It sounds very trivial to realize the fact that most of us do not take action on many things that are good for us, as well as those that are not. We often find ourselves sharing our everyday struggles with our friends and family, like struggle to wake up early, struggle to control our anger, etc. I myself have experienced numerous unsuccessful attempts to cope up with issues like excessive sleeping, junk food eating, and many more. Those crispy french fries of McDonalds, you just cant resist them, can you? Or those chips, which NO ONE CAN EAT JUST ONE !! Who cares how much extra pounds are they going to add in me, they are still awesome! Thats how many of us feel. But seldom do we dig deep into the core issue - the reason that is stopping us from not eating those fries, or that is making us spend just 5 minutes more in bed.
This is what was discussed in this Thursdays meeting of I AM FINE Group. The meeting was aimed at finding the reason that is stopping us from taking action on things that are good for us, and not good for us.The best part about I am Fine sharing meetings is we widen our horizons, we start looking at things through different perspectives, and we become better at solving our problems. Same was with this meeting. Here are some of the key learnings from the meeting that I think will help many of us, especially me, to do things that are good for me, and control those that are not:

1. Becoming aware of my activities and how they are affecting me - All of us know what is good for us and what not. However, in our busy lives, we often fail to give it enough importance, and are hence unable to act on it. I assume most of us (including myself) spend hours on our mobile phones just navigating our fingers through stuff that does not take us anywhere (Of course this does not apply to Mark Zuckerberg and some of those who are actually making good use of social networks), but we just fail to realize the amount of time we waste (rather than utilize it in a more productive way) and hence we do not stop wasting that time. Its important that we become aware of all the things we doing consciously, so that we can take the necessary action. "I will see, I will act, and I will conquer"

2. Accepting that I am not a Superman - Superman because nothing except Kryptonite can harm him. We tend to ignore and discard things that are good for us, with a very basic attitude - "Just one time wont do any harm to me" . Most of our addictions start from that One Time. We are like that frog who if put into a boiling water will immediately jump out of it. But if its put in a cold water and then the water is put to boiling, it will start adapting to the rising temperature, and by the time water boils and it wants to jump out, it wont be able to because it has spent all the energy adapting to it, ultimately dying. Only Superman would have come out alive. We need to be scared of things that are not good for us, so that they remain out of our ecosystem. Thinking that just by not acting that one time wont affect us in any manner is totally wrong. We just have realize the after-effects of any action that we do.

3. Accepting that I am not Krish 3 - Not using the Superman analogy again, but then all the superheroes are same. They can do everything ! But I cant. We have to accept the fact that we cannot work on everything. There are somethings that we maybe able to take action on, and somethings, not. I have often tried to multitask at home and job, but it never works. Same goes with our problems. We tend to think we can remove all our defects. But we cant. There are some that will fade away (If we take action on them), and some wont. And we should accept that it is OK.

4. Trying alternate solutions - Often, after repeated attempts, we fail at making a change, and finally give up. Not that we dont try. But things just dont seem to work out. Alternative solutions and approaches often help in tackling the issue. Procrastination is something many of us suffer from, unknowingly at times. But reverse procrastination often helps. I can always wake up late, but not this one time. This has worked for me, after a long tug of war with alarms and snoozes.

There may be many more ways and approaches to look at the above issue, and there is no right or wrong among them. I think it has to be slow and determined effort in working on all our actions, so that they turn into habits.

As Leo Babauta of "The Zen Habits" mentioned in one of his blogs - "Every day I struggle with the resistance to act, and every day I lose the struggle. And then I win"

Cheers !!