Risk & Responsibility: The 2 ideas to unlock your fullest potential.

The problem with doing the right things is that, it’s risky. Sometimes, it’s just sheer responsibility. Problem with risk and responsibility is that nobody likes them. It’s human nature to be risk averse. And responsibility is just not sexy. You can live a very comfortable life, with most of its necessities, without taking much risk and responsibility. Human progress and the structural stability of our current society has enabled us to goof off all day, keep a menial job and still have a home, a spouse, children, friends and of course, food, clothes and medicine. You can easily numb any feeling of boredom or meaninglessness with drugs, alcohol, TV and smartphones. So why take risks and responsibility?

When you go out of your way to do something properly, it’s a risk. When you go out of your way to do something different, or put a little extra effort or stand up for something you believe in, it’s a risk. Maybe your efforts are a waste. Nobody may show up to your comedy gig. No one may ever buy your book. The people responsible for your promotion might not notice your efforts. The new voice modulation technique you learned might make people laugh at you if you implement it. At least in a conforming life, you get expected results. Your business may fail, but your menial job will deposit a certain amount every month. The new career switch you planned could turn out disastrously wrong. All the trouble for nothing. Whereas, your smoking habit at least gives you pleasure right now, and you might even get lucky and not get cancer!

But, there’s a caveat. Proper, calculated risks, increase the probability of a more desired outcome. Yes, there’s some uncertainty. But, even a casino loses 40% of the times. It’s the 60% probability of success, that makes money for a casino (and that’s why it’s bad to gamble for the individual gambler, as he’ll lose 60% of the times). Thus, each risk you take, starts an invisible slot machine, which randomly rewards you. Calculated risks, make you lose less than you gain. Thus, overtime, the profits accrue. The compounding of your day-to-day rewards, take your life to a better place than it was tomorrow.

What about responsibility? Why tell the truth when lies get you better results at the moment? Why do nice things for people if there’s nothing to get from it? Isn’t it just smarter to lie, cheat, steal at every opportunity you get? Why not vent all my anger on someone innocent if I feel like it? Why care about the proper education of the future generations? You know for a fact that people prosper even without taking much responsibility. There are examples of unearned success everywhere. There are corrupt rich people everywhere. It’s even the easier route to take. Why bother doing something different?

A cancer cell is prosperous, but it’s not good. Good triumphs prosperity, even in your individual experience. Prosperous people soon realize, what really matters is a sense of fulfillment. Meaning is non-negotiable. We are after all some microorganisms waiting for death on a small planet. Our certain death, our lack of perfection and all our vulnerability is what makes life challenging. And facing up to this challenge using all your abilities, gives it meaning. The meaning is in the fight. The rules of the fight matter. Taking shortcuts wins you some individual battles, but you lose the fight. Simultaneously, you make yourself shallow. Instead of being useful to others, you start becoming harmful. And when enough people adopt this way, the world faces the horrors alike the ones in the 20th century. On the other hand, you’ll be amazed if you think how much of a better place the world would be, if everyone took their fair share of responsibilities. That reality will never come until you are one of the good guys. An irresponsible person lives burdened by the knowledge that the world would have been a better place if he did not exist. Can any of the things you achieve in life be an antidote to that?

My Daily Schedule during the Lockdown

Hope all of you and your loved ones are safe during this pandemic. I admit that lockdowns are very boring, yet they are an opportunity to learn and do things that you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have enough time for.

(Follow me on YouTube- RaihanRiad)

My schedule during this lockdown can be divided into three different parts:
i. Morning rituals
ii. Work
iii. Rest
Here is my schedule:

……………..Morning Rituals………………

1. Meditation: I meditate for 15 minutes the first thing in the morning. This prepares my mind to be disciplined for the rest of the day. I know this because whenever I miss my morning meditation I struggle with my will power.
Currently I am using this guided meditation video from Eckhart Tolle as my meditation aid.

2. Listen to an Audiobook: The next thing I do is to connect my earbuds to my phone and start an audiobook. The two next items in my schedule (i.e cleaning room and working out) can be done while I am listening to an audiobook so I take this opportunity to learn about something new.

Currently I am listening to Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. It’s an amazing book that goes deep into all the cutting edge research on sleep. I highly recommend it.

