How to develop discipline in your life

Decide a long term goal/ambition but break it down to years, months, days and in hours if possible to make it a digestible, doable, tangible series of short terms goals.

1) Set short term goal. For another 1 day, or another 2 weeks or a month or 3 month..I will do this and this

2) Reward yourself once you achieve that short term goal. Your brain will feel motivated to do it again

3) Don't listen to your heart or mind once you have decided to do something on the path of success. This is a controversial statement, but this works like a charm. Your mind will give you hundreds of reason excuses not to do ..it will distract you...will confuse you..you will have to remind yourself that mind is your servant and not your master..if it says pickup iPad ..I m your master..I will not..it will not be able to do in its own...there it will loose and cannot force you..Mind`s kingdom is just in thoughts..not in physical world..

3) Just do it...carry on..start doing it

4) If you do this for 6 weeks (it opens the mental pathway in brain) it will become habit and your mind starts obeying you ..Repeat it..e.g.: get up early in the morning...Pillow alarm..wake me up 5 in the morning...it becomes part of you....it comes naturally to u...make it a part of your life

And once it becomes part of our lives, it gets the muscle memory. Just like we do not forget swimming, cycling, the new habit finds it way like that.

Disruptive Innovation Theory

Disruptive innovation, a term coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.

In Summary it means:

1) Away fro ma common notion, disruptive innovation is not a technological breakthrough, but it makes a product or service affordable and accessible. Like Uber or AriBnB. They didn`t invent mobile technology but they found out such a great use case which kind of exploded the personal transportation and renting business.

2) On one hand Experts/Scientists solve the big problems and come up with the new technology, On the other hand,   disruptions are the one who democratize those technologies which brings that particular product or service in hands of everyone. If in a lab stage, they take it to the masses. If only used by handful people, give a twist so that it can reach to all. Apple and MS did this and brought the computers on every desk in early 1980s..

3) When Disruptive innovation happens, most of the times,

 it`s not about how radical the new technology is,

 but it means the incumbent product or service is not based on the same markets and value networks which is already available in the new market. For example a company offers a very heavy loading service where as customer need a light weight, even lesser service for their purpose.

4) Most of the time, the disruption starts at low end of product and service with affordable pricing but reasonable quality, but slowly develops the portfolio to service all ranges of that line of services.

When the big companies fail due to disruption innovation,

it is more of a Management phenomenon, than the technology in itself.

The dilemma of the incumbent is to take action or not when this new segment is being created. Should the incumbent go for creating a low end product or should they improve the product to sell it to their existing set of customers for more attention are the questions which arise in this Dilemma.

Japanese car maker Toyota did disruptive innovation to US Car makers Ford and GM by offering cheaper sub compact cars. Korean car maker like Kia disrupted Toyota by offering cheaper cars even than Toyota. Chinese automakers are now disrupting Korean car makers. And the cycle continues.

The formal theory goes as follows;

As companies tend to innovate faster than their customers’ needs evolve, most organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are actually too sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for many customers in their market.

Companies pursue these “sustaining innovations” at the higher tiers of their markets because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies will achieve the greatest profitability.

However, by doing so, companies unwittingly open the door to “disruptive innovations” at the bottom of the market. An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.

Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include:  lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics.  Because these lower tiers of the market offer lower gross margins, they are unattractive to other firms moving upward in the market, creating space at the bottom of the market for new disruptive competitors to emerge.

Symbolism in Mahabharata has spiritual insight

Imagine Draupadi as the human body. The Pandavas, the five senses, are wedded to it. Their first cousins, a hundred in number, the Kauravas, are present in the form of the tendencies of the mind.

Yudhishthir thinks that he is a good gambler and so would win over the Kauravas. The senses also think that they can win over the tendencies of the mind. The Pandavas keep gambling till they lose everything, including themselves and their beloved wife, Draupadi. Likewise, we lose everything when we gamble with our tendencies, and, like the Pandavas, end up in spiritual exile. The body is demeaned, like Draupadi was, and only divine intervention can save it. However, our body does not abandon us, even when we lead it into exile.

However, there are some good tendencies also. There are many good people in the Kaurava camp. But, Krishna advises Arjuna to kill all of them, implying that all tendencies, both good and evil should be exterminated. They are already dead, he says. You are only an instrument in making this evident.
If a person has to gain enlightenment he must overcome all the tendencies of the mind, good or bad. These do not have an existence, apart from what we have given them they are already dead. However, we keep them alive by our own acts, and, by our own acts, we can kill them all. Only then will we be free.

Kurukshetra is the world in which we live this life, witnessing a war between our senses and our mind's tendencies.

Dhritarashtra symbolises the mind, which gives birth, in a sense, to our tendencies. He was blind ^ as the mind is to its tendencies. His wife, Gandhari, was not blind but chose to blindfold herself. Even when we have a choice to see, we choose not to see.
None of the Pandavas were born of their mother's husband, Pandu. Their mother, Kunti, had been given a chant, which invoked various gods who fathered the Pandavas. The Sun was the father of Karna. Dharma, the god of duty was the father of Yudhishthir and Indra the king of gods was the father of Arjuna. The god of wind, symbolising strength, was the father of Bhishma and the Ashwini Kumars were the fathers of Nakul and Sahdev.


