Category: Daily thoughts

What is the middle way?

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The whole night, I couldn’t sleep. Memories of the past and thoughts about the future kept coming into my mind. Sometimes I simply floated with the waves of thought. At other times, I gave too much power to certain memories, and I could feel the stress building inside me.

Then I tried to return to the present moment. A kind of Zen mindset came over me.

In the deep silence of the night, when everyone else was sleeping, I just lay there. The next two days felt long. I slept a lot and didn’t feel like doing anything.

But there was another problem: when I stayed completely in the present moment, time seemed to move painfully slowly. I would stare at the floor and listen to the constant hum of the split AC. What do you do with yourself in such moments?

If I stayed only in the present, time barely moved. But if I allowed myself to drift into thoughts—positive or negative—time passed quickly. The problem was that wandering too deeply into the past often left me sad, and sometimes even a little angry.

So I began wondering: What is the middle way?

Perhaps the middle way is not to stop thinking, but to become more conscious of which thoughts we choose to give our attention to.

Pick the good memories. Give them some space. Revisit them.

Count your blessings.

I remembered something from the book Chaali Din: why do we keep collecting the thorny memories from our past? Why do we hold on so tightly to the moments that hurt us while allowing the beautiful ones to fade away?

My wandering mind began to calm when I deliberately turned toward beautiful memories.

I started counting my blessings—the things life has given me, the things I have achieved, the people who have valued me, the moments when someone special gave me their time and attention.

Maybe we cannot stop the mind from wandering.

But perhaps we can choose the garden in which we allow it to wander.

The quality of our life depends on the quality of questions we ask ourselves

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I was reading a quote recently that made me reflect deeply on my life. It said, “The quality of our life depends on the quality of questions we ask ourselves.” This quote is often attributed to Tony Robbins, and its meaning is both simple and powerful: when we start seeking answers, we invite change into our lives—and when we ask the right questions, that change becomes meaningful and transformative.

Think about it—whenever you face a negative situation, the way you respond begins with the kind of question you ask yourself. If your first thought is, “Why does this always happen to me?”, you’re asking a reactive question that may lead to some answers, but not the kind that move you forward. These types of questions are common and natural, but they rarely lead to growth. On the other hand, empowering questions can shift your mindset and open doors. You might instead ask: What can I learn from this situation? How can I respond differently next time to get a better result? What small change can I make so this doesn’t happen again?

One of the most profound questions I’ve come across comes from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. He writes, “Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’” It’s a simple practice of mindfulness that invites clarity and intention into your actions.

That led me to wonder—what if we asked better questions in every area of life? What if we were intentional not just during tough times, but in our approach to health, learning, relationships, careers, and finances?

The first step is always to assess your current situation. Without a clear understanding of where you are, it’s hard to move in the right direction. For example, in your financial life, you might start by asking: What are my current savings? What debts do I have? What are my spending habits each month? If you can’t answer these clearly, spend at least one month tracking your money. Clarity comes through awareness.

Once you have a clear picture, begin asking deeper, quality questions that can lead to change. Questions like: What are my biggest unnecessary expenses? What percentage of my income am I saving? Am I consistently spending more than I earn? What emotional triggers lead me to spend? And perhaps most importantly—are my financial habits aligned with the life I truly want?

This principle applies across all areas. But it all begins with this: the quality of your thoughts. When your thoughts are mindful, intentional, and rooted in the present, you elevate the quality of your entire life.

So take a pause. Look at your life. And start asking better questions.

Red Car theory will it root in Stoicism

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Yesterday, I experimented. While going to the office, I start looking for a red car. I was searching for a red car, or any vehicle that was painted red. Interestingly, I saw 10 vehicles until I reached the office. Did you experiment with it? Try it.

The fundamental idea is that wherever you direct your attention, it starts to manifest more. There is a quote that says that when you focus, life begins to grow. Where you neglect life, it goes to dry.

Let me explain a little more about the red car theory.
If I were to pose one straightforward question to you, When you go outside on a daily basis, how many red cars or vehicles do you see? Did you notice that, most likely, your response would be, “No, not a single one,” or “probably one or two?” However, it’s likely that you failed to notice them because you weren’t focused on them.
If I were to offer a reward of $100 to anyone who spots a red vehicle, you would consciously focus on finding 5 to 10 such vehicles.
Actual concept opportunities are always present, but once you notice them, they start to appear.

