A few reflections on completing another Journey around the Sun.

Life is genuinely shorter than you realize.

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” - Seneca On the Shortness of Life

Try to relentlessly prune as much bullshit as possible. Over time, I have realised that

  • wasting time on social media
  • associating yourself with more labels especially with politics & religion as paul graham said Keep your Identity Small
  • wasting your time with people who drain your energy & waiting for the wrong people (your heart will feel this)
  • wasting time in the endless meetings
  • I guess it’s sad people only realise the value of time as they grow older, but I have been lucky enough to have had this realisation at a young age.
  • Treat time as one of your most valuable assets & not many realise this in their pursuit of materialistic success.
  • Say No if you have to make time for yourself & your loved one, & also be okay with people telling you No.
  • You can count the no of days you get to spend with your loved one, & I guess death is what gives life its meaning, maybe.

A few blogs from people I love on the Shortness of Life:

There are a few things in life you will only learn the hard way & that’s okay. I wish everyone went through a bad phase in their life at least once to realise how beautiful life is.

“Greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character. And character isn’t formed out of smart people, it’s formed out of people who suffered - Jensen Huang”

Don’t get me wrong on this, I have personally seen & have experienced this myself. We do live in an era of abundance, comfort & little period of suffering can do a world of good.

Health is your one & only most Important true asset

It’s very simple; the world has made this very complicated. Just get good sleep, eat clean food & exercise. More importantly, have meaningful relationships with people.

There’s a way of thinking that has helped me figure out how one can take care of oneself without going through something really bad & realising later. Let your strong Whys drive why you to be healthy in the first place

For me, it’s been very simple

  • I would still love to hike mountains & explore places even when I’m older
  • Live long enough to see the very first humans becoming a multiplanetary species , imagine witnessing the first humans land on Mars
  • I can only take care of my close ones if I do take care of myself
  • Still be physically & mentally fit to learn as much as possible abt the mysteries of the universe & life

Happiness is a choice that you can make every single day

I heard the best thing you can do is try to be in a good mood. Figure out what happiness means to you. For me, it’s been very simple - Loving family, meaningful work, running, mountaineering, friendships, reading books & curiosity.

Have a purpose, have strong Why’s, & Have ambitious goals.

The reason for having these is not because of the outcome, but because of who you become as a person in this process.

“Set a goal that’ll make you stretch that far. For what it’ll make of you to achieve it.”

“The greatest value in life is not what you get, the greatest value in life is what you become.” - Jim Rohn

Ambitious goals do not only mean to make billions of dollars of money, but they can be as simple as learning a difficult language, climbing that mountain, or running an ultramarathon. Have something to look forward to.

Trust me, many people do not even have a reason to wake up in the morning. Just keep doing something

Money does matter, and it can buy happiness if you know how to use it the right way.

Strive & Work hard to have the right people around you.

Read more books.

It’s magical, it’s beautiful, it’s the best gift humanity has given to each other.

Travel as much as possible.

Travel to have fun, Travel for the curiosity, Travel for the adventure, Travel for the learning - Just keep travelling.

Materialistic stuff does not matter, but you will most likely realise this when you have it. So I wish you to have this sooner

Let curiosity drive you to places you have never been to, and have a mindset of a beginner. Do not let yourself fall into the trap of expertise.

Understanding the universe is also deeply knowing who you are as a person.

It teaches you humility & as Carl Sagan said, it is truly a humbling & character-building experience.

We humans took a lot of pride that the Earth is the center of the universe, only to realise it isn’t. We then took pride in the fact that we are the only planet to realise we have neighbours, we took pride that, okay, maybe our sun is the only star and it’s the center of the universe, only to realise there are billions of stars. We took pride in that our solar system is in the center of the galaxy, only to realise that we are 26000 light years away from the center of the galaxy. We took pride in the fact that Milky Way is the only galaxy, only to realise that every single dot that you see in the image below is a galaxy with billions of stars & planets. ~ Humility

Galaxy