these different motivation levels.

A comparison of the bar chart of the motivations against goals of a successful and unsuccessful person would be a contrast even with the same goals at X axis.

The level of motivation determines the success.