Sajith Mathew

Do you wish to know what your customers think about your brand/business?

You need not have to get a fancy data analytics tool in the beginning. All you have to do is to use your social media presence effectively.

Simple, I know right?

Let me tell you how.

A two-way communication is much more effective than a one-way one, which we see in billboards and TV ads

Social Media encourages two-way communication.

If you have an active presence on Social Media platforms, you can ask your customers to share their thoughts and questions on your content.

All the more, you can get direct customer feedback on your products and services.

Do you think that getting unfiltered direct feedback from your customers helps you in your business?

I think so.

A better way to hear and utilise customer feedback can make all the difference for your business

This feedback loop helps you in developing some amazing products and services.
Also, which customer doesn’t like a brand that takes their opinion into consideration.

Also, you can respond as fast as you can through your social handles.

You don’t have to worry whether you customer’s query is answered, if you have an effective strategy to address it through social media

Let us divert a bit and think about what makes two brands that sell similar products different. One might be raking in revenue and loyal customers while the other is just staying mediocre.

It is the story that makes the difference.

When you converse with your customers or your potential customers on your social media platforms, you can become as creative as you can. You can also use it as a way to communicate your brand story in a subtle way.

As a business/brand, your story makes all the difference. Social media gives you a space to share your story with your customers and potential customers

Social Media is a goldmine for any business, regardless of the niche, if your strategy is right.

We, beingplato digital, help businesses create effective social media strategies that reap great rewards.

We take care of your Social Media Strategy, letting you focus on your core business.

Originally published at beingplato digital

What Are 3 Areas Upstox Could Do Better?

Let me tell you what Upstox is all about. Also, how I would implement a strategy to make it better.

It is a digital platform enabling tech-savvy users like you and me to easily invest in a variety of instruments. This includes everything from mutual funds to futures & options to digital gold.

Now, let’s analyse few aspects where this start-up is doing really good.

They are trying to differentiate themselves from the competitors out there.

I specifically like the digital gold option. Why? it is a new concept and unique product offering by Upstox, maybe you can call it a differentiating factor.

Also, Upstox design team is really doing a fantastic job. You can feel it from their website design to the content they post on Instagram. They have some mindful creatives working hard on their design aspects. I was just going through their website and their offerings, needless to say, it was all neatly mapped out. The whole experience was just smooth.

Let’s see 3 areas where they can do a lot better.

Customer Relations

The first thing I noticed was this, many of their customers regret signing up.

This trend is so evident everywhere, from their social media handles to their online reviews.

The major reason for this pattern is poor customer relations. Customers queuing up on social media handles to get their queries resolved, partners lining up in their social media to get their referral bonuses even after the stipulated time period.

The whole thing is a mess. The customer care team might be doing a good job, but the customer relations strategy has to be improved.

Businesses who values their customers, gains ultimately

Now, I would say customer engagement is essential. But customers queuing up wherever you are, just to get their queries answered is clearly an indication that the customer relations team can do much better.

Social Media Presentation

The Upstox content creation team is trying to create some great content, but it comes out to be a mix-up.

The social media posts are not getting enough traction, not just their fault. This is the case with almost all businesses out there.

The metrics look really good, like businesses having lakhs of page likes & followers. But, if you check out the content on Facebook and Instagram, the engagement is lesser than 3%. This is true for any business out there, from small to large ones.

The way people perceive a business online matters, specially on social media

I’m not pinpointing the engagement rates here, but the way the social media team moderates the engagement.

For example, if you check out any post on their Facebook page, 90% of the comments are either some kind of a query or partner referral links. The queries should ideally be handled by the customer relations team.

For me, it doesn’t make any sense from a customer/user viewpoint. I’m talking about the referral links here. 99% of people who liked the Upstox page on Facebook will be their customers, so does it really makes sense for a customer to use a signup referral link?

The whole point is to put out the best image of the business online. That takes an all-around approach. But the initial step is to start moderating engagements on the social media handles.

The content a business is posting on social media is important, as new potential customers might be checking your social media

This is important because nowadays we all first check the online reviews and social media engagements before signing up for a service or buying a product. So it makes perfect sense to make your customer relations a top priority which can drive up or down your business.

Ultimately, social reviews represent what customers have experienced.

Online Marketing Strategy

I see some good sparks in their marketing efforts.

The educational content they put out in their marketing strategy is a good initiative. The idea here is to educate and empower people, to become their customers along the way.

Educational content is a way of providing value to the people

They have realized the potential of social media marketing. They run Facebook ads for that matter. Do you want to hear a secret about Facebook ads?

Facebook ads are a beast if used the right way. As a business, if you’re not getting the proclaimed returns from Fb ads, now you know the reason. You can target people of any demography, any relevant behavior, any interest, or any location through Fb ads. This way, you’re able to reach your ideal customers.

Now the question is, are they able to relate to my messaging or the story I tell them. If yes, then Facebook ads are a goldmine for you. If not, you know the answer. That’s why if you just copy what is working for a business, chances are, it might not work for you unless you have the same customer base.

Strategic use of Facebook ads is important to get great results

Upstox can use social media marketing in a much more powerful way, mixing up their educational content with some carefully crafted messaging that resonates with their target audience.

I love the start-ups and businesses that make my life easier and simpler. Upstox is in that niche. I believe most people have this thought when they choose a product/service.

If Upstox can act upon the concerns I listed above, they can spread like a wildfire with the core products they offer. I wish them the best.

We beingplato digital help businesses and brands share their story using the power of Social Media Marketing. If you would like to work with us, shoot us a quick message.

Originally published at beingplato digital

Influencer Marketing For Brands Is Effective for 4 Reasons

Have you ever wondered about the number of influencers popping up on your social media feeds? Influencers are people just like us who can influence their followers using their creativity. Businesses can tap into their target audience effectively using these influencers. That is why influencer marketing for brands is super effective.

We hate most ads, but influencer marketing does have a direct impact on our purchase behaviour. Why is that?

More than 30% of people in India responded that their purchase behaviour had direct impact to influencers.

We have a similar trend all through the world.

Statistics that prove why brands should be adopting influencer marketing into their strategy — The influence of influencers on our purchase behaviour

But why does this work?

Let us look at 4 major factors:

Influencers understand their audience

This allows them to create content that resonates with their audience.

It doesn’t matter what’s happening outside, influencers can use their creativity to bring in content based on any context.

Influencers understand their audience and use their creativity to connect with them

According to a survey, 71 percent of marketers agree on influencer marketing being an effective method for attracting quality customers/traffic (compared to other sources).

The products directly appeals to the customers, because the influencer shows the impact he/she had it in their life.

People want to be cool just like those influencers.

Most marketing uses this human bias in thinking.

They use attractive people to market their products claiming that the products made them attractive. The reverse is true. In reality, they are just using attractive people to make their products more appealing. We all fall for that.

But, where do we start from a brand’s perspective to capitalize on these influencers?

The first step is to understand what the customers think about your brand/business. This way brands can use the right influencers to focus on the aspects that their customers already love about them.

2. No pressure on the audience

You can check out your favorite influencer’s feed whenever and wherever you want. It’s unlike ads that keep popping up everywhere you go. The crazy number of adblockers can’t even block this kind of marketing.

Anyone can check an Influencer's feed whenever they want. They choose, not the other way round. — Anyone can check an Influencer’s feed whenever they want. They choose, not the other way round.

3. Amazing content

Influencers can be as creative as they can be, so the content that comes out is appealing in most cases.

Influencers put out some amazing content that are creative as well as relatable for their audience. They can bring in a human touch for brands using this process. — Influencers put out some amazing content that are creative as well as relatable for their audience

This traces back to our first point. Influencers know their audience really well, more than a brand ever could be. So the content they produce is always relevant.

4. There are influencers on any budget out there

Brands can now reach out to any influencer based on their customer base. Micro-influencers (10k to 100K) are the best, as the influencer-follower relationship is more genuine.

We can always reach out to countless micro-influencers or major ones based on our budget

Is Influencer Marketing good or bad? From a brand perspective.

Yes, a big yes. We spend so much time online more than ever.

Brands can capitalise on the followers using an influencer marketing strategy, rewarding the influencers in the process — Brands can capitalise on the followers, rewarding the influencers in the process

These influencers are right where we are.

So, brands get a lot of time and your attention through these influencers.

Influencer marketing for brands brings in a human touch which is wired into each one of us.

Is it good or bad? From a user/follower perspective

There is no real answer, both has pros and cons like any.

Followers have the option to choose, so choose wisely

Pros

If the influencers promote the products/brands they really care about, then there is no problem. The influencer is just helping his/her followers to choose better.

Most of these micro-influencers live a life similar to ours, so they have more experience and instances in using everyday products in the life of a middle-class family. So, we hope they promote the products they use.

Influencer marketing is much better than a celebrity marketing the same product. Think about this. Virat Kohli promoting a herbal shampoo, or your favorite micro-influencer promoting the same product. Hope you got the point.

Micro-influencers are just like us, promoting creative content to a relevant audience

Cons

As in most cases, a principal-agent problem comes into the picture. Basically, the interest of the follower and the influencer could be different. An influencer is looking for more money from the brand in return for promotion, while you as a follower are looking for a better product.

I’ll write a separate article on the principal-agent problem later, as it is a critical topic and works on many different levels.

There can be cases where Influencers don’t even care about the product. Putting this in a better way, the lifestyle of the influencer doesn’t really have a use-case scenario for that product.

