Over-Rustication leads to Stagnation of Activity of Neurons!

On a fine day you lie down by the window gazing into the sky and don't realize how hours together pass-by till you get hold of your senses only to know it's lunch time already. The food is overly tasty and you can relish the real-taste of it, for you know you have all the time in the world to do it. It suddenly sub-consciously feels like you are on holiday, but that ain't the case. You spend days like this relaxing and giving your body the most deserved rest and mind the space it needs. One day you wake up to realize that you have given yourself a holiday longer than was necessary and relaxed far more than you should have, only to know that "time and tide wait for none" & "time once gone never comes back again!". Either you regret or you don't.

The regret kick-starts the self-leadership mechanism in you and you finally decide that you are going to fight it and not be pushed down by this phase of your life, where you gave yourself the luxury you thought you deserved. After all of self-convincing set of phrases and volumes that you speak to yourself, you are more than convinced that you were right in what you did and that you are now prepared for the geared up phase of your life and that you are going to make up for all that was lost (if any was).

You begin with all the zeal and then work really hard, with all the momentum, that waking up early and going all out to make happen all that you desire. There are no more gossips but just talks on what can make things happen and move ahead. "Progress" is the word and the only one that hits your mind more often than your eyes could blink and lungs could breathe. You are finally owning what was once only in fairy tales - the midas touch. All that you attempt only goes great and you see results and the glory that you dream of and all that you are trying to make up is finally happening and getting closer.

You make glory in tasks after tasks and then comes a moment the energy levels are at peaks and you know you are performing beyond expectations and you are beating every target by margins twice or more and you know that you truly deserve many pats on your back, BUT NO, you are not going to stop because you had already had a long break and you now know that you have to make up for all that was lost to ensure that time feels worth it.

Now there are many paths and many destinations that can open up from this stage of life, majority relax after a few more miles only to repeat the phase mentioned at the on-set of this article and put themselves in the cycle of this article phase 1 - phase 2 - phase 1 - phase 2... and so on. But seldom do they realize each time the phase 1 is getting longer than phase 2. Such people end up in Mediocrity. While for those in whose lives the phase 1 goes shorter each time on the cycle become Winners in Life, pretty successful enough to tell tales to all their family and extended family.

For those in whose lives phase 1 barely comes again apart from the long lasting break of life called childhood, post which they are forever set in momentum and they go on rocking become Living Legends. For those in whose lives phase 1 never comes at all and they keep themselves in phase 2 always and keep rocking, become the historic role-models for living their life in ways rarely anyone could attempt living, they are the ones who love everything they do and just keep walking and truly own the midas touch.

Finally the ones in whose lives phase 2 never comes at all are ones totally unheard of or In some rare cases called quality venture capitalists :) (Who don't over rusticate! They plan & live well. Not all though.)

IUY2C Leaders Megha & Moumita Set Waves of Inspiration!

Taking upfront leadership for the initiative IUIndiapreneurship Phase running until Aug 15, 2013 starting from 5th Aug, 2013, Megha & Moumita - the two IU1010 Season 2 leaders have created waves of inspiration across 32 government schools across Karnataka. Majority of the schools covered were from Bangalore and Hassan Districts while they were successful in touching other districts too.

It has been an amazing week for the selected individuals among the many applicants for becoming a part of IU1010Season 2. All these youngsters from Bangalore were on a massive mission of educating the government school children about the lives of freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives for Indian freedom struggle. With a holiday in the week, and the activity of IUY2Cstarting on Tuesday, these 8 elite enthusiasts had just 4 days to address students in government schools where such topics are seldom spoken about, to drive in the patriotism spirit among the younger lot. Among the 4 teams of two each involved in the activity, there was one team which went on to inspire 6810 children in a matter of just 5 days across 31 organizations/institutions with the help of ten volunteers panning 4 different cities of Karnataka. Megha and Moumita were the young and dynamic leaders of this team which cast the maximum impact.

