Keep your goals private (Walk the walk, but do not talk the talk.)

There is an old saying in Hindi, “jo badal garajte hai, wo baraste nahi,” which roughly means that those who boast about their goals and targets seldom achieve them. 

Think how many times this has happened to you: whenever you tell your friend you would get up early from now, you end up sleeping late; whenever you tell someone that you are going to practice meditation, you generally leave it after a few days. You might think that if I declare my goal to someone, then I will be obligated to achieve it, but it is not true. No one keeps a check on you, and you start skipping it. You think that you will continue performing a task because by telling it to someone, you will get a dose of external validation (wow, you got up so early today!). And you stop when no one acknowledges it when you stop getting a hit of the validation dose.

We attain success (it can mean different to everyone) only when we set the goal we want to achieve and do something to achieve it. It is a two-step process: creating a target and working to meet it. When we talk about our goal, the latter part of this process is ruined. Our brain perceives the talking about the task as working on that task, and we experience the external validation or a sense of satisfaction that comes when we accomplish a goal. 

Our brain leverages the hormone called dopamine to motivate us to do a task. When we used to hunt and eat in ancient times, our brains inspired by this hormone would instruct us to chase the prey (the task) when we saw a prey (the goal). This is the same as going to the gym when we think about the results we want to achieve. Only when we remember the weight we want to achieve, we get kicked up to change into the gym wear and work out. The motivation secretes the dopamine and this chemical forces us to perform a task. When we talk about a goal, we waste the dose of this dopamine on talking instead of doing anything. And we get a false sense of achievement without even achieving anything. This false sense of achievement makes us relish in the glory which must only be obtained after achieving something: the delayed gratification. 

Also, nobody thinks you are cool when you keep boasting about your goal and never actually do anything. You come across as a cool person when you present the results. When you go to a meeting and shock everyone on the slides you were working upon and spending your hard work on; when you meet a friend, all lean and fit after working out diligently and consistently on your health.

So keep your goals to yourselves, like a secret between you and you.

References:

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself?language=en

Keep your goals to yourself: Derek Sivers

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN76CGsENeI&ab_channel=BetterIdeas

How Talking About Your Goals is (secretly) Destroying Your Success: Better Ideas.

[3] https://medium.com/azoth/why-some-people-are-more-successful-than-others-part-ii-50c03c68119e

Why Some People Are More Successful Than Others: The Dopamine Connection: Prady Tawerie

Intuitive Eating

Food not only fuels our body for our living, but it also is a very important part of our being. We are what we eat. Many of us do not have a healthy relationship with the food we eat. That includes over-eating, eating junk food, eating processed food, or dieting and eating very little. In earlier days, the term ‘dieting’ was reserved for models or actresses but now, everybody seems to be categorizing the food they are allowed to have or they must keep away from. They are hundreds of diet plans available online like Keto diet, GM diet, etc. They all aim towards a single goal which is reducing weight. Nutritionists have shown that the weight shed with dieting or restricting yourselves to a few food groups tend to come back in some time. Moreover, when you diet, you carry this constant food police on your head telling you what is okay to eat and what is not. This constant tension stresses you out, even more, when you have other responsibilities like deadlines to complete or a child to take care of, etc. 

I was recently introduced to the book: Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole, Elyse Resch, and I have started to feel differently about my eating habits and my body image goals. In a sentence, intuitive eating means making your peace with food and eating consciously: eating when hungry, stopping when full. Just like a child. The authors mention ten principles of intuitive eating. I loved reading about all of them. But, these two are my personal favorite: 

Reject the diet mentality. The authors claim that in the process of growing up, we have lost our bodily instinct about eating when hungry, and stopping when we are just about to get full. The authors advise ditching any diet that you are following to reduce weight. These diet plans are your enemy because they promote false body images, and make you hate the way you look. It is very very important, after all, to love yourself. Only then, you can love your family and friends. Eat mindfully and consciously is the way to go. Do not starve yourself to the point when you start overeating. Rather, listen to your body when it is telling you that it needs some food. This way, you will eat proportionally and you will prepare your own meals instead of eating take-out food. Also, stop when you start feeling full. Do not over-eat. By not over-eating, you are respecting your digestive system, your body.

Make peace with food. This means not stopping yourself or not restricting yourselves to eat only a certain category of foods. By not giving any food the power to control you, you make it yours. This principle states that you eat any food when you feel like it. At first, you might start drifting towards an unhealthy lifestyle, but gradually, you will feel that by giving yourself permission to eat anything without feeling guilty, you are becoming mature and friendly towards your eating habits and you would want to eat healthy yourself.

Apart from these two, the authors advise respecting your body and coping with your emotions with kindness. You do not need to be strict with yourself every single time you eat some carbs, 

Also, being active and doing some form of exercