Tag: Will Smith

051121 – Morning Pages

The the day after Diwali, here are some firecrackers from Will Smith!

8:09. Home.

I Hope Diwali was great for everyone. Here’s to new beginnings and may each of you get what you wish for. In case you know me and trust me, send me your Diwali pics? You would have my number!

So in terms of what to write, for some reason, I am blank af. Let’s see what I come up with in the next few minutes. Lemme dump the things that are at the top of my head.

  1. am starting the lo-carb life today. It would be tough to manage it with all the travel and stress and all that. But I will. 
  2. I am thinking where to go live after 15th Nov. I want to not live at home and yet I want to be close to Delhi. At least till the 10th of Dec. I am leaning towards Gurgaon. Let’s see.
  3. Post the 10th of Dec, I will most probably be in Mumbai for a week or so. Thing is, I am driving to Goa from Mumbai on 21st or something. So I need to be around Mumbai. Lets see. May be Pune.
  4. There’s a lot of work open at my plate. Since I dont have a lot of pressing client calls today, I will probably focus on those and get those done.

While listening to music, Youtube played this Will Smith video where he’s talking about his upcoming book, Will. See the video.

Fuck the guy’s insane!

I have to have to have meet him someday. Universe, please make my dream come true? Not sure what I would do when I meet him, though! 

Of course, the cynic in me says that it’s all coordinated marketing efforts. I mean three-four things all at the same time – King Richard, Welcome to Earth, Best Shape of my life. And now, Will. All in Nov-Dec! All at the same time!

But the dreamer in me says, why not? The guy has what it takes to release all these at the same time! 

And here’s a quote. From Will. I may have used this earlier. “The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on a treadmill together, there’s two things – you are getting off first. Or I am gonna die. It’s really that simple.” 

See it here.

That’s about it for the day I guess. More tomorrow.

Here’s the journal!

  1. Emoticon: :|. Even though it was Diwali, I am still unable to find what would make me happy.
  2. Mindful Index (on a scale of 10): 1. I think I was a tad better. I did not multitask while doing whatever little I did. I kept my phone on the side for the large part of the day.
  3. Things that I am grateful for
    1. I have enough water to drink when I want to.
    2. There is enough potential work on my plate that makes me want to get up everyday.
    3. I stumble onto people like Will Smith that by their thoughts (at least) are very very inspiring.
  4. Things that would make my today great
    1. If I can finish pending work, it would be great. To do so, I need to go sit at some Starbucks. Let’s see which one I end up going to. Most probably, somewhere in Gurgaon. There’s a lot open 😐
    2. I am so pumped looking at and reading about Will Smith. I hope all that pump translates into action!
  5. A daily affirmation.
    I will do what I have set out to. Not eat carbs. OMAD. Nothing that fucks my body. I need to be fit af.
  6. Amazing things that happened yesterday? 
    1. Diwali! My entire family was together. That was amazing!
    2. I went for a walk around my house home. It was probably a 500-meter one but it was great to have my limbs move again. I realised how much I love walking. I wish where I live was more walkable.
  7. What could have made yesterday better?
    1. I did not do any work. Even though I had the time, I did not touch work. I should’ve.
    2. I would have got some 100 messages about Diwali. I did not know how to respond to those. I am weird like that. I dont know how to be festive. This is the reason I escape on my birthday. I make a big deal out of it. For no reason.
  8. Quote for the day
    See above…

And here’s the streaks…

  • OMAD – 0
  • #book2 – 0
  • NOFAP – 0
  • #noCoke – 2
  • #noCoffee – 2
  • #aPicADay – o
  • Daily Journal – 29
  • Money spent – 0. Was home and did not spend a single rupee. Yay!
  • Killer Boogie – 0
  • 10K steps a day – 0
  • Surya Namaskar – 0
  • Daily Mail to #teamSG – 29
  • 10 mins of meditation – 0.
  • Minimaslism Counter – -3 +1.
  • Morning Pages / Meditations – 29

011121 – Morning Pages

Today’s morning pages is a literal copy of the email that I send to my team. Read on.

8:00. November 1. New Month. New Week. A new burst of energy. To do more. And get more done. Here’s a new way of doing morning pages.

Lemme give context.

So I have this bunch of young people (all in their 18-25) that I sort of mentor. Mentor is not the word here. I assume that I mentor them. I dont know what they think. I’ve just put them in a Whatsapp group (I call it, well, TeamSG) and on that group, I give them gyaan and all that. And I send them an email every day. It is a little different from the morning pages as the “security” and “privacy” of an email allows me a little more freedom. So, today, I am reproducing that email. With some edits.

Here we go.

[START]

Today’s Krishna‘s birthday. I dont know if you know this but I met him on Twitter and he has become one of my closest friends and confidantes. And a co-investor in a startup. And at some point in time, he would become a business partner. He’s that important that I even went to Ahmedabad just to meet him. I mean someone like me who doesn’t go beyond the nearest Starbucks goes to another city altogether. Imagine. I just hope Krishna gets to his larger-than-life mission (I am not telling what it is – in case he wants to tell, he can) soon!

Ok, moving on with other things. I dont have a lot of time today. Maybe 15 mins tops to write this and the morning pages. I am prioritizing this over others. In the voice of Chulbul Pandey, Tareef nahi karoge humari?

Things at the top of my mind…

1. A new month has started. And that means I will yet again try and get on the fitness bandwagon. I met some friends yesterday and they said that despite my trek, I seem to have gained weight. Damn. Need to lose some. I am fasting today. For sure. 

