Life hack - Ego problem

The definition of EGO is the drive to maintain and enhance favourable views of one-self.

Almost everyone has some sort of ego. Ego is on e of the characteristics of the human being. Ego is good for the construction of our personality and living in the society. As a person tries to maintain and enhance favourable views of one-self his/her bond with other members of the society becomes strong.

Trust is the main component that binds the society together. Human being has long ago understood the benefits of living in the society. So to maintain the trust human beings have developed the ego. Ego doesn't let a human being deviate from his behaviour. The problem starts when his behaviour is not good for him or someone else or in short against the total good.

Let me give you my own example of how I got in to trouble because of my ego, got out of the trouble and used my ego as an advantage. (Remember my tagline?? – The power is when- you use ODDS to get EVEN.)

So here is my story- I started investing in share market since I was in college. I was getting good returns. So I decided to not join a job and continue investing full-time. After about 1 year my parents were thinking as I am investing in share market full time, I must be earning a lot. So they started to ask me to bear more and more part of household expenses.

But my earnings were just enough to bear the expenses and there was nothing left to reinvest. In investing you need more money to get more income. (I was getting respectable returns over my investment at that time in percentage terms.) I got frustrated. One day a good friend of mine asked me what's the problem? I told her the above story. She casually said, "Why don't you join a job then? You are an engineer and you would definitely get the same amount of salary as much as your expenses. No need to draw money from your investments and you can grow your investments side by side. And by the way, soon or later you have to marry, so you can't escape the household expenses."

I was dumbstruck. I thought why I didn't thought about it? (I am one of those 99% people who think they have above average common sense.. :P ) Her logic was impeccable. On thinking I found out that, I was subconsciously thinking that people will perceive my joining a job as failure of my share market investing. It was my ego, which was preventing me from doing a logical thing. It was just to prevent misunderstanding of the people. But in the long run this ego is going to do more harm than good.

So I refocused the attention of my ego from the road, to the destination. I thought it is not important which road you are travelling as long as the road is ethical, but the destination is important. There are some roads which we think are going to the destination but we later on come to know that the road takes us to somewhere else, or the road is blocked, then it is the time to change the road. No need to attach your ego to the road, but attach it to the destination you want to reach.

This also creates the same favourable views in the society we live. As I changed my road at the right time I am now at a much more comfortable financial position. My goal of early retirement is in my sight.

This solution of shifting the ego from road to destination is useful in every aspect where ego is involved, for example if you want to improve the relations with someone then don't stick your ego to I'm not going to say I am sorry to him/her, instead think- I am going to do whatever it takes to improve relations with that person. Changing a road is not as bad as we think it is. Also don't make early opinions about those who change their roads.

Your comments on this subject are welcome.

You can use your common sense to enhance your experience of life. Spreading this awareness is the goal of samanyabuddhi.blogspot.com .

See you later.. Until then have a great time...

Sumit,

The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Story of my pimples.. :P

Hello friends, it's been a long time I am writing a blog post for samanyabuddhi.blogspot.com . Many might have thought that I have lost the interest and there would be no more posts. But it is not the case. I write the posts on my smartphone. My last phone was 'Microsoft Lumia 540'. It has Windows operating system. As everyone knows Microsoft stopped developing apps for Windows based smartphone. So the blogger app on that phone slowly slowly stopped working. I have also lost some posts while creating/posting. And finally on one day, it stopped working totally. So I got discouraged because the phone was a really great gadget. Though the blogger was not working, the Windows operating system was very user friendly to use. The quality of the hardware and software matching was simply exquisite.

But then my banking and share trading apps were also got discontinued. Then I thought it's time to get a new phone. So I purchased this 'Panasonic Eluga Ray 700' with latest Android operating system. And boy it is a great value for money phone, though I still miss the user-friendlyness of the Windows operating system. But to cut long story short, I AM BACK.

The persuit of health, wealth and happiness will never stop and the use of 'samanyabuddhi' (common sense) is the key.

So let's start with the topic.

Everyone hates pimples right?? Everyone struggles to get rid of them or was once doing everything at their disposal to get rid of them. But what if I tell you this is not a post to get rid of pimples but to bring them back..

If still interested, read on.

I got my first pimple when I was 14. I still remember the development of odd blister on my left cheek. Then after a week came another one and another one and then there was an onslough of pimples. I tried every medicine that was advertised on the media, a couple of doctors too.(My friends were doing the same thing.) But nothing worked beyond few days. Then many many years later, at the age of 25 I realised, I am not having pimples anymore. I was very happy. And with the passing time, I forgot the incident.

