Green Ways

Good morning readers, unlike the few days before this, I am not being accompanied by a Cafe Mocha, but my a cuppa green tea.

Speaking of green tea, today’s post will be green related.

I finished a chapter in Branson‘s book yesterday, the chapter in question is titled, Gaia Capitalism. It basically iterates his point on going green but still being able to make money, responsible capitalism if you will. He raises some very valid and interesting points. All of us can make a difference, if we all take small actions, over time it will mean something. So here are some suggestions, simple. Some I already practice, others I am adopting now.

1. BYOB. Bring you own bags when you go shopping.
2. Plan your travel/driving plans for the day so that you don’t waste time and fuel.
3. When driving try not to accelerate much,need a constant pace.
4. Car pool
5. Use less paper. Go digital, reuse paper, practice double sided printing.
6. Keep your tyres properly inflated, it helps your fuel economy.
7. Start using your own water bottles and/or containers when buying drinks (Starbucks, don’t buy bottled water unnecessarily)
8. When buying vehicles, try to look at the more fuel efficient ones.
9. Unplug unused chargers and appliances
10. Don’t leave computers on overnights
11. Collect rainwater
12. Watch Food Inc

Really try and watch Food Inc, it really opened my eyes.

Anyway, I hope that this post helps you guys. It may not seem like much, but if more people starting doing it, over time it will make a difference.

Oh, and I had a another idea. I love this Earth Hour thing, but I think it doesn’t happen enough. So I’m looking at making it a regular thing at my house and hopefully spread it from there. Wish me luck 🙂

Have a great day,

Put more living in your days

Straight From The Heart

Arkay 6

5 things to be Grateful for this Monday Morning

Good morning again!

My second post on this cool Monday morning,

I know a lot of people will be feeling the Monday Blues, especially since this morning was such awesome weather to sleep in but don’t wake up in a bad mood. I used to and It didn’t help my day at all.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn

Waking up on the wrong side of bed is an excuse we give ourselves to feel like shit and be grumpy for the day. There are plenty of things to be grateful for today and everyday and this is very good practice for everyone, it has helped me a great deal in the past few weeks (thank you Robin Sharma). Wake up in the morning, think about 5 things you are grateful for, whether it is a great family, a job, a car or just that the sun is shinning. It really does help, take it from me. Have a journal and write it down, it doesn’t have to be a book, I use my iPad and iPhone. Another thing I do every morning is I read my favourite quotes which I have pasted on my wall, I call it my “Daily Wall Reading” and it helps me feel great,motivated and inspired every morning.

“Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” – Dr Seuss

The difference between waking up on the wrong side of bed and on the right side of bed is how you want to wake up. The above methods sound cliche and cheesy but they helped me get out of a very dark place and help me stay away from the dark place. If it helped me, it can help you and c’mon, no here no harm in trying, is there?

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

I am grateful for:
1. A family that loves me and believes in me
2. I was able to wake up this morning without feeling like I was run over by an 18-wheeler
3. The brilliant cool air that invigorated my soul
4. The responsibility of having little brother that has helped me mature and develop.
5. The people (you) who have supported my blog and help me feeling great, everyday.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

I’ll post pics of my wall reading later.

Have a great Monday and a great week ahead!

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Do we watch too much TV?

Good morning dear readers, thank you for tuning in this fine cool morning, so cool that my mother was wearing a shawl in the hall. Lovely 🙂 I actually rolled down the windows on the way to Monash. I’m chillaxing at Starbucks listening to some nice music (the play some really good music) but instead of green tea, I’m indulging in a Cafe Mocha today. 🙂

I was thinking about how A couple weeks back I would’ve either still been in bed or watching tv at this time, and this thought got me thinking about the amount of time we spend watching tv and then I thought:

are we too distracted by mindless TV shows?

I understand that people like to watch tv for entertainment and to unwind but I think society has become too distracted by some really ridiculous shows. I am in no way innocent of these claims, and this is why I’m writing about it.

There were entire days I used to spend watching tv shows and for what? A story line? To appease my curiosity? To distract myself? To escape reality? Fill the time?

The answer: all of the above.

I would watch tv for the storyline and really can’t stop until the serial dies as I need to satisfy my curiosity. I also watched it to distance myself from life, I was feeling down and out and tv would help ease that hurt but it wasn’t really helping me, but distracting me from dealing with the issues plaguing me, it helped me escape reality. And most sinful of all, it just filled up my days, it helped the time pass in a time when I felt like I was in a coma, life was just passing me by… I wasn’t acting on life.