Everything is perception, when our focus changes or we put forth efforts to change our perception about certain things, our environment starts to change.

Experiencing adversity or misfortune often leads to further misfortune, and the opposite is also true when we experience good fortune. More lucky events start to happen.
Actually, we were intentionally seeking these.

The question now is, how do we relate this modern Red Car theory to ancient philosophy? They all talk about perception and focus. They all discuss how our mind shapes our reality.

For example, Epictetus said that 
“We are disturbed not by things, but by the views we take of them.” 
This quote explains that we have to focus on our perception. While we cannot control events, we can control how we respond to and perceive them. It is our emotional response to these events that determines our experience.

The same way Marcus Aurelius’ said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” 
This implies that, regardless of the circumstances, we can maintain our happiness as our minds actively seek it out. our thoughts make of it. If we think more about happiness, more happiness will appear.

 
Some ancient Indian scripts also talk about a similar concept: “As you think, so you become.” 

A similar Buddha said: 
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

This Buddha quote also talks about the same concept and encapsulates the red car theory. Our thoughts and focus constantly shape our reality. If you concentrate on something, it starts to appear more frequently in your life. If you focus on a red vehicle, you start to see it more often.

I hope you like this video. On closing notes

The Red Car Theory highlights how our focus can shape our reality. By consciously directing our focus, we can alter our thoughts and perceptions of our surroundings. We can notice more things that align with our interests, goals, or emotions.

How to finish what you already started project or task.

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Hi friends, If you are facing the problem of an unfinished task or project and want to finish all those pending things, this post is for you.

Let me share with you my story and how I settle things and come up with solutions.

I am a person who wants to do a lot of things.

I have a lot of ideas; some I have implemented, some are in progress, and some are in a pending state. But unfortunately, a lot of them are in an unfinished or stuck state. I have already implemented many ideas in the form of different projects, but nothing will be fruitful.

Things will only be fruitful when they are completed or the end product is ready for sale.

With the passage of time, these broken and partially completed projects created a mess and started to stress me. This feels like emotional baggage for me. And, unsurprisingly, I’m getting fed up. I was starting to feel disorganized and dissatisfied with myself. As a new idea pops up, an already-unfinished mess stops me. This mess is discouraging me. Why am I adding new things to an existing mess? Slowly, I just focus on office work or the only things necessary, and the rest I start to ignore. This makes me sad and dissatisfied with my life.

Later, I focus on a simple strategy that helps me to clear my mess and improve my productivity, which is listed, reviewed, and finished.

Let me talk about it as much as possible; it will be helpful to you.

Listed everything.

So the first step I took was to list everything, under a specific project name.

During that experience, I stopped working on new ideas until everything was sorted out.

Initially, I used multiple document and note-taking apps, like Google Sheets, Excel, Notion, and many more, even a paper-based notebook.

I start collecting everything in one place, such as an Excel sheet. You can use any of your choices.

My collection has the following things:

  • Dates, such as the day I initiated the project,
  • What was the last task I completed to date?
  • What are sub-tasks?
  • What is the state of the project?

You can follow a different workflow. One of my favorites is Getting Things Done by David Allen. Second recently, but more important for digital note-taking apps. That is the Para method.

Review and reassess

Listing everything in one place helps me remove unnecessary mental baggage. Many times in life, when there are a lot of things going on in mind, the best way to list them down on paper is in Excel, Google Sheets, or any note-taking app. It will help us get a clear picture.

So I listed everything in a single repository and add each project’s completion percentage.

Upon completion of this single repository, I ensured there was nothing left on my project list pending. Then I rework each project and divide it into subtasks for more clarity.

After that, I re-accessed the status of each project.

  • What is completed?
  • What is pending?
  • How much work is necessary to complete each task or project?

I break down access into three groups: less than 30 percent completed, 60 percent completed, and more than 80 percent completed.

Mark it done:

Marcus Aurelius once said, “Ask yourself at every moment: Is this necessary?”.

Every thing or idea has time. It is possible that any idea I worked on for the project is no longer useful. I started to ask this question on each project. Is this necessary? If you find the project now of no use, simply mark it as finished and scrap it.

Before moving forward with the projects that are still worthy, I review the definition of done.

In the famous book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey mentioned that highly effective people begin things with an end in mind. It means they have a clear picture of the finished product or point where they marked that the project or task is completed.