Now fast forward by 6 years, I was almost 32 and while undergoing yearly health check-up I observed a pattern that every year my 'Blood Pressure' and 'Pulse Rate' are rising. In my youth days, that is when I was below 25 years old, I used to exercise a lot, I had an unstoppable stamina, we used to trek all day without food, little water and very little sleep/rest, sometimes even 2 days straight. My Blood pressure was below normal at that time(70 & 105), my pulse rate used to be 45-50 in normal condition. I used to donate blood every 3 months sometimes even before 3 months. So, though the difference was minute on yearly basis and below what the doctor would call hypertension, the difference was drastic when compared with youth days.

I recognized, the aging process is getting hold of my body.

Remember the article about aging??

Ageing and Anti-Ageing - 2 of the most popular words in cosmetics advertising.

If not then read following articles in conjunction with this post, to understand this post better.

No. 1 Misconception about great health

So I thought I must do something otherwise soon I shall be a victim of hypertension and will have to start taking blood pressure reducing tablets all the rest of my life. This thought was the motivator. I hate visiting doctors very much, and taking medicine is the worst option for me. Because many times I see that medicine is more harmful than the disease itself in the long run. (I am talking about allopathic medicine. And this is my personal opinion. It may be wrong.)

Well to improve productivity I generally think about solutions which solve more than one problem simultaneously.

So I kept thinking about it for a 3-4 days and came to conclusion that if I purchase a bicycle and use it to commute to office it will give following benefits-

1) Exercise-

My office was 2km away from my company quarters at that time. I used to come back for lunch in the afternoon. So total 8km commuting in a day. And further I was planning to shift my dwelling to a distant place 35km away for my son's education.

I thought if I start cycling now I may build up stamina to cover that 70km to and fro distance in one day while commuting, once per week.

Cycling is a great exercise, if you pedal with all your strength all the while and go as fast as you could, it becomes both cardio+strength exercise.

2) Time saving-

I do not have to spend separate time for commuting and exercise. So though one may think that I shall need more time to commute on bicycle than the motorbike. He is right but when you add the time for exercise it is a different story.

3) Money saving-

I don't need to fill the fuel tank of my motorbike. Plus there are periodical servicing to be done, plus capital cost of the motorbike, plus the depreciation in the price of the motorcycle due to build up of milage.

4) No pollution-

It is almost non polluting. No sound, no tail pipe emission.

Now to the real experience-

So I quickly surveyed various online websites for types and prices, visited a nearest dealer and bought a Dirt Terrain Bike (DTB) of Hero Cycles with shock absorbers at both ends and 6x3 gear combination. I had one of the same type in the college days. DTB is the practical option on Indian roads.

That day I didn't get chance to ride but the next day I went to office twice as per my routine with excitement. I rode it like I was doing when I was in college, pedaling with all the strength. That day was good. But when I woke up the next morning my thighs were in pain. I couldn't even imagine walking for a while, forget about riding the bicycle.

For two days I was in pain. Then I decided to take it easy first. So I took rest for the 3rd day too. In 4th day I went to office in lower gears, at slow pace for one trip, for the second trip I used my motorbike.

Next day was fine. So again repeated the procedure so as to sustain the effort. In the next week did the same, that is going at slower pace in lower gears, total 4 km per day. On Saturday I tried riding a little hard because Sunday was rest day. But again thigh muscles were damaged too much and I have to take Monday, Tuesday off for cycling. Again I started with slow pace on Wednesday for once a day.

To cut long story short, I kept on pushing and there were these little improvements in my strength but there was a lot of pain. I have seen a lot of people (not personally, some are athletes, actors we see on TV). And I just thought if they can do it, so can I.

After 6 months the rate of progress started improving and finally after around 7 months I was riding my bicycle with all my strength, with maximum possible speed. And I still had more juice to do other things.

And hey, in the 7th month, pimples came back again.

Now after about 1 year I live in my new home and ride to office 35km away once in a week. My record timing is 35km in one and half hour straight, including halts for drinking water. Those 35km have 13 pair of slopes(downhill + uphill). Some are as short as 300m and the longest one is 2.5km. That 2.5km (only the uphill side) one is the hardest to climb.

Note- I was also doing exercises for the rest of my body in the same period.

Now let's compare the before and after condition-

Before starting the bicycle riding-

1) I used to exercise a little like pushups, pullups, situps, back-situps, squats etc. But still my health was deteriorating.

2) My food intake was less than half of what it used to be when I was below 25.

3) My pulse rate was 90.

4) Though my stamina was better than my colleagues, it was much less than what it used to be.

Truly speaking, there were just the rising pulse rate and blood pressure was the motivator. I didn't see any other benefits at the start but others came to me as bonus.

Current health condition-

1) I do triple the exercises than what I previously thought the upper limit of my body.

2) My food intake is now restored to it's maximum level.

