Nishant Garg

Upgrade Yourself: If I can do it, Anybody can do it!

I was teased and bullied in school. I was running away from myself. I lived with a story up until the age of 29. If I can become a better version of myself-trust me, everybody can do it.

My mantra: “No Defeat is FINAL! I have no defeat ATTITUDE!! I am STRONG!! I am connected to UNIVERSAL POWER!”

There were many times when people teased me and bullied me in school. Some parted ways for no reason. I was a good kid, and still, I was teased all the time.

I was honest, sincere and always wondered- “Why me”? I had no confidence in myself. I felt that something was wrong in me.

In school, I was teased over being the “brown kid”, although I grew up in India. Other kids called me by different names. Those moments had shaped my “belief” that something is wrong in me.

And, as a result, I always believed — I am not good enough, and I am not attractive enough to have people in my life. I believed that something physical is wrong in me. There is some flaw in me.

I lived with this story up until the age of 29. To be precise, 29.5!!

It’s so surprising to know that — how can somebody live life like this for so long. That’s true!

I am also surprised. So what? I had to go through all that pain to know how pain feels like so that I can really enjoy the joy.

And, 2017 came with the end of my old life!

Unfortunately, a lot of people live an unaware and mediocre life for so long. I truly hope — this post will bring some light and awareness to the people who feel stuck, and desire to grow.

Please know that, if I can become better, you can also become much better than who you are, at present! Trust me!

I am thankful and beyond grateful to all those people who always let me down. If they didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be the person who I am today.

And, I have never been the same!

I had hit the rock bottom emotionally and mentally in early 2017. I stumbled upon a Youtube channel of Corey Wayne, and since then life has taken a new direction.

There is always the right time and things show up when we expect the least. I experienced the same feeling when I came across Corey Wayne on YouTube whose inspiration and teachings gave me another level of confidence.

I never know“this side of the world” ever existed. This side of the world means — people are inspired, motivated, confident, courageous, open and talk about the growth.

I had never seen this kind of learning in life prior to 2017.

What you don’t know, you don’t know!!

“Always believe that LIFE is happening for you, not TO you!!”

If you fall on the ground, lay on your back, and lookup. If you can look up, you can get up. Nobody in the world can determine your destiny except you.

I believe that this short post will inspire you all to find the Greatness inside you.

Success depends on prior preparation. Past worries and future concerns only bring clouds of sadness. Learn from the past, apply in the present because you never know about tomorrow.

Treat past as a learning school!

Don’t beat yourself over the past. It has gone and will never come back. It’s a stupid simple statement, and has a deep meaning.

If something is not working in your life, it doesn’t mean it will never work. Change your approach, and even if it doesn’t work, then keep changing your approach until you get what you want.

Success depends on your “standards”. Raise your standards to achieve ultimate success. However, standards without any action are worthless. You get to take action every day no matter what happens in your life.

Success depends on the “choices” you make. Choices depend upon the decisions you make. Once you decide, then take action!. If your actions don’t lead you to success, change your strategy.

Always remember that life happens for you, not to you. Success and fulfillment go hand-in-hand. If you get massive success and still not fulfilled, then it’s an ultimate failure.

Success is something who you become, not what you get out of it. When you reach the top of the mountain, you see that there’s another mountain.

Learning to find happiness is the key to every small thing in life. It is often a challenge and requires practice.

Bad times are like “winters” which shall pass. Nothing stays forever, even the bad times.

When you hit a bad time — just stay calm, sit down, relax, work on the fundamentals and wait for the stormy dust to go away.

There’s always a plan in life, don’t push against it. Just go with the flow of life. There is God’s plan. If your plan isn’t working, it means God has another plan for you.

Easier said than done! Right?

I know this is hard to digest to hear that — “just go with the flow”. Life can be tough, and sometimes it’s wise to accept the situation. Acceptance opens the doors to new opportunities.

You have greatness in you. Keep moving!

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”. — Jim Rohn

This quote from Jim Rohn has transformed my life, my attitude, my beliefs, and my perspective. He is one of the very first personal development speakers I started listening to, in 2017.

