Husain Journal

Ever wish that an authoritative personality would uncover your amazing talents and put you up in front of the world? That personality making you so successful that folks begin to cheer in awe when your name is pronounced? This could be a cool storyline for a fiction, but let the harsh sun of this actual world shine on your soft skin – even if it scorches it, burns it, tears it. Waiting for such a miracle can keep us waiting, waiting, waiting. But most of us, inspired by fantastic fiction, are drilled and drugged with the notion that an influential personality, noticing our deep talents and potential, would make us rise, following which we’re going to be wildly successful. This thought stops us from taking the real action and keeps us occupied with the shallow. It arms us with an excuse for not taking risks, not putting our work under people’s scrutiny, not trying out with our greatest powers. Because we hope to be lifted up by a lofty figure like Richard Branson or Tom C...

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Attributed to Thomas Jefferson Ever thought why we join a gym, get a job, show up on time when it’s irreversible? Because the alternative, where you’re at a liberty to act as per your own choice, offers you the luxury of rationalising your laziness, procrastination, excuses. You show up on time at your workplace because you know that it might affect your incentives, promotion, a salary raise – and in the worst case – your boss can even kick you out. You workout and sweat and gasp in the gym because you know you won’t be able to stand the reproachful glance of your physical instructor. You reach the airport at 4:00am because you know the flight won’t wait. You think not about your dishevelled hair or clothes or slip back citing a mild headache. On the contrary, when you try to self-start, you feel that you’re loading yourself with way more than you have the capacity of. You leap on the first excuse to delay...

Ever felt that you have an irritating traffic of tasks jostling in your mind to get checked off? Emails, assignments, medical, home errands and your to-do list can go on. A mere thought of these tasks is overwhelming. You try to do it all, but you feel that your hands are tied. You feel confused, clueless, and even frustrated. You think deeply about getting it all done, but soon your mind spins up clever excuses to keep you off it. And? The next moment you find yourself putting your feet up and having your favourite drink or watching television or scrolling on the social media. Because confess it to yourself – you know how to distract yourself. You know how to get yourself busy with something easy and dumb so that you can keep your mind far from grappling with the tough. But the revulsion of this escapism? Even though you’re busy in such mindless, low-quality activities, the burden of pending tasks continues to silently scream on you in the background. Has it ever ha...

For quite some time, and especially after my mother whispered goodbye to this fleeting world, I’m having difficulty waking up fresh and energetic. Yes, you might say that waking up with that cloggy feeling in mornings is pretty general, but if due to them your normal work is skidding off the rails? The alarm bells begin to ring, bang, pound. And if you snooze, you lose. You have to wake up. Well, first joining a gym and racking my bones to the point of cracking appeared clever. I reasoned that this way I’ll fall asleep as I threw myself on the bed. Good idea? But this required a heck lot of time and effort. Going to and from gym, managing office and personal work – all this appeared a little beyond the time and energy at my disposal. (Additionally, I hate sad and crappy music played in these places. Isn’t it true that all that we expose ourselves to – knowingly or unknowingly – has a bearing on our thinking?) Second I thought of purchasing some physical exercising ma...

Ever found yourself avoiding projects that entail risks of failure and mind-racking work? Yeah, I’m talking of work that you put up to be reviewed and judged. Not the work that you tinker around with to fill up your time with a ‘productive’ activity – which is for the sheer sake of practice. Not the work that you know you would shove away so that it gets lost in the dark gulf of obscurity. Here I rather am talking of work that stands the hair-raising risk of rejection, failure, condemnation. Work in which you squeeze out your heart and soul and blood. Not 100% sure if you thirst for risk and are prepared to be slapped with rejection even after putting out your best – but I confess here that yes, I try several crutch activities to avoid work that entail risk and toil. This is the reason why before publishing on my blog, I feel hesitant – because I fully know that my work would be up there to come under people’s scrutiny. I instead prefer to read something which melts away...

If presently you can’t drum up the courage to say no to others, then admit it – the scathing truth is that you don’t give your work a priority. You likely think that you can do your work any time afterwards, and this is the reason why the requests of others – which are timebound unlike yours appear more urgent to you. (That what’s delayed is delayed, sometimes forever.) So? Top import for you to pursue a few tasks and have a strict work regimen because then it would get easier for you to say no to others. So go ahead now and write down what’s to be done and tell yourself that you have to check off this particular task before such and such date, and you’ll likely get the required guts to say no to others’ requests. Gripping? Then put it to practice – now . If you’re following your work regimen and are unable to fulfil others’ low-important requests, don’t care about them. Those who have so thin regards for your aims and tasks shouldn’t be there to suck your energy ...

It was 1850s when folks found themselves hooked by the irresistible news that a massive quantity of gold is buried in the deserted state of California in America. A crazy stampede of folks scampered towards the promised land in the hope of getting back carrying a potful of glittering gold so that they can quench their acute desire of instantly getting rich. But there're a multitude of dark stories covered beneath this gold-dazzling screen. And the truth, harsh as a swishing cane, is this: Though a handful of folks did get super rich, the little-cared about truth is that there were countless who lost there everything in this crazy pursuit. Pre-embarking on their chase, these ambitious gold seekers turned off the nobs of their income streams – selling even their lands and belongings in the hope that they'll walk back with gold sacks on their backs. But tragically, some of these folks couldn't even return to the warm embrace of their eagerly waiting families....

Plunging right away in the matter without any introduction… 1. I must meditate I have for a long time heard about the deep fruitfulness of meditation. But it’s a shame that till this date I haven’t put this into my daily practice. In a school in the U.S., children with cognitive challenges are able to perform miraculously at their studies because their teacher makes them meditate for 10 minutes every morning. He places a toy on their bellies and tells them to see how it rises and falls as they breathe in and out. This practice of only 10 minutes a day helps them remain clear throughout the entire day, and due to this daily ritual they super perform at their studies. When I uncovered this mind-quickening story, I thought that if children with mental challenges can perform so well due to their 10-minute meditation of every morning, then it’s very likely that my performance at work too is going to touch astounding heights. 2. I must keep a calendar. I have read about ...

If I hadn’t made these 7 common and little-known mistakes in my younger years, this time my success would have been tenfold. 1. I settled with the easy or with the less important. And due to this, I couldn’t burnish my skills. It’s said that one grows when one does something a little over his head – when he stretches himself a little more. For example, when I was at college, I didn’t read actively (marking/underlining the important and making my own notes). I just rushed through the books if I got time from reading newspapers and emails, and obviously it wasn’t the best thing. If I had read actively, and cared less about newspapers and emails, my progress would have been tenfold. 2. I shed a considerable amount of attention on ridiculous stuff. For example, I fussed over what x person would have thought about me. I devoted a lot of time thinking about what folks think about me, though it would have been hugely fruitful for me to utilise the same attention on my core ...

So? You’re terribly busy running on the hectic treadmill of life. And you hardly get a chance of slowing down to feel the heart-moving beauty – these blessings that are all around you. But the amazing truth is that if we feel thankful for our daily blessings, that we take for granted, we’ll feel as if heavens have opened up their breasts to shower joy on us. We might get so energetic that we’ll turn back all the negative forces no matter however powerful they're to grab success. So, I’m going to list a few blessings which you have, but never feel grateful about. Shedding these blessings attention would kill your worries, scale up your strength, multiply your optimism, and eventually bring you near the success your heart hungers for. 1. There’re many people on ventilators, neither able to speak nor allowed to eat or drink anything. They helplessly see their relatives, but they know that nothing is going to be of any help. They’re waiting for their death, in a deep w...