3) Presently my pulse rate is 55. Blood pressure is not measured yet.

4) I have almost never ending stamina.

5) Pimples are back, my skin is oily again, I do not need to apply body lotion in winter. :-P

6) My body is in better shape now.

7) My damaged muscles heal up much faster now.

8) Much improved lovemaking.

9) Psychologically I am again having the feeling of invincibility.(remember your childhood days??)

I think the exercise caused by bicycle riding has caused increase in testosterone (male sex hormone) and growth hormone production in my body which is making me younger again.

But it needed 6 months of constant efforts and enduring pain to kickstart the production of testosterone and growth hormone.

There are some bad side effects too-

(Apart from oily skin & pimples)

1) Increased aggressiveness.

2) Increased mood swings.

In short child like emotional condition.

3) My love for machines has exploded(childhood days are back).

4) My mind has became sharper (more logical).

5) Tendency towards rash driving on road has increased. (Remember the bratty kids on road??)

These psychological side effects (mood swings and aggressiveness) are bad for my investments as it may result in to emotional decisions. Also in my workplace, I am working with adults, so I can't act childish.

The countermeasures-

1) Knowledge of your psychological condition is itself a cure. 50% problem is solved because of the knowledge only.

2) Most of the remaining 50% is solved by reminding yourself to practice patience all the while.

3) Remind yourself not to be too much happy or too much sad.

4) Implement 'Take it easy policy'.

Finally is it worth the trouble??

Of course.. I can't explain the feeling exactly. You have to experience yourself. It is also necessary to maintain health. And health is one of the pillars without which one cannot enjoy the life.

One more thing is that, I was 32 when I started it, if you are younger you may need less than 6 months to get on track or if you are older you may need to be more persistent but I can assure one thing, the prise of good health in waiting for you.

A wise man has said,

NO PAIN, NO GAIN.

Just keep the pain bearable. This is the case of DELAYED GRATIFICATION.

One more thing I would like to say is- it is not the end, it(exercise) is the way of life.

That's it for now. See you again.

Have a healthy, wealthy and happy life.

Sumit,

The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Solar water heater

This is to spread useful information-
2 months back we have installed this solar water heater on our terrace. It has concentric glass tubes with coating to absorb the heat. The heat absorption efficiency is so much that it gives enough hot water (45 to 50C) for a family of 6 on full rainy day, at any time of the day(almost negligible heat loss overnight) and boiling hot water on sunny days. Capacity is 250ltr, price ₹30k including plumbing. 10 years back the technology was not so efficient, it only gave warm water on perfectly sunny day and one has to install pipes and then insulate it, but now there are semi flexible hot water pipes, which are very easy to install (the skinny black pipe, coming out in the above picture).
So anyone who has the capacity to install it, can install and get hot water anytime.

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

10 ways to make better decisions- part 3

This blog is in continuation with-

1) 10 ways to make better decisions

2) 10 ways to make better decisions - Caution- DANGER AHEAD

Do read these blogs too.

There are 2 types of decisions which we take-

1) The right decisions.

2) The wrong decisions.

1) THE RIGHT DECISIONS:-

Generally we take numerous right decisions everyday. Like when to wake up, attending the natures call, taking bath, making/having breakfast, reaching the workplace on time. Taking the decisions at workplace, prioritising the work at workplace, eating the lunch. Shopping for groceries, which vegetables to buy, paying the bills, driving a car or a bike. Doing routine chores etc. We make these decisions right almost every time without fail.

2) THE WRONG DECISIONS:-

Many times we make wrong decisions like making bad investments, making bad purchases, going in to bad debit(bad debit is the debit where you are losing money, and good debit where you are earning money), inculcating bad habits in to the children, Various addictions, purchasing a property at wrong place or time or price etc.

Do you recognise any similarities and dissimilarities?

Similarities are such things happens to most people, both kind of decisions are taken by the same individual.

But the differences are big. The right decisions were taken for small things, and decisions were consistently right. While the decisions which went wrong, were taken with the big things, they made huge impact, and they were consistently wrong.

No one wants to make wrong decisions then why people still make wrong decisions??

Well, there are many reasons. The common reasons are-

1) Feedback -

While making small decisions, the feedback is immediate. For example, we feel thirsty, we decide to drink water, drink water, and immediately we feel good. Or if we decide to drink water later, we will feel exhausted and more thirsty because of which we will change our decision to drink water right now, drink and feel satisfaction. Or while driving a car we can see where the car is going and make the adjustments to steering wheel so that it goes towards where we wanted it to go. Or we observe the speed of the car and make necessary adjustments to the gears, breaks and gas pedal so as to maintain the proper speed.