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job” is a very profound statement, and contemplating this has helped me in living life with happiness, vitality and harmoniously. I’ve been able to set goals I could have never imagined in life.

Life is not going to be easy and you have no idea the challenges it will throw to you. A wise person always prepares for life.

If you’re still reading this, you are wise!

The challenge and fun in life are to get up when life knocks you down. It’s not always fun though, yet it provides opportunities for growth.

Are you one of those people who say- “oh man, it’s Monday again”, or, “Thank god, it’s FRIDAY(TGIF)”. Or, are you excited about each and every day of Life?

If you ask me this question- my response is, “I am just excited about life, I am happy, I am enjoying this journey and my happiness doesn’t depend on outer conditions”.

“Without dreams, people perish- BIBLE”.

Ask yourself these questions and write it down:

What are your goals?
What are your dreams for the rest of your life?
What do you want to become?
What do you want to see?
What do you want to have?
What relationships do you want to seek?

Try to be 1% better every single day. “DO NOT wait to be Perfect!”

“Perfectionism is the antidote to shame.”– Brene Brown

The key is just to start where ever you are. NEVER STOP moving.

Fulfilling dreams are not going to be easy. It is in the pain we change and grow. It is in the struggles we find ourselves.

Believe in your abilities to figure things out. Believe in yourself.
Have faith. Have Patience!

Just say to yourself- “YES, I CAN DO IT. I CAN DO IT.”

You have only one life. Grow to the max you can. There’s no limit. If you think you have a limit, you don’t know your potential yet.

If I can become a better version of myself — trust me, everybody can do it.

Keep growing and help others grow along with you.

GROWTH is powerful. When you grow in all the areas of life, you will be a different person. Growth takes time, a really long time, and there is no end.

Growth is not immediate. It takes time. You get to work it every single day.

How to start the process of growth?

Self-acceptance!

Accept yourself first wherever you are in life. Only when you accept yourself, then change and growth happen. Let go of who you think you are supposed to be.

There are 2 ways to motivate someone. One comes from a place of deficiency, that something is wrong and you need to fix that. Another comes from a place of abundance, which means there is nothing wrong with you and you can still want more and have more and expand your awareness.

I see this everywhere on social media where people are trying to motivate that comes from the lack. A simple example is “from broke to …. “, “from this to that..”, and you are good enough to fill in the blanks.

You all have something to motivate others, and that can start from where ever you are!

Inspired=” In Spirit”.⁠

When you say that you’re inspired, that means you are connected to your spirit which is at the core of your soul.⁠
⁠
When you are inspired by an extra-ordinary purpose, things start to happen, and your consciousness starts to expand. ⁠You activate the universal powers that have been out of the range.⁠

Feel Inspired! Be Motivated!

Ask Better Questions To Get the Amazing Results

Asking good questions interrupts our old and natural way of thinking, and create possibilities to think differently, and perhaps in a new direction.

Good answers only come from the GREAT QUESTIONS!

Asking great questions to yourself and others is a skill.

I learned this productivity hack from Tim Ferriss–“imagining a gun on your head and contemplating on what matters most”.

Great video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALMg-7-2trY to check out by Tim Ferris.

Do you procrastinate on small things?

If yes, would you still procrastinate if someone puts a gun on your head or on your dog’s head? 😉

I am sure you would finish a lot of things in that situation.

I don’t literally mean putting a gun on your head to finish long pending tasks. It’s just an analogy, you get my point!

What do you do in critical circumstances? Do you still procrastinate to do important things when the situation is tough, or you just do whatever it takes?

We usually tend to procrastinate on things that we think are not important to us.

I think procrastination arises either due to a lack of intrinsic motivation. And we can tap into intrinsic motivation by doing the few small things every day which are really important and letting other unimportant, or not-so-urgent things wait or delegate.

A great book to read on this topic is “First Thing First“ by Stephen R. Covey.

I had been procrastinating fora long time on re-balancing my financial portfolio, and I really wanted to break this pattern.

So, I asked myself these questions

What would I do if someone puts the gun on my head?
What would it look like If it was easier?

And the result?

I re-balanced my portfolio and opened Roth IRA by blocking 90 mins without any interruption.

When you ask better quality questions to yourself, your life will dramatically move towards the next level.

Ask these questions whenever you procrastinate or are distracted or unfocused?

What would I do if someone puts a gun on my head?
What would it look like If it was easier?

Asking good questions interrupts our old and natural way of thinking, and create possibilities to think differently, and perhaps in a new direction.

If I find myself stuck in any problem, I remind myself to stop, and rethink the problem to get a new solution.

I remember that when I was in middle school, my Math teacher always recommended starting a Math problem from scratch, rather than trying to fix the broken parts.

And, the same principle can be applied to any life problem.

Trying to solve a problem with the same thinking only creates a mess and a vicious thought loop.

I am a full-time Software Engineer, and when I am stuck in a complex problem — I remind myself to — “Stop and Ask good questions”.

With practice, you can develop a habit to remind yourself to “Stop and Ask good questions”.

You can go one step further which I do more often now.

Journaling!

Just writing my thoughts, or whatever clutter I’ve in my head, on a piece of paper, gives me a great degree of clarity.

Break your linear thinking pattern by asking these questions to yourself:

What would it look like if I do the opposite of what I have been doing in the next 48 hours?⁠
What would it look like if I do the opposite right now?
What would it look like if this task were easier?⁠
What would it look like if someone puts a gun on my head and how would I complete a big task in a short time?⁠

There are literally many ways of asking great questions.

Right before editing this post, I was feeling overwhelmed, and you know what — I asked myself — “What is the ONE thing I can do right now that will give me the most satisfaction?“.

And I, myself, answered that “just edit this long pending post‘.

Please enjoy!

Note: If you have better or other ways of asking good quality questions, please put them in the comment.

If you’d like to learn more about what I am reading, new documentaries, what I am learning new, recent podcast updates, things I am experimenting with, or anything —which I share extensively in my weekly short and sweet “Friday Newsletter”. No spam ever! I hate that too!

The Nishant Garg Show is listened to in 24 countries and is about extracting information on Mindfulness, Personal Development, Spirituality. I am on a mission to spread Mindfulness and I’d love for you to join me in this movement. For any question, please contact me. If you have enjoyed listening to my podcasts, please subscribe to the new podcast updates on Itunes. Please provide your reviews on Itunes which will really help me. Subscribe to the Newsletter. You won’t be spammed! I hate spams too! You will receive only one email every Friday on the latest published podcasts.

Courtnee Downs- US Army Soldier and Side Hustle!

Podcast with Courtnee Downs- US Army Soldier and Side Hustle!

Courtnee Downs She is an active-duty Army Soldier of 19 plus years! All 19 of those years she has been working in Law Enforcement.
She’s also a Network Marketer. 3 years ago, she realized something was in her life. She realized that there had to be more and decided to jump into a side hustle. That side hustle has turned into a job that she loves.

This year — she is preparing for retirement from the military this year,

You can find Courtnee on www.fearlesslyfreckles.com

Facebook: Courtness Downs

Please enjoy!

You can listen to this on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Anchor Fm, or anywhere on your favorite platform!

Stream the audio here

Download: right click and select “save as”

Episode Notes:

Army journey- stationed in San Antonio
Applying leadership from army in personal life
Navigating from emotional impact
Practices to regain emotional energy
Authenticity in network marketing
on learning from Rejections
Don’t identify with failures
The “WHY” keeps evolving
3-day rule to avoid temptations
Practicing letting go of comparison feelings
The power of positive affirmations
How to use silence as a mindfulness tool
Productivity principle: important vs urgent
Book “Stories that stick“
Deepak Chopra
John Maxwell Leadership
Book awareness from Anthony de Mello

The Nishant Garg Show:

This show is about extracting information on Mindfulness, Personal Development, Spirituality, and basically everything which improves the quality of life.