Final verdict

It is always a win-win for the brand and the influencer. It allows a brand to be hyper-targeting, and get a creative marketer in the process. The influencer gets paid in return while using his/her creativity at the same time.

If influencers are promoting products/brands that they really care about and use, it comes out to be a better deal for the followers.

The mediums can change, but influencer marketing works based on human psychology. Influencer marketing for brands is here to stay.

I would love to know your thoughts on this…

Originally published at beingplato digital

What Can Be Improved On Bajaao’s Marketing?

I love the way bajaao.com operates and its services. They have made it extremely affordable for anyone who is passionate about music to practice it.

I have been doing some research and analysis on the marketing strategies of businesses.

I came across bajaao.com, and I highly appreciate the business model and the impact they have on our community.

I’m an early customer of bajaao and loved their concept from start.

One thing they should improve upon is their marketing strategy.

Why would I say that? I have been doing social media marketing for quite some time now and see that bajaao.com is missing out on the incredible potential they have for reaching millions of people.

Sure, they have quite a good number of customers, but the realm of music is something which is enjoyed by a large number of people.

Think about each of our cases. Have you ever thought of playing a guitar/piano after enjoying a soulful piece of music on Youtube? I have thought about this, playing a song on a piano and being immersed in that music. I’m sure, many of you do.

Bajaao is missing out on the emotion of music. I have researched on their digital marketing strategy and could find that, they run ads on their products. Here, they are completely missing out on the potential to market on the emotion of music. Music is one aspect where we could use our creative minds to wander and come up with something that connects with people.

If you want to understand the logic, think about how Nike markets their products. What is their marketing strategy? They market the emotions, not their shoes, clothing. They market the emotions of fighting against the odds, striving for greatness, etc.

What about CocaCola, they do the same.

What about Apple, their entire marketing strategy is based on emotions.

Why did I take the case of bajaao here. There is a very specific reason for that.

Because, they deal with musical instruments, and the potential to create great marketing based on music is just enormous.

There is an enormous number of people out there, who understands and immerse themselves in music, even though they don't play any instrument — There is an enormous number of people out there, who understands and immerse themselves in music, even though they don’t play any instrument

On the contrast, for a brand which is selling washing powder, the potential to do this is kind of limited, but music, it has great possibilities.

Now, coming back to the question. What would I change if I’m the Marketing Strategist for bajaao.com.

I would change the whole idea of marketing best selling products as they currently do.

I would create a strategy where the foundation is possibilities of music and the transformation it creates. And how bajaao is helping in that transformation process.

The main focus would be social media, as people can connect directly with the brand.

My core focus would be to build bajaao as a brand synonymous to music in the Indian market.

My idea is, if one day anyone plans to play any music, the first thing that comes to their mind would be bajaao.

I know that different people have different ideas when it comes to building a brand and marketing a business.

My idea is to market what it stands for, rather than just promoting the products.

And we have enough brands that tells that it is a winning strategy, if applied the right way.

originally published at beingplato.com

Why NFTs Are Hyper-Trending Now?

Wondering why all this buzz around NFTs?

We’ve got this!

But before all that details, these are some of the buzz news in recent times in the NFT space.

The first tweet ever tweeted in the history of Twitter – sold for 2.9 million USD
NBA’s little moments of basketball games – sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars
Nyan Cat, a cat GIF – sold for 600,000 USD
Everydays – The First 5000 Days (massive compilation of artworks by Beeple) — sold for $69 million

beeple Everydays, which got sold for 69 million USD – credit lynda.com

If you’re confused, these are all NFTs.

NFT means Non-fungible Tokens.

What is the big deal about them?

Some people consider them as the same deal as legendary art pieces, like Mona Lisa. The only difference is that NFTs are for digital items.

Non-fungible in a way means non-replaceable. These are unique digital items that just have only one of them, the original piece, and that makes them valuable.

But, can’t we just copy the image or the video?

Yes, but the single original digital item will be owned by someone else in the record, and that is possible by the underlying technology behind all this, blockchain.

*NFTs enable digital items to be unique, at least in terms of ownership even though everyone could access it*

Most NFTS today are on the ethereum blockchain. The ownership of the NFT piece is secured by a token, a digital certificate of authenticity. Since the token is on a blockchain, no one can tamper with that information.

If I own a piece of music NFT from Linkin Park, it means that my ownership is recorded as a digital certificate, securely in the blockchain.

If I need to sell it, the ownership of this NFT changes.

Think of it like how your account balance is shown in your bank account online. The balance is just a number stating that you own it, and when you make transactions, it changes.

Now, let us think about why do people consider NFTs to be valuable when you can watch the video or see the image without paying a buck. And which also can be copied a million times.

NFTs can be viewed by others, but the ownership is specific and this data is stored securely in a blockchain

You can just think of this in terms of the whole art industry. There are artists and art collectors, and this is a speculative market for sure. There is an emotional value attached to the painting or the art piece and there are people who are ready to spend millions to buy them.

In the case of digital art, how do we keep the value intact?

An artist might spend countless hours creating an art piece, but once the sale is made, the same art piece can be copied millions of times. Does the artist gets rewarded for the future demand of the same piece? Is there a way to get the royalties for the artist?

The one good thing I see due to the NFTs is the power shift from buyers to art creators.

NFTs give the power back to artists, which in essence helps in enhancing creativity and art in societies. And now the artists are able to sell their art to anyone in the world without facing the societal restrictions.

In a way, NFTs fulfill these conditions. This too is a speculative market. People buy those digital art pieces assuming that there will be a huge demand for them in the future.

One fact which we cannot ignore now. Ethereum blockchain, on which most NFTs are, uses a tremendous amount of energy. It sure has implications and has to be mitigated using innovative approaches.

Is NFTs a complete hype?

Maybe 50%. As in the case of any new tech, the hype around it is mostly due to the excitement. That goes away in some time. But there will be countless applications using the underlying tech, the smart contracts powered by blockchain.

Rarible – one of the most popular NFT marketplaces

Oh, and in case if you need to purchase these NFTs, there are marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible,…

The only requirement is to have those crypto coins in your digital wallet. If you need to create an NFT and make some money, you can do that too…

The NFT tech will evolve for sure. We’re looking at a bright future.

Why Blockchain Technology Give Us Uncanny Hope?

Sensing the blockchain enthusiasm in the corporate circle, I had this confusion.

We discuss one of the aspects of blockchain is its ability to be a distributed entity. Then, why are companies becoming enthusiastic about this tech, if this is a technology with no controlling entity?

If you felt this way, read on…

There is this division called permissioned and permissionless blockchains.

When we see the adoption of blockchain in the existing industries, those are permissioned blockchains equipped with a central entity

As you can see from the names, permissioned blockchains have a controlling entity in place whereas permissionless doesn’t have any.

All the companies that use blockchain technology are utilizing the benefits of this tech by keeping them as the controlling entity. It is a closed ecosystem, where anyone interested in viewing data on the network or validating transactions needs approval from the controlling entity.

Most of the cryptocurrencies we have today come under the permissionless list. Anyone can join the network and view the data. Also, we can be anonymous on the network and never have to reveal our identities to do transactions.

Most cryptocurrencies use permissionless blockchain, except some like Ripple

There are some major aspects why businesses are adopting this tech.

Customised Transparency

Businesses handle an extensive amount of data about the transactions and operations of their users, and that has to be kept securely.

In healthcare, this can be the patient data that has to be kept highly confidential.

By using this tech, businesses have the option to choose the level of transparency they need for their efficient operations.

Companies, being the central entity of the permissioned blockchain network, can be as transparent as they wish.

You can customize the amount of privacy on a user-case basis. This allows us to take advantage of the vast amounts of data and to keep them secure at the same time.

Customised Decentralization

Since companies themselves are the central authority on a permissioned blockchain, they can determine the degree of centralization they need.

Companies can decide the degree of decentralisation that works for them

As we have seen before, we need a consensus algorithm to keep the network secure and operational. Here, the companies can decide what kind of consensus algorithm works best for them.

Access Controls

Permissioned blockchains are indeed private blockchains.

Blockchain tech enables the central entity to provide varying degrees of access to different nodes on the network.

For example, a data analyst in the company might not need access to the type of data a CEO needs. This type of blockchain enables us to control this access much easier than the traditional methods.

Varying access with data security is an advantage of using permissioned blockchain

In essence, permissioned blockchains enable the companies to access the potential of this tech without compromising control.

In short, companies decide the terms and conditions here as the central entity.

There are indeed limitations that come along with the aspect of a central entity in permissioned blockchains.

It provides less anonymity for the members and is also less transparent, unlike permissionless blockchains.

I love the customizability this technology provides, without compromising on data security.

Permissioned blockchains enable the data access only by the accountable nodes on the network, if customised the right way. This is a major factor considering the tremendous data generated daily.

We’ll see the major aspects of permissionless blockchain that is the underlying concept for most cryptocurrencies in a later post.

There are indeed certain limitations to this tech currently like any new tech in its beginning stage.

I believe things will evolve as we keep using the feedback loop.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

What Makes Blockchain A Disruptive Technology?

We might all be familiar with the term blockchain technology.

Especially if you are employed at a corporate firm, we have heard our leadership teams throwing around this word quite a lot.

Blockchain technology will create disruptions in the traditional industries like healthcare, banking and supply chain

I haven’t heard anyone around me explaining the foundation of this technology in a basic way. So here it is:

A blockchain is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. As the name indicates, it is literally a chain of blocks. Each block contains data. Based on the type of blockchain, the data can represent value or computer code.