3. Cleaning Room: A clean and well decorated room makes me feel good and aids in my determination to have a great, productive day. So, I take 10 minutes to make my bed, wipe some furnitures and sort scattered items.

4. Workout: While still listening to the audiobook, I get into my workout clothes and open my workout app. I am a huge fan of this app called-“Home Workout “. (They are providing free access to all premium features due to the pandemic, so definitely check it out). Each workout session takes 20 to 30 minutes.

5. Put my phone away: After completing my workout session, I stop the audiobook, disconnect my earbuds and put my phone away in a drawer. I don’t touch it untill my deep work session of the morning (which I will talk about below) is done. This aids in my deep work and keeps me from procrastinating.

5. Take a shower: Elon Musk did an AMA(ask me anything) on Reddit. Someone asked him to share what habits has the largest positive impact on his life. He answered: showering.
I live in a humid country and daily shower definitely helps me feel good for the rest of the day.

6. Wim Hof: I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Wim Hof method. It’s a breathing exercise that has been researched extensively in the recent years . What researchers have found is, it strengthens your immune system through making your blood slightly more alkaline. I highly recommend you try it out! Here’s the link to the official YouTube channel:
Wim Hof method helps me to feel calm and focused. Have you ever kept yourself from breathing for a while when feeling sleepy? It makes you more alert right? That’s how I feel after going through each session of the Wim Hof mehod.

………………………..Work…………………………

7. Deep work: Ok now we’re onto my favorite session of the day. This is what I look forward to everyday. But let’s talk about what deep work is first:
Cal Newport, a brilliant professor and bestselling author of many books, published ‘Deep Work‘ in 2016. Here he talks about the brilliant skill of working distraction free on a cognitively demanding task.

Deep work enables you to learn complex topics and perform your best work. Barbara Oakley, the brilliant professor behind ‘Learning how to learn’, talks about how distractions hampers your ability to learn. She, being a big advocate of chunking, encourages students to minimize distractions while studying.
After three sessions of the Wim Hof method, I sit down to study. I study for 4 pomodoro sessions, each being 50 minutes long. Currently I am studying ‘Tensorflow’ which is a machine learning library. The course I am taking is called: “Introduction to Tensorflow for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning “. (If you are interested in taking this course, I recommend you read the Keras documentation first).

8. Nap and Lunch: As I’ve learned from listening to ‘Why We Sleep’ by Matthew Walker, napping is a good habit to get into. It reinforces what I learned in my study session and refreshes my mind and body for the rest of the day. I take my lunch after waking up from my 20 minutes long nap. This is the first meal of the day for me, my latest being only 8 hours later, which makes me fast for 16 hours everyday. This is called intermittent fasting and it has been linked to many helath and cognitive benefits in numerous research .

9. Some More Work: After lunch, I work for 6 more hours. This is when I write in my blog, or make a YouTube video. If I am feeling particularly lazy that day (which sadly is most days), I work on finishing one of the courses that I’ve enrolled in Coursera. Currently, I’m doing ‘The Science of Success’ by University of Michigan. This is a great resource if you want to learn about how successful people are different form others and how to incorporate those traits in you.

………………………Rest……………………..

10. Entertainment:

Mob Psycho 100

After I am done working for the day, I pick up my phone and watch an anime or watch something on YouTube.
Currently I am re-watching Mob Psycho 100 and my absolute favourite YouTuber to watch is B-rad.

11. Sleep: I try to get 8 hours of sleep every night.

So there you go. That’s the routine I strive to live up to everyday even though it’s a struggle to maintain it perfectly, specially because my sleep cycle is all over the place at this moment.

I’d really like to know how your schedule looks like during this lockdown. Please share in the comments below.

Simple ideas to boost productivity

Productivity seems to be a function of these ingredients- focus, environment, energy and clarity.

If you want to be more productive, improve upon these aspects of your life.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Focus– be interested in what you do. It’s hard to do a good job when you are bored. You may also want to try meditation to improve your general level of focus and attention.

Environment– Have separate places for different tasks. Don’t make your bedroom the only workstation you have. Eliminate distractions.

Energy– Run often. Stay hydrated. Get enough sleep everyday.