My job on this show is to invite human beings who have created “something” from nothing, who have endured failures,
and who have practical tips to share on mindfulness practices, productivity hacks, habits, routines, time management and much more!

Dakota Yarrington- On Health, Discipline and Embracing Failures

Podcast with Dakota Yarrington- On Health, Discipline and Embracing Failures

Dakota Yarrington, a.k.a. Dakota Crave(because he absolutely Craves Life) has always had a bigger vision than himself, and makes others goals— his goals! When he’s not hiking, biking or filling his relationship full of love, he’s helping other people transform their lives in Health | Fitness | Mindset. He grew up in an average house hold where he was told to go to school, get a degree in college and work hard. He didn’t know what that(going to college) looked liked because no one had ever completed college in his family or had a good relationship with money.

Eventually he did—what he was told. He worked hard, and graduated from college— but he was unemployable. His American Dream model didn’t fit his personality so growing up he was always the odd one.And, Dakota’s vision is to transform the world impacting one person’s life at a time.

You can find Dakota on

Facebook: Dakota Yarrington

IG: @Dakotacrave @cravelifeadventurecouple

Please enjoy!

You can listen to this on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Overcast, Anchor Fm, Radio Public, or anywhere on your favorite platform!

Stream the audio here

Download: right click and select “save as”

The Nishant Garg Show:

This show is about extracting information on Mindfulness, Personal Development, Spirituality, and basically everything which improves the quality of life.

Embrace Silence: Silence Is Not Empty

Embrace silence. Silence is not empty. No matter how many times you cut the silence in half, you still get the silence.

Embrace silence. No matter how many times you cut the silence in half, you still get the silence.

Find some time to go in the silence. Find some time to walk without any music and just notice nature.

When you go in the silence —you’ll feel connected to the universal energy that created you.

Through silence,you will create space within your heart and soul to listen to your inner voice. Sometimes, we can’t hear our inner voice, which is telling us the truth, and we miss the opportunity to listen to her in the surrounding noise.

Why look for outside when we have solutions inside of us? Why look for external approval and validation when we are complete within us?

If you can take some time to go within yourself by seeking silence, you’ll find the solutions to the unanswered questions you’ve been asking yourself.

Silence is the key to the inner-peace.

Silence leads to awareness. And, awareness leads to an understanding of yourself, and understanding leads to the Self-Discovery.

What’re you waiting for?

Silence doesn’t necessarily mean sitting alone in a quiet room. You can even seek silence in a crowd.

Silence can internal and external. You can’t always find external silence. It’s the internal silence that matters the most. You can still be at peace and silence in a noisy crowd.

I see it all the time —people are always listening to something. Maybe , they are not conformable with silence. Maybe, they are! Who knows!

Sitting in silence can be tough in the beginning. But, you can start practicing it for a few mins , if your outcome is inner-peace.

I know —how daunting silence can be. I know —how daunting can it be just sitting in the silence. But, it is possible!

Meditation is one of the ways to seek silence.

Walking around without any music and just observing the surroundings —is a great way of seeking silence.

The idea is to find some time every day to get into the silence. By doing this, you are embracing your feelings and getting in touch with your emotions.

Meditation is not the only way to create peace within yourself. But what I can tell you from my experience is that — I find the solution to almost every problem in Meditation. I strongly believe that we can get rid of a lot of miseries just by Meditation. All a person’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.

Everyday 20 mins of silence in the form of Meditation is non-negotiable for me. I prefer Meditation in the morning before starting work. Some days, I meditate even in the evenings when I am feeling overwhelmed or unfocused. This practice has been the key to my life.

If you can go to your silence and connect to your universal spirit—you will have what you want to have, and you will become what you want to become.

Silence is a fruitful way to think clearly and create white space in everyday life.

Brené Brown has extensively talked about creating “Silence and White Space”, in her book “the power of vulnerability” as a means of wholehearted living

Benefits of Silence:

Self-Awareness: In silence, you stop the constant doing, listen to your emotions and be aware of the surrounding.
Reflective-thinking: It gives you the much-needed think-time. We are where our thoughts have brought us and we will go where our thoughts will take us.
Emotional and Mental recharge: It provides the time to recharge and regain energy. Working for straight long hours is also a cause of low productivity according to neuroscience.