In essence, a blockchain is simply a ledger that keeps track of all the transactions happening across people in a network.

Let’s move a little forward and see how it works. Each block contains 3 components – some data, a hash of the block, and the hash of the previous block. The most popular bitcoin blockchain consists of details of the sender, receiver, and amount.

*Each block has an information specific to its previous block, which causes a chain*

We have another component on the block, hash. This is a unique key for the identification of the block. If any change is made on the block, the hash changes.

The third element we have is the hash of the previous block. This effectively makes a chain of the blocks and this technique makes the blockchain secure.

Let’s say we tamper with a block, this causes the hash of the block to change as well. In turn, the next block and all the following blocks become invalid as they no longer store the hash of the previous block. Thus, changing a block will causes all the following blocks invalid.

Using hashes is not enough to prevent tampering. We have a lot of computing power today and hence can calculate hundreds of thousands of hashes per second. As a result, you can tamper with a block, and recalculate all the hashes of the following blocks to make the blockchain valid again.

The validity of the transactions are confirmed by the consensus of the network

To mitigate this, blockchain have a mechanism called proof-of-work. In bitcoin’s case, it takes approximately 10 minutes to calculate the required proof-of-work and add a new block to the chain.

Also, as the computing power increases over time, the cryptographic puzzle, the miners’ need to solve and validate the block, gets tougher. This makes sure that the proof-of-work takes almost the same time.

There are several reasons behind having a proof-of-work mechanism. The primary one is to prevent double-spending. In simple terms, it prevents anyone from using the coins/value to use for multiple transactions, before the transaction is confirmed by the network.

The other major reason having the proof-of-work mechanism is to prevent 51% attack. We’ll see this in detail in a later post.

Proof-of work concept is used by most cryptocurrencies in their operations

This makes it very hard to tamper with a block, because if you tamper with one block, then you will have to recalculate the proof-of-work of all the following blocks in the chain.

So the security of a blockchain comes from the creative use of hashing and proof-of-work mechanism.

We might be familiar with the next way blockchain keeps itself secure, that is by being distributed. Instead of using a central entity to manage the chain, blockchains use a peer-to-peer network.

Anyone is allowed to join the chain. When someone joins this network, he gets a full copy of the blockchain. The node can use this verify that everything is still in order.

Now, let’s see what happens when a new block is created. The new block is then send to everyone on the network. Each node then verifies the block to make sure that it hasn’t been tampered with.

If everything checks out, each node add this block to their own blockchain.

All the blocks in the network create consensus. They agree on what blocks are valid and which aren’t. Blocks that are tampered with will be rejected by other nodes in the network.

So to successfully tamper with a blockchain, you’ll need to tamper with all the blocks on the chain, redo the proof-of-work for each block and take control of more than 50% of the peer-to-peer network. Only then, your tampered block becomes accepted by everyone else. This is almost impossible to do.

Blockchain technology in its essence removes the middleman in transactions. The transactions happen peer-to-peer, and the validity and trust of the transactions are kept by the consensus of the network, not by any specific entity.

Blockchain technology will be adapted in the industries where data security and trust plays a major factor

Now, you might be wondering how this technology is shaping the industries like healthcare and the supply chain. It is because of its secure property. It is almost impossible to tamper with data that is using blockchain technology. Also, it is clearly traceable where the goods got a problem in the entire supply chain.

One major development in this space is the creation of smart contracts. Smart contracts are simply programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met.

We see the popularity of NFTs around us, and they are all using blockchain technology. The NFTs we see today use ERC-721, a standard, and are built on ethereum blockchain. We will discuss more on that later in detail.

Almost all the NFTs created today are on ethereum blockchain

Blockchain technology has applications in a wide variety of industries that need to be highly secure like storing medical records, creating a digital notary, or even collecting taxes.

I believe in blockchain technology and its potential. And I would be sharing my thoughts on its evolution here.

I would love to know your thoughts on this technology and its future.

Are You Ready To Take A ‘Focus Walk’

I have been pondering over a question for some time, how do I utilize the information I learned to be applied practically?

This leads to a new question of how do we come up with our opinions about a thing?

For me, both these questions seemed to be poles apart in the beginning. Later, it reached a point where both of them were inseparable from each other.

We capture some kind of wisdom daily, from our experiences, the videos we watch, or the content we consume. Now, the content might not necessarily be knowledgeable in itself, it may be plain entertainment. The whole point is that, have we picked up something new or not.

We are exposed to new information and picking them up even if we are unaware

We can all agree now that we are picking up new information daily, constantly. This is the raw information.
Now, how can we use this information later which will be beneficial in some way?
The new data we picked up has to be malleable to be used with the existing information.

And that’s why we are taking a ‘Focus Walk’.

I would read a new article on any topic I’m interested in and then go for a walk.
I could see that since the human mind is turned on all the time, it needs something to chew on. And the information I just consumed acts as the fodder for the mind. It then chews and chews on the new information, and take some already known information and mix it up.

We’ll be mesmerized by the ability of our mind to connect the highly unrelated information. We come up with our own completely fresh perspectives.
Now I’m pretty sure that someone might have thought about this same conclusion, but that is okay for me.

I have come up with that conclusion in my own way, thus forming my own opinion on a subject.

What we hear through the news are their end conclusion, we don’t even know how they come up with that conclusion

What we hear most today is already formed analysis which leads us to the same old opinion.
Just try it for yourself, listen to the news or any article for that matter, it gives a conclusive point in the end.
This is good in case of matters where we are completely unaware of the subject at all. We might not have the time and energy to figure out everything on our own.

We can always apply the ‘focus walk’ to ideas and topics that we would like to find an answer to, subjects that are close to our hearts.

We don’t think to a conclusion today as frequently as we used to. We have straight-up facts on any imaginable subject around.

There are good and bad aspects of both arguments, but I would love to take a focused walk on the threads that matter to me.

I’m going to take a short walk, you might find it interesting if you try it once.

It’s Never The Right Time, It’s Always The Right Time

I have waited forever to do things that I actually wanted to do, that pumped blood in my veins, that created that adrenaline boost when I just think about doing it.
Time just flies, not waiting for anyone.

When I think back about anything that I feel worthwhile doing in life, I always find a pattern.
All those things I now cherish happened, just because I took the jump, not waiting for anyone, not waiting for any particular time, not waiting for any event.
I’m glad that I took that leap, at times.

Take the plunge. Life worth living is always filled with surprises. And sometimes, we have to actively look for them by taking risks

I can tell you one more thing.
This feeling would never go away once you taste it. We always crave that feeling throughout our lives.
We all have this innate doubt about timing. Is this is the best time to chase that passion, or to go for that event, or to try that adventure, or to take that risk?
We’ll never be ready enough to do anything worthwhile.
We learn by doing it.
We learn by experiencing it.
We learn by failing at it.
And finally, we learn by getting up again and starting all over again.

We fail, we pivot, we start over. How do we learn what not to do, if we win all the time?

If we never take a chance, life will just pass by. The trip you always wanted to take will still be there on your to-do list. The risk you wanted to take will still be a risk, without you experiencing its taste, bitterness, or sweetness.

One thing that I would keep reminding myself is about regrets.
I can take up anything, but not regrets. That feeling kills me from inside.

I’m fortunate enough to live with my grandparents. And being a curious person, I would always bug them with my silly questions. But to my utter amazement, the answers were all pretty insightful. I could feel the experience behind those steady words. And topping all that, these are the people who want me to win in life because I’m their silly kid even when I’m 20.

More people are ready to help you than you could ever imagine. All we have to do is just put aside our ego, and just ask

Honestly, the answers were nothing like what we see in a self-help book. They would mostly give their answers through their experiences, and you could find patterns from their stories.
I have listened to some stories where they express their regrets of not doing something when they could. I could read the pain in their eyes.

More than that, I have seen their faces lighting up when they tell me something they are really proud of. One thing I have figured out was that my grandpa has lived life on the edge, a pretty adventurous life even at those times. And he is a brave and honest man. He’s 99 now.

we get great memories to cherish, great experiences to tell our young generations? Only by experiencing it, not just by clapping hands in the gallery.

The one way we should never live our life is by living in fear. What happens if A occurs, what if B goes wrong, what if C would never show up, what does D think about me.

We find people on the journey, we create memories than can be cherished

My grandpa has told me this, do things you really enjoy doing. In a nutshell, fall in love with the process, not just the results.

And I would share the same with you, enjoy your life by actually living it, not just by watching it pass by.

Look At The Night Sky When You Feel Low

As far as I can remember, I always loved the night sky. I am not sure of the exact reason for that affection.

Every time I look at that vast beauty, it gives me an insight that is profoundly connected to the thoughts I have. Or maybe it is just providing me the unjudged medium to express my thoughts. Either way, it is helping me at tough times.

The night sky shows us what we are looking for

How many of you have taken some time to really look at the night sky. I know a few of my peers do.

I go look at the night sky whenever I feel a little low.

Think in the comfort of an unjudged medium

If you haven’t done it in your life, just try doing it. There is nothing complicated here. Just look at the night sky and be there. You will be able to see new stars which keeps on increasing after every second, as your eyes get adjusted to the darkness.

You can see countless stars there, which I always associate with countless possibilities. This will give you a tiny boost, especially when you feel a little low, giving you the idea of countless possibilities in your life.

Clarity of thought gives you a sense of surreal calmness

A sense of calmness overlaps your mind replacing all the mind-numbing thoughts. Your child-like curiosity just gets out of nowhere and you keep your eyes without blinking to see the stars shining.

