States of mind/Conditions of life

As a corollary to the previous blog where I ranted mostly about motivation and inspiration, I kinda made some comparisons today. Life comparisons.

Why is it that the people who have most of the things - a vehicle, a decent house to live in, a workspace, still complain about not having something else to work with or something else to lead an even more comfortable life; while the people who don't have the basic shit required for life slog their ass and make something out of their existence?

I strongly believe human potency is equally distributed among the entire mankind. It's mostly on how every person put their effort into becoming what they want to. It's another thing that most people really don't know what they want out of life or what they can give back to life. Of course I'm included in the most. I'm not that special too,  you know.

While potency is probably distributed the same, why do people with amenities lax? Should it not be a bigger moral responsibility to make better of the resources at disposal and contribute toward a better society? Similarly, what drives the people who are deprived of most of the necessities. I get the part where there could be negativity on both ends of the spectrum. It's after all the balance the world needs to coexist. Gosh, did I just open up a Pandora's box with that?

But seriously, considering the amount of people who have had nothing and go on and achieve it - why does it sound so inspiring? Because that's what we want to listen to? The mind after all perceives what it wants to. So we constantly assume that if someone is not well to do, then there is nothing that can happen of them? I think just the thought made me puke inside. It's pretty sick to have such thoughts, no? Is that why the people who have a decent life also perhaps achieve, but goes unnoticed because it's less inspiring? Is inspiration only a thing associated with life conditions? If I get back to how potency is distributed equally among humans, obviously there are equal number of achievers regardless of their life conditions. Is it all recognised? Do we frown upon people just for the sake of some preconceived notions and later uphold their state of mind after they become big? Do we entirely disregard people who are well to do with any achievement saying they had it easy?

Shit. This is even more confusing than what I began with.

Motivation? Seriously?

There are just a flurry of articles that came in to my mind when I just wrote the title. I guess I’ll pick the quote that I read long ago. “Motivation is like your daily shower. We recommend it daily.”

Okay, probably I don’t agree much with the shower part of it. Although I guess I shower everyday. But yeah, the motivation part of it is something that has to seriously be replenished now and then. Even the simple thing about blogging. It took me this long from January for the second blog of the year. Rather than blaming it on lack of drive, I’d choose, more elegantly, that I really didn’t have anything to write about. Which is kinda false in itself. Especially since there have been blogs where I’ve just written aimlessly only to look at it months later and drive myself to do better.

But even that simple thing of not having a topic to write about is a little too far fetched. I mean, life itself is going about with a lot of varied situations, scenarios and phases that its a little too upsetting to say there isn’t anything to write about. Its basically getting better with each passing blog, right? But again, not necessarily. We all have those moments of just not wanting to do anything for some time. That “some” time is relative. Its like gigging. Your stage presence gets better with the next gig. Its like working out. Deadlifts today will help bench press tomorrow. Its like.. you get it, right?

So, as a quick update to the publicly declarable life changing moments, Saregamapa on Zee Kannada got over in February. It was a reality show where I was a part of a choir. And importantly, got on stage with many wonderful musicians, sang alongside the Sunshine Orchestra. A collaboration that I wanted to (and still want to) materialise with BlendzZ. The down side of the reality show was a lot of man hours that would go in waiting for rehearsals. And 3 days of rehearsals before the shoot. Being in a choir is hard. You’ve just got to keep waiting for your turn. Its worse when they are shooting for 15 songs, you’ve just one song with the choir and that’s scheduled towards midnight. On the other hand, its difficult to keep track of all the choir parts when there are 10 songs (lyrics included). Plus the OCD of not having a lyric reference - a trait I proudly passed on to the rest of them too. 

This TV show (and my long hair) got me a few opportunities for gigs, each of which was a learning curve. Then there was April when my Guru was travelling to the US and asked me if I could handle his academies in his absence. It was quite a daunting task and pretty big shoes to fill in. But no one complained and I’m still doing classes once a week at his academy now that he’s back. Guess I did okay.

But why motivation in the middle of all this? Its been eating me that motivation is a big thing of the lives we have today. Post Covid, we have all become weak, distant, dissociated, and been in a state of decrepitude. Not to mention the general lethargy of not wanting to sit for long hours even for something we like doing. So with attention span going for a toss, our social lives are all screwed beyond hope. Its not something thats irreversible, but the whole process of reversing it is indeed a pain. For some, its the unexplainable irritation of working from home. For some its the stuck money flow. For some, its the lack of work more so because it involves performing arts. It all boiled down to the state of mind, the temporary phase of what the mind dictates. Just recently it seems like schools and workspaces opened up. There is an extreme aggression with traffic on road. What was a peaceful ride for 2 km from the gym at 9 in the morning is turning out to be an adventure. What’s to complain!

This conditions that we were in maybe took our states of mind to such levels that we depended on social media to get out of it. And people started motivations talks, making careers out of it with instantly gratifying social media. What was once an activity to kill time slowly morphed into a business model. No one is complaining. Everyone benefits from what they choose. But what about the independent self sustainable model of a person? When will they realise that what you want can’t be found outside of yourself? True, maybe these speakers and influencers probably propel you into thinking that, I’m not sure. I’m not dissing them. But we treat getting motivated and influenced as a big elephant that’s found in some jungle lands. Its not. You can get inspired from a construction labourer who’s making ends meet for his family, you can get inspired from your daily house help who comes at the same time everyday without fail, you can get inspired from your mother, from an upcoming content creator, from your gym coach. From basically anything that’s around you. The problem is not the source of getting motivated. The problem is we lack vision. The short-sightedness. If everything is measured with how instantly we get results, the approach is questionable. Its a sad story that social media is pushing us to be less of humans. You upload a video and immediately the thing we want is likes and views. Its the thing now. While for some things one has to ride the wave, while riding the wave you should not forget that as humans you can’t live in water or underwater forever. Naturally. We have been made to make this place better. Not to indulge in mindless hate, competition and classify people based on whatever reasons we believe in. 

So look around. There’s a lot that you’ve not seen. Train your mind to see things around you. Like really see. Motivate yourself. The least we can try is to create an impression that inspires people to carry on in their own chosen areas of interest once we are gone after serving our purpose. 

Stay kind. Stay safe!

Twenty Twenty Two

Yeah, it was hard to not get carried away with the meme that lasted exactly for a week since 2022 started. That everyone was wishing that this year wouldn't be twenty twenty too was a little in your face when January suddenly the omicron variant started peaking. I did contribute in number to the increasing cases again, but thankfully it was all under control and subsided (at least for me).

New Year, new hopes, new resolutions, although cliched, that's how it is. I usually get into a bout of setting aims and goals around this time and the only other time I do it is during my birthday. But off late, I've been setting more of these on a probably alternate day basis. That way you aren't left in the lurch when the year ends and you discover all you've done is pass time. 

Last year was a moderately mediocre year for most part of it with not so regular workouts, not so regular video uploads, with a few hospital visits, the damned lockdown confusion, a few deaths in the family, probably just a single trip, some anxious moments, some happy moments, some high moments - well, come to think of it, it was probably a good year. Could've been better with trips and having less anxious moments, but these are the things that make life, isn't it?

Anyways, the end of the year saw a new workstation, and a new ride to welcome the new year with less cribbing and more of "shut it and work" kinda thing. I would blame January on covid, and most definitely defend myself with "that's why I didn't work much". But its the 30th already and I can't stop but lament that its already been a month and nothing has happened yet. Maybe with the new year, the new hope and the new resolution will take me at least a step closer than where I was yesterday. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!