It was a phase of Indiapreneurship that was being celebrating by team Inspiration Unlimited on the occasion of our 67th Independence Day. Inspiring people to work towards solving the problems of India with simple solutions was the core agenda of Indiapreneurship. Moumita went on to share her feelings about how she felt when she got to know that she could mentor people younger than her. She felt really proud and happy for having done so. Megha shared about the learning she took out of these sessions where she addressed hundreds of budding Indians. They spoke about how the mindsets get formed as we grow up in life and how difficult it is to break mindsets once people grow up. They were overwhelmed to see that students from primary classes were far more enthusiastic in participating and learning when compared to their seniors in schools. Overall, Megha and Moumita expressed their deepest gratitude towards Sujit Lalwani sir for having designed this amazing activity.

It was an exhilarating experience to listen to these young duo sharing their lessons from their experiences. The confidence they had in their eyes of having accomplished the feat of reaching out to so many kids in a matter of just few days and transferring the energetic inspiration with the future of India was exemplifying in itself. It has been a vision of IU to build massively strong leaders among the youth of the globe starting with India. Witnessing such hardworking and high spirited souls like Megha and Moumita has, in fact, enhanced our belief and faith multi-fold that it will not take much time before we see India as a transformed and intelligent youth led developed nation of the globe. 

I extend my warm wishes on behalf of entire team IU for the amazing work that these young-STARS are doing and request them to continue the same with the same zeal and relentless passion.

8 Powerful Guidelines TO Study Better, Focus better, Concentrate better & Live better!

Too many people asking the following, lead me to use blogger's facility of leaving a page online for all those who need the solutions for any of this permanently without me having to re-type the generic things.

1. How do I study better?
2. How do I focus better?
3. Am not able to concentrate better. How can I increase my concentration?
4. I feel, I am not able to remember things better. How can I better my abilities?
5. I feel I am not a good student.
and scores of similar type. (If your question is unattended in this blog, leave a comment here and I shall get back to you!)


First of all, studying is something that has been terribly misunderstood. While, one should be studying to learn something, majority are learning to score better. Scoring better is a goal for sure, in the kind of competitive system we have created to promote talent and better education for people, but, not the only one. One needs to understand that studying is an art just like painting or any other form of art is. It leads to self-discovery and enhancement of the perceptions and elevation of life through better understanding of the world and systems around us.

One should first consciously re-inforce in oneself that studying is for improving the knowledge and level of know-how of the world and it's many streams and not for scoring better alone. Once you have felt and understood this, then your whole focus is not marks and you chase the subject until you understand. Generally, you develop the interest in those things, that you really understand well or interest forces you to develop better understanding, in either case, it's important to develop interest in what one is studying.

We need to break our mind-sets that we like some subjects & some subjects thoroughly bore us. The moment you tell yourself that you do not like something, half your motivation of doing that is killed and the more you do it, the more you lose it. So, when you are doing something do it with deep interest and push yourself to love it.

Once this much is ensured following points would ensure you concentrate better:

1. Avoid Distractions & Stay Focussed: 
Majority of the times, we are very strong at focusing on what we want to do, but then we introduce distractions. When there are less beams in a building that has large spaces, chances of roof coming down are high, which shows division of weight is important. It clearly shows that weight divides itself on to different beams & hence per beam stress levels reduce and hence strength of the building is better(in lay-man terms). So, when you focus on multiple things at the same time, you are dividing your focus on multiple things, hence each item demands HEAVY FOCUS, which is pretty difficult. While, if you attend one thing at a time, then it's much better to stick to what you doing and your efficiency improves. Do not let your friends, family and facebook call you for frequent breaks when you know you are on a serious mission.

2. Avoid Lousy Company:
What kind of a company you keep, determines the type of person you are. Ensure you are in company of people who have zeal and passion to do something in life, and ofcourse who are awesome students, not just because they score well, but they love subjects. Keep their company, become friends, have meetings every week to discuss subjects, spend time discussing and debating topics of subject interest. Avoid, negative people and those that talk negatively about progress and education in life.

3. Sit for continuous hours:
If you never sit for continuous hours, you will never know your ability and will power that you can exercise. At least to know you can do it, ensure you sit for long hours studying and don't move from your study place and be surrounded by what you wish to study and dive deep into it. While a lot of people say that studying longer and for long hours spoils your efficiencies (its true), not having an experience of it at all, is a loss of the experience of exercising your will-power, and at least knowing that you can pull it off with full concentration if you desire or if there is a need. Then switch to shorter durations (1 or 2 hours) and a mild break and then return.