I have seen people in their middle ages getting this excitement out of nowhere.
Maybe you should try that too.

The night sky has been my constant companion for a very long time. And it hasn’t failed me yet.
Hope it does the same to you, provided you look up with a blank canvas.

A Powerful Strategy For A Smooth Journey

Detach yourself from the results!

This strategy is all you need to live a smooth life.
Every once in a while, we beat ourselves for all the opportunities we missed.
Every now and then, we regret the chances we didn’t take.
Every new year, we remember the time we wasted.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda – the daunting thoughts

We all do this, only the frequency differs.
The only thing you can do now is to carve a thought in your mind.
I am gonna jump when the next opportunity comes.
I am gonna do whatever that makes me feel excited when I get some free time.
I am gonna utilize the next chance that comes in my way.

When you do this much, embrace the freedom.
All you have to do is to detach yourself from the results.

Detaching from the results — Spread your wings, detach yourself from the results

I did take chances and I hopped on the opportunities that came on my way.
But something doesn’t feel right. I started becoming more focused on the results rather than the process.
I just wanted to reach my end goal somehow.
What happens when you do this. You feel stressed about the long way you have to go to reach your end goal.

But then I started applying this strategy in my life. And this made my journey much easier than you can imagine.

I started not caring about the results as I used to be.
I started enjoying the task and time at hand. And when you do stuff with maximum focus, each step started getting better. And when each step started getting better, the journey transformed, and the probability of me reaching wherever I want to reach increased exponentially.

An added advantage, I felt more happier than ever.

Life become happier in general when you start appreciating the small stuff

Most often, we fret too much about the results and miss what we do in the present.
And in case if we missed our end goals, we never try it again as we give too much importance to the results.

In a nutshell, just do whatever you love to do without thinking too much about the end results.

No One’s Coming To Save You

This is one of the most important realisations I have learnt in my life.

I have a ton of dreams that came from the books I read, the movies I watch and the real people I have seen.
I had this thought early on that accompanied my life that all of these are going to come real one day.
All my hopes and dreams will get materialized automatically if I just flow through life.

But Boy, I was wrong. Nothing is going to come your way until you put the real effort into each of the dreams specifically. I think many of us are living in this dream world that things will just fall into place if we go about life just the way we do now. No, this is never going to happen automatically unless you put real conscious effort to make those dreams come into reality.

A part of our misconception stems from the thought that something’s going to happen magically in our life that will just make our fantasies a reality.
This is one of the reasons why people regret the things they didn’t do when they were young. Because they realized that no one gave them that big break they always hoped would come their way. This realization came when they passed more than half of their life spectrum.

I feel it is better to keep a specific thought as your companion for life.

I am the master of my life. I am the captain of my life ship. I have to decide now and align my choices and actions to match my destination. This is a continuous journey. Each choice I make today has the power to take me closer to my destination.

This fact should not stress you out on making even a tiny choice. There is always a chance to course-correct your journey if you wish to do that.

Realize that life is a long journey and we can always course-correct later

I compare my life destination to someting like that of the top point of a mountain. There are millions of ways to reach the top. Yes, you have to pivot, make calculated risks and jump into the unknown at times. But there’s always a way to reach your destination if you really wanted to.

I had a huge shift in my thoughts once I realized that no one’s coming to give me that big break. I realized that I can’t live my life solely hoping for that big break. I became more aware of my life choices knowing that I can always course-correct later.

Start taking your steps now even if you’re not sure about the direction

You can live any kind of life you want. It’s just that you have to pay the price.
There is nothing like a free meal in life. Yes, people get lucky. Luck is a highly complex phenomenon which we call when we’re really not sure about the efforts that had gone behind it.
We get lucky if are prepared for the opportunities that come in our way.

You just have to keep this single thought in your mind; ‘No one’s coming to save you’.
This alone will transform the way you live your life in a way you have never imagined.

Rethink Your Thinking

Let’s take a moment and think about what could happen if the way we think is not right.

How will this affect our everyday life? What impact does this create in the long run

We can all agree that a multitude of scenarios can go wrong in that case.

Now we may think that I’m the kind of person who researches a lot before taking any tiny decision.
Let me tell you this. Even then, there is no way you can be right all the time.

The major culprit behind all this is ‘Confirmation bias’, the mother of all misconceptions.
I’m sure that at least some of us have put out this term ruthlessly in any argument.
We tend to interpret any new information that comes in our way so that it becomes compatible with our existing theories and convictions.

In simple terms, we just simply filter out anything that contradicts our existing views.

I got lost in this bias for a long time, but ultimately I realized my mistake.
I realized that facts are still there, even if I care about it or not.

I thought about a way to escape this trap. I will tell you where I have reached.
I made peace with this bias. The only way I could figure out was to be extremely aware that things might not be plain simple as it seems on the surface.

I started giving more importance to the contradictions that come up when I am damn confident about something.

Murder your darlings
Arthur Quiller-Couch

Let me tell you about the guy who can go wrong even if a lot of thinking is put on the line.

We all consume tremendous information today, actively or inactively.
It can be the Facebook newsfeed, blog platforms, or expert guidance.

Now think that you look for information. There is a higher chance that you choose the ones that are aligned with your beliefs.
You might skip the ones that are in a way disconfirming for you.
Any blog post you read, any content you consume, you interpret the new information in a way to match your theories.

You can try it out yourselves. First, try searching whether Marijuana is bad for health. And then read the top two pages that show up.
Now you’re convinced that Marijuana is bad for someone’s health.
Now try searching whether Marijuana is good for health. And then do the same.

You realize that there will be numerous content out there validating both the aspects.

The search just gives you the information you were looking for, not exactly the facts.

If you just look around, you can see numerous examples of us getting dis-illusioned by confirmation bias.

Astrologers, religious beliefs and most of the self-help operate on this same principle.
The predictions are so vague that you can find shreds of evidence for these prophecies. Other times, they just give you the information that you are looking for.

I’m sure you have this thought once in a while.

Let me ask you a question here and you try answering it logically.

There are hundreds of godmen and numerous religions out there. Why could no one predict anything of this COVID-19 sort, if they are the masters of this art?
I’m not here to put a blame on anyone, but to make us aware that there can be gaps in our thinking. And people can sell on these gaps.

It requires a bit of an effort to get out of this bias, especially in this digital age.

The content we mostly consume is tailor-made for an individual.

If I watch a show on Netflix, it suggests similar shows in the future. If I search for anything on google, it gives me associated searches in the future.
We are suggested with similar products we liked before.

In essence, everything we consume is stabilizing our beliefs without even realizing it.
We won’t even see a speck of disconfirming evidence due to this tailor-made algorithms

Things can go wrong if we don’t correct the way we think. Thinking right can take us to the next level as well.
I learned it the hard way.

In conclusion, realize that there can be gaps in our thinking. Being just a bit more self-aware goes a long way.

We All Deserve A Pat On Our Back

Have you ever paused for a moment to think about how far you have come?
If not, take a moment and think about the distance you have covered until this point in your life.

Life is more of a marathon than a sprint. Wherever we look, we see life portrayed colorfully. In a way, that’s perfect, if the colors represent a wide variety of experiences and emotions. On the other hand, that is utter nonsense, if we see it as lively and fun.

I bet each one of you might have gone through turmoil and difficult situations in life at least once. Why do I say this? Because I have experienced this myself. I can understand how it feels to stand in the dead-end of your story. Maybe it can be a short spell, but we all have been there, some for a moment and others for a longer-term.

Our version of the dead-end is 99.9% incorrect. There are countless possibilities from our version of the dead-end, considering life has countless number of complex moving parts

I want to give you a perspective that emulates the revival of a hero in a movie, but honestly, I cannot. I do appreciate my life and the wonderful things happened to me, but sometimes I feel stuck to lift myself.

Time heals almost everything. Give time, time
Regina Brett

Sometimes, the only relief is time. Time heals everything. When I look back in a month to the same situation, I might probably laugh it off at its silliness.

We don’t give enough credit to ourselves, a majority of us. We are kind to the people around us. We give advice and offer solutions to others, we tell them that it’s okay to be wrong.

But we tend to be harsh on ourselves most of the time. Why did I miss this task, why did I behave this way, why didn’t I call someone, why did I procrastinate, why am I not good at this like him, you get the gist.
Our inner critic is in sports mode all the time.

That’s why sometimes it is better to take a step back and feel proud of what you have accomplished.

Give credit to yourself for how far you have come

It’s essential to do this once in a while because we have miles to go before we sleep. A self booster is required even if no one else gives it to you.

We all deserve a pat on our back.

The Super Power Of Pushing Through

We all know instances in our life where we called it out and went with our lives.

It can be a daily exercise, a cheeseburger, or an extra episode. This is not anyone’s fault. And these things happen to each one of us. This can be called as a challenge in a few cases where the effort required to overcome that act was kind of a big deal. In some cases, we might have done this act by using our self-control, postponing our instant gratification.

What did we feel after accomplishing that, however simple the act might be. But you know one thing, the conscious effort of self-control and taking smaller steps create a snowball effect. These build up the momentum and fuel our bigger ones, challenges. And without we even knowing, we will be sifting through problems and challenges one by one.

This is an incredible journey. If you have asked anyone who has accomplished any kind of success in their lives, they will tell you the satisfaction and happiness they got from this journey. Besides, this journey made them all better people. They can understand what others go through. The only difference between people who succeed and not is the act of pushing through. The act of never giving up.

