Thursday, October 20, 2016

UnFacebooked


It has been two full years I've deactivated my facebook account and my life has completely improved from then on. Turns out it was one of the best decisions I've taken till date. There was a point in my life where I use to have a lot of time and don't know how to spend of which Facebook had a lion's share. There were other things besides Facebook where I had wasted (wasting at times) precious time on like the below ones.
  1. Youtube deadly suggestion cycle
  2. TV Series like Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Suits, The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul, The Wire, Supernatural.
  3. Texas Holdem poker by Zynga
Not just a few hours, lots and lots of hours even days if you combine in a given week. Not just during off-work hours, but even during work hours - I had developed the habit of casually spending time on Facebook. At times it was very less and at other times, it was so pathetic that I could not control it. I was under its control. There were many addictive pages I used to follow, I had developed the obsession of looking at all the posts they have put - just to keep myself updated. There were lots of pages focussed on trolls and I was voraciously following them just to have giggles all over the period. It felt really good as I was not using my brains at all to learn something, it was just a large amount of information retrieval. I was not reading something useful, but it may be something interesting and funny. It was not adding any sort of value to neither my professional life nor my social life. The lie I use to tell to myself is that I am "in" facebook to be in touch with my close and distant friends whom otherwise I will not be able to contact or spend time with. This virtual connection I thought was a noble reason. Had I used facebook, say, for promoting my product or advertising about something that would yield a return in the long run or say develop an application on top of it that would either give me knowledge on understanding its architecture or would yield some profit, then it would have served as a proper cause. But the cause itself was a stupid one.

I tried many ways to quit FB. I installed some plugin in Chrome that would limit my time on Facebook - that did not help me for a long time, I tried other techniques on limiting the usage of Facebook, even that I could not maintain the discipline to follow up. I went and read all the bad things that Facebook could do to you assuming that they would give me enough moral incentive to stop using Facebook - nope did not work out. Seems it was a very bad habit that I could not stop.

So instead of trying to stop something that is resistive, I use a technique of developing something else. Coach.me helped a lot in that aspect. I started to learn piano, started meditating, started doing Asana, started brushing teeth at night, started sporting activities. These commitments did not immediately make me come out of FB, however, I slowly started to feel the reduction in my stress levels as FB not only gave me entertainment - it used to stress me out as well for various reasons from hatred posts about religion, race, politics to my friends/acquaintances brag. It was a bit overstretched. So, one fine day I just stopped using it. The results were phenomenal! I could concentrate more on things that I had long wanted to perform. Some kind of transformation took place within me and I was more attracted towards the positive side of things.

(I often could stray from what I am trying to convey, but I don't give a damn, this is an exercise I am doing towards improving my writing skills. So I just want to vomit whatever thoughts coming out of my head and trying to curb my inner critic telling to write this article in a structured way. Screw that!)

Let me change the tone of this article from rant to wisdom. I am not going to ask you to come out Facebook and stop using it altogether - that would be a stupid advice I know. But ask yourself these basic questions. What is the motive behind me using Facebook? What are the things I am gaining by using Facebook - Is it just entertainment or is there any sort of wisdom this gives to me? How long am I using Facebook on weekdays and on weekends? On weekdays, I check during work hours?

Answer to few of these questions and do a retrospect you should get answers in some time if not immediately.

Cheers!
Braga

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Breakup letter with Resistance

Dear Resistance,

How have you been? I've been longing to write to you for quite some time. Ironically, the only force preventing me from doing that was none but you! I think the time has come and I have to say this now - I am breaking up with you!

Yes, this may come as a shock to you. However, you did not give me any other choice. You kind of pushed me to a corner and forced me to do things (or rather not do things) that I would later regret in my life. You are that untold aura around me (and everyone perhaps) constantly making me yield to you. You have the knack and potential to masquerade yourself through my own physical self. Even identifying you took a long time for me since you hid and rode yourself through my unconsciousness. Throwing some conscious light over you took close to 30 years! That is a super long time to possess someone. That is why you are being called as the Devil.

Your true colors got unraveled only after I took the magic potion with ingredients containing definiteness of purpose, courage, dream, belief, luck, perseverance and lots and lots of action. I am pretty sure we may cross paths in future, but I am super happy having learnt to un-summon you at will!

Goodbye!
-Braga

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Coach.me contract!

I am really excited to have taken a serious stance towards improving my writing habit. As a first step, I wanted someone to help me towards making it a practice rather an "impulsive surge" that is great only for a short period of time. I already have an account with coach.me for a very long time and I just hired a personal coach. The Zeroth assignment given to me was to first write a contract that I should abide by. My coach Jen Anderson, gave a template on how to write one. This is what I came up with

"Beginning today, October 11, 2016, I, Braga will write every day for a period of minimum 20 minutes for 30 days. Should any obstacles present itself during this period, I would seek expert advice from Jen, my coach. As with other key goals, I track with coach.me, like Meditation, Yoga, and Read - I would include "Write" which I will check-in only if I meet the minimum requirement of writing at least 20 minutes a day; I do not have an upper limit to this period. I pray to the almighty to give me the power and consistency to be on track with this objective."

I am really excited and hope to continue in this direction. I am blogging about this not for the general public, but for myself - more like a journal.

Cheers!
Braga