#unlock

The World is locked

#Lock , #unlock

So much has been said on COVID-19{C-19}. That I could not help but starting my first line with it.

We can unlock from where it begins and ends

Talk about the new reality of life unfurling from 19^th mar and then 21^st march.

I am sure like me many or most of us made several post-its and notes to make the MOST of the days given in hand and come up with a 2.0, 3.0, X.0 version of ourselves. But wait a minute in a few days this life also became hectic, between household chores, managing grocery, managing content, calls, video calls, post COIVD scenario building + revised strategy + how am I going to be relevant + many more. However, amidst all of this we all are finding something new and unique to get us to Unlock “ME”, for the sake of simplicity. I am by way of this blog sharing my Unlock “Me” experience.

I believe sometimes when you understand your situation at a subconscious level, you attract things which are related & lending to your state. This is what happened when C-19 was making me think about my state and I bumped into this book. It was like reading the right thing at the right moment giving the right perspective. While reading a not so popular book on Kindle, “Obstacle is the way” by Ryan Holiday I bumped into a simple yet very powerful line which touched me deeply “We don’t control what happens but we can control how we respond”. And reading amongst tons of other content I managed to listen into a Podcast By Ravi Venkatesan, and learn about the “Stockdale Paradox” popularized by Jim Collins in the famous book “Good To Great”, which explains “Realism Vs Optimism”. In the pages of this Book I have read so far and understood about the paradox, I realize that quite honestly adversity in modern times is overrated and lets say if it was our best bet is to toggle between real risks and not perceived risks and be optimistic. People who believe there are better options like being pessimistic and build 6 V.0 of scenarios, I am sorry, I haven’t read enough.

Let me try and talk about the above using some anecdotes from the world of sports circumventing corporates & historical wars, not that there is any dearth of examples but it’s just that I find sports to be the most non-threatening, single largest unifier & isn’t marred by religious, political or any other racial filter . Hence the subject is Agnostic. 2 minutes of your precious time please, kindly watch this 👉Lets learn from Paralympians how to deal with adversity, video clip. One of the many tera bytes of content posted on YouTube, but again I was clear in my sub-conscious mind to look for something and I got this in my first search. Of course I am not taking the credit I know its Google AI/ML.

Suyash Jadhav

I believe all these 4400 athletes had a choice to respond in a very defeated / different manner when they would have faced this adversity but look at them, they are playing at the mecca of sporting competition, Olympics and proving that the only limitation to a Human is the Human itself. In the words of one of the India’s most celebrated Paralympic Swimmer - Suyash Jadhav, You can accomplish anything with sheer hard work. Think of what you have and not what you don’t have, and “world’s most decorated Paralympic, Trischa Zorn popularly said, Despite her long dominance of swimming, Zorn says she never felt invincible. In a way both these messages are very true and relatable to the C19 situation and how many of us have a choice to respond to this. Although frankly speaking most or rather all of C19 is not even close to losing both your upper limbs at age 6 owing to getting electrocuted with live wires and still going to win a medal in swimming at the specially abled Olympic event And that when a blind by birth Paralympic swimmer with 55 Olympic medals reminds every mortal being a sense check that with all the Might they had they weren’t and shouldn’t mistake them as invincible.

With all of the above Me as an individual had only 3 choices 

1. To choose the way I will respond 
2. use this time to upgrade my iOs (internal operating system) & 
3. How do I make myself and my newly founded venture which was still like a nascent baby live through this storm. So at upugo.in my newly founded venture we had a situation where-in all our physical format classes came to a grinding halt which meant that we could have

Core Team upUgo 

lost our identity and whatever little existence we had created. However, considering/leveraging all the options I listed above we did what was the need of the hour and all of us (our team) buckled our shoes to get our digital plans advanced by 6 months.

What's the big rush, Lets not sprint the marathon

To summarize in the end, we all are in some way running the frenzy and the hedonic treadmill which never allows one to do any of this or that. Not realizing that sometimes our laces are untied, and we are on the edge of the mill. Now when that Mill is shut & we can Stop, Breathe, Notice, React and then Respond [I learnt his SBNRR technique from a mindfulness coach and expert) to so many things. Tie our laces and get ready for a better run out in the open. A human mind works best in adversity and can indeed unlock her/his potential best when in danger, drawing a ref the teachings of Epictetus, The Greek Beggar Turned Philosopher, “We have no power over external things, and the good that ought to be the object of our earnest pursuit, is to be found only within ourselves”