Overcoming each of the hurdles is not an easy task. It is difficult, but not impossible. This is the thought you have to keep in mind. Anyone and everyone who achieved incredible things in their lives have gone through countless challenges, which made them feel there is no way out. But still, they pushed through, thus they saw the light.

Making one move at a time in the right direction is all you need

See challenges as opportunities to grow

As Steve Jobs quoted, no one knows the path of their journey, it makes sense only when we connect the dots back. It seems like there is no way forward at times. But remember that this is when you have to push harder. Why? Because this is when you know that you have started taking actions towards your goals. That is when the path starts getting obstacles.

I keep this thought close to me always. It is not easy to work hard when you can’t see the light in front. And this why you have to work even harder to reach success. Take any person in any field in any part of the world. There is only one thing in common. They never gave up. They believed in themselves when no one else does.

There will be people around you giving you bits of advice, instructions, commands, and suggestions. Listen to them and take the actions you planned anyways. Because you are the one who knows yourself the best.
These people around you might be trying to help out of good intent. But never listen to anyone who does not have what you want to have. I think this is a great filter to weed out distractive criticisms.

Do what you want. Create your vision, set goals, assign deadlines for these goals, and start grinding. You learn, grow, and acquire new skills when no one else is watching. Build silently. Because you are doing this for yourself. The freedom you get after accomplishing your goals is mesmerizing. That is worth the wait.

Be a Risk-Taker

Now think from a different perspective. You have an idea to start something new in your life or business. You start working on it. And along the way, you start facing challenges, which is part of the whole process.

If you give up when faced with these challenges, two things happen. First, you will no longer be able to execute your idea or change.
Second, your confidence in yourself goes down. But think about the reverse case. You pushed through the challenges and executed the idea successfully. You achieved your goal. Also, your self-confidence has gone through the roof.

You now know that if you put enough effort into any goal and be consistent, you will achieve that. This helps you in venturing into new fields and ideas. This gives you one of the most important life skill, the risk-taking capability. Risk takers are the winners. They might fail in a few attempts, but they are going to win for sure.

Take calculated risks. Not taking risk is the biggest risk.

Keep this in mind when you traverse through life. For anything valuable to achieve in life, you have to pay the price. The returns will be much more than you expect.
And you will become a better person in the process.

Cryptocurrency, the Money of the Future

Most of us have heard or read about the cryptocurrencies, at least about bitcoin, the most popular kid of the lot.

It is common to miss out on this since it is not very widely used today among the general population. You might have heard about Bitcoin, even if you have not heard about cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency available today.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency

Understanding cryptocurrency can be a bit confusing, but it is much easier if you think about it as digital money. The whole value of money lies in the name attached to the person owning it.

Think about this. Imagine you have 1 crore rupees in your bank account. What makes it your money? It’s the record in the bank that states the money belongs to you. In an unpredictable scenario, think of the bank accidentally changes that record to a different person. Now the money belongs to him. Money is all about a verified entry in some kind of database of accounts, balances, and transactions.

Cryptocurrencies have to follow this same principle if it has to be of value. But the way it is done here is much more advanced and based on certain core values that money cannot fulfill.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is an internet-based medium of exchange which uses cryptographical functions to conduct financial transactions. Cryptocurrencies leverage blockchain technology to gain decentralization, transparency, and immutability.

Their name is because the consensus-keeping process is secured by strong cryptography. They are not secured by people or by trust, but by math.

Not controlled by any one entity

You might be thinking then what is the difference between cryptocurrency and regular money other than that it is in digital form. I understand I had the same confusion.
The biggest difference is that crypto is not controlled by any central authority, unlike money. We know that money is controlled by financial institutions, majorly banks. They determine the interest rates, when they want to print it to push it more into the market, or when to control it by charging higher interest rates. There is nothing wrong with it. The government and the central bank has to do this to maintain and control the economy. They do it to adjust inflation and deflation. This means that there is someone who controls it.

Crypto works oppositely. There is no central authority to control it, but the power lies equally in everyone. It uses blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology, which contains all the information regarding previous transactions

How it works?

I will give you an example of how it works.
Vignesh has to transfer a bitcoin to Charu. Now Vignesh initiates the transaction. A transaction is a file that says Vignesh gives a bitcoin to Charu and is digitally signed by Vignesh.

Once signed, the transaction is broadcasted to the network sent from one to every other peer, this is standard P2P technology. After a specific amount of time, the transaction gets confirmed. Only miners can confirm transactions. This is their job in the cryptocurrency network.

Miners take the transactions, confirm they are legitimate, and spread them in the network. After confirmed by the miner, every node has to add it to its database. It has to become part of the blockchain. For doing this job, miners are rewarded with cryptocurrency, eg. bitcoins.

Anybody who has a great computing power can become a miner. A miner has to compete with other miners to solve a cryptographic puzzle. After finding the solution, the miner can confirm the puzzle and add it to the blockchain after which they are rewarded.

This way the independent miner are incentivized to maintain the legitimacy of the transactions. Once the transactions are confirmed, it is kind of set in stone. It is irreversible, so there is no possibility of forging.

Major cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin -This is the first and most popular cryptocurrency. It was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin has gained massive popularity and value in the following years. The current price of bitcoin is USD8876.17(6,73,390.64 INR).
The major drawback of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies in general is their volatility. Bitcoin has touched USD19650.01 on 15 Dec 2017. You can see the unpredictability in its value.

Ethereum – There are certain variations in their application of the blockchain technology in each of these cryptocurrencies. Ethereum can not only process transactions but also complex contracts and programs.

Other commonly used cryptocurrencies are Ripple, Litecoin, Monero. There are cryptocurrencies introduced around the world these days.

One major improvement in this scene is the introduction of the digital Yuan, the cryptocurrency version of Chinese currency, Yuan. This is still in the testing phase.
The initiative by the second-largest economy in the world shows the strong current in favor of cryptocurrency and the trust in blockchain technology.

This shows that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

I would like to hear your view on cryptocurrencies. Do you think it is a potential investment opportunity?

Changing Your Mind Is Cool

What do you think about changing your opinion on something, not so cool, I guess.
I have been thinking the same way until recently.

Maybe we all got this same ideology from the society. Maybe the people around us have primed us in that way. We all acquire bits and pieces of information unconsciously which becomes our facts as we grow up.

Everything and everyone has a perspective

I now believe that changing the mind on a topic or forming a new opinion is so cool which takes immense courage.

The process of forming a new opinion

This process does not come easily. The process starts with the person getting exposed to a new perspective. Generally we would go into defensive mode protecting our older version of the story. If you are a person who thinks and keeps an open mind, this can create contradictions in your mind.

The first step of forming a new perspective is to have a doubt, but until and unless you keep an open mind, the doubt cannot penetrate your existing ideology. And when you process the new perspective, there will be instances where you can see a fight for existence between the old and the new perspectives.

I believe that the new ideology should be strong enough to fight the old one and thus forming your new clear opinion on a subject. This process keeps happening throughout your life if you are an open-minded person, thus making your mind change more often. Thus in conclusion, a person who changes his mind to form newer opinions on a topic is a thinker and has an open mind. He is the coolest of the lot.

Don’t fall for the pressure to keep your decision the same. This pressure can create rigid thinking. It’s not an offense to change your mind. In fact, the reverse is an offense, not changing your mind creates the problem.

Just think about this, what would happen if everyone in an organization thinks in the same way. What would happen, if everyone in the society holds similar opinions?
Who’s there to question the existing ideologies here. How can we improve as humanity if everyone holds the same opinion without challenging the existing beliefs?

Our freedom to think and form our own opinions is a powerful tool that we should use extensively. If we look around, everything around us has been created by people just like us who challenged the existing beliefs and ideologies. That’s where the magic happens.

“It’s really dangerous if everyone in a company starts thinking in the same way.”
Michael Dell

Support and question

Rather than pointing fingers at the people who changes their mind, we can think about their perspective. We can think about how they reached their new version of the story.
We have been presented with various angles of a topic by companies, institutions, and politicians. Analyzing those and thinking for ourselves enables new ideologies.

Accepting people who come up with newer philosophies along with forming our own opinions is crucial in our lives. Changing the mind is kind of cool when we know what’s going on behind the curtain.

5 Tips To Come Out Stronger After A Crisis

Are you in a dilemma on how to act during a crisis, especially since we are in the middle of a crisis now?
We have our history to look back into when we are confused. We generally look down upon our history. We think that we are living in a far different scenario today. This is absolutely true.
We can learn from our history, not to extrapolate and figure out outcomes for the future. But rather change the outcomes based on the learnings from the history.
There are few patterns that never miss during a crisis.

1. Default decisions are always wrong

We tend to panic during a crisis. And our human instincts overlap our thinking capabilities. We plat if safe and go on a hideout. This is what 99% of the people do.
We behave like sheep who panic and flock together to a safe place. But the reality is that there is no safe place nor a hideout. You either charge or fall.

We are presented with a multitude of choices everyday

2. Charge into chaos

If you want to come out stronger after this crisis, charge into the chaos. You can use an analogy of a fire scene. You don’t know what is actually happening there. If your life depends on it, you need to get a clear picture of the exact scene. All the wealthy families we see today have come out strongest during crises.

3. Invest, not save

We have some savings we have done for a rainy day. This is a rainy day. It is better to keep a reasonable amount for necessities. It is best to invest in your network who can support your cause and your business. One major reason is that most people are ready to connect with you and provide advice due to the situation. This cannot happen during normal circumstances. Take advantage of that.