But what I’ve come to realise is that even though tv is a part of modern daily life we shouldn’t spend too much time with it… Because honestly, it’s such a waste of time. I am currently following about 13 tv shows, and I will not be following anymore! Thank god some of these shows are coming to the end and I will not replace them. I have started limiting myself to an hour of tv a day (especially weekdays), so that I don’t distract myself from more worth while endeavours such as spending time with my family, socialising, reading and writing.

The TV shows i follow include: Castle, Fringe, Gossip Girl, Hawaii Five-0, House, How I Met Your Mother, Leverage, Modern Family, New Girl, Sherlock, Suits, The Big Bang Theory, the Good Wife & The Mentalist.

I actually think tv is the worst way to spend your time because there is no stimulation, at least when I’m playing a console game I have to think and my mind is at work, when I watch tv is feels like my mind is in a coma, please remember I’m talking about TV shows and not movies or documentaries.

It’s an industry dedicated to distracting us from real life. Movies aren’t as bad because they don’t comprise of 20 or so weekly episodes and there are a lot of good movies that stimulate one emotional and mentally.

I love watching comedies, but I guess the issue is not about watching tv, but excess amount of tv people consume nowadays. I mean im not going to stop watching my serials, but I certainly will be making an effort to watch a max of 60 minutes of tv daily.
wish me luck 🙂

9 Alternatives to Mindless Television

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Getting to Greatness without Burning Out

Good morning everyone, I hope you are having a great “Star Wars” day, may the 4th be with you.

Today I’m going to talk about how to reach your goals without burning out; very much inspired by Robin Sharma.

Robin calls it “Strategic refuelling”. It basically means taking a break after an intense sprint of hard work and excellence. Too many of us work too hard and don’t take the appropriate enough of rest to compensate for it. That is a life out of sync, out of balance and can only end in disaster. We need to refuel, take a break… Rest. Rest is way too underrated.

I heard this on one of Robin’s podcast,”life isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon”. Bullseye.

We can all achieve greatness if we want too, and join the pantheon of The Crazy Ones, but we must manage ourselves well. All The Crazy Ones took breaks to recharge, Branson had an island and Jobs had his retreats .

I learned this the hard way when I toasted my health and burnt out. That was more than 2 years ago, and I’m still recovering (but doing much better). We take our health for granted until we lose it. Please trust me when I say, nothing is more important than your health. Please please please, take this to heart. There’s no point being rich but sick and not being able to enjoy the spoils of your labour.

Always try your best and reach for the stars, but make sure you take breaks and rest up. Sleep well, eat well, exercise and have fun. Take a few days off after an intense project, you earned it. Take a trip to the beach after busting your ass off in work. Treat yourself to a vacation when you achieve a goal.

Strategic refuelling, one of the major keys to excellence, prolonged achievement and greatness.

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

A Rekindled Spirit

Good morning everyone,

A month or so back, mornings weren’t very good, in fact most days weren’t very good. Days felt dark, life didnt have colour, I felt down, I was in pain, always tired…. my spirit was broken.

I was just riding life, letting life act on me instead of it being the other way around. I was a shadow of the person I used to be. That ambitious & positive 18 year old that left for India but came back broken.

“Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude.” – Pat Riley”

From the time I came back from India I rode waves of highs and then longer and meaner waves of lows. I would fight back for a bit, after reading a good book but eventually the motivation would wear off and I would be back in a rut of self-pity, negativity and some depression. I felt like a failure a lot of the time. And this went on until a couple weeks back. Funnily enough I started feeling a lot better after coming home from a week in a Mumbai, maybe India gave me back what was once mine?

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make a mistake.” – Elbert Hubbard”

Actually my mood and attitude started picking up after I read this book by David Schwartz, “The Magic of Thinking Big,” given to me to my 21st birthday by Zoran & Cheryl, a couple that I have much respect and admiration for. The book was the spark I needed to rekindle my spirit. It opened my eyes and made me realise how different I was, how much I had lost, the ambition, the big dreams, the fire,the person that I used to be. I started to feel alive again, cause it really did feel like I was in a coma, just drifting through life one day at a time, wasting my time doing god knows what. But anyway, once I came back from India I felt more alive.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

How poetic, that I regained my spirit from the very place that stole it from me.

“If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt”

So why am I telling you my sob story? Because I believe that are so many other people out there, that were just like me, facing problems, looking at the world through misted windows, feeling that there’s no hope, no point, feeling like failures. But we must remember, that the most successful people are also the ones who have tasted defeat more than most, they just don’t let it win.

