Introduction The story of Nachiketa from the Katha Upanishad is one of the most profound lessons in focus, sincerity, and determination. Though deeply spiritual, its relevance extends far beyond — offering timeless wisdom for leaders, professionals, and anyone navigating today’s fast-paced corporate world. Nachiketa was a young boy whose father once undertook a yagna (sacred ritual) where everything one owned was to be given away in charity for spiritual merit. But instead of giving away his best possessions, Nachiketa’s father chose only the old and useless things. The boy, though only five years old, recognized the lack of integrity in his father’s actions. Courageously, he questioned his father: "If you truly vowed to give away everything, why are you keeping the valuable possessions back? Whom will you give me to?" Irritated, his father angrily retorted: “I give you to Yama, the Lord of Death.” Taking this seriously, Nachiketa set out to meet Yama. When he arrived, Yama ...
Let us first understand the meaning of Habit according to Oxford Dictionary: a) settled or regular tendency, b) Practice that is hard to give up, c) mental constitution or attitude. Its also said that first, we make habits and then habits make us. Habits are like soft and cozy beds- easy to get in but difficult to get out. Let us go through some of the shocking statistics: 1 Billion people used to smoke, Tobacco kills 10,000 people per day across the globe and every cigarette contains 401 poisons and 43 cancer-causing chemicals.
1) Thieves cannot enter into the house of a smoker because the whole night he used to cough and his "khi khi" will keep thieves away.
2) He will never grow old as he will lose 22 years of his life because of smoking.
Let us understand the cycle of habit formation: first tempting objects and our association impact our thoughts and desires. Our thoughts and desires impact our action, our action leads to different reactions. Reactions can be physical or mental/psychic. Physical reactions lead to different pains & pleasures and mental reactions impact our thoughts and desires. So if we change how we look at objects and associations then we can mold our habits very easily.
Let us take a case study of England cycling team. From 1908 to 2003 England team had never won a single medal in cycling. The condition was so worst that many cycling companies denied giving cycles to the team as the same can tarnish the image of cycle companies. England cycling management decided to revamp the condition of the team by recruiting new coach Mr. Dave Brailsford. Mr. Dave was a firm believer in the technique called " The aggregation of marginal gains" which means that by improving 1% each day we can get exceptional results. He redesigned riders' seats and even changed the sleeping mattresses of the riders. He changed everything from the riders' eye drops to cycle chains over time. The result was that the England cycling team won 60% of the Gold medals in Beijing Olympics. The team had also won more than 5 Tour de France during his tenure. The above case study shows how improving by 1% per day can give us exceptional results.
We can also change our habits by focussing on one percent improvement every day. We can change our habits by changing script written in our minds. So how we can change scripts written in our minds? By the kind of books we read, kind of movies we see, kind of music we listen to and the kind of friends we have. There's also a principle called GIGO which stands for Garbage In and Garbage out. If we focus on things which are bad then we will indulge in bad things and if we focus on positive things then we will take positive actions.
Let us focus on positive things and improve 1% each day to transform our bad habits and develop good habits. Also, you can read about four success habits of billionaires here.
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Wow so nicely explained
ReplyDeleteWell explained!!
ReplyDelete