4. Learn

Learn and grow. This time is the appropriate time to learn news skills to come out stronger after the crisis. Money changes hands during a crisis which otherwise might not happen. We pay for the value we receive. If we are able to provide extreme value to people by becoming our best version, there will be people who are ready to pay extreme money.

Learning crafts you into your better version

5. Nurture your relationships

There is no happiness without sharing. We get to spend a lot of time with our family, friends these days. Talk, listen, and support each other. Try to know your close ones. This will give you extra mileage in life.

Use the time of crisis in a good way so that you can come out as a better and stronger version of yourself financially and emotionally.
We will meet again after this crisis. This too will pass.
Life will move on!

Suspend The Judgment And See The Magic

Do you want to see the magic in your life?
Do you want to see unlimited possibilities with your life?

There is a simple way you can do this.
Suspend your judgment on everything and see matters from a neutral perspective.

Let’s take a rest from our constant judgments and see things from a new perspective

This sounds simple but not easy. What happens when you suspend judgment?

You start seeing things in a new light. You start seeing that the instances are far more wider and deep.

This is applicable to people as well.
When you start listening and hear out people from a neutral perspective, you find them to be people with depth.

Seeing things clearly changes our perspective

We never know how people around us work and experience. Maybe, they are great souls who never show off. Maybe they can give ideas and solutions to your problems. Maybe they have a huge network of great connections you can benefit from. Maybe they have gone through some serious experiences which made them the way they are.

We can never truly know them until and unless we look at them from a neutral perspective. We know that looks and words can be deceiving.

People operate from their experiences and knowledge. Some of them might say marriages are bad because they got this idea from either from their experience or from someone they trust. Similarly other people might hold an exact opposite belief about the same concept.

Clear mind provides another level of freedom

This is true for challenges as well. Just ask yourself. Are you the kind of person who stops when you see challenges. Opportunities can be disguised as challenges.

The same problem can be considered as an obstacle and a possibility. The people who become successful are the ones who see problems as possibilities. Everything around us was created by people who pushed through challenges as they see possibilities.

Every second of our Iives, we are making choices. And mostly these choices come from the way we see and analyze things unless we are at a gunpoint. If we start seeing things, experiences, people, and instances without prejudging them, that can open up to a truly new life.

And what’s more, we become less neurotic about tiny choices, rather shaping them up to our advantage.

Think Differently For Extraordinary Results

Have you ever made a particular choice just because everyone around you seemed to support it?

This is the conventional way of thinking, most of us take this easy route. We think that the choices made by everyone is the right one. But just take notice of how many people are getting the results they want. How many people around us are living the life they have dreamt of. Maybe a few.

If we think like everyone else, we get the same results. By Newton’s third law, every choice you make has certain results. More importantly, people make choices from their level of knowledge and understanding.

There are a few things you can do starting today to shift your thinking, thus change the results.

1. Question Conventions

We have conventions everywhere, from kindergarten to a cemetery.
However, there is a problem with conventional beliefs: they are often wrong. Then why do we still follow them? One reason is that it is far more easier than using our brain. One way of saying it is that evolution has made us opt for choices that consume less energy. So we choose the easier path here.

Another reason is that, conventions were formed gradually due to circumstances, which might not be valid in our current situations.

“Question everything, even if it represents generations of conventional wisdom.”

– Robert Ringer

I always try to remember just one thing, conventions can be wrong. So, I try to think for myself in circumstances that doesn’t make sense to me.
That’all you have to do. Question conventions when it doesn’t make sense to you.

2. Think Like A Child

The most common trait among children is that they are insanely curious.
I remember the trouble I have caused by interrupting any conversation I was part of until my confusion was clarified. Children always have that wonder for all the things they see and experience.

A child has more questions than an adult

I always thought about this difference between children and adults. I finally figured out an answer for myself. Maybe, that’s because everything they see and hear can be a completely new experience for them. This keeps their sense of wonder alive. But as adults, people might have experienced the instances of their daily lives more often. In case if they had a new experience, they tend to tag it to a similar one they have seen. If adults have to get that sense of wonder, they need to encounter a completely new experience, which they couldn’t anyway relate to any circumstances they have faced in their lives.

We as adults are good at focusing our attention on one specific thing. This is good in many ways to get the work done. But this can lead to misdirection. we tend to overlook the obvious steps, never questioning them.

Everything is new for children, they tend to look at any circumstance from a different angle. Nothing seems obvious to them, which helps them find flaws in the obvious steps.

Open your mind a bit more and see the wonder in everything you do.
In a way, think outside the box.

3. Data Over Emotions

More often than not, we tend to base our decisions on emotions rather than statistical data. This is what the media does to persuade us and support the ideas they propagate.

An incident can be portrayed in a multitude of ways, and various angles. Have you ever noticed the same incident portrayed oppositely in different channels and newspapers? The same news can evoke completely different emotions in a way that you might support or oppose the party involved. Our world is so complex, where it is extremely difficult to look at a matter from a single perspective.

Data always trumps emotions for better choices

The most sensible way to make a decision or analyze a piece of news is to look at it from a statistical point of view. Look at the data and think for yourself. This makes your decision unbiased and thus forming your own opinion on a subject.

In the book ‘Factfulness’ by Hans Rosling, the author demonstrates by the help of statistics that we have got completely wrong answers for the most simple questions about the world. Even the experts in certain fields like Nobel laureates got the most basic questions wrong. There are traps and flaws in our decision-making process. Being aware of this helps you to rethink about forming extreme opinions.

Always focus on data and make your decisions accordingly.

If you deliberately put these steps into action, your thinking process will improve exponentially.
There is a great chance that your decisions will be accurate than ever.
We all know that great decisions lead to extraordinary results.

How Virtual Reality Can Transform Our Learning?

Gone are the days where you struggle figuring out what your teacher says by your imagination.

Virtual reality is bringing you a brand new way of learning. It enables you to learn through experiences. That too using ultra-modern equipments by a fraction of its real cost.

We know that technology is breaking up things and molding new stuff at an exponential rate now. So what we see in modern universities will be possible in our local schools at a shorter period than we can imagine.

This can impact the learning community and the whole process in several ways

1. Figure out what their passion is

Now think for a moment. How did we reach this point in our life? We chose a certain career path that may or may not be our passion. And how did we choose a particle career path? We chose among the choices we had or we knew about.
Maybe if we knew more about a field in detail and its practicalities in the real world or completely new fields altogether, would we have chosen the same path?
There is a high probability that the answer can be a ‘No’. The whole process can be a trial and error method.

“You can’t be, what you can’t see” – Marian Wright Edelman

By Virtual reality, students can experience the practical applications of a wide variety of fields. This enables them to find out their passion and pursue them at an early age.
By the power of VR, a middle schooler can become a marine biologist, even if he hasn’t seen the ocean.

Computer Science Engineer wearing Virtual Reality Headset Working with 3D Model Hologram Visualization

Today, there are limited possibilities for students to get exposed to fields like biotechnology, rocket science, etc. By VR, they can experience those fields and figure out whether their passion lies there.

In short, VR enables them a realistic experience of a scientific career.

But why is this important?
Very few middle school students are passionate about science these days.
By a study in 2014, 57% of 8th and 9th-grade students don’t see themselves in anything related to science in their future.
No one wants to become a scientist.
More people would opt to become a social media influencer than a scientist.
Nothing is wrong with this thinking. But there might be students who would want to become scientists if they were exposed to the possibilities of science.
And we need scientists along with a wide variety of fields in our next generation.

2. Making education far more effective

The world is growing incredibly fast. And with that growth comes a whole list of challenges. Challenges like global warming, climate change, new diseases, etc.
Our current education system is highly inadequate for the younger generation to solve these real-world problems. Current education is found to be boring, ineffective, and expensive.
Students are not sure why they are learning about a topic in the first place.

This is where the new innovative teaching methods are important.
You might say we are already there. I highly doubt it.
What we have now is books turned into e-books, blackboards into youtube videos and lectures in MOOCS(massive online open courses). Yes, this new format helps in easy access and reaching out to more number of students which is great.
But there is no major innovation in this teaching method.

Virtual reality can transform the teaching and learning experiences through its highly immersive content. Students can experience the content they are learning which helps in solving real-world problems.

Labster , award winning virtual lab simulations

There is a startup called Labster which uses virtual reality to create highly advanced virtual laboratories.
They have created a fully simulated one to one virtual reality laboratory simulator, where the students could perform experiments with mathematical equations that would simulate like in a real-world lab. The students can perform virtual experiments before they go into the real laboratory. They could conduct dangerous experiments in these virtual laboratories without any real-life implications. For instance, they can perform ‘salmonella’ bacteria experiments which many schools cannot teach due to good safety reasons.

There are games created in VR where students can apply their core science skills to solve problems.

A study conducted by Stanford University and Technical University, Denmark has shown that the learning effectiveness has almost doubled in the same amount of time when normal teaching methods were combined with the VR.

3. Making learning interesting

We all have been there, where we felt learning on certain topics were boring and a time wastage. Learning using the power of virtual reality is highly engaging and super interesting. This makes students spend more time in valuable learning than spending a major chunk of their time, consuming content through social media. The major reason behind this is the VR experience is highly immersive and engaging for students.

A student learning about the Solar System in an immersive way using VR

Virtual reality can transform the way we learn things. Any person would be ready to learn and grow if the whole learning process is highly interesting and super engaging.
The possibilities are endless with VR.