4. Healthy Study environment:
Maintain a healthy study environment. If you cannot keep your study place clean and not love being there, you cannot fall in love with subjects. Imagine a romantic scene in a place full of stinking garbage in the background, quite sad and bad. You wish you never saw that or fell in love ever, if thats where your honeymoon would be. So I hope you understand!!!

5. Keep your goal on mind:
Have a daily target and a set of weekly ones and an overall target where you wish to eventually reach. If you never knew where you wish to be, then you would reach anywhere. Keep targets and stay focussed.

6. Keep away from these things(Reminder!):
Keep your phone away while studying no matter how addicted you are. Stay away from Facebook and other social networking sites till you complete your targets and don't update status in between. Do not let the sound of TV move you towards and please don't tell me you love studying with your ear-phones plugged. You are just reducing your efficiency by a huge margin by doing any of this. Ensure you don't let your pets, neighbors or friends come for walk-in distractions when you are studying.

7. Believe in your abilities:
Remember if people have explored, discovered, invented, created and compiled books, concepts and theories, we just need to study them, so that we can be reasons for creating and inventing tomorrow. Its all possible.

8. Final Tips:
Take power naps, Don't group-study too often, unless it's important, Don't let people build mind-sets about difficulties in studying which are negative, Keep your notes up-to-date, Don't over-engage in just reading, practice skills, remember reading alone does not make you stronger with your concepts, researching does, Keep mind-maps, flow-charts and pocket diaries for quick recalls and Ensure you share what you learn with others (the most effective way of learning is teaching!).

A sound education is a foundation for a sound life. You are a super-star and you can be what you dream of. You will fall in love with your studies and subjects, if you start applying these and read this blog every single day and focus yourself each time your thoughts take you for a walk. Don't expect a MASSIVE improvement in day or a week. Take it step by step but take it seriously and decide to take control of your life and education from here onwards.

If you have questions still unanswered, re-read the blog, sometimes it just fills those gaps that we don't catch generally in the first reading. If you still remain with any. There is unlimited space here you can always drop in your comments. You can also write what you feel like sharing after reading this blog here in the space below for other readers to know how this benefitted you. Share if there is any tip you have for the many readers who might read this. Share the link to your blog on better study techniques (if any) to ensure readers reach you too!

Thank you
Sujit Lalwani
Founder & Director, IU

PS: To buy my book "Life Simplified!" online, just log on to http://iuworldwide.com

#WID

There was a dream I once dreamt to celebrate World Inspiration Day every single year. The date was decided to be April 23rd owing to the conception of IU on the same date. Every birthday of IU was celebrated as a day to inspire. But this year on, we are glad to let the world know that we are officially celebrating this day as THE WORLD INSPIRATION DAY, which just leaves me to tears. I know this would never stop from here on in, and create a more inspired world year after year.  

The support from Global Organizations has been huge and promising for me to believe even stronger in the vision of an inspired world!

I wish to see you all join us in this chase towards creating a more inspired world where people wake up to a positive morning each time they go to bed, to create a world where classrooms are full of people with zeal and not of people who are bored to the core, companies have people who are bubbling with innovations and ideas that make this world a better place and not those who reach there to make ends meet, where canteens have gossips around solving issues of society and not gossips of how they could create issues for others, where politics is full of leaders who wish to serve and not think of how much they deserve, where common man is not disgusted and has not given up because he is tired, instead he smiles and attempts to make happen things because he is inspired!!! WELCOME TO INSPIRATION UNLIMITED (IU).

#WID is just a statement to all those negative people out there in the world, that we just need a year a day to ward off their influence in our lives!!!

Sujit Lalwani

Founder & Director, 

Inspiration Unlimited (IU)

Hear it from Horse's Mouth: Mr. Chris Arnold sharing about WORLD MERIT*.

I thank Chris Arnold, the Founder of Your Big Year and World Merit* for sharing these words of wisdom. I also appreciate his generosity and kindness in acknowledging my Visions and visions of IU.

Following is a direct letter from Chris Arnold, Founder of YourBigYear, Smaller Earth & WorldMerit*.

Today, Inspiration is not that difficult to find. Social Media makes great quotes extremely accessible, almost to a point beyond saturation.  The oratory and poetry of great historical figures is being somewhat undermined by the sheer quantity of ‘wise words’ online.