Clarity– Keep a to do list. Prioritize the tasks on that list and set aside specific time and space for each of them.

(There’s a lot more ways to improve you productivity. If you want to know about some more, check this out- My Top 10 Tips for a Productive Day)

Repetition is key.

Let’s say you a have a big gut.

But you want a six pack. So, you go online and look for an exercise that will help you.

There, you find that you will need to lower your overall body fat for the abs to show. You are intimidated by the prospect of going on a diet.

You tell this to one of you friends. He tries to cheer you on. He promises to join the gym with you.

You are sick and tired of having a big gut so you decide to start your journey towards having abs.

You join a gym and work your abs until they are sore. Your friend on the other hand doesn’t over work his abs like you do.

The next day you are surprised to see that your abs are still sore and you can’t work them anymore. Your gym coach tells you to give them a week of rest. That week, your friend went to the gym without you. After some rest, your abs start working again. The next day, you join your friend in the gym.

You ask your friend if he had similar troubles. He tells you that he didn’t. Rather he kept working his muscles throughout the week when you were absent. He also tells you that he can now do more reps than he could a week before.

You are tempted to over work your muscles again. But you’ve learnt your lesson.

You start giving some love to all your muscle groups- biceps, neck and shoulder, pecks, legs etc. You don’t over work a muscle anymore. You are more concerned with putting in more reps. You now realize that, you won’t see results after one day of hardcore training. Rather you will see results after you’ve put in regular work, day after day after day.

Here’s what James Clear has to say about it,

Everyone wants to make progress. And there is only one way to do it: put in your reps.

He does a great job at explaining this idea. He cites multiple studies that prove this effect. I highly recommend you read his post. You can find it here- https://jamesclear.com/repetitions

Hard work is overrated, do this instead

Extraordinary achievement is less about talent and more about special opportunity – Malcolm Gladwell.

21^st century civilization has stopped believing in the racist notions of ‘Good genes’ and ‘bad genes’. It used to be a very popular belief not so long ago. White people thought they were better than black people, Nazis deemed themselves better than the Jews and India was divided into ‘The Brahmans’ and ‘The Kshatriyas’, ‘The Vaishyas’ and ‘The Shudras’.

Now, when we see someone prosper, we take a different approach to justify it. We tend to assume that, the successful people are more hardworking. We think maybe they have made sacrifices that we failed to make.

This idea is way better than the former racist and culturist notions of ‘purity’. It has given us a solid blueprint of what it takes to be a better individual than the absurd notions of the past.

However, this modern way of thinking omits one of the biggest contributors to success- Luck.

This is Malcolm Gladwell. He has written several best sellers. In 2008, he published a book called Outliers.

(For those of you who don’t know what an outlier is: it’s the values that are very distant from the averages.)

Bill Gates is an outlier, The Beatles were an outlier, Lionel Messi is an outlier.

Outliers tend to outperform the masses by unfathomable margins. We the common people, can only dream about such results.

Malcolm digs deep into the lives of these types of people and finds out an uncomfortable truth. Luck plays an undeniable factor in their success.

Take Bill Gates for example. His school was very expensive and only wealthy parents could afford to get their children there. A mother’s club in the school, which had enormous funding set up a facility for computer programming, in the early 80’s, that most Universities didn’t have. This portal was extremely costly to access. But Gates having a rich mom, had no problem accessing it. When this facility was shut off, gates hung around University of Washington to practice coding as his house was at a walking distant from the U o W.

How many of us can expect to get such a head start? Malcolm’s book, which I urge you to read, is full of examples like this.

So, stop over idolizing the outliers and start looking for opportunities. What matters most in life is being in the right place in the right moment.

You don’t have to wait for luck to bring you the perfect opportunity. Go out there and look for opportunities. There are a lot of them hiding in plain sight.

(For starters, students can try: youthop.com

I’m sure there are many other online and offline resources out there to find you opportunities. Reach out to the local clubs, go to the toastmaster’s meetings, meet the Olympiad committees or just search for opportunities in your field in google. Even Facebook can help you find the right communities.)

( The title is there to catch eyeballs. I don’t mean to say hard work isn’t an essential factor for success. But it’s far from being the only one.)