Take Control Of Your Life Through Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a hot topic. We can accept that. But why is this hype?

We feel like losing control of our lives at times. That is pretty common.
Especially in this digital age of constant stimulations.
We often run on autopilot through our daily lives. As a result, we tend to react to everything that comes in our way rather than responding. The latter is a far better option.
We either live in anxiety about the future or worry about the past.
This way, we miss the present moment and that reaction becomes our past in the next second. We worry about this reaction in the next moment.
We tend to not appreciate the present moment and worry about those actions when it becomes the past.

A wandering mind which portrays our daily lives

This is where mindfulness comes into the picture. When you become mindful, you appreciate and savor the present moment. This is how we live fully rather than skipping through the day.

This was an ancient practice followed by yogis. This became widely popular because of its simplicity and effectiveness.
Think about this for a moment. Our lives have improved exponentially from the past. We live in a safe, connected world. But we are ever more anxious and worried. We can blame this on our human instincts. Our ancestors had to be alert all the time for threats. This was essential for survival.
Even though, we don’t face any attacks from wild animals anymore, our human instincts are still scanning for potential threats. In the modern world, which is highly complex, our evolution works against us. Our mental alarm systems are constantly overwhelmed with information, distractions, and threats. This makes mindfulness a rare practice in our daily lives. A Harvard study found that the human mind focuses on the present moment only 53% of the time.

Are we going through our days, Mind Full or Mindful?

We will see 2 simple techniques you can practice anywhere, anytime to become more mindful.

1. Mindful Breathing

You can do this in no time and bring back your awareness to the present moment.
Simply stop whatever you are doing and redirect your focus to your breath. Pay close attention to the process of breathing, how your body moves, and the air flows while you do it.

2. Body Scan

As the name suggests, just close your eyes and scan your body from head to toe. Pay close attention to any physical sensations while scanning through your body. The focus of your mind turns to your body from wandering, and you become self-aware in no time.

Don’t worry if your mind wanders while practicing these steps. It is part of the process.
Moreover, bringing back your mind from wandering helps in improving your self-awareness.
If you practice these two simple steps, you are on your way to becoming a highly self-aware person. This will help you to live fully and enjoy this journey called life.

3 Ways Technology Play With Our Psychology

I cannot live without technology today. This is me. I need to check emails, Facebook, Instagram, Quora, and feed my curious mind by some google search.

99% of us are in the same way. We are handicapped without tech no

Sure, It helps us to do a lot of tasks with minimum effort.
We work on it, we stream on it and it has become our closest buddy.
We are all on the same page here.

On the other hand, have you ever thought about how this buddy uses our psychological vulnerabilities? I observed my patterns for 3 months and came up with this list.

1. Manipulative Choices

I used to feel empowered by the choices I could choose from. But then I realized, I am choosing from the list of choices displayed in the menu of the application. Even though, we all feel like making our individual free choices, we are forced to take an option out of the list given.

We are choosing from the options provided, not from all the options available

There can be other great choices that are not listed on the menu. Those might be the best ones, but your choice is limited. Have you ever asked, “why am I given these choices and not others”?

Our perspective of what’s happening in the world is shaped by our newsfeed stories. Our relationships are guided by our list of contacts or friends on social media.
A person who is not on Facebook/Instagram is forced to get into these platforms to kindle relationships.

Along the same line, we often face with inconvenient choices in the digital space.
I have noticed that it is much easier for me to register/sign up for a newsletter or an app. On the other hand, it might be a bit hard to cancel the service.

Have you ever felt this way? It might take a minute to register for a service, but to cancel it we have to create a request to cancel and call in a number sent on our email. Businesses are making it easy to choose and hard to cancel.

2. Never-ending content

I remember using Instagram for 1.5 hours straight when initially I planned to check a few stories. If you notice, all social media platforms are built this way. We consume content even if we are not hungry anymore. We don’t get a chance to reconsider or leave unless our internet is slow.

Autoplay does the same thing, the next video starts after a countdown. It provides suggestions that it thinks we are interested in. And now we are hooked.

3. Instant Rewards

We are getting dopamine hits every time we get a notification. We get this reward each time someone likes, comments, or shares our content. Our elder generation thinks its easy these days for anyone to learn something. Even though this thought is ideally true, there is a major flaw when it comes to real life. It has become ever easy for us to get instant gratification.

Social media notifications give us instant gratification

There is no shortage of content you can access now. It requires extreme will power to focus on learning something. Our brain jumps for instant rewards rather than waiting for some reward in the future after learning stuff.

It is a superhuman task now to avoid interruptions and focus on the task at hand

If I have to write on how technology enables us to do great things, the post will be twice as this one.
But we cannot negate the fact of tech taking advantage of our psychological vulnerabilities. We cannot blame it on us. These products are designed by highly skilled engineers whose topmost priority is to make people spend maximum time in their platforms.

Time is our most valuable asset. By all these constant stimulations, We tend to skim through life without actually living it.
Being aware of the traps and flaws will help us make better choices.

That is the single most purpose of this article.

6 Facts On Life

Have you ever thought about what will be in your mind when you’re 90 years old?

As per the interviews with old folks, mostly these are regrets of the acts they could have done rather than living in a shell. Since we know this beforehand, it would be a great idea for us to steer our lives to a great future.

We can see the facts of life for what it is and guide our life in a much better way.

1. We are capable of much more than we think we can

We all see greatness around us thinking how lucky these people are. But in reality, they tried harder than us to reach that level.
How many of us are ready to put in the work.

We have a unique flavor of characteristics, traits, and abilities that no one else can provide to this world.

We have to hone these skills and provide our best value to others, to enrich ourselves.

2. People will let you down

These can be anyone from your friends, family, or even strangers.
There is a paradoxical thought for the first fact. People tend to think that people in their circle are incapable of doing great things. Everyone thinks based on their capabilities and perspectives.

If you are starting your journey towards an exceptional life, get ready to face naysayers.

3. You have to ask something to get it

You never know how many great people out there are ready to help you unless you ask.

“What is ‘no’? Either you have asked the wrong question or you have asked the wrong person. Find a way to get the ‘yes’.” – Jeanette Winterson

Most people are happy to help if you ask

There are a lot of experienced folks out there, who have gone through your path. Ask for guidelines. We save time and costly mistakes by this simple task of asking.

4. You have to believe in yourself before the world starts to

You are the one guided by your vision. Others might not see what you see and hence discourage you to take a specific path. But if you believe in the path you are taking, never back down. That’s how you fulfill your vision.

This self-belief helps you overcome the challenges you face in your journey.

5. Your dreams are worth it

Whatever dream you have, it is definitely worth achieving. The satisfaction you get once you realize it, you can’t express it to others. Knowing that you have lived your life fully and took risks gives you the ultimate satisfaction.
You will never know until you try.

6. Execution trumps everything

Even if you have top-notch ideas, great potential, enormous resources, nothings matters until you take action. Execution is the king. We try planning and perfecting the plan before taking action. But you never know what the market needs and people need until you put your idea in execution.

So make your initial plan and get your hands dirty. You will learn much more than you think.

You can follow them or just read them, but keeping these in mind can change your life in a new direction altogether.

One Small Shift To Change Everything In Life

A small shift in you bring about massive changes in your life experiences.

I look back through my journey now and think, what made it possible for me to be at this moment. The answer I get is the mindset I had.

We all can do a lot more than we think. But why are we not trying then?
The foundation lies in the mindset we have harnessed.
We either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

Think for a moment. If I think I am what I am and can’t improve on my skills, it is a full stop in my life. That is what happens to a man with a fixed mindset.

On the other hand, If I believe I can improve on my skills and attain new ones with consistent effort, my life is a continuous journey.

Can you change from fixed to growth mindset? Definitely.

It takes consistent effort to shift that and once you attain that, there is no looking back. You see endless possibilities. And that guides you in your journey.
When I had a fixed mindset, I sought out validation from others, on my skills and talents.
But once I attained the growth mindset, I realized that I’m in control of my destiny.
That means I can do and have anything in life if I am putting in the work.
That was a liberating moment.

Most of our problems block our way due to this fixed mindset. When you realize that, you can attain the required skills and overcome the challenges you face in your journey.
Let’s shift our mindset and ready for our journey.

How To Double Your Productivity?

Productivity is the lifeblood of the modern world.

At least in workplaces. Even though we spent a large chunk of our working hours in the office, how much time are we really productive.
Or if we are working on personal tasks, how much time we drift around doing other activities.

If we have a productivity pill available, how many of us would try it. I guess, most of us. What is wrong in completing tasks or a week in a single day. No problem.
But have we ever stopped to think about the productivity craving and our best work? Do we produce our best work while we are productive, or while we are goofing around.

There are two parts to this equation.
If we are only concerned about a highly specific end result, then stressing ourselves to work hard is the best solution. This is what happens in workplaces.

On the other hand, if we are trying to produce a creative output using our mind, being lazy can produce wonders. This is what happens in creative fields, where the output has to be creative and vary among individuals. To clarify, being lazy does not mean that the person has to be necessarily lazy. It can be in a way others perceive the person to be. Especially in a creative field, when you engage maximum thoughts around a particular subject, the output can be immensely creative.

We have to identify our mental energy peak timings to maximize our productivity.
Most people have 2 sets of high mental energy peaks during the day.
I figured out my energy peaks and I take advantage of them. If you wish to know, I have one peak in the morning just after getting up which lasts for 2.5 hours and one late in the night, which lasts around 3 hours.
I allocate my most important tasks for these timings. Use your energy bursts effectively.

