Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Mission #1: Declaration

Hello!

Welcome to this blog. This blog is started with the intent of recording my journey of forming new habits. This is my journey journal :D . So what has 21 days got to do with that? It is said that a new habit takes 21 days to form and each one of us are just a compilation of our habits. Did you know, 80% of the "decisions" we make during a day are merely habits? Our brain fools us into believing that we performed a great task of deciding what to eat for breakfast but in reality it just goes back into it's little store room and pick up a 'breakfast pattern'. It is much easier that way for the brain. So lazy but smart!

But life is about exploring, about things that are out there that you don't know of. Yes, most of the times, we don't know what we don't know. And as we find what we don't know, we tend to discover ourselves. For instance, I have grown up having instant coffees with milk and sugar - no water. It was just a couple of years ago that I got to know about how people in other parts of the world consume coffee so I tried it and fell in love with it! I prefer ground coffee beans over instant coffee and espressos over lattes. Had it not been for me giving a break to my "coffee decision mechanism" (habit), I wouldn't know what kind of coffees I really like.

Well that is a very stupid example but holds completely true and I am out there to scale it and test it. I want to get into the habit of breaking habits and forming new habits, hopefully better ones. I love observing people, I love design, I love exploring new things and making what did not exist yesterday. Guess, I am a creator type of personality. I live everyday with the dream of acquiring capabilities that will allow me to practice design as my profession but not some run of the mill job, a job that really makes a difference, solves problems and answers questions. I am a slow learner and I take time to get wherever I want to be. My friends and peers are running around, pursuing careers and ambitions and six-figure salaries; some are starting their families and some others are trying to achieve either or all of the mentioned activities. I am sitting and watching it all go past by and doing just what I feel I need to do. It can get a little unsettling but maintaining physical distance from these people seems to be helping me.

But then, what am I doing about what I feel like doing? Well, I am helping an NGO build a website and working with them to promote their cause and spread awareness. Apart from that, I experiment with food - both, making and eating. And keep dreaming about things I want to do and come up with whimsical theories that involve me getting high on a new mind game every once in a while. This blog is a result of one such venture and here you are. I used to do this as a part of a personal blog but that did not have the focus I am trying to maintain with this blog. I needed a clean notebook!

I will be posting 21 days journey of each of my new missions. After trying to wire my brain for happiness and trying mindfulness, I am going to try my hand at creativity. The mission is pretty simple, create a new thing everyday. Rules?

#1 Create just about anything. Paintings, new dish, blog posts, essay, websites, web-app, decorating objects like mugs or name plates or create something out of waste material at home and the list can go on. The idea is to invest energy in creating something that did not exist until yesterday in my life and meets the criteria of "new".

#2 Quality does not matter. This is a hack - quick and dirty is acceptable as long as it is functional and looks complete. If it is a prototype of, say, a windmill, it need not be coloured but it should work whereas a painting might not be of the likes of Picasso but it better be coloured :)

#Don't judge, just make it. The idea is to get into the habit of creating something without waiting for the best idea to enchant you. Once you get into the habit of creating, quality of ideas will improve. When you give form to your idea, you are necessarily sharing your ideas with whoever can access it and likely provide their feedback or ideas on what they see or access - leading into an exchange of ideas - which I believe can only improve your thought-process, making you more aware and eventually enhancing your creativity.

So let the fun begin!

No comments:

Post a Comment