Sophymania

A hollowness that grows with time inside all of us

2026-10-06T12:02:37.039-07:00

The bitter feelings that arise from unfulfilled dream results in hollowness which keep growing with passage of time and eventually engulf the whole. For some maybe it's a unfullfilled love or an aspiration and for others may be its separation from a loved one.

For many it is the love unfullfilled - not being able to know about that person's existence - just settling the heart with the belief that they will be okay but having no way to know it.

When some people leave, a part of you dies with them. Their absence changes you and you have to accept the things as they are now. This is life, you only live once but you die again and again when loved ones separate from you until there is nothing left of you to die.

You may not be living the life that you wanted but maybe you are living a life meticulously planned by God. At these times, even a non believer atheist finds difficult to stay firm in one's beliefs and hopes that may be life as planned by God is the best for him/her.

Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy

2023-12-05T02:50:00.000-08:00

Mark Twain once said that :

" If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that this is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long."

There will be no limit to what you can accomplish when you learn how to Eat That Frog!

The first rule of frog eating is this:

"If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. "

The second rule of frog-eating :

"If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long."

Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to do something else.

Note : - The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.

Important task completion triggers the release of endorphins in your brain. These endorphins give you a natural “high.” The endorphin rush that follows successful completion of any task makes you feel more positive, personable, creative and confident.

Formula for setting and achieving goals

Step One: Decide exactly what you want.

Step Two: Write it down.

Step Three: Set a deadline on your goal. Set sub-deadlines if necessary.

Step Four: Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal.

Step Five: Organize the list into a plan.

Step Six: Take action on your plan immediately.

Step Seven: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. Track your progress.

Remember there are no shortcuts to Success. Your success in life and work will be determined by the kinds of habits that you develop over time. The habit of setting priorities, starting and finishing important jobs, overcoming procrastination and getting on with your most important task is a mental and physical skill. Always work from a list. When something new comes up, add it to the list before you do it. You can increase your productivity and output by 25% or more, by about two hours, from the first day that you begin working consistently from a list.

The Three Ds of New Habit Formation

Decision, discipline, and determination.

First, make a decision to develop the habit of task completion.

Second, discipline yourself to practice the principles you are about to learn over and over until they become automatic.

And third, back everything you do with determination until the habit is locked in and becomes a permanent part of your personality.

Visualize yourself as the person you intend to be in the future.

Your self-image, the way you see yourself on the inside, largely determines your performance on the outside. All improvements in your outer life begin with improvements on the inside, in your mental pictures.

"There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to achieve it."

~Na p o l e o n h i l l

Plan Every Day In Advance

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now.” ~ Alan Lakein

Every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution. It only takes about ten to twelve minutes for you to plan out your day, but this small investment of time will save you at least two hours (100-120 minutes) in wasted time and diffused effort throughout the day.

To get the highest possible return on your investment of mental, emotional and physical energy, One may adopt a 6Ps formula given below:

6Ps formula : “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.”

The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and complete the task before you. A major reason for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness or confusion about what it is you are trying to do, and in what order and for what reason. You must avoid this common condition with all your strength by striving for ever greater clarity in your major goals and tasks. Here is a great rule for success: "Think on paper."

Taking action without thinking things through is a prime source of problems. As Alex Mackenzie wrote, "Action without planning is the cause of every failure." One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.

“Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building.” ~ Stephen Covey

An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done. For you to achieve any kind of success, execution is everything.

Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.

1. You may learn a certain number of new words in a foreign language.

Whatever it is, you must never miss a day. Begin today to plan every day, week, and month in advance. Take a notepad or sheet of paper (or use your phone) and make a list of everything you have to do in the next twenty-four hours. Add to your list as new items come up. Make a list of all your projects, and the big multitask jobs that are important to your future.

2. Resolve today that you are going to spend more and more of your time working in those few areas that can really make a difference in your life and career and less and less time on lower-value activities.

3. Your attitude toward time, your “time horizon,” has an enormous impact on your behavior and your choices.

4. Practice “zero-based thinking” in every part of your life. Ask yourself continually, “If I were not doing this already, knowing what I now know, would I start doing it again today?” If it is something you would not start again today, knowing what you now know, it is a prime candidate for abandonment or creative procrastination.

5. Examine each of your personal and work activities and evaluate it based on your current situation. Select at least one activity to abandon immediately or at least deliberately put off until your more important goals have been achieved.

"The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something."

The Art of Enduring Pain

2020-08-13T13:23:00.008-07:00

It’s easy to work when we feel like doing something but our success in life is determined by the days when we don’t feel like doing anything. We all possess unique talents but many of us lack the discipline to nurture and groom it. Everyday we have to make a choice between the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. What we choose defines our life. Accepting pain and delaying the instant pleasure is the most difficult task in life but if practiced it leads to success, long-term satisfaction and happiness. But we all want to avoid pain in our lives therefore, we often indulge in instant pleasures which eventually leads to pain, the very thing we wanted to avoid. To be successful in life, we must learn to endure the pain needed to change our life. For enduring pain, we need vision, perseverance and a change of interpretation of situation.

Having a clear vision of what you want and how it will influence your life gives you the needed strength and motivation to act but without determination and perseverance it will soon fade away. Determination literally means "The action of not stopping" . It is a positive emotional feeling that involves persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles. Determination occurs prior to goal attainment and serves to motivate behavior that will help achieve one's goal. When one is determined further reflection and distraction is excluded from within and you follow one path with conviction. Determination sets limits internally but not yet externally. It does not regard what is outside of the limits that are established but only inside. But perseverance doesn't care about external limits. Perseverance isn't afraid to go sideways or backwards. It picks a path and tries it until it's obvious that path isn't going to work, at which point it will try another. It continues to try until you get through the situation. It is like searching for a missing or lost item.

When we fail to achieve the desired result, we become disheartened and lose motivation to take another goal. Marcus Aurelius quotes, “Change your interpretation of the situation in the positive light and you will get stronger. Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.” Your reality is made by your opinions about yourself and others. Reality is often different than we usually perceive. Even when we don’t have any serious problems our mind has the tendency to create some. Many of our problems can be solved just by having a different perspective i.e. changing our interpretation of the situation. For instance, change of interpretation is required in understanding texts or art, solving mathematical problems, parking a car, learning a new skill, designing a creative product etc. When we want to reconcile with someone or make peace with ourselves, we need to see the situation in a positive light which requires changing our interpretation of events which were earlier a source of conflict, stress and anxiety. By having discussions with people who have different opinions than us, helps in gaining new perspectives which we can use in analyzing our situation. People who suffer from depression and avoid conversations with others generally have more suicidal tendency. Coping with depression requires rejecting your old beliefs and forming a new value system to view the world. Our value system determines our perception of the events around us. If we could change some of our old beliefs and values we could change our reality and thus, we can learn the art of enduring pain to cope with failure and depression.

Artwork Credits : Kashish Panjvani