If you did not define when you marked that project or task as finished, please do so. Define it. After defining the finished line, re-access each project. There is a possibility that some projects are already complete.

All projects that are less than 30 percent complete should be considered scrap.

All those projects, which are more than 60 percent, ask the question: Is this necessary? Is it still worth it? If the answer is no, discard them.

All the projects that have been completed—more than 80 percent—need to be completed. Whether they are worth it or not, they must be completed.

After the completion of this exercise, my mind is clear about what I need to do and what projects are already finished or completed.

Instead of starting to work on new ideas, I started focusing on projects that I needed to complete.

Start implementing the Getting Things methodology.

For new projects and ideas, I started working on the Getting Things Done methodology by David Allen.

One of the book’s key ideas is that our mind is an idea-making machine. It was not there to hold them. Instead of keeping them in mind, note them down somewhere.

So I make a Google sheet, and there is whatever idea I got, not it down in the sheet with the name “Inbox.”. This helps me to clear my mind so that ideas are noted down. I will start working on them later.

Hi friends, I hope you like this post.

There is

What type of impact you want to create So think before speak.

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While sitting in the office, I was communicating about Iranian food. Iranian food is tasty. I liked it.
I really like the chullo kaaba. But suddenly, it came to my mind: What am I trying to convey? What message am I going to deliver?
This message conveys that I am a food lover and that I like Iranian food.
There are two major points here: will it impact someone?
So the most important thing I release in building reputation is what type of impact you want to create on others.
So I changed my approach. But the problem is, what is the starting point? The starting point is the power of intention.
I was listening to an Operah Winfery video where she talks about the “power of intention.” She said that before the age of 40, she was a pleasing person.
So she pleases others, but when others demand more, she starts to revolt.
Then she released the power of intention. She talks about the seat of the soul.
Then she shared the idea that intention is the soul of action—it fuels passion in action.
So I decided to change my ways. I started before speaking about what type of impact I wanted to create on others.
But before deeply implementing this idea of the power of intention, I was thinking
What happened to me? Why did I start to talk about general topics? With too much work in the past, I got fed up with the same types of jobs. So I lost interest in my work.
So I started to talk in general terms. Talk about food; talk about places.
But as a result, it creates a very poor impression of me. That is a big problem for me as a professional. I am statistically significant based on the work I have done. I learned what people did not know about my work. They know about my taste in food, but not my quality of work. As a result, I became less worthy.
Certainly they have word of mouth, but how do you create these words of mouth? That is what you told others.
Who you are, what you are doing, and what are your achievements—but most importantly, what are your failures? Don’t share your failure.
That all comes from one principle, and that is intention. So I start to think in a way that makes me comprehensible. What I already achieved,
So I start thinking in terms of who I am. What have I achieved? What can I do?
So the most important thing I learned from the video of Operh Winfery is intuition. What I am gone say, what is my itension. 
Either way, that other person knows that I am a food-loving person. Or a good consultant. What I know is that I started to think in terms of
What type of impact do I want to create on others?

Two Quotes from BuddhiDraham who change my life

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“If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.”

I don’t know who Buddhi Draham is—an ancient Indian or Pakistani person who settled in China some 2000 years ago. DR Dahani speculated that he might be Pusthoon from northwestern KPK and had moved to China. A lot of Zen teachings belong to him or are attributes of him.

While Indians believe that he was a South Indian who traveled to China,

Buddah means wise one, while dharam means religion. Or way of life.

There is a possibility his name was lost and some honorable name was left.

While traveling to the office, one of his quotes caught my eye on Facebook.

When you don’t understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you.

So what is reality? Reality is sach, satheya. Your reality. Your current situation

The wise man just said that understanding is everything. What happened to you or the situation that you are facing? Misery you are facing. That is reality, because you cannot understand why this happens or what changes you need to achieve change. What are the mistakes?

So you have to depend on your reality.

Then comes understanding. You have to understand, and then you can change your reality. If you really want to change it,

Most of the time, we are not aware of our situation. Whether it happens from God or from nature, we have to just face it. Live with it as it is. It is designed in a certain way.

There are two types of things or situations we face in life. There are a few things we can change, but a few we cannot. For example, death, illness, old age, gender, and race cannot change.

But we change our point of view on life. How we see things. We can change how much income we have and improve our lifestyle. We can change our fitness. We can change how we treat others. And more importantly, how we treat ourselves.