But while making big decisions until we get the feedback of bad decisions, the damage is usually already done. For example if we invest our money in the latest market's favourite stock which is trading at expensive valuations usually when we get the feedback about the worthlessness of the stock, the stock price would have already plummeted and we have no choice but to book loss. Other common example is buying an expensive gas guzzling SUV to show off our status, to realise later that the expensive purchase had many hidden costs and depreciation of value which actually brings our status down.

WE GENERALLY FEEL INSTANT GRATIFICATION FROM PURCHASING OF LIABILITIES.

2) Psychological biases-

To function efficiently our brain uses some cognitive shortcuts. These shortcuts are developed through thousands of years of evolution. These shortcuts enabled human race survive until now.

For example CONSISTENCY BIAS- due to which we try to be consistent with our previous thoughts or actions. Like if I say to someone that Toyota Prius is a good car then afterwards I try to tell things about Toyota Prius which are consistent with Toyota Prius being a good car. I won't go against my own statement of Toyota Prius being a good car, even if I found some evidence that the car is not that practical for someone.

Or if I say to a friend that I am an adventurous person and afterwards he invites me on an adventure expedition then it will be very hard for me to say NO. Because by saying NO, I will feel that I am going against my statement that I am an adventurous person. And I will also feel that I am breaking the trust of my friend, he may not believe me next time.

In ancient days such trust among the group members was necessary to stay in the group. Otherwise one may get expelled from the group which will result in loss of the protection from predators by being in the group, loss of efficiency, loss of guidance by experienced members of the group, loss of mating opportunity in the group etc. Which will result in very hard and dangerous life with drastically reduced lifespan.

Biases are like error of our cognitive apparatus, just like a magnifying lenses which always shows the picture bigger than is actual by a definite proportion.

We have many such biases built in to our thinking process which affects our decision making process to a great degree.

We will study more such biases one by one.

Conclusion:-

Right now just digest what you just read about decision making, the very important thing while decision making is the feedback. Feedback helps us correcting or decisions. If you want to take decisions when instant feedback is not available, develop a good logical strategy to move towards goal, decide checkpoints before starting and make sure you are going as per the plan. A good strategy will yield the results you want over time.

Know the limitations of your decision making process.

That's it for now. Hope the wisdom I am gaining is helping you at least as much as it is helping me.

The motive behind this blog is to share my experience in the journey towards health, wealth and happiness by using COMMON SENSE (SAMANYA BUDDHI) so that you get a more familiar with the terrain of the journey, you don't have to make the mistakes which I have done.

But still there are many more mistakes to be made and much more to be learned.

So see you soon..

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

10 ways to make better decisions - Caution- DANGER AHEAD

Note- This part is in continuation with- 10 ways to make better decisions.

In the childhood days there was a jungle nearby our place. (We used to live 5-6km away from the Pune city. But now, after around 22 yrs after that incidence, our house is surrounded by concrete jungle.) Me and my friends used to go for hiking there.

In one late evening we were returning from a hiking expedition. It was dark, we were going downhill and we were in hurry to reach home. We all were afraid of parents scolding us for being late. So we were running fast through the bushes without much visibility, and then I jumped over a rock and landed in a thorny bush. My foot was protected by the shoes but my calf was all exposed. I was in so much speed and on the slope that I took 4-5 steps before coming to a halt.

When I stopped, I noticed my right calf was all bruised because of the thorns and there were three thorns still in my flesh. Later I dug out 2 thorns with needle but the third one was buried deep in to my calf. I didn't had heart and expertise to dig that much. So I decided to take doctors help. My mother took me to a nearby doctor. The doctor first gave me Anti-tetanus vaccine and some painkillers. Tried to squeeze the thorn out, while I was crying because of pain and trying to convince her that I have tried it and you have to operate it out.

But instead of listening to me she said, "This kid has too much imagination. I will give him some painkillers and if there is anything inside then there will be development of puss in the wound and the thorn will automatically come out." She also told us to cover the wound with corn cap.

After two weeks, despite the corn cap, the wound healed. The doctor declared her victory to my mother, "See,I told you, this kid has all in his imagination, this kid is obsessed for getting operated, the healed wound is the proof that nothing is inside, our body doesn't accept foreign objects." (It was despite one can feel something deep inside if pressed a finger at the spot of the healed wound.)

But I knew from the pain and sensation that there is a thorn of at least 2cm length in my calf.

Then after a year of enduring the pain there come a competitor doctor and the first doctor closed her clinic. So again I convinced my parents to visit her and see if she can take the thorn out.

As we visited her clinic the new doctor immediately said, "We need to operate it out, and what you people were doing this long?"  And after 3 days she operated the thorn out. And to our amazement the thorn was a little more than 3cm in length(1cm longer than my assessment).

