Sunday, December 30, 2012

Summary 2012


2012 has been quite an eventful year.

  • Started my first post-PhD job
  • Lost the very same job due to funding reasons (aaah!)
  • Got listed at the Miss Minimalist’s Blog
  • Started a new job at a national research lab
  • Started living all by myself (as a result of the two body problem) – for the first time in my life
  • Cultivated running habit and ran my first 5K race (in 35 minutes!) 
  • Learned and Started knitting and finished two projects: lap blanket 1, and lap blanket 2
  • Actively started using Julie Morgenstern’s Balanced Life Planner
  • De-cluttered a lot

    My wish list for 2013:
  • Make yoga and running as everyday habits
  • Publish A LOT of research papers
  • Take writing, management, teaching courses
  • Keep knitting
  • Make some hand-made products
  • Become super organized
  • Become more minimalistic
  • Thursday, July 12, 2012

    from Downsizing to Tuning in


    I still have something you gave me...
    For it can neither be tossed, nor be given away
    It remains with me no matter where I stay
    It makes the ordinary-me feel beautiful from inside
    It helps the pauper-me face the material world with pride
    It creates the make-believe of 
    this platonic connection with you
    It keeps me alive with the thought 
    that once-upon-a-time I deserved you.
    I still have something you gave me...
    The best part is that it keeps my soul fiercely pure
    So I decide to keep it until I am no more

    Thursday, March 15, 2012

    On Giving Treasurable Gifts

    The fragrance always remains on the hand that gives the rose. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
    Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within. ~ Franz Kafka

    Gift giving is a social norm. On Christmas alone, an average American receives 10-15 gifts every year. Being a minimalist, coming up with gift ideas is even harder. To me, gifting is like making more deposits into the clutter account of the recipient.  Besides considering recipients’ interests, I often think about the treasurability of the gift by asking questions like:  Would they like to keep it forever? Would they forget about it once it is out of sight? Or would they start thinking of re-gifting it? In other words, I am very careful of what I give to others, and I keep accumulating ideas for giving some truly treasurable gifts. Here are my most preferred (mostly tried and tested) ideas:

    Hand-crafted Items: If you are a creative person, write poetry or a hand-written note, sketch or paint something. If you are good at crafts, make an item they can use, or a greeting card with cutouts, pictures, or photo prints. If you are a techie, create a video (of yourself and/or friends), or a Flash movie. If you like to be in the kitchen, cook something of recipient’s choice. Or even better, imitate recipient’s talents and interests, like attempting to write a poem for a poet, or be even more creative by intermixing your interests with their talents. 

    Off-the-shelf Items: Gift a magazine subscription, or an e-book for Kindle or NOOK users. Create a photo calendar for them, or simply buy a gift card. It is the lazy way out but works all the time.

    Intangible Items: Give the gift of time; volunteer, offer help in moving, baby-sitting, cleaning, pick-up and drop service, etc. Dedicate your important works to people.

    Wednesday, January 18, 2012

    The Motivated Mind


    I just finished reading the book – the Motivated Mind by J. M. Gracia. This book describes the six pillars that create a motivated mind: (1) understand. (2) desire, (3) belief, (4) plan, (5) action, and (6) maintain. I was mostly drawn toward desire, plan, and action.

    The best thing this book has done to me is to bring some clarity and order to my desires and dreams. The author helps in discovering one’s desires through exploration and answering some key questions. Broadly, the reader is asked to prepare 6 lists of (short and long term) desires: Things I want to possess (OWN), Things I want to experience (DOING), and Things I want to be (BEING). My owning list had very few items, precisely, 3. Thanks to the minimalism religion I follow. The other lists had several items: 13 (short term doing) 18 (long term doing), 6 (short term being), 19 (long term being). This acted like a quick and mini soul searching experience. Another aspect of the book that I liked was the description about the key elements of a good strategy. A good strategy is segmented, specific scheduled, measurable, tracked, and recorded.  I intend to test these elements with the discovered desires.

    Here are some excerpts worth reflection.  

    “I do believe that he had a desire to leave his job. The only problem was, he didn’t want it enough.”

    “Its really a crazy situation when you think about it. People put so much time and energy into choosing what clothes they want to wear, car they buy, restaurants they eat at, and even which candy bar they want most. They will spend hours, days, and even months giving thought to what color they want to paint their bedroom walls or whom to invite to their wedding, but when it comes to planning out a happy and successful future, the thinking stops. People are too busy being unhappy to think what they want.”

    “There is always a reason behind not doing something, …, you learned that negative motivation stems from the fear of giving up the pleasure of inaction and incurring the pain of action. These fears are pushed under the carpets of stories and excuse. No one wants to admit they’are afraid, but everyone wants to give you a good story.”

    “If you want different, you have to do different.”

    “The real power is not what happens to you but how you respond to the situation.”

    “Creating a strategy will do many things, but one thing it will not do is to replace authentic desire.”

    “Studies have shown that you will forget approximately 80% of what you learn within one or two days. It is imperative to record every element of your strategy.”

    “The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after.” Newton D. Baker

    “Every person worth admiring follows a philosophy of constant learning.”


    Although this book was somewhat overwhelming, overall, I enjoyed reading it and learning from it. I recommend it to anyone looking for some less chaos in thoughts and an upsurge in motivation.