Lifestyle Design - I

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where..." said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

Most of us are drifters. We are conditioned to do what everyone else tells us to do. We see people working 9-5, so we do the same. We see friends getting married early wanting to start families early, so we do the same. We ask our elders, "What now?" and they pretty much tell you what they know the best. They don't mean any harm or wrong, but the fact is, not many know the answer to "What now?"

Reality is twisted. We perceive reality as something that is consistent with what we want to believe. Therein lies the biggest problem. Majority of us, will never understand life and it's true meaning.

In these series of articles, I impose upon my readers, my thoughts collected from a wide variety of my readings and inner thinkings and push forth the idea and the power of designing a lifestyle. Lifestyle design is not easy. Too vicarious, and you end up being jaded. Too cautious, and you are losing the very purpose of having a lifestyle. Striking the right balance is like tuning a piano, but once done, the world swings at your melody.

Much to our dismay, this world works in a counter-intuitive manner.

Take my word for it. This may seem absurd at first, but the more you think about it, the more it starts making sense. Pick an area, and you will find a counter-intuitive way of making things work really good in that area. Funny thing is, doing counter-intuitive stuff is easier, and more effective that doing the mundane daily stuff.

Example 1: How many of you get a lot more accomplished while you are working from home?

You don't have to get up early to take a shower and then drive to work (on an average you save about 1.5hr there), you don't have to indulge in office chit chat (on an average, you save another 1hr over the 8hrs you work), you have your dedicated attention for however many hours you decide to work and you don't have to deal with your annoying bosses (and that is more liberating than anything!)

When I work from home, I probably work about 7hrs, but I end up working the equivalent of about 10hrs. I catch up with 2-3 movies ('coz I can multi-task) or listen to my favorite music without having to bother anyone else (stuff I can't do @ work) and I manage to keep myself entertained and thus feel like my day was an easy ride compared to the days I have when I am working from the office.

Not only that, I save lunch money and ONE extra hour. I utilize that one hour to read up on some of the most interesting things happening in technology. Suddenly, I have hit a triple whammy here. I am getting a lot done by doing something completely counter intuitive - working from home. If I am really in the mood, I hit up a coffee shop by the beach and sit there working while enjoying the view and the beautiful women that pass by!! Can I ask for anything else? Yea, but no, not really!

I can give you similar examples on attracting women, learning languages, making money, getting your chores done, etc.

99% of us are convinced that this concept is untrue. We aim for mediocre stuff and thus obtain mediocre results. My very good friend Erik (who is now a celebrity in his own right), used to say, "If you do the same thing, you will get the same thing," and it's true. We set realistic goals, and thus we live average ordinary lives.

We first build the product and then try to find the market, thus leading to fewer gains. How about finding the market first, and then building the product. Or even better, finding the market, and then finding the product, improving the product and then just reselling the product.

You might think, who am I to be saying this. What is my disposition? Well, I am a learner. I am a kid with a curiosity like that of a cat. I want to live and learn, and learn and live. And I want to document my learnings and my design as I am learning and designing.

Hope you have a great day...I end up with this classic quote:

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
Mark Twain


Lovingly Yours,
Anup Marwadi