Our senses are basically part of our divinity, the instruments born to keep us in this form. The original name of their mother was Pritha, signifying Prithvi, the Earth, and she took the name Kunti when Kuntibhoja adopted her. So, the Pandavas were born through the conjoining of the Earth and the divine ^ the body and the spirit.
Karna was born of the Sun-god and the Earth mother. He is a symbol of our ego. Like him, our ego is also armoured. Only the guru's intervention could get the armour removed. Similarly, the guru helps the seeker in killing his ego.


Krishna's form, too, is symbolic. Deep blue is the colour of eternity. It is the colour of the sky, and of the deep ocean. Yellow is the colour of the earth. A deep blue god-image enclosed in yellow clothes symbolises the spirit clothed in the body. Krishna, then, is a symbol of the body and spirit, a symbol of you and me in our enlightened form. When we become aware of our true self, we realise that there is no difference between us and Krishna or Vishnu, of whom he is an incarnation, as, indeed are we.

Courtesy: ToI

Everybody is like a seed.

Everyone is like a seed.It has to go with the flow of nature. Take nourishment from water and soil and just break free and sprout. It will take time but surely it will happen.

But if a seed decide to be adamant and do not want to come out of shell, do not allow soil and water to do its job, it will never sprout.

The nature will not just stop there, it will destroy the seed and make it just a part of soil, one with soil, one with nature, in its own way.

Whereas if you allow yourself to sprout, you are designed to grow and bear fruits and flowers which have the purpose of serving someone else and grow the nature.

पथ की पहचान - Knowing the Path

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

पुस्तकों में है नहीं
छापी गई इसकी कहानी
हाल इसका ज्ञात होता
है न औरों की जबानी

अनगिनत राही गए
इस राह से उनका पता क्या
पर गए कुछ लोग इस पर
छोड़ पैरों की निशानी

यह निशानी मूक होकर
भी बहुत कुछ बोलती है
खोल इसका अर्थ पंथी
पंथ का अनुमान कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

यह बुरा है या कि अच्छा
व्यर्थ दिन इस पर बिताना
अब असंभव छोड़ यह पथ
दूसरे पर पग बढ़ाना

तू इसे अच्छा समझ
यात्रा सरल इससे बनेगी
सोच मत केवल तुझे ही
यह पड़ा मन में बिठाना

हर सफल पंथी यही
विश्वास ले इस पर बढ़ा है
तू इसी पर आज अपने
चित्त का अवधान कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
सरित गिरि गह्वर मिलेंगे
है अनिश्चित किस जगह पर
बाग वन सुंदर मिलेंगे

किस जगह यात्रा खतम हो
जाएगी यह भी अनिश्चित
है अनिश्चित कब सुमन कब
कंटकों के शर मिलेंगे

कौन सहसा छू जाएँगे
मिलेंगे कौन सहसा
आ पड़े कुछ भी रुकेगा
तू न ऐसी आन कर ले।

पूर्व चलने के बटोही बाट की पहचान कर ले।

Harivansh Rai Bacchan 

Some questions will not have answers - Accept it

Kisa Gautami was a young woman from a wealthy family who was happily married to an important merchant. When her only son was one-year-old, he fell ill and died suddenly. Kisa Gautami was struck with grief, she could not bare the death of her only child. Weeping and groaning, she took her dead baby in her arms and went from house to house begging all the people in the town for news of a way to bring her son back to life.

Of course, nobody could help her but Kisa Gautami would not give up. Finally she came across a Buddhist who advised her to go and see the Buddha himself.

When she carried the dead child to the Buddha and told Him her sad story, He listened with patience and compassion, and then said to her, "Kisa Gautami, there is only one way to solve your problem. Go and find me four or five mustard seeds from any family in which there has never been a death."

Kisa Gautami was filled with hope, and set off straight away to find such a household. But very soon she discovered that every family she visited had experienced the death of one person or another. At last, she understood what the Buddha had wanted her to find out for herself — that suffering is a part of life, and death comes to us all. Once Kisa Guatami accepted the fact that death is inevitable, she could stop her grieving. She took the child's body away and later returned to the Buddha to become one of His followers.

Some questions will never have answers and when you live without questions will help you live in "NOW"

Kashta, Dukkha and the Power in YOU !

Difficulties(Kashta) is something what happens to you and is an external activity happening from outside your body. Sadness(Dukkha) is a feeling which emerges from inside our body, our mind and is purely an internal reaction to the Kashta. Buddha spent his whole life giving this message that "Kashtas" are inevitable.

All positive, self improvement or spiritual books reads, learning, activities or practices cannot control 'Kashtas' but will slowly change how you react to them and definitely help in reducing the 'Dukkhas'.

Also as Steven Covey say in his bestseller book, " Between stimulus and response there is a 'space'. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

What we do in that moment determines the step we take ahead, the journey we choose and goals we move toward.

As Mel Robbins put it, no reading or motivation reads will help if we don't take the step towards what we want to do in that very particular moment of decision, then ultimately nothing will change. Life is all about those 100s of small decisions and actions we take consciously or unconsciously which will determine the path we take and the destinations we reach. Indecision and inaction is also a decision which has its consequences.

Modern thinkers also have mixed this concept with the term "Attitude" meaning how you react to a particular situations shows your attitude and makes everyone unique.

This applies to anything you want to do like any old habit you want to change, want to go on better diet, better heath, better relationships, better productivity at work or any higher life goal where our mind and body need to be coherent to achieve the goal.

So essentially, it comes down to those small moments of decisions everyday. If we first become aware of it, then consciously we can change those and taking "right turns" leading to the "right destination"