My parents were speechless. And I was finally relieved from the pain.

There were mistakes done by everyone except the second doctor.

1) I was running faster than the safe speed in those conditions.

2) The first doctor diagnosed the situation totally wrong.

3) She again did a mistake of associating the healed wound as the proof of absence of the thorn.

4) My parents who believed the doctor more than me.

5) I didn't fought fiercely to get the thorn out.

I think this is a serious matter and we should analyse it so as to avoid such mistakes again.

Let's start with the first mistake-

Mistake No.1

I was running faster than the safe speed in those conditions.

That is why I landed in the trouble in the first place. But why I was doing the risky thing? I was doing it because everyone else was doing it, someone of our group started running, second followed, third saw 2 boys of our group running so he too joined them, 4th saw 3 boys running so he too followed, and this went on till we all were running. None asked if it was that necessary to run. No one did any compulsion on any one but still everyone complied.

This happens because of the default programming of our brain which is the result of thousands of years of evolution. Many animals also had the same default programming.

Our brain always try to save it's processing capacity by following shortcuts. These shortcuts used to make our life a lot simpler. For example if someone from a group saw a predator he would start running, otherwise there was no other reason for running. Then the most logical thing to do for everyone else is to run in the same direction first and think about it later. Because if one sees a running group mate and he starts thinking about why is he running? Starts looking for the cause then it would have been too late for him and he would become an easy meal for the predator. So obviously the animals without the default shortcut of running when one sees other running group mate fell pray to the predators first, thereby becoming obsolete. The one following the other running group mate thinks that the other knows some important thing which can make difference of life and death.

Then there is another thing that we feel safe in a group instead of living alone. Because it is the logical thing in the wilderness. In a group, different tasks can be divided to different members, so the group operates more efficiently than a lone organism. The group of organisms can even defend some deadly predators, sometimes even injuring the predator. So the predators are also a little afraid of groups of pray. Therefore the lone organisms first become pray to the predators.

So I didn't wanted to be left behind the group. That is one more reason I was running with everyone else.

And none consciously knew who started running first and what was his motive behind running. Even I don't remember if it was me or someone else who started running first.

In psychological terms this default behaviour of copying the behaviour of other group members to which we belong is called "SOCIAL PROOF BIAS".

Mistake No. 2

The first doctor diagnosing the situation totally wrong.

I don't really know why she misdiagnosed the situation. She was a surgeon, so she could have did some tests like X-ray or something to determine if there is really a foreign body inside my calf and then operated it out. But may be because of some preoccupation she wanted to dismiss my case as early as possible. Or may be she has a bias that kids have imaginary medical problems. Or may be she was taking me as a threat to her profession that a kid is telling her to operate, which she might have thought is her right to take that decision. Or it was unbearable for her that a kid is guiding her.

The answer can never be known.

Mistake No. 3

She associated the healed wound as the proof of absence of the thorn.

When she diagnosed that the healed wound is the proof that there is no foreign body inside, one can easily feel the thorn inside by pressing a finger at the place of the healed wound. She also felt it.

But still she wanted to be consistent with her earlier diagnosis so she persisted that there is nothing and everything is imaginary.

In psychological terms this default behaviour of being consistent with part behaviour is called "CONSISTENCY BIAS".

The simple explanation behind this CONSISTENCY BIAS is people don't trust others who are not consistent with the past decisions or opinions. But it is always better to change or modify our decisions when they are proven wrong.

Mistake No. 4

My parents who believed the doctor more than me.

When this happened I was 13-14 yrs. old and the doctor obviously had various degrees from medical colleges hanging on the clinics wall, plus a well equipped clinic representing professionalism plus she had a confident voice. She displayed every trait of a professional doctor. That is why my parents did the mistake of taking her word as a final word.

In psychology this default behaviour we generally follow is called "AUTHORITY BIAS". People tend to believe what an authoritative person says. People assume that the other person have more knowledge than themselves. And people look for the traits for the authority, not exactly the real authoritative person. This bias is hugely exploited by advertising professionals. Do you remember watching the TV commercial in which an actor in doctors suit and stethoscope sometimes accompanied by an actress in the nurse's get up recommending some product? Though we consciously know that they are actors and not the actual doctors but unknown to us our subconscious assumes they are doctors because of the visible traits we associate with doctors and it later prompts us to buy that product at the time of shopping. This association tendency is called "ASSOCIATION BIAS" in psychology.

So do not always trust what you see. Look beyond the visual clues. Use your common sense.

Mistake No. 5

I didn't fought fiercely to get the thorn out.

