Cross Roads

We have always been presented with choices. Right from the objective questions in first grade to selecting a brand for your first bike choices follow us. Even for an apt picture for this article, I had to choose. Choices are what decides our life. There are innumerous forks possible if you had chosen something for something else. In most of the cases our choices prove to be irreversible. The magnitude of the choices vary for each situation.
Choices made that are morally and objectively correct are always the toughest to choose. With age, our conscience gets better and unfortunately we tend to know the difference between which is right and which is wrong. At times this may involve in absorbing an insane amount of pain. You don't have to as there is always an exit available in this highway called life, but then success always takes the most toughest path. Its been like that and will always be like that.
In the cross roads of life, choosing a path that is made of principles, courage, righteousness and self sacrifice will definitely lead to character and mould us into a better person. Easiest to say, toughest to implement.

Addiction

Addiction can be crudely classified in two categories. Physical and Mental both driven by the latter. This is when your heart really takes over with the head being a mute spectator committing an array of temporary suicides.

One of the best things, beauty perhaps is how one convinces himself about the submissive nature and tries to align himself so that the guilt is constantly subsided. There are infinite types of addictions; the top three being Alcohol, Smoking and Drug. The above three are associated with the physical forms. They cause damage slowly and steadily.

Addiction's worst form is when the mind falls a prey. Its like a virus right at the source of thoughts. It pollutes everything. You value something, values turn into thoughts, thoughts turn into action, and actions are what defines you. When you screw up your prioritization, everything falls apart and follows a rugged path. The thing that many wise people do here is to understand this and have the courage to come out of it. Whereas the genius one will understand and fall into it. At times, its preferable to be wise than genius. Period.

The downward Spiral

I develop a lot of applications and software in my day to day work. One of the most important aspect that determines the "quality" of the application being developed is to stress test it. Stress testing can be of many forms. How good is the system responding at various loads. What is the upper bound of load the system could withstand? What would be the number of simultaneous requests it could take and could still serve its purpose? What resources usage it would require to accommodate the standards that has to be met?
Well the answer to all these always are specific. I found this so much related to life or was this imbibed a lot from life?
Life would be perfect if you go through your happy day scenario. You have born with a silver spoon, good parents, good education, good life, good spouse, good children, good everything. This in most of the cases will not happen. We need to prepare ourselves for "other" cases as well. What if this goes wrong, what if that goes wrong, how do I react to it. Beauty is, people tend to learn a lot from every experience and maturity levels keep getting better when you face the worse often. But at times, when the stress/pressure is too much, there is great possibility that the system will crash. This phase is called the "DOWNWARD SPIRAL".
Things suck during this time. Nothing will go right, even if remotely something does, brain tells that its not right. The self demotivation will be at its peak. Anything that is supposed to be helpful will result in tragedy. It would be insanely painful to withstand this period. There would be lot of easy escape routes tempting to be taken. It wont matter how talented you are, you could still be a victim. This is the most darkest and the dangerous zone a person can be put into.

Braga

Am I satisfied?

I have always wondered about the 'nature' of people. Each and every person will have something unique compared to the other. Have you ever asked yourself this question 'Am i satisfied?'. Many may unfortunately come up with an answer NO. Dont try to argue to me, but definitely NO is the answer most of us will get. If you're getting a YES, then your heart is something really gifted. Being satisfied is like chasing a white smoke. There are various levels of satisfaction. Some may never become satisfied irrespective of whatever money they earn, whatever places they go, they simply need more and more. Well, I am not blaming them, I'm just saying that is how their heart is structured. On the other hand, some people may very well remain happy with whatever they possess. They may not be using their potential to the max, yet they can remain satisfied.

Satisfaction is a purely relative concept. Say, there is an ultra talented person who can do marvels when he exploits his god given gift. Still, he may not be using it and will remain satisfied with whatever he is doing. But this might look crazy and annoying for some other person who knows clearly that the other is not utilizing his talents.
Remaining satisfied may imply being lazy too. Laziness is not a bad thing. It is something you are gaining in the present, something you are enjoying the 'now'. Even laziness has many forms, many bands of laziness are there. Crazy lazy is one extreme level where the basic necessity of a person comes under question. I am speaking at an elevated wavelength, people at my level can very well grab what I am trying to say :).
'How to get satisfied?' Well this is a million dollar question. There are lots and lots of possible answers to this question. Many may be correct and many my not be but still there are almost infinite number of solutions possible for this. Ofcourse, I have my own perspective, one in zillion. Well that is, "Dont worry too much about the future, try to enjoy the present". Easier said than done :).
Please dont expect a proper introduction/conclusion to my posts, as it will be scattered and thoughts are been spit out.
Leave some comments if you have anything to say.

Thanks
Braga

Chess and Life.. Continued

One of the things that does not occur so early in a game of chess is resigning. Grandmaster Gary Kasparov once resigned his game after very few moves against a computer opponent as a result of blunder. He knew that he could not carry on. Even if he did, it would have only yielded embarrassment. He could have chosen to continue the game, yet he did not simply to escape the pain during the game. This is where the 'style' of the player comes into effect. He can choose to play or give up as soon as he wants.

Same things may happen in life as well. If people come to know that they have made a blunder that cannot be taken back, then they will be forced to quit irrespective of how strong resources they have in their arsenal. Although its a snap decision, it can be the right one as well. But people are often appreciated if they fight a battle where defeat is inevitable instead of giving up so soon.

Cheers!
Braga

Chess and Life.. Continued

Although the opening moves in chess might have had a little impact on how the game is going to progress, the middle games are equally important as well. This is the period where players try to utilize their powers to the maximum. They try to bring out all their powers, the knights, bishops, rooks and ofcourse their ultimate weapon - Queen. Good players try to depend on all the powers rather on concentrating on one singe piece thus ensuring they cover most part of the board. Sacrifices are made during this phase of the game. The core purpose of making a sacrifice will be to gain a better position/mobility etc., Middle games often tells how competent you are on the board.

Similar way during our second phase in life we tend to utilize our full potential, using all our possible powers may it be money, hard work, commitment or whatever it is we have. This is a period where risks/sacrifices will be made in an attempt to attain better position later in life. If you mess up in this phase, its game over!

Chess and Life

Life is a game of chess!

Chess looks very simple on the outset. It has a simple 8x8 board and both sides start with equal set of pieces. But one astounding information about chess is that the possible number of positions is infinite! There are 8,902 total possible positions after just 3 moves! And there are 120,921,506 total positions after 6 moves!!! No two games will have the same set of moves but can only be similar.
Similarly life also looks very simple. There are almost infinite number of possibilities on how one's life is going to be. No two lives are going to be same. It can be similar but definitely not the same.

Lets just compare on a high level on how just life and chess is so much synchronized. You start your game with opening moves. Openings are very vital in a game of chess. There are lot of well practiced openings. However, a bad opening will not always result in failure; similarly a good opening will not always result in success but definitely opening plays a huge part in the later part of the game. Opening you have all your power, all your pieces are safe and there are hardly any risks involved during this phase of the game. It paves way to lay a strong foundation.

The initial part of our lives can be compared with Chess openings. There a lot of well practiced ways to be successful which includes being healthy, proper education and good care which all points in laying a strong foundation. Although we do have a lot of power within us, we will not be using them to their potential, yet it will remain within ourselves. A life not started well does not always going to result in failure but most of the cases it does and vice versa.

To be Continued...