If you want to try out Meditation, you can definitely look into these great mentors:

Wayne Dyer Japa Meditation
Deepak Chopra Meditation resources
Brendon Burchard Release Meditation

A peaceful mind generates power. Empty your mind if it has self-doubt, inadequacy, lack of self-confidence. You can only allow positive thoughts to enter your mind when it is empty. Fill it with positive words, thoughts, and ideas. Surround yourself with positive people.

Seek silence to have a peaceful mind!

It sounds so simple! Consistent practice is the key!

Stand guard at the door of your mind and never let negativity enter. Never take counsel of fear. Do the things you fear, the death of fear is certain.

Go to your silence, find a serene place without phone, books, and anything, for at least 15 mins every day and say it in your mind “it is possible and can happen for me”. Say it aloud in your mind “it is possible and can happen for me.”

To read more on creating white space, you can check out my post https://nishantgarg.me/2019/10/23/create-white-space/

Mindfulness: Mental Energy Recharge

Burned-down? I have been there! If you keep burning out the energy and don’t attempt to fill it — you will have an empty energy tank. Let’s recharge the Energy Battery!!!

Let’s recharge Your Energy Battery!!!

What do you do when your phone battery is low?

What do you do when your car is low on fuel?

If you don’t recharge the phone, it’s dead. If you don’t refuel the car, it stops running. Right?

And, if you don’t refuel your Mental energy, your brain stops functioning at its peak state.

You must have tried healthy food diets to lose fat and gain physical energy. Have you?

Have you tried any Mental diet to refuel Mental energy and resources?

Have you ever felt a lack of Mental Energy even you felt physically energetic? Sometimes, the mind doesn’t function properly and the body feels tired even when you eat healthy food.

I am not saying — healthy food doesn’t matter. It does matter! However, it’s not enough to sustain Mental energy.

We have a reservoir of Mental energy!

Let’s understand the Mental energy reservoir concept through an analogy of the water tank.

Just imagine a water tank. If you keep taking out the water, and never fill the tank — what will happen? You have an empty tank. Then, no longer can you take the water.

And, the same thing goes with Mental energy.

If you keep burning out the energy and don’t attempt to fill it — you will have an empty energy tank. In simple language —I can say, you are burned out. And that’s what most of the people at the end of workday feel — they are burned out! They don’t have enough energy to do other activities.

I sometimes hear people say — they are feeling burned out even in the mid-afternoon. And the reason — they would have consumed all the Mental energy stored. The result is “burned out”.

You are not alone! I have been there!

I have had millions of instances in the past — when I felt burned out during the day. At that time, I didn’t know how to deal with my “burned out”. I wanted to do more things, enjoy life and do things I was passionate about. But, most of the days, it was due to my burned out feeling — I couldn’t do any of those things I was passionate about.

I remember — always complaining about headache — and my mom always said, I don’t have physical strength!

Have you experienced the “burn out” before?

Have you found yourself freaking tired working for long hours even though you love what you do?

If yes, you are burning your Mental Fuel and not Managing its resources properly. With lack of Mental energy —your mind wanders, you lose focus, you feel frustrated, and you can’t give 100% to your work and relationships.

This often leads to being unproductive and we tend to do unnecessary things that are stealing away our time.

After doing an in-depth study on this subject and practicing it for more than a year, I can clearly say there is only ONE thing, and by doing it you can let your brain work at the highest level.

And, that is — Intermittent Rest.

Intermittent Rest– Intermittent Rest is taking rest at regular intervals in day-to-day life to regain your mental energy.

Sounds familiar to Intermittent fasting? You are correct —it is!

Sounds familiar to the Intermittent rest period in the gym? You are correct — it is!