I was feeling very overpowered by the doctor and my parents. And while proving them that there is a thorn inside, I would have to bear the pain of they trying to feel it by pressing, the pain then used to ease after 4-5 days of such proving rounds with no positive outcome. So I decided to wait for some opportunity to come by. (And finally after one year of enduring pain the opportunity came as another doctor in our neighbourhood.) What a relief it was...!!!

I told you my story so that you can avoid such mistakes due to various BIASES and take the right decisions. And do remember that professionals also have BIASES so be vigilant to spot the wrong decisions taken by professionals. Use some common sense (samanya buddhi). When you see any proof that the decision is wrong or the decision is based on the wrong assumptions do change the decision, do not fall victim to the CONSISTENCY BIAS.

That's it for now.

See you again.. Have a nice day...

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

10 ways to make better decisions

Hello friends,

A few days ago, I read an article on the internet. I am reproducing some part of the article which stimulated my brain-

Scientists Shai Danziger, Jonathan Levav, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso analyzed 1,112 bench rulings in a parole court and plotted the proportion of favorable rulings over the course of the day. They found that judges were more likely to deny a prisoner's request and accept the status quo outcome as they advanced through the sequence of cases on a given day. More specifically, their proportion of favorable rulings started out high, at about 65% at the start of the day, but dropped off rapidly.

By the time a meal break came around, the proportion of favorable rulings was close to zero. When court was back in session, the pattern repeated itself, starting high and ending with almost zero favorable rulings. Interestingly, neither the judges nor the panelists who advised them were aware that mental energy is essential to careful deliberation and the later in the day, the lower such energy is, unless a lunch break allows judges to recharge.

Evidence for the same type of cognitive fatigue has been found in other contexts, including consumers choosing among various products and physicians prescribing antibiotics. Primary care doctors often prescribe unnecessary antibiotics for acute respiratory infections (ARI), researchers have found. As the physicians appeared to "wear down" during their morning and afternoon clinic sessions, the rates at which they prescribed antibiotics increased. About 5% more patients receive antibiotics at the end of a clinic session as compared to the beginning, this research shows. Thus, while clinicians make many patient care decisions each day, the cumulative demand of these decisions leads to more inappropriate choices later in the day.

End.

Unbelievable, isn't it?

But believe it, just take a little time and think about your how your yesterday went? How you started the day? What decisions did you take? Whether they were right? How did you felt while assessing the choices?

You will find it that some decisions you took were bad decisions, you could have made better decision if you were in better mood. Others were simply right, and you were in good mood while taking the decisions.

So what is this MOOD??

A good mood can be characterised by an energetic condition of brain and vice versa.

But why does the quality of decisions get's affected by condition of the brain??

Generally after enough sound sleep we wake up with an energetic brain. Everyone knows that we can grasp things easily in the morning. But then 2 things happen as we proceed through the day-

1) Decision fatigue-

As we wake up in the morning we start making a series of decisions, like on weekdays we might be thinking, how to reach the workplace on time? Am I running late? If running late then which things I can skip to save time? Or how can I move fast? How much I have to move fast? After reaching office, how to tackle the boss? How to tackle different problems at the workplace?

Then there are decisions related to relations with other people or about our health or different needs, different compromises, decisions about the family, financial planning, planning for shopping (grocery, clothes, vehicles, study material for kids, consumer durables, fuel for vehicles.....) the list of decisions we take goes on and on. There seems to be no end.

All this decision making process consume the processing power of our brain. As our brain thinks, it produces some chemicals which goes on accumulating in the brain. These chemicals inhibit the processing power of the brain. We can counter these chemicals temporarily by drinking tea or coffee, as the chemicals in the tea or coffee temporarily desensitize our brain cells to the build-up of the slowing chemicals.(but the builds up remains there.)

Along with this there is also a build-up of short term memories which we gather to take decisions. Our brain has to get rid of these two inhibiting factor to regain it's processing power. And the only way to achieve this is to get enough of sound sleep. During sleep, our brain classifies the things in the short term memory in to useful memory, which is then handed over to long term memory and the unwanted memory is discarded.

While we are asleep chemical changes also occurs in the brain. The inhibiting chemicals formed during decision making progress gets removed.

That is the reason why we feel fresh and in good mood after a good night's sleep.(along with the revitalised grasping power)

This explains somewhat why our decision making ability deteriorates through out the day.

Then there is a second reason responsible for bad decisions-

2) Preoccupation-

Our brain is not designed for multitasking. But we still try to multitask. For example you need to pick up the kids or spouse or some grocery item while going back home, and you try to do office work while keeping this information in your short term memory, which is like a RAM in the computer. As you know when the RAM gets crowded, the processing capacity of the computer slows. Similarly as our short term memory gets crowded our decision making ability dwindles.

So what happens when we have decision fatigue and preoccupation???