Outliers is an outstanding book.

Malcolm Gladwell has a unique way of writing.

He starts all his chapters with one story, only to be interrupted by another one. Half way through the second story you realize that the 2^nd one is actually there to help you understand the first one. It’s a fun journey to go through.

His stories always have themes and counter-themes, and the whole book is there to subvert your expectations and change your mind about how success really works.

But having said that, its not a storybook at all! It’s a non-fiction about how success is not an individual achievement.

Success comes from luck factors, lineage, demographic advantage and even from the month you were born!

No he does not suggest that astrology is at play. Rather he shows how athletes can get advantage from their birth-date because they were born a few months earlier from there peers in the same age class.

He talks about how airlines have solved their ‘culture’ problem, how Bill Joy and Bill Gates got to the top and why KIPP works.

He even talks about how his mother came from Jamaica to lead a successful life in Canada.

This book is sometimes enthralling and enticing. Other times it can get tragic and even terrifying!

But one thing is for sure, this book will change your attitude towards success forever.

It will help you develop gratitude, get rid of envy and create a better platform for you and your family.

This is a book that you definitely want to read.

The only Ted Talk you’ll ever need to be successful in life

Warren Buffet once famously urged a class full of graduate students to read 500 pages a day. He himself claims that 80% of his day consists of reading. The investing guru was caught saying that knowledge is just like compound interest, it grows exponentially the more you add to it.

I’ve read my fair share of self-improvement literature. There are some who hate the idea of reading too much. They call it ‘motivation porn’. Some call it ‘analysis paralysis’. I myself stand on the idea that if you act upon what you’re learning, while constantly updating your knowledge bank through fresh reading, it’s advisable to read a lot. Everyday. As much as you can.

Whatever problem/ challenge you’re facing right now, someone may have already solved it and put his experience in a book. All you have to do is to read.

There are people that have dedicated their whole life learning and teaching, you can get inside their brains and explore their minds through reading.

Having said all of that, I do recognize that some of you are in a time crunch. Then there are people who are tired of searching for answers. If so, don’t worry. This post is for you.

This is Conor Neill. Conor has been teaching Leadership Communications courses at IESE for over 16 years on MBA, Executive MBA and Senior Executive Programs. On June 10, 2013, the TEDx Talks uploaded his speech on YouTube. The video has been by almost 2 million people by now. He starts his video like this:

If you had €1000 and you could invest that money in someone’s future, who would you bet on?

He goes on to illustrate how Warren Buffet would make this decision. Apparently, the billionaire investor will consider 3 criteria. In the rest of the video, Conor goes on to talk about these criteria.

Here’s the talk-

Most Ted speaker would stop there. But, not Conor. He went on that stage not to sell something but to genuinely help people. So, he talks about tools to harness these qualities into your psyche.

The Tools He Talks About

I won’t tell you what the criteria are. I want you to watch the video and find out for yourself. Trust me, it’s worth the 23 minutes it will take you to watch it.

But I’ll talk about the tools he suggests that you use.

First, he talks about writing your thoughts. It’s similar to the morning pages that Julia Cameron suggests in her best selling book ‘The Artists Way’.

He is not the first psychologist whom I have heard being an ardent supportedr of these morning pages. Bill Williams, the famous psychologist turned stock trader is another person who pushes morning pages as a crucial factor for success.

Then Conor talks about, the power of little steps. I wrote intensively about this idea here.

Next conor speaks of Delaying gratification. The best way to do this is not an amazing display of willpower. Rather what you need to do is to remove the object of your desire from your sight. In short-

When you want something done- make it visible. i.e. If you want to run, keep your running shoes near the door.

What you want to avoid- make it invisible/ impossible. i.e. If you want to avoid social media- uninstall apps

This is as far as I will go talking about this talk. Now go watch it for yourself. You can thank me later 😉

Jordan Peterson changed me with this ONE advice

How to be a superstar in 5(or more) years

Elon Musk, Mr Beast, Bill Gates, Lionel Messi what do all of them have in common? Keep on reading to find the answer.

I think I have one formula for superstardom. Definitely there are other ones too. Like- be born in a rich family who can sponsor you (*cough* Kylie Jenner *cough*) or have a famous father etc.

