os.me Digest: 12 Ways to Improve Life

This week, I learnt several ways to make life better. One of those is to stop taking things personally.

Now, there are several other things that I have gathered along the way, but acting on those nuggets of wisdom is a pending task on my to-do list (Trivia: I’ve started making to-do lists on Excel. Oh! The joy of striking through completed ones). How does one make that wisdom work?

Enter os.me! Every day of the past week, I picked up a hack or realistic item that helped me improve my life from os.me blogs. Here, I am listing 12 blogs that taught me 12 ways to improve my life. You might learn something else from the same blog or some other.

Presenting 12 ways to improve life — effectively, practically and really!

Transformative Ideas

The Two Ways to Success: It was at the teahouse that author Francesc Miralles said to Ferran: “I have realized that there are two main ways to success, understood as the ability to reach many people. One of them is to be a marketing killer, turning your networks into a telemarketer where something is always being sold, always chasing new customers.” What’s the other? Find out now!

Psychology Didn’t Let Me Stay but It Showed Me Another Way: “On my final crashing, when I had hit rock bottom and decided to end it all, it was my parents who stopped me. My dad’s words still ring in my head. He said, “Let’s all three of us die today”.” Here’s someone who fought life and then for life. Jyoti Om taught me what it means to turn adversities into opportunities. What will you gain from her story?

The 4 Productivity Tools that Run My Life and Businesses: Founder of Mindful & Driven, Amardeep S Parmar is a popular blogger. In some ways, he is like most of us: “A frustrating mix of ambitious and plain lazy“. Yet, in other ways, he is doing the same things more efficiently and that’s what makes him loved by fans. I loved this article where he shared his secret to awesome time management. Please read this useful piece. I am busy taking down notes.

A Thank You, a Smile, and a No: Kindness is a virtue worth striving for. However, it only makes sense if done mindfully. Laxmii Duggirala discovered that good gestures might make the other person uncomfortable if done without thought. To explain her point, Laxmii shares three experiences from her life, including when her thank-yous needed restraining.

How to Use Your Time Wisely: As the ‘new’ normal of working from home goes back to ‘normal’ normal of working from the workplace, Ria R buys a succulent. She writes all about it here, sharing some effective techniques to turn dead time into happy time.

Perfectly Imperfect: Perfectionism is a trap, I always say to whoever is in the earshot. But that hasn’t stopped me from fighting for it once in a while. If you are like me, you will dig Tushar Kanikdale’s blog. He shares a few “thoughtful countermeasures” that “empower us to get complete with the situation”. Accept it — perfectionism is not possible… It’s not you, it’s just how it is.

Success – Part – 4: Rajesh Kumar Ragothaman is writing a series of blogs on aspects that take us closer to success. In this blog, he writes about the relationship between work and emotions; and ways to tap it. And it has your favourite line, perhaps, ‘Hard work is the fastest way to the graveyard.’ Why? Read it.

One Day: Trust award-winning poet Sadhvi Vrinda Om to sum up life in a few lines. Sample this:

‘One day like a paper boat in water
this life will sink
who I loved
and didn’t
wouldn’t matter as much
as it’d matter how much
how much did I love.’

That Verse!

This week again, I have a poem for you. However, instead of scouting the internet for it, I found one of my go-to poems for the days when I need motivation, on os.me. Pulkit Om Baheti has blogged about the Poems That Inspire! (Part 1) and has included Invictus by William Ernest Henley. Pulkit also mentions its importance in anti-apartheid revolutionary and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela’s life. Read his blog for one more lovely poem to keep you going.

Wisdom from Swamiji

How Not to Attract: Everyone is selling the Law of Attraction. No one’s talking about the Law of ‘No’ Attraction. It’s essential to know how not to attract things we do not want. “You draw energy from whatever you focus on,” writes Spiritual leader Om Swami. If you often find yourself dealing with things you do not want in your life, this article is for you.

Being at Peace: Even when you have paid heed to the advice in the article above, life will throw curveballs. Swamiji offers wisdom to strengthen and insulate your inner world to such a level that it remains unmoved, unfazed, unsullied, no matter what.

Watch This Now!

Booked This Week

The book recommendation for this week is coming from you. Many of you, our community members, have mentioned the book in your blogs, so there was no way we were not going to mention it. Sanyog Misra recommends The Rainmaker — Miracles and Healing Stories of Om Swami by Sadhvi Vrinda and Swami Vedananda.

Sanyog makes it amply clear that This is Not a Book Review. But once you read this entertaining piece on the book, you will find yourself ordering it first thing. Oh! And no matter what you do, do not give it to your spouse. Because Sanyog gave it to his wife just for her to feel it in her hand, and things spiralled out of hands quite quickly. He writes: I got a bit restless and annoyed because she kept flipping through it for around 10 minutes which to me seemed like a long time as I wanted to start reading it. Once he got it back (he actually asked her to return it to him, he says), it was unputdownable.

Please go ahead, read this blog for the book recommendation. I am busy ordering two copies — one for my husband, of course! Thanks for the tip, Sanyog.

What did you learn this week? Let’s exchange notes in the comments.

Until next…