The second factor I do is to get into the flow state. This is where you are fully involved in the task at hand. It just seems to flow around with any stress.
I used to get distracted by the notifications, which I turn off now if I’m doing something important. Any kind of distractions take away to flow state, and it takes some time for you to be back in that state.

Meditation is an extremely important factor to consider if you wish to be a productive beast. Our mind is agitated by countless thoughts 90% of the time we are awake. Meditation helps us to calm down our thoughts and clear the mind. Our mind behaves as still water. What happens when we put our task into our clear mind, just like putting a stone in still water. Our mind focuses on the task at hand and generates thoughts in alignment with that task.

If you can put these factors into your lifestyle, you are on your way to become the productivity machine.

The Paradigm Shift From What I Learned Today

Can the content we sift through a day change your perspective.
Hell yes! And that’s what I want to discuss with you.

I consumed content via books, notepads, quora, youtube, medium, Spotify and blinkist.
It was a wide variety of sources.

I started my day with the book ‘ The art of creative thinking’ which is pretty interesting and the topics seem to be a bit rebel for most people. For example, how would you feel about a chapter titled ‘ Aspire to have no goals’, which is kind of misleading? But remember that the author talks from purely a perspective to develop creative thinking, and I feel that is the best way to do so. She is very focused on the subject and mostly the readers are there to learn about creative thinking, rather than achieving other aspects of life, like attaining a healthy body.
I learned a variety of thought models I need to implement in my life to achieve creative results of daily routines and aspects of my life. The book includes a lot of real-life stories that are highly inspiring.

I will give you a few thought models that struck a chord with me. The first one is about our school system which limits and inhibits our creative thinking abilities.
There are few options for a student to come up with creative solutions, rather than following the accepted standards. The school teaches you a lesson and tests you.

On the other hand, life tests you and thus you learn the lesson. During a long tenure of school time, we all as children who were creative geniuses in a way comes out as standard adult versions. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy my school period, considering there were a lot of great changes they made in me.

School provided me a demo version of society, where I could learn how to socialize and interact with people, the importance of teamwork, the happiness of sharing and caring, etc.
But in the creative aspect, I believe the school has failed me and my fellow beings. We rarely think creatively as adults, maybe because we are scared of societal judgments.
But we still have a chance to improve and apply our creative minds to apply in our daily lives.

Next, I have gone through my notepad where I have written inspired quotes and ideologies a few weeks back. The one I specifically remember is the importance of credos. Credos is a way of repeating to make one’s belief in himself stronger.

Why is this important? I feel, we encounter thousands of statements and news each day which has a high chance of influencing the way we see ourselves. If we keep this unattended, this can stifle out preception in the long term. That’s why its important to do credos.

The next way I had a few learnings was through Quora. This is one of my most favorite mediums to read. Why? Because you get a wide variety of outlook on the instances that are happening in our society. You understand what people think of a current scenario. Also, you get to learn from top entrepreneurs and their advice from their experiences, which I feel is extremely valuable. Honestly, I use quora mainly for this purpose.

Oh, I can tell you an answer I read today. This was written by Hector on the difference between how the normal people and businesspeople think differently. A normal person thinks debt as bad, but a businessman thinks debt a way to leverage money. A normal person tries to fit into society, but a businessperson tries to stand out. A normal person measures revenue by time/the number of hours worked, but a businessperson measures revenue by the value provided.

A normal person thinks failure as the end, but a businessperson thinks failure as an opportunity to learn. And it goes on to a few more points. You got the gist.

The next medium I used was Youtube. And I am a fan of the channel, Impact Theory. Tom is doing an amazing job hosting the program. It is a program where the host, Tom here, interviews highly successful people from a wide variety of fields to talk about their experiences particularly concerning business and mindset.

I watched an interview with John Assaraf today. And it was mindblowing. It was one of the episodes I like the most. John starts his story from his childhood, where he talked about his abusive father and the challenges he faced with his character problems. This all changed when he met his mentor, Allen Brown who helped in out to get in the proper life track.

I always wanted to find a mentor like this, who can guide me in the right way and provide me some advice in times of adversities. Allen started by reshaping John’s mindset and beliefs, then moved on to helping him with skillsets in the real estate business. The first task Allen gave John was to ask him to write down his goals.

When John showed this to Allen, the wonderful question this mentor asked was, are you interested in achieving your goals or committed? Sadly, John didn’t know the difference. Even I was not very sure before Allen explains it this way. If you are interested, you will take convenient actions on your goals, but if you are committed, you will do whatever it takes in achieving goals. And John like myself is a highly committed person.

I learned a lot from these interviews and I have taken down notes in my notebook.

The medium was Medium. This is similar to quora but more lengthy and explaining articles.
They have audio versions of certain articles as well. Today, just before having lunch, I listened to an audio article on the topic ‘ why bitcoin is no different than US dollars, sometimes even better’.

This was an intriguing title for me, as I have seen this title multiple times before while scrolling through the feed. It talked about what money is and how does it get its value, in essence, the value is human trust. Then it moved on saying that, nowadays the money is printed as and when required without much care which results in losing its value. The total currency in the market values at 10% of its actual value. This can be understood from the fact that we are now getting something for 1 dollar, which used to get at 12 cents in the 1980s.

The politicians and financial institutions are using multiple ways to find loopholes, which ultimately loses the stability of the currency. On the other hand, bitcoin works on the principle of blockchain technology which ensures much high protection. Besides, bitcoin stopped mining in 2014 and no more of them have been mined after that, which preserves its value and makes it more trustworthy than the traditional currency.

But there is an opposing argument stating that bitcoin is used in the dark web for illegal purchases, be it humans, drugs, or weapons. The counter-argument is that this is not specific to bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies, this is more about the innate nature of money and the people using them. Traditional currencies are being used for purchasing drugs, humans, and weapons. It goes with arguments and counter-arguments on this topic.
I started having massive support for cryptocurrencies, as these are kind of the same with traditional ones with more trustworthiness.

I generally use Spotify for music. I rarely listen to podcasts in Spotify. But I started this habit of listening to a daily soap opera called ‘ The Archers’ which is broadcasted by BBC radio. I started this to improve my communication skills as suggested by Lucy from Y.channel. This is a really interesting show with 15 mins of content daily except Saturdays.

I feel this can tremendously improve my pronunciation and communication skills. I like the British accent, cockney which is sexy to listen to.
I listened to the Impact Theory interview here to take notes.

It was dinner time. And I listened to the blinkist book ‘ Epic content marketing’ I don’t remember the author. This was an interesting audio to listen to as I learned some valuable insights on content marketing.

To make this more valuable, this aligns with the business I am working on currently. Besides, I got an awesome business idea to work on in the future, a content market company, which supports and provides services to brands and companies to acquire more customers.

Why is this critical, because the majority of the population access content online. So the best way to market something is online, especially if you know the market and the target audience. I target millennial customers, as I belong to this category. I know exactly what they need and what interests them.

They are 426 million in count in India, and they have the most purchasing power, and they spent and consume content online majorly. Do we need another reason to target this audience? All my businesses and ventures will be catering to this audience, the millennials and I am one among them. I know the vibe.

Finally, we have reached the end of this post. I have listed down my learnings and the corresponding sources I accessed today.
Happy learning time folks!

Challenges, Are They Good For Us?

Challenges have the power to shape us in a way we never imagined. But that doesn’t happen neither overnight nor automatically.

This is a real question that puts me in a dilemma several times.

I always thought challenges as blocks in my way of life until recently.
The whole picture changed when I was going through my diary 3 days back.
Do you know why this change? Let me explain it from my perspective.

When I was a young kid, I had to face some challenges that made me cry the heart out. I was in a position of massive dilemma as a kid, where I was incapable of saying certain things out loud because I didn’t know whether what happened to me was right or wrong.

But looking back at all the challenges, I am kind of grateful to them. These blocks helped to shape me the way I am today. I am not perfect and there is still a long way to go. But I am proud of myself overcoming those obstacles which I once felt were the dead end.

There is no doubt that you have encountered countless challenges in your life of varying magnitudes. It is time now to stop dwelling in the past and those challenges. Look yourself in the mirror and be happy for the person you have become. In a way, each challenge is a stepping stone to move to the next level of life, where you probably face bigger challenges. But it doesn’t matter to you as you already became a stronger version.

I always felt I had more life tools when I faced bigger challenges.
This thought makes me collect tools while I am navigating through my life.
I am sharing the tools, so that you too can use it in your journey.

Regret

This is one of the best tools if you know how to use it effectively.
This is one thing that pushes me to try harder when I face challenges much bigger than me. I don’t want to regret later of not trying harder, of not trying to explore the other side of a challenge.
If you are afraid of regret, then you will push yourselves past the obstacles in life. I would have never gotten here without this tool pinching me once in a while.

Vision

Our dreams and goals are shaped based on our experiences in life.
If you grew up in a poor family, then you know the value of money. This can shape your dreams and goals to become wealthy. If you had great travel vacation experiences as a kid, there is a high chance that your bucket list contains mostly travel destinations.
There is one other major factor that comes to shape your dreams and vision in a later part. That is knowledge. If you know something is worth pursuing and matters to you, this knowledge can make your goals align to match your unique vision of life.
If you read and watch movies, some scenes strike you and becomes a part of your dreams.
Always expand your knowledge horizon, this expands your dreams and ultimately your vision.

I hope you become a stronger human being who achieves whatever you strive for!

#1 Practical Way To Get Your Life On Track