2. VG shared a trailer with me yesterday about something that Will Smith is doing. Here. Best Shape of my life. A few days ago I also saw another thing that he’s doing. Here. Welcome to Earth.

Plus I am in general in awe of what Will Smith does. I mean look at any of his videos on youtube. Every time I am down and about, I see his videos. Or of Steve Jobs. Doesn’t matter. The point is, loved these two pieces of content featuring Will Smith. I wish I could be as inspirational and as cool. Please do see these.

3. Yesterday I met a few friends. Over wine. Yeah, I am becoming a drunkard. These are friends from MDI. Realized a lot of things. Here they are in bullets

  • I am ok to tolerate kids. I thought the only 2 I could live with were M & m. But yesterday I could stay in peace with three other kids around me. Maybe it was wine? But here’s a thing. It was amazing to see a 3-year old trust you enough to leap off a 1-foot ledge (which was probably as big as the damn Everest for her) without knowing if I would catch her or not. And once she jumped, come hell or high water, I had to catch her. And I did. So that. To me that was the highlight of the day. The faith that a kid places in you even though you are a literal stranger to her. 
  • Everyone but me is doing extremely well for themselves. In terms of money, career, family, relationships etc. I even ranted about it here. Here are some thoughts from that.
    • Come to think of it, the only relationships I am sure of are the ones with my family. So kids, family first! PLEASE.
    • Another thing that I realised is that I hate that I am the poorest of all the people I know. And the worst is that I dont know a way out of this vicious circle. No, I dont want to rant more. Just a request. Boys and girls, PLEASE make money and make me rich. Soon. I want to see the world 😀 
  • We talked about things like the meaning of life and all that. I talked about my theory on life. The meaning of it. I am still trying to find the answer but I said that while this entire thing called life is meaningless and purposeless, the purpose that we were sent here is to do things that put others out of their misery. This could be done by entertaining them, inspiring them, giving them the shoulder, being of service. While this service, help, inspiration in itself is meaningless but the momentary gratification it gives to them, and to you, is what makes life worth living. And no, to me, this gratification et al need to go beyond your immediate circle. Go to those that did not get a good hand in the ovarian lottery. Ok, zayada ho gaya. Maybe some other day when I articulate it well enough. 
  • We went to this place called Cyber Hub. It’s a great place to take great photos. And it sucked that I could not take a single good photo. I feel so so constrained, limited in my ability to take pics. Guess I will do some course of something to learn more about it. I have to. I love taking pics. I love framing them. I love catching people in their natural states, you know candid. And I love freezing time with photos. 

So that. These are the thoughts from my meeting.

4. Song of the day is this. On loop. From a film called Hell or High Water. See this film if you are the kinds to watch films. I saw it once on an airplane and I loved it so much that I came to the ground and saw it again. 

5. I have almost written the letter to bade log. Will try to send it on the Diwali break. 

6. Quote for the day. “If not now, then when?”

This sounds simple but has a deeper meaning to me. Our time is limited. Something that people your age would not understand. But when you are my age, you would realize that it just whiles away while you are busy with petty things like cricket and parties and all that. 

So whatever dreams, aspirations, ideas, plans you guys have, you need to act on those now. And if not now, when? Before you know it, you would be 40 and like me at the edge all the time because you haven’t done great things. The good part is that I can see each of you doing great things already. You will probably not end up like me. The challenge to each of you, thus is, can each of you become someone that inspires millions and billions of others? 

7. In terms of work, I have a lot planned for the day. A few meetings, a few presentations. A pitch to a new client. Maybe a dinner with a friend. Not sharing a timetable per se but I have a fairly busy day ahead. And I plan to fast and not have coffee / coke / food. Let’s see how it goes. 

Chalo that’s about it for the day. See you guys around. 

[END]

PS: In case you want to get this email, do let me know and I can cc you.

So that. And here’s the journal.

  1. Emoticon: :). Was little better yesterday. It was a perfect day. Did some work. Met some friends. Thought about things. Talked about esoteric things. Slept ok.
  2. Mindful Index (on a scale of 10): 0.
  3. Things that I am grateful for
    1. The trust that a 3-year old places in you can literally change the way you think and operate.
  4. Things that would make my today great
    1. I have a potential client meeting today. In case I am able to close that client, it would be awesome.
  5. A daily affirmation.
    The kind of day I had yesterday, I will have more of those. Today would be yet another day where I would get things done, crack deals, spend time with people I want to.
  6. Amazing things that happened yesterday? 
    1. I met these friends from MDI. And their kids. Loved it! Must meet more people. In fact, I feed off the energy of other people.
    2. The letter to bade log is almost ready. Will ship around Diwali.
  7. What could have made yesterday better?
    1. If I could eat a tad less, it would have been perfect.
    2. If I could sleep for more than 7 hours, it would have been nice.
  8. Quote for the day
    “If not now, then when?”

Here’s the streaks…

  • OMAD – 0
  • #book2 – 0
  • NOFAP – 0
  • #noCoke – 0
  • #noCoffee – 0
  • #aPicADay – o
  • Daily Journal – 25
  • Money spent – 7098. Went out eating. Thus.
  • Killer Boogie – 0
  • 10K steps a day – 0
  • Surya Namaskar – 0
  • Daily Mail to #teamSG – 25
  • 10 mins of meditation – 0
  • Minimaslism Counter – -3 +1.
  • Morning Pages / Meditations – 25