When our brain develops decision fatigue and is preoccupied it starts taking short cuts while making decisions. Sometimes it doesn't consider all the relevant things, other times it may fit the current problem with some other not so relevant solution, or it simply borrow solution from someone without knowing if it actually suits your problem.

For example even while taking big decisions like buying a car, one may simply chose a car owned by a colleague or neighbour, or best selling car in the country etc. This decision is taken without considering what features we actually need in a car or what type of car do I need to carry out my specific work etc.

How to get past this thing to make better decisions??

10 WAYS TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS (and live a better life)-

1) A simple answer would be make as few decisions as possible. Weed out the unnecessary ones.

2) Take important decisions when your mind is fresh i.e. in the morning time.

3) Avoid making decisions in bad mood.(remember those bad breakups with loved ones??)

4) Reduce the preoccupation with the help of smart phone reminders.

5) Get away from disturbances.

6) Stop multitasking.

7) Get enough sleep.(enough sleep also ensures good health along with fresh mind)

8) Maintain a good health. Exercise also helps in rejuvenating our mind.

9) Only make friendship with good people.

10) Take your time while making your mind.

A great billionaire and philanthropist- Warren Buffett have given a great advice to the investors -

"To make your investing decisions much better, I will give you a punch card with 20 slots in it, every time you make an investment you punch this card, you only have 20 investments to make in the life. This will dramatically increased the quality of your decisions. And 20 good decisions are enough to make you a lot richer in life."

Many renowned investors including Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger also agree that you only need to find one investment idea in a year or two to get awesome results.

That's it for now. See you again, till then have a nice day...

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Do you enjoy your own company?

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen...

Today in the lunch time I was sitting at my table, reading an article about behavioural finance, there was no one in the office and one guy named Kiran came and sat at his table. Just after 10 seconds Kiran started flipping through some papers, making some comments (so as to attract my attention), yawning louder but I didn't budge, so after about one or two minutes of efforts to attract my attention Kiran finally got up and sat on the chair in front of me and started to make conversation with me. Kiran was trying to gossip then talking about weather then finally trying to talk about tax saving, (he started talking about tax and money because he knew that would interest me) but I was constantly showing him lack of interest, putting my head in my smart phone on every opportunity, ignoring him and testing his patience. (I am not always this much rude, but you would never know when I am doing my experiments 😉) This went on for around 15 minutes, till then Kiran was on the verge of leaving the room but couldn't just sit and keep quiet. To his rescue, another colleague appeared in the scene, a guy named Rohan came in, immediately with a relief, Kiran started talking with Rohan. They kept chit chatting on various useless topics.(I don't have any idea what they are going to do by getting an up to date information of a love affair going on in the neighbourhood office, or about some loose comments of a film actor and many more such topics, including bitching about others.)

Everyone knows there is no point in doing all these things. But still most are involved or rather addicted in such things whenever situations permit. But the question is why Kiran wanted so desperately to talk with someone who is not even paying attention to him, who seems preoccupied? Wasn't he feeling insulted? But why he still persisted in talking?

I see people everywhere who are not at all interested in listening or taking up any knowledge. They just want someone to listen and talk themselves out. They are just like a proverbial crocodile with a HUGE, LONG, BIG MOUTH AND NO EARS.(well I have lots of respect for crocodile as it is one of the many masterpieces of natures adaptive engineering, (a crocodile is a cold blooded creature, can control it's heartbeats, can reduce it's heartbeats to just 2 per minutes, can hold it's breath up to 45 minutes, can live for days without food or water(yes you read it right, ' without water') and there are many more characteristics but that is not the topic of discussion here)).

The point is that there are many people around us which can not just sit quietly. But why? Why they want someone's company? Why they want keep talking?

As most of the time such people are only talking useless things and not listening, my guess is that they are LAZY and AFRAID. They don't want to confront the reality, they don't want to confront the real problems, they just want to be preoccupied and make it as an excuse to neglect the real problems or the reality.

OR IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE NOT COMFORTABLE IN THEIR OWN COMPANY.

(Real problems like why they are stuck in the same place in the office which they don't like at all, or why their health is diminishing fast, or why there is lack of understanding or lack of love in their family, or why they have to keep doing their most hated job for money etc. There are enough of such small but real problems for everyone.)

The other guy is going ahead in life is not a problem for you, but YOU are not going ahead in life is a problem for you.

So what's the cure?

Most of the wise Rishi's and Maha-Rishi's from old scriptures have unanimously vouched for-

DHYAN, CHINTAN and MANAN

Which roughly means- Meditate, Contemplate and Reflect.

Now what is meant by MEDITATION?

Meditation is observing your own thoughts from a distance; neutrally; so that you don't get disturbed by the thoughts.

