How are we going to spend the next 21 days ?

Good Morning Friends !

Is it really a good morning ?

For the 1st time in our lives, we are having holidays for the next 21 days and yet we are not feeling very happy about it. We are concerned about our safety, the safety of our family, our near and dear ones and we are also worried about the safety of the world. We are worried about how these 21 days will pass with so many restrictions and dangers. We can go out to buy essential things, but we cannot go out to meet our friends, to party or even to jog on the playground. That makes this 21-day holiday a little complicated. We have to remain confined to our homes with our family. I know it’s tough, especially for the young and restless! This is something unprecedented happening with our lives for the first time and hopefully for the last time.

My heart feels the pain of lacs of daily wage earners who are not going to earn their daily wages but must feed their families. Fortunately, there are many good people around ensuring that life remains good for such people in such tough times. Our government is also taking every possible step to ensure that people are safe and comfortably getting their basic-essential requirements. But still its not that easy to remain inside our homes with nothing to do. The next 21 days are going to be unlike any of the days we have lived till now.

So how are we going to spend the next 21 days? Are we going to be just lazy and take long sleeps twice a day, keep on watching the same repeated news on tv, spend hours on WhatsApp and Facebook, do needless online shopping and add 3 to 4 kgs of more weight to our body at the end of 3 weeks ?

How about looking at this 21-day lockdown as a once in a lifetime opportunity? I believe that if we properly plan out our strategy for the next 21 days, and also plan our every single day in the morning and spend our days in discipline, we can become a very different, refined person at the end of 21 days.

Today, let us apply some thought to the things which we always wanted to do but never found the time and energy to do. Of course, not all the things will be possible to be done from inside the confines of our homes, but there will certainly be some things which you can do staying at home.Let’s make a list of all such things… It may include reading certain books bought long ago waiting to be read, watching certain good movies which you wanted to see from a long time, making that wonderful painting which you always wanted to, writing a short story which was always there in your mind, calling up your friends you have since long lost touch with… Above all, starting to take care of our health by doing exercise, yoga at home, doing meditation for which we never had time… THE TIME IS NOW. We have no excuses to give ourselves and we will never forgive ourselves if we do not make the most of these 21 days that we have got.

Fortunately, internet is accessible to us & now it’s cheap too! So, whatever it is that we want to learn about, its available there online on YouTube, Google etc. We just have to decide what we want to learn and search for it with discipline. I say ‘with discipline’ because when we are online searching for one information, there is every chance that we start surfing aimlessly and spending a lot of time on non-essential things. Let’s keep a watch on ourselves when we are online!

You can order books online and you will get them in 3 to 4 days. [Online delivery services are allowed]. But do ensure that you don’t start doing online window shopping for things you don’t need!

It is said that if you do something every day without a break for 21 days, it becomes a lifelong habit. Which are the good habits that you want to inculcate? Exercising everyday? Yoga? Meditation? Prayers? Let’s take the first step today, now.

Let us start planning for the next 21 days by asking ourselves the following two questions:

Q1) What is that one essential skill / thing that I would like to accomplish in the next 21 days that will make me a more advanced & refined person?
Q2) What is it that if I did consistently for the next 21 days, I would feel very good about myself ?

The answers to these questions may be hidden in our lifelong desires which we never found time to fulfil due to our busy schedules. But now we have no excuses. Its perfectly ok if the answers to above questions are not grand enogh. Your answers could be as simple as: reducing x kg of weight in the next 21 days, reading 3 books on leadership / spirituality, learning to cook, doing meditation twice a day, watching videos on a particular topic on YouTube etc. Our answer can be something as specific as: increasing my knowledge about Business Finance (Balance Sheet analysis, cash flow management etc.).

For students, the answers to above questions can be: starting the day with 12 Surya namaskars, perfecting multiplication tables up to 25, improving creative writing skills by writing one essay and one letter everyday, solving x number of maths sums… By the way, I will suggest Khan Academy’s website and mobile application as a good source of free online learning for students and everyone. It’s a revolutionary website in the field of education.

In the end, let’s be careful to avoid spending our days doing the following things:-
1) Making the television channels rich by watching news, cartoons and movies all day. [ We must watch, but there should be a plan, a limit about when and how much to watch].
2) Making the owners of WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media apps rich by spending endless hours using them for no benefit of ours. [We must certainly use technology, but only that much as much it enriches us and not consumes us]
3) Sleeping more than necessary and becoming more lazy.
Lets make these 21 days the most effective and enriching days of our lives !
Lest stay home,
Lets be safe,
Lets become better versions of ourselves !

Director
Vishwajeet Borate
Sunrise Champs School (www.sunrisechamps.com)