The second quote is also interesting.

“If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.”

Here, what I understand is used for justification. When we start justifying, we cannot understand the actual issue. Instead of justification, we need to understand the reasons for the issue.

Power of Determination

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I met Ahmed after two years. He is totally changed. He looks smart and is 10 years younger than his age. He lost 25 kg.

I visit the local bazaar, where once there was a small cafe; now the owner of that cafe has a chain of cafes.

https://youtu.be/GdSI4r2RLfA

My friends share that once his son failed in his class, now he is one of the brilliant students who got admission to one of the most renown universities in the country.

where a lot of people fail to achieve their goals. how some achieve their dreams while others do not. What is the difference between these people? Those who achieved tremendous success did something different from those who failed.

Yes, my friend, they have determination. They decided to achieve something, and with determination, they achieved it.

So what is the difference between determination and hoping? Hope is something we wish for; it will happen automatically or God will bless us with it. Determination is different. Determination means I will try my best to achieve this. Whatever obstacle comes, I will overcome it. not discourage setbacks.

So determination is the key, which makes the difference between wishful thinking and achieving the goals.

Let’s discuss how you build this long-lasting determination that helps you reach your goals.

Focus on why. When you set goals or want to achieve something. You should clarify why. Why do you want to achieve this? What are the reasons? Most of the goals we set out of anger, revenge, or emotion are just wishful thinking. When situations change, our motivation is lost.

For example, why would I lose weight? Because some other person achieves weight loss, I should too.

Instead, make your reason that it will result in you thinking I’ll look smart, be beautiful, perform well in my job, or stay active in my day-to-day work.

Intention will be important. Until we have clear intentions, your determination will not fade with time.

Set small goals. Sometimes we set big goals. But in reaching them, we lost our motivation; more determination is required. If you have big goals, break them into small ones. For example, if you want to build a habit of reading, instead of focusing on completing the book, just focus on 10 pages per day. And with determination, in a few months, you will reach

For example, if you want to lose weight, set small goals for starting with a 10-minute walk, then 20 minutes, and then leading it to a 45-minute walk. And with the determination that I have to lose weight, within 6 months you will achieve it.

celebrates small wins.

We lost motivation because we focused on achieving big things. Set daily goals, and then achieve them. whatever you achieve, for example, 30 minutes walking or reading 5 pages. Celebrate it. Be proud to achieve something.

Keep being kind to yourself.

Most of the time, our biggest critics in life are ourselves. We did not let ourselves stand. So be kind to ourselves. If we fail to achieve something. Take it easy. Just start again. It’s ok; we put in effort and work with full determination. But if you fail to achieve it, no problem. Starts again. if you criticize yourself. You will not stand again. It will destroy our determination.

Hi friends. With determination, you can move mountains. We need to set clear goals and plan how we will achieve them. and what challenges we have to meet. Taking each step with determination will make us successful.

So what is starting point of Dealing with Office politics part 2.

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I was a total failure in my job, not due to a lack of knowledge or expertise but due to a lack of many things that are not technical at all. To be successful in any organization, you need many skills other than technical skills. So, when I encountered failure, I asked myself, “What is missing in me?”

I found the following answers to the above points:

  • Make it a human relationship.
  • Dealing with office politics.
  • Work on building repute.
  • Influence and assertive qualities.

Many times, the question of where to begin arises.

I made some mistake or had a lack of vision, so another person beat me. One thing is confirmed: somewhere I have a lack of vision or strategy, either in my work or in politics.

One thing is good here: you have an understanding of where you need to improve and where you made a mistake. There is a common quote.

“Where is the mistake? There is a need for improvement.”

I made a promise to myself: I am suffering now, but I will work on these weaknesses so that next time I will not suffer. I decided that this failure would be a stepping stone for me.

The question now is where to start. What is the starting point?

I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.

Confucius

So just start working. You will start to understand. The starting point is only understanding that you have the skills you need to build and just starting.

We cannot understand until we start.

So the starting point of office politics is to start understanding others.

We meet most of our colleagues in the office. When you see him, ask three questions in your mind, and during the discussion, start to understand.

  • What are his strengths?
  • What are his weaknesses?
  • What are his interests?
  • If you have to deal with this person, how do you deal with him?


Slowly, you need to move. You have to study each and every person in your office.

And that is the second tip, which I implemented in my life to improve my quality of life.