It’s similar to intermittent fasting. You eat once and then take a long break and as a result, you lose fat and gain other health benefits.
It’s similar to taking rest in the gym after you complete a set. When you take rest, you allow muscles to grow. No rest, no growth.

You’d be thinking — how to practice Intermittent Rest every day?

By using the principle of “Block Time”!

The mind can’t work in constant energy cycles and rather it works in waves.

I am a fan of “Block time” which I use it —- ALL THE TIME!!

Set a timer clock for about 50–90 mins. Once the time is up — stop what you are doing. Then, take rest for a few mins. To set time, you can use your phone or computer or get an alarm clock. The type of clock doesn’t matter here.

Block time means — you are focused on your MAIN thing in that time window. If you have never done it, then sitting for 50 mins can be a challenge for you. It was a challenge for me too. 50 mins sound nothing. But, when you actually sit and focus on the MAIN thing — you will realize how challenging it is.

Brendon Burchard has detailed about 50 mins Block time in his book “High-Performance Habits”

But, you can get better with time. It’s like any other skill which requires consistent practice.

If you are new to “Block time” practice, I’d recommend starting with some something small time window — let’s say, maybe 30 mins? Pick your time which is comfortable for you in the beginning which you can easily do. The goal here is to set low expectations (in terms of time) and gradually increase over time.

And, the max limit of one block time sitting — I’d recommend is 90 mins. After 90 mins, our brain needs some downtime. Darren Hardy, the former publisher of Success Magazine, has detailed about this in his video on Insane Productivity.

According to Neuroscience, our brain needs some downtime at regular intervals to process complex information we feed to it.

Have you ever felt that — you don’t come up with new ideas how much you try. Usually, that is a good sign that your brain is saying — “give me some break”.

So, whenever you feel tired, fatigued, or just unable to think clearly — take a pause and rest. When you rest, you are actually refueling your Mental energy tank.

I am sure you know — how great you feel emotionally and mentally after travel or some vacation! You are basically refueling your energy by giving yourself a break from everyday life.

“Rest” can take any form. I am more aware now when my mind doesn’t produce good ideas. It’s an indicator for me to pause and take some rest. Below are some of the activities that I do almost every day when I am tired or feeling cranky, or even when I am feeling fully energetic.

Breathing(inhale and exhale)
Meditation
Walking around
Quick nap
Any mindfulness activity(yoga etc)
Doing anything that you love doing and doesn’t require you to use your mental muscles because the purpose of this is to regain energy.

If your car dashboard shows some signal, it usually means something is happening in the car, and it requires some action.

It is the same thing with our minds, and it always gives us a signal when we are tired. So, please don’t neglect these signals, and take some rest.

One of the awesome books on Energy Management is “The Power of Full Engagement” by Tony Schwartz. I have read this book many many times.

Enjoy!!

Mindfulness: Prioritize Good Sleep

Prioritize Good Sleep: You can rest even when you are not done. Or, you can rest when you are completely done(dead)

Good sleep should be a MUST! It should be taught in schools!

I want to touch upon this subject of “Getting Good Sleep” which is being neglected by millions of people in the desire of “getting more things done”.

Do you think — you don’t need much sleep? Well, do you know what price are you paying at the cost of sleeping less?

We are living in a fast-and-furious culture where everyone is on-the-go all the time. Why are you tired — if everything is fast-and-furious?

You can never complete your To-do list every day. You can never check-off everything every day.

“You can rest even when you are not done. Or, you can rest when you are completely done(dead)“- Brene Brown

Creativity is the nature of human beings. You can’t showcase your creativity to its true potential — when you are tired and not rested.

Now, I practice getting good sleep and train my mind. I wasn’t good at it at all!! There are some days when I may struggle with sleep. It only happens when I am stressed, and then I practice mindfulness(in the form of Meditation) to get calm.

“Calm is a superpower”– Brene Brown

When anyone is stressed or unproductive, I always ask how many hours do you sleep every day consistently? If the response is less than 7 hours — it doesn’t surprise me — why you are feeling tense, stressed, or any negative emotion.

