Thursday, September 20, 2012

Mantra of Success in Life

Let me forewarn you,  people looking for a Forbes listing, please go away!

I am at a critical juncture of my life. Half of it has been spent creating a world for myself (am now 45 almost, so I am assuming a life span of about 90 hence the half) and am at the doorstep of the second half. I often wonder when I see articles that preach the ways to succeed in life saying:
"Define your goal
Make it qualitatively and quantitatively defined
Create a method to achieve
Do the processes to achieve using these methods
Look back at your success and enjoy!!!"

At least most of them end up with the above as the Jist of their advise.

Lets look at each point in isolation :
Define your goal-
How can a person define his goal in life? I am still seeking that one singular goal that I could be able to call the defining ambition of my life.
When I was 15 (that's when my brain became fit enough to think), I though becoming an engineer was The Goal.
Soon by the age of  30 I realized that the sweet smell of success was still missing. However, I was married and just about to be a father. My defining moment that would change the entire course of my life and philosophy was just about to enter my life, and my entire perception of life had already turned around on its head(..?).

My son has become my focus of all efforts for the last 15 years, I don't see the situation changing any time soon (next 10 years). When he will be 25, maybe, my definition of success will have to be refocussed to some other aspiration. Till then, his education, upbringing and his success are constantly consuming my entire intellectual capacity. (actually not only me but my wife too)

So is there really a single achievable goal?

Making a qualitative and quantitative defined goal of the one above:
As the fore mentioned lines were being typed I could already begin to smile, my success is not really a defined and well qualified one. It really is like a changing goal post situation, where every effort at the spur of the moment defines success or failure.

When you see a dear one happy, your instantaneous and immediate Goal is achieved.
When the opposite happens, you have failed miserably.

Create a method to achieve:
Well my take on this step is a bit warped. I think that we constantly move on the inertia of the previous move and make minor course corrections all then time, by which I mean to say " I DONT KNOW WHERE THE HECK I'M GOING" . But far from calling this a failure I think that is exactly what life needs us to do. If you do not swerve with the flow of the stream, life will topple you without your life-jacket on. I have tried to chart a rather staunch and diagonal path several times, which only  met with failure (for a variety of reasons , all of which were not always me). So I take is as a wise experienced (Ahhem.. ) human, that I might be correct in taking such an approach.

However, I do feel much more can be done with support from others around you who can make the vital difference in the direction of the small correction being closer to where it should have been.

Processes:
I feel that life itself is a process, and trying to alter the process in any way will only bring either huge success or huge failure, a stiff choice to make. Those who advise on following a process and talk from a Status of success, probably hit the first by random probability, not by choice!! ( sour grapes you may be thinking).
But sheer numbers are evidence that success comes to only a few in a million. Do you really think that all the others are idiots and clueless? I don't think so. After all there are very few slots to be occupied at the top so ..

Look Back at your success and be happy:
This is one of the dictum that I fully agree about, only that my defined success is made up of so many small and really "person dependent" choices. I have seen happiness when my family smiled with me, I have seen happiness when a puppy licked my face, I have seen happiness when my child rambled his first words we can call language...
There are just too many successes to list down.

In verdict, I have been successful! in a grand way that too!

But my worries are now in the coming half of my life. I only hope wisdom and divine grace fill this half too with the same dignity and happiness I have enjoyed so far.

Those who have read, please post in your comments and please share your thoughts for :
Success is not a Financial / Social Order / Materialistic or Physical achievement. It is but a magical moment of our lives that make it worth all the effort, it can happen every day, or once in a month, can be intense or a simple quiver or joy.







Friday, May 25, 2012

Wall-E reality?

Several things are turning around in my head in recent developments.

1) The successful launch of the private venture Sapce Ship to the ISS:
In a way, things are going well till this point in time. What sends shudders down my spine is the prospect of such technology (which till recently was only in hands of legitimate and responsible governments) falling into the hands of greedy business behemoths.

It reminds me of the cute animated film: "Wall-E", where the story stretches the imaginated scenerio of how humans can venture to deep space in wait for Earth to become Habitable  centuries after it degenrates into a Dingy polluted hell.

2) In a related development- the official incorporation of a space Dredging Corporation for Space Mining:
I know there are entire planets made of Diamonds in space (we are told) and that many of the exotic minerals found after great and costly mining and purification on earth are simply found in plenty on space rocks.

However, what I dont understand is who owns the universe? Are we slowly going to sell materials brought from space? Is wealth being created from free and natural resources which till now were untapped? Is this the beginging of the New Gold Rush?

The implications on Humanities greed are too scary to mention. Remember what happens in the name of resource hunting on earths now extinct Tribes, forests, natural ecosystems ....? We currently dont know the side effects of these small steps of Man, and Big leaps of Mankind- untethered!

3) Back to my favourite domain- tech gadgets.
I saw an ad on a G+ posting for the Samsung smart TV, where you interact with the TV by gestures, no remotes or buttons. That would be a lovely feature on all arefacts that amuse us in the living room today.

Another interesting tech nugget was the new hands-free computing interface by Leap Motion. Those few who still dont know do google it up. Its worth the time.

Hope to bring you up to speed on Whats UP and Down soon.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

It has been a very long time since my last post.
I have been though a very tumultous interval during this period.

Basically, I changed my job chasing a fatter salary. There I found that the job was a complete mismatch to my knowledge and methods and had to quit even before the probation ended.

Now I get stuck in a job that's even less salaried than the last stable one.

The good thing however is that I could remain calm and sane in the whole process. I know a few years earlier, I would have easily panicked and lost control over my emotional and physical health in the process. But with age automatically comes the wisdom you earn. This wisdom kept me on the right path absorbing the shocks that came.

In between for the few months that I did have that higher paying job, I went out and bought a new LG Optimus 2X the first released dual core handphone!!!

The phone is awesome, but LG bloatware pulls its market down tremendously. After a few months, I turned to the trusted sources at Modaco.com for a baked ROM, which took the phone striaght out of its laziness into a shooting star.

I realized that I just craved for more of Android updates and it became a very funny habbit of checking for a new ROM almost every day at the peak of this new addiction.

Then from the Android 2.2, I wanted the 2,3 (gingerbread). As soon as some geeks had the basic Android 4 working on this phone, I jumped boats onto the XDA-Developers zone for my daily dose of ICS Roms.

I have been doing this for the past few months and dont see why I cant stop enjoying the same routine, only now for IceCream Sandwich.

In the meantime, I managed to Brick my old HTC Magic, but am still hoping to Jtag it back to life some day!!!

My son now has the HTC One X, a quad core brute, which also I love, but let go of for my son!!!

Do drop by and check back, neve know I might have completely changed to a new device or OS. NOOOO, I am an ardent Android fan, and nothing can change that.
So long for now.