However, though sharing a platform with the common words of ‘Anonymous’ may dent the ego of past poets and political leaders, I say this ‘inspiration clutter’ is a great thing. It has created a modern day peer pressure to be a source or conduit for inspiration. As Anonymous or perhaps a famous poet first said, there is a pressure now to do well but also to do good.

Users of Social Media have already and irreversibly made a commitment to check or judge the actions and values of politicians and corporations. Though that is not always going to be fair in the unfiltered world of places like Facebook or Twitter, the consequence is that all emerging leaders know that they have to be people of value and values. The best of the upcoming generation know that it makes strategic sense to be collaborative, emotionally aware, culturally aware, ‘social’ entrepreneurs.

In the past, because the chance of being ‘found out’ was much lower, leaders were ‘safe’ if standards occasionally dropped lower than the electorate or customer would want. There were only so many news reporters to go around. Compare this to the speed and distance both news and innuendo can travel today. As David Jones, CEO of HAVAS Worldwide and Founder of One Young World says, "People are now empowered by social media to hold business and leaders accountable. So, if you behave in the wrong way – whether you are the head of an Arab Spring country or News International – then people can sanction you. That has taken corporate social responsibility out of the silo and put it in the P&L statement. Business cannot avoid this.”

In my opinion the remarkable effect of Social Media is not the access to information or communication it has provided, but rather the positive change in culture it is inexorably making. Twenty year olds have always been vaunted as idealists and activists, but today I believe it is increasingly more so. The tools are there to collaborate across borders and the desire to be seen to take action and have positive momentum is something for society to harness.

Old people, and by that I mean everyone who has failed to adapt to the current online methods of communication, will latch onto the painfully frivolous uses of social media. They believe that Twitter is about sharing lunch updates; they believe Facebook is simply a source for inanity; they regard the Internet mostly as an efficient delivery system for porn and a way to browse information – like a big virtual library. This view is irrelevant and almost certainly in its final years.

There is Merit Online. That is a useful pun for me as my organization is called World Merit and we have our own online social community, however, I mean it in a more encompassing way. The upcoming generation is grouping together in ways that will absolutely change the world. Yes! There are huge number of superficial online communities, but just look at how many powerful groups are being formed, for example, www.worldmerit.org, www.oneyoungworld.com, www.dosomething.org. This multi –tasking generation is comfortable with being bombarded with messages that naturally splits its focus. In the same minute it will think about football and famine, pop and poverty, and these groups sit unapologetically next to each other on Facebook and in their consciousness.

So here is my main point. Quotes are unlimited, messaging is unlimited, but because of the actions that the upcoming generations will take and the way that content is easily shared, inspiration is also unlimited.

This has been recognized by my friend, Sujit Lalwani, who happened to be a finalist in the www.yourbigyear.com competition that I started a few years back. In YBY2 Sujit beat over 60,000 people from almost every country in the world to become a finalist. He had already recognized the power of his actions on peers and had set up the Inspiration Unlimited initiative, and has now authored his first book with the title ‘Life Simplified!’. Sujit is in his mid twenties and is one of the most motivating emerging leaders I’ve met. The incredible thing is that the ‘Your Big Year’ competition revealed to me the positive power and positive mentality of such a huge proportion of youth. They will not allow the cynicism of the older generations to infect them, but unlike in the past, this is not because of naivety.

They know the problems that face humanity and the planet. They understand the need for change more acutely than ever before. They also know that their approach will be unrecognizably different, more collaborative, and more open, than ever. They are aware of the risks of being subverted or made immobile by sheer weight of input and death by committee, but in the transition of leadership styles, to theirs, they know that they hold the seeds of previously unimagined potential.

Sujit from India, Charles from Uganda, Barbra from the US, Linh from Australia, Sarah from the UK, each one of them knows their responsibilities to make the world a better place. I for one, for the sake of my two children and because it is so much fun, will do everything I can to help them.

Join the Merit community of global citizens and emerging leaders at www.worldmerit.org. Also try and become the voice of the upcoming generation by winning our Ambassadorial world trip at www.yourbigyear.com. If you are in a position of influence please try and support both initiatives and contact me directly. If you are old, and I mean in the definition I laid out earlier (not being literate in the new world’s communication methods) then you are unlikely to have read this note, but if you have, either modernize, or get out of the way of Sujit et al.

Chris Arnold,

Founder, World Merit and Smaller Earth