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill

The most important thing in our life is our attitude. Whether we are more positive or more negative. It will shape our view of the world and how we act towards it, I became quite negative when I came back from India in 2010, and once I realised how bad things had become, how low i had gone, I made a conscious effort to be more positive, and it is paying off. I feel much better, life is good, my blog has been active, I’m enjoying writing, I’m more outgoing and I’m pursuing a few things. yes, I still get tired, and I am still in pain, but they dont seem as daunting as they were when I was feeling like shit, I’m not as tired and the pain has decreased.

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole France”

I once again believe that I can achieve great things,
I know there will be mistakes & failure,
But that doesn’t mean I should stop trying,
I’m going to act on life, not let life act on me.

If you need someone to talk to please don’t hesitate to contact me. The most important thing when you feel down is to have someone you can talk to. My email address is arkaysthoughts@icloud.com

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Thank You

Good morning everyone, I hope you guys all have a great day 🙂

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

JFK

I would like to thank everybody who has been supporting my blog, the people who have taken time out of their busy days to visit my little site. Thanks to all of you my site has flown passed 1000 All-Time hits. Even better, thanks to you the previous daily record of 84 hits has been shatter, the new Daily record, set by you guys, is now 159 hits. Thank you.

“The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.”

John E. Southard

I really do appreciate all the support, I was just so happy when I saw the total tally for the day. The average for the last week, before yesterday, was about 50 hits a day, so yesterday was a real big milestone for my blog and me. Thank you.

“I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.”

William Shakespeare

Please keep on reading, commenting and recommending. There’s a new addition to the site, if you look on the right of your screen there’s a email notification widget, so that it will be easier to follow my blog. You guys are already taking time out your days to read but I have one more thing to ask, if you guys could use the Follow” widget on the right to get email notification of new articles, that would be great. But anyway, I already appreciate the fact that you guys are reading my work.

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you,

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay6

Waking Up Early & Sleeping Well

Good morning all, and what a wonderful morning it is. I’m sipping on my green tea,chilling at Starbucks listening to whatever chilling music it is that they are playing. But whatever it is, it feel like a great morning, don’t you think so?

Today’s post is a simple one, one very close to home for so many…waking up early and sleeping well.

I feel that waking up early is integral to feeling like a champion, yes it may be hard wake up, hard to fight the desire to sleep in, (normally its difficult because you’re not sleeping well) but the rewards of waking up early are so damn great.

It feels like I have more time, that by the time I’m done swimming, showering, eating breakfast, blogging, reading for at least an hour and running a few errands, it’s only 12pm, which feel great cause before, when I used to wake up at 10/11 the day used to feel so short because it’s normal to feel that the day has come to an end when it gets dark, it’s natural. I so prefer sleeping before 12, getting 8 hours of sleep and then getting up to the to greet the sun. Not only, is it normal, it feel great.

It’s incredibly important to get enough sleep, don’t skimp out on that, skimp on tv time, but don’t skimp on sleep. At least 8 hours. Some people are blessed in a way that they auto wake up after 6-7 hours of sleep and still feel like a million bucks, but that isn’t for everyone. Follow what you’re body is telling you, aim to sleep early so that you can wake u early. I learnt the incredibly hard way about the importance of sleep… Because one day, if you continue to skimp on sleep, work hard and party hard, your body will burn out… And that, won’t be good.

I’ve spent the last few years reviving myself from my premature burnout, please do yourself a favour and take care.

Balance is just so damn important.

We can all reach greatness but we won’t all do it at the same pace, know your body, know yourself, listen to your body and most important take time to have solid, straight, proper, restful sleep at night and then start the day early.

The most simple advise, something we all learn so early in life but then forget because we don’t give sleep the importance it truly deserves.

Moving on

Sometimes the cards we are dealt are not always fair. However you must keep smiling & moving on
Tom Jackson

Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard.
Dave Mustaine

Moving on, so easy to talk about it but not so easy to actually do it, but it is an integral part of growing up and and growing into the best version of yourself.

Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting, it means being able to close a chapter or your life, whether it’s a mistake or a loss, and get on with the next phase. It means getting to the next step without holding back, without holding on to what was once and move towards what could be.

It means having the courage to face the world, to get out of your safe zone after the shit has hit the fan. To be able to say, “yea, I screwed up, but i’m not going to give up.”