Results of sleep deprivation:

Heart diseases and other bodily diseases.
This leads to unhappiness.
Anger and frustration.
Constant stress.
The toll on your mental powers.
Reduction of Cognitive ability to think better.

The whole concept of productivity revolves around Good Sleep. Again, getting good at “good sleep” is a skill and can be learned

Are you compromising on your sleep to get more tasks done?

A year ago, in the pursuit of getting more in life, I started to sleep less and less, and sometimes only 4 hours, and as a result, my well-being, patience, and inner-peace went out of the window. I had a lot of mood swings. There were days, I just didn’t want to talk to anybody. I felt like — I was drunk. I hated that time, period!!

Then, I started studying sleep theory and learned that — how it affects our mind, body, and emotions. In all the studies, I found that — in order for our body and mind to function at its peak, we need 7–8 hours of sleep every day.

You might be thinking- “you are fine and you don’t need to sleep that long”. May be??

But, You may not know what you are getting into!! You might be getting into sleep debt that brings a lot of diseases in the long term. It’s like — eating unhealthy food occasionally won’t do much harm, but it will impact you if unhealthy food is consumed every day.

And, the same thing goes with sleep. I understand — occasional less sleep due to circumstances and life events may not cause problems. But, it will for sure — if sleeping less becomes a part of the lifestyle.

When you invest money, compound interest takes time to accumulate. You don’t see the interest right away. It takes months and years. And, the same thing is with — sleeping less. You get my point!

And, who doesn’t like to sleep more? I do!! I feel so good and happy when I am well rested after a great night’s sleep. I usually need 7.5 hours to function really well.

I had to train my mind to sleep for at least 7 hours. It was difficult in the beginning, but I’ve gotten better with time.

In this article, Brene Brown, the author of several New York Times bestselling books and a shame researcher talks about sleep.

Advantages of Good Sleep:

Peaceful and calm mind.
Brains function properly.
You make better choices and decisions.
Letting go of anger and frustration becomes easy.

Are you finding difficulty in getting good sleep? Do you ever wake up saying — holy shit, why does it happen with me? Does any fear, lack of self-confidence and self-worth bother you when you go to bed?

There are several key factors to consider before going to bed.

What not to do:

Check emails.
Expose to horror TV shows or movies
Social media
Anything that affects your sleep

Some recommendations:

Review your day
Write 3–5 things you are grateful for
Read something to relax your mind

I usually read and write a gratitude journal before bed. Sometimes, taking a long walk in the neighborhood and meditation does work for me as well.

Another recommendation is — take the last 5 mins before you go off to sleep. You have to program your subconscious mind thinking about the life positive events because your subconscious mind is home and active when you are at sleep.

If you spend the last 5 mins of your day thinking how terrible you feel, what others said to you, what others think of you, what opinion others have for you, etc. and etc, you are putting negative instructions in your subconscious mind. So, do not do this!

Be very careful about how you program your subconscious mind.
Whatever you place in your subconscious mind before sleep, you awake with the same mind.

This is what I do every night! I just close my eyes, feel the silence and affirm:

“Thank you, Universe for giving me this day! I am well, I am content, I am abundant, I am positive thoughts, I am peace, I am faith, I am happy”.

Just know that — sleep is not a nice-to-have thing. It’s should be a priority in life. I have learned to prioritize 7–8 hours of sleep now.

Also, if you train your mind to sleep by a definite time and wake up by a definite time — you have a much better recovery and you will feel amazing! For example: bedtime- 11 pm and wake up time- 6:30 am.

Get great sleep! Enjoy!

Farewell!

Growth Mindset: Navigating Through Failures

Growth Mindset: How I applied this principle in learning English(my second language)

“Mindset” is OK! “Fixed Mindset” can lead to failure! But “Growth Mindset” makes the difference.

In this society, we measure a child’s success with his/her performance in school exams. When a child gets EXCELLENT grades, people label them as intelligent. On the other hand. when a child gets mediocre or low grades, people consider them FAILURE, and in-fact some parents don’t think their child will ever be successful in life.