IN SHORT YOU BECOME A NEUTRAL OBSERVER OF YOUR OWN THOUGHTS. YOU BECOME AWARE OF YOURSELF. YOU BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH YOURSELF.

You now know the useful thoughts from the useless ones. So now you automatically start CONTEMPLATING more and more about the useful thoughts, so the useless ones just vanish.

As you think on the useful thoughts more and more, you start acting on it and then comes the phase of REFLECTION. Where you reflect on the whole process; fine-tune it and repeat.

That's the way to grow spiritually.

So next time when you find yourself alone, just sit, lean back, relax and observe your own thoughts. You will feel much better.

That's it for now. More about mind and meditation coming soon..

Till then have a great time..

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

Where to start???

We all are very familiar with the question, WHERE TO START? Every day we encounter this question numerous times. Each time we have to start doing something new, we encounter the question, WHERE TO START?

Many people apply different techniques for starting to solve an unknown problem. There are as many solutions to WHERE TO START as much as the population of human beings on earth. But I like a simplified and effective solution. I use a solution borrowed from three sources-

1) Police department.
2) The knowledge of how our brain works.
3) Pierce Brosnon's dialogue in a James Bond movie, "First comes first".

Let's go in to the deep-

1) POLICE DEPARTMENT-

Police department or the law and enforcement officers encounter unknown problems regularly. Generally their work involves hunting down criminals. Criminals usually try to hide their crime and the evidences which relates them to the crime. Therefore crime investigating officers have to evolve a technique which helps them in finding the unknown in the uncertain environment.

What the investigating officers do is, they assume a theory or assume a possible culprit, and then try to find the evidences which prove or disprove the theory.

If the theory is proven right by the evidence then case solved but if disproved then the information gathered during this exercise gives further clues about the possible suspect our if not, the investigators simply think about another possible suspect as per the first theory or may change the theory because of the new clues and information gathered.

In short what the investigators do is decide a goal, start going towards goal by collecting unknown information, with the new information they correct their path and the goal itself if needed. And then moving this way, they finally achieve their goal, i.e. finding the culprit and the evidences proving him or her the culprit. Job done.

2) HOW OUR BRAIN WORKS-

As per the book PSYCHOCYBERNETICS by Maxwell Maltz, our brain works like a servo mechanism. For those who don't have any engineering background- servo mechanism is a conditional switch which operates when a pre-specified condition is met. For example thermostat in an electric iron or an electric geyser or electric oven is a servo mechanism. The temperature which is higher than the room temperature is first set in to the thermostat and then the heating starts. The temperature of the iron, water or air in the oven starts rising because of the heating. When the temperature exceeds the set level the thermostat cuts the electricity to the heating element, thereby preventing further increase in the temperature. But when the temperature drops below the set temperature, the thermostat switches the electricity on. Again the temperature starts rising, again as is exceeds the set temperature the thermostat cuts the electricity to the thermostat. This way the thermostat maintains the set temperature.

For a servo mechanism to work, there has to be a set point, i.e. GOAL. When a we set a goal, feed the necessary data and let the servo mechanism work then we can easily achieve our goal.

Now, the question is how to feed the data?

In the above example of thermostat, the data is the temperature, the temperature sensor senses the temperature and feeds the temperature reading to the servo mechanism. If we don't start heating then the servo mechanism does not work.

If you want to go to north and you are not moving then a servo mechanism can't tell you the direction. If you start moving then only the servo mechanism can tell you whether your direction is right and if not, then what correction is needed.

How to use this mechanism?

Set a goal and start moving for the goal. For example of you want to earn a particular amount of money in a particular time then first you have to start earning money in whatever way possible to you (I only advise legal ways). Then only you will understand if it is enough or you need to change the source or if there is anything else.

3) Pierce Brosnon's dialogue in a James Bond movie, "FIRST COMES FIRST".

Many times starting to solve a problem is as easy as FIRST COMES FIRST. For example, are facing a common problem of less savings. So you decide to save more and spend less. Now you encounter the question WHERE TO START? Just go for the FIRST COMES FIRST. From now on what is the first thing you are going to spend money on? Just think about how to lower it, our if it is necessary to spend at all? Then one by one go on to face the bigger expenses where you can save more with less efforts. Apply the 80-20 rule, that is 80% results are obtained by 20% of your efforts.

So starting out to solve a problem is as easy as 1 2 3.. You just have to start, and you will find a way. If you make a start then half the battle is already won. Because there is no problem which is unsolvable.

Further the solutions to the problems can be found at any place or situation in the universe, irrespective of the relevance. One just need to have an open mind to see it.

So what's the first problem you are going to face now? You know where to start..😉

See you soon...

Till then have a nice day...

Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.