“What don’t kill me can only make me stronger”

Is hard to move on, to let go of that that was once so sweet but then turned bitter, to let go of memories of great times, but if we decide to stay and hide amongst those good memories past, we will never be able to carve out memories.

As difficult as it is to move on from a rough patch, or mistake or bad phase or our lives, it’s even harder to move on from “reliving” the “Glory Days”. Being trapped in a vicious cycle of replaying a part of your life that was so great, it is living in a little comfortable dream and not letting yourself live what could be even better life. Living in an illusion that those were the best days and that you won’t get better ones, but how do you know you won’t get better days? Especially if you’re too busy watching replays and not out there trying to live life the best you can.

I’m not saying that you should forget shut the good old days, or forget about the bad times and mistakes; remember them, talk about them, reminisce, but don’t let it hold you back. It is all those parts that build who we become, learn from them, gain from them, appreciate the experience but don’t live your life wishing you had done things different, spending your days reliving good memories instead of making new ones, letting bad memories haunt you instead of learning from them.

Have a great day,

John Reynolds: Tommy, that’s a hundred thousand dollars on a goddam golf swing!

Thomas Crown: It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, John… What the hell else have we got to do?

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay 6

Keep Moving Forward

Personal Development

I know a lot of people who are very skeptical about self help books, people tend to think it’s common sense (i used to) and that they already know what they author is gonna talk about and yes, a lot of it may seem like common sense, but we now live in a world that seems to be lacking in common sense.

Self-help books focus on personal development, and though personal development may sound like nonsense, it is anything but. Everything we do to improve ourselves is personal development. Whether it’s taking a singing lesson, or working on your typing skills or taking time off everyday to think or meditate, they are all step, big or small, to improve oneself. To sharpen our skills, take us to the edge of our game. Personal development is nothing more than a normal part of life.

I am a big fan of self-help books. Tony Buzan, Robin Sharma, Dr. Schwartz and Sean Covey are some of the authors that I’ve read and even though i may not agree with all their ideas and points, I personally do feel that their books have helped me. Reading gives you an inside look into the minds of these people and it’s always good to learn new ways to better hone your abilities. There’s no shame is saying that you need help with living life, we all need help. Life’s complicated, messy and can get hard, so what’s wrong with getting some advice from highly recognised individuals who have made their own mistakes, learnt their own lessons and have formed their own thoughts.

I like mixing the philosophies of the books I read, it helps me form my own base and my own philosophies. Most importantly, these books help motivate me and make me aware of things that I may have been ignoring before such as bad habits I picked up or attitudes that are counter productive.

Most importantly, I find that a good self-help/personal development book helps motivate me and keep my spirit alive. To read about these great people, entrepreneurs and leaders who made their own mistakes, and persevered.

I highly recommend Richard Bransons “Screw it, Let’s do it”, Sean Covey’s ” 7 habits of highly effective teenagers” (the book that started it off for me), Robin Sharma’s ” The Greatness Guide”, and “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz.

Please feel free to comment below.

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay6

Fear

Fear is other ultimate enemy of progress, of change, of the human race. As crazy as this sounds we must, as Robin Sharma says, run towards our fears instead of running away from them.

The fear to give a presentation or bid for a project is real, and it isn’t all bad, it makes us realise how important the task at hand is and in this scenario can help us, but a lot of the time fear causes us to run away from a task or delay or procrastinate because we don’t want to experience the feeling or we’re just scared of failing. But what people who succumb to fear don’t know, or forget, is that the more you give in to fear, the more power you give it and this will only be detrimental to your own growth and makes whatever potential you have, the potential you had.

Embrace the fear you have, acknowledge it, it’s real don’t pretend it isn’t, but instead of letting it win, you go ahead and stare that fear in the face and show it who’s boss.

Embrace the butterflies in stomach before a presentation and then go out there, just do it. Once you’ve already done all you can to prepare, all that’s left is to do it. Preparation is vital but doing the action is what really matters.

Doing what you most fear is the first step to annihilating that fear, yes you might fail but that’s better than living in the shadows of your fears, because you can always pick yourself up and try again.

Prepare, do your best work and then face you fears, because even if you fall, you’re one step closer to beating that fear and one step closer fulfilling your potential. We all want to be great at something, and facing fears is going inevitable in that pursuit.

Look at the Crazy Ones, they didn’t let fear paralyse them into inaction or turning back.

Straight from the Heart,

Arkay6

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.

Like it? Why not share it.