If your child(in case you are a parent) doesn’t perform well in school, it doesn’t mean your child is a failure. If your child does perform well in school, it doesn’t guarantee — — your child will always be successful in life.

Talent doesn’t determine success and destiny. Talent doesn’t guarantee success unless you practice it consistently. You can write your own destiny when you have got an attitude of openness and willingness to grow in life.

GROWTH is the key! It is the PROGRESS that matters!

If you have never failed, you will never know the LIFE. I’ve never met anyone who claims to have never failed.

English is my second language. When I was in junior high school, I flunked English exam by 9 marks(for readers in the USA — -you can think of “marks” as GPA or grades). I can never forget that time. I considered myself a total FAILURE. I felt like the world is over. I couldn’t look into my friend’s eyes during that time. My Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence were shattered because that event was unexpected.

Growth mindset and the ability and conviction to never say NO, and never stop trying. I knew that I will get better at English If I keep practicing. At that time, I didn’t know anything about personal development, and words like Self-Esteem were not in my vocabulary.

In Engineering(2006–2010), my friends used to call me “walking vocabulary” because I had mastered a book called “Barren for GRE”. At that time, International students used to study this book to improve English Vocabulary to study abroad.

I had promised myself that I will never give up on practicing English. I had a Growth Mindset and always think from a growth perspective, no matter what circumstances may show up in life. I used to go to the Library every day for 15 mins during lunch break to read something good to improve my skills.

I also didn’t know about the concept of Growth Mindset, up until the 2 years when I read the book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”.

Fixed Mindset is — — when you attach your success with any assessment in life. Fixed Mindset people always want to be perfect in life all the time. “Perfection” never exists.

If you’re labeling yourself just based on a failed exam, you’re identifying yourself with FAILURE. Life always tests you and you’re going to fail more than you’re successful. You are not a failure!! You just got failed in a freaking test.

Growth Mindset people never think this way. They simply say — -” it’s OK, I have failed, and how can I improve the situation next time”

No one comes to this world with talent and skills. You have to acquire it with hard freaking, consistent work.

A great book to read on Growth Mindset- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”. This book has a lot of case studies in all the arenas how top performs got failed and succeeded based on their fixed and growth mindset.

“You are stronger than you think. You can handle this. “Just BELIEVE in yourself and say it a LOUD with me- IT IS POSSIBLE, IT IS POSSIBLE”.

I never knew how to write such articles. I just BELIEVED in myself and self-talked that if “they” can write it, I can also write it.

Have you ever realized that when you’re desperate to achieve your dreams, you keep working at it, and then your inner voice tells you-” dude, who are you kidding? You can’t do this”.

Our Inner Voice often gets in the way of our success and the reason could be — we think we didn’t grow up this way, we didn’t have a good education, we didn’t have right resources, we didn’t have the good political government, and the list goes on and on. Inner Voice says — “you are not good enough, you are not worthy, you don’t deserve”. The great challenge is to be aware of this and still keep moving.

I understand this and I have been in that situation, but the fact is — our circumstances have VERY little to do with our success.
When I say success — it’s a total well being and not just money. I know society compares success with money. What’s the use of money if you aren’t emotionally, mentally, spiritually strong and perhaps wreck your relationships?

The society also measures success with the education and with IQ(Intelligence) level. A recent psychological study depicts that your success only depends on 5% of the IQ. Rest depends on your EQ (Emotional Intelligence) level, meaning how you emotionally manage yourself and deal with other people.

A great book, from Daniel Goleman, to study on Emotional Intelligence who is the pioneer in this field.

Everything in life is a skill and can be learned and nurtured. Some people say — “oh, he/she has a god gifted talent”. Well, I don’t believe this because God or Universe(whatever name you may call) will never be biased among His children and if you are a parent, you can relate to this.

Even if you have lots of talent — it may be inherited genetically, but if you don’t nourish and tender your talent, it will be of no use with time.

Let’s believe in the Growth and Progress, and know that things can be learned with practice. So, never believe in a fixed trait.

Enjoy!! Farewell!!