Personal Development

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Navigating the Annual Review

Cargo Boat in San Francisco, CA

A ship’s captain doesn’t spend time staring at the ocean behind him; where the ship is going is a lot more important than where its been. If the captain is preoccupied with what’s behind him, he won’t see the obstacles ahead in time to change course.

But that doesn’t mean he ignores where he has been. He keeps his focus on what’s ahead but also maintains the ship’s log and refers to it when he needs to look back.

Annual reviews work much the same way. We shouldn’t dwell on our prior failures and successes in life but we should keep a running log of where we’ve been.

By recording our goals and then reviewing what happened, we gain valuable insight into how we respond to changing conditions of life. Every year we get a little better at navigating the ocean of existence and adjusting our course for the future. Continue reading →

33 Moments of Introspection

Pine Trees in Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest

“What if I had a clone? What if my clone wasn’t complete and he needed some kind of information that would help him better understand who it means to be me?”

It was an odd thought, but I went with it anyway. I was sitting in an office, peering into the darkness that enveloped the city of Boston. The shapes of buildings were outlined with tiny lights and red, green, and white colors flowed on the streets below.

“What would I tell a clone to help him better understand me?” I began jotting down specific points that came to mind and stopped when I reached thirty-three.

“Was this me? Did this list convey the essence of what it’s like to live in my head?”

Over the course of the next few days, I went back to that list and spent time pondering each point. I jotted down stories, described examples, and otherwise tried to define what each thing meant to me.

Now I’m sharing that list here with you in the hopes that you will glean something useful from it. Continue reading →

Reaching Out to Mother Nature

Last week my nephew celebrated his first birthday and over the weekend I attended two birthday parties for him. I watched as he opened numerous presents and found himself surrounded with more toys than he could possibly know what to do with.

He played with each toy for a few moments until he seemed to become so overwhelmed by everything around him that he reached up for his mother (my sister) with open arms. The abundance was too much. He just wanted simplicity.

It was easier to return to the familiar comfort of his mothers’ arms than it was to indulge in the excess of toys surrounding him.

I realized that like my nephew being surrounded with toys, we often surround ourselves with more than we know what to do with and, as a result, we become physically and psychologically overloaded.

Stress, feelings of isolation, boredom, a missing sense of purpose and direction, confusion, self-doubt, a lack of enthusiasm — all of these are evidence of living with more than we can handle. Continue reading →

Taking Initiative and Instigating Change

After reading my last blog post, Pemala, a Nepali friend and a regular reader, left the following note on my Facebook Wall:

Reading “The Revolution Starts Here” was very insightful. It gave me the moral support that is lacking in our community.

I have had enough with the Nepali community leaders in Boston who were fighting among each other for position. I took a stand and voiced my opinion in front of everybody. I thought, I could go home and talk about it or I could take a stand and let everybody in the community know what was happening.

I am planning to gather [the] younger generation for suggestions to improve the organization and have more youth involvement. And, I am going to propose that they help organizations like Nepal FREED who is doing something worthwhile for Nepal.

It was incredible to see how writing a blog post could help someone feel motivated to take action and possibly translate into things that would help the children I visited in a remote part of the world several months earlier.

Pemala’s message caused me to really dig deep and consider the far reaching effects of our actions. It made me analyze the reasons for my own inaction and gave me the missing piece to the puzzle of why I’ve been feeling stagnation in my life since returning from my trip overseas.

Her message allowed me to see the role initiative plays in instigating change. Continue reading →

Raindrops of Change

Monsoon rain shower in Hile, Nepal

Imagine a city where every resident was someone who had changed the world in a big way — Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Alexander the Great, Mother Theresa, The Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and any other famous person who has ever changed the course of history.

Now imagine you’re strolling around that city and watching all those great people walk around, except that none of them know who they are; none of them realize the impact they’re going to have on the future of the planet.

Right now this world is full of people like that. People who are powerhouses of potential. People with an incredible capacity for greatness but who walk around seemingly unaware of that fact, unaware that they have the power to become passionate leaders, creative innovators, magical healers, and moving motivators.

People like you and me. Continue reading →

Personal Development

Navigating the Annual Review

33 Moments of Introspection

Reaching Out to Mother Nature

Taking Initiative and Instigating Change

Raindrops of Change

Where in the world is Raam?

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