But my formula is for the noobs of the world, for people who have nothing (but want everything). To understand the formula you have to listen to me rant for a minute… got the time? Good. Here it goes:

1. The Almighty Macro:

What is macro? Macro is whatever’s bigger than you (Your industry or platform). If you are an YouTuber, then macro is YouTube. If you are an actor, then macro is the film industry. If you are a student, then macro is your school, or the degree you are after.. you get the idea, right?

By the way, you are the micro.

When the macro is booming, the micros in it also boom. If the stock market is doing well (its called the market index), then individual stocks do well too. When the internet started booming; Google, Facebook became billion dollar companies.

You know why gaming channels did so well on YouTube? Because, the YouTube algorithm loves them. Why? Because gamers post long videos and they post often. Think of a channel like ‘Film Theory’- their videos are hard to make! Those need a lot of effort. So, MatPat can’t post everyday! But gamers can, and YouTube algorithm loves that.

Thus, the macro supported gamers, and they boomed. PewDiePie and other gaming channels rode this wave, and became so big. (PewDiePie had some other advantages too, check out this video by MatPat How PewDiePie conquered YouTube )

 

2. The SnowBall effect:

Mozart Started composing before his teenage years,
Elon Musk started programming at the age of 11,
Warren Buffet also bought his first stock when he was 11!

Almost all of world’s greats had a headstart like this. Messi, Bill Gates, Thomas Alva Edison.. you name it.

Mr Beast Started his channel on 2012. But only started getting serious views from 2017.

What does all this tell you? Nobody becomes famous overnight. It takes time and patience a lot. You have to lay the groundwork for year after year.

We only see people’s successes, but if you dig deeper, you will see toil, sacrifices, heartbreaks and patience.. a lot, lot of them. It is rare that somebody is an overnight success.

 

The Formula: Get in early

So, to be a superstar, you have to find a macro that is going to boom (like the internet did), or favor your style of doing things (like YouTube did to gamers). Then, before the boom even starts, you have to get into the industry and start putting in regular work.

According to Elon Musk (in his JRE podcast), these are what’s gonna boom in the future: Bioengineering and Artificial intelligence. Other promising industries are renewable energy, space travel, nanotechnology, data science etc.

Find out an industry that you love, but also hasn’t matured yet (like smartphone industry). Then start putting in work. A lot of work. When the boom comes, you will be ready to ride the wave and be a superstar!

I am jealous of my future self

I was just thinking about how much options and resources I’ll have a year from now… And it makes me jealous.

A promise

Last birthday I promised something to myself. I’d do what’s meaningful. I’d stop chasing expedient pleasures. I finally manned up enough to consider sacrificing present consumptions for future gains.

It’s been more than 4 months since then and I’ve had some successes.

I’ve got a good morning routine. I do high intensity interval trainings (cardio) daily. I have quit smoking and sugar and do eat healthy. I started studying regularly and recently started learning Python.

Last week I won a scholarship and it ensured opportunity for paid internship after graduation.

I’ve been saving frugally and have saved more than I’ve ever saved before.

The anticipated result

Right now, I am a nobody. I have so little career opportunity that it baffles me. But, my future self is drowned in choices. He has a paid internship waiting for him. He will have a lot of my hard earned money to invest from. He will own a blog with hundreds of posts. He’ll be skilled at Python and security analysis. He’ll also be really healthy and energetic.

I’m jealous of him for that. But I know for sure that, he’s super proud of me 🙂

How you can use this

I am a big fan of Dr. Jordan Peterson. It was his book, that made this shift in me. He has this suggestion that, we should really think about our ideal future self and worst future self. Then use the ideal one as a pull forward. While the worst one is gonna push you from behind. This is your heaven and hell. And they are great motivators.

Interested in finding your own ideal self after one year? Here’s how to –

Think of your ideal day. List the important activities that may really compound into huge gains later. For example: strength training, eating healthy, extra-curriculars, meditation, learning a new language, learning a new skill, blogging, saving money etc. Then think of the gains you’ll have after 365 days of continuous effort.

Use your worst/laziest day to get an idea of worse future.

Hope this post helps you gain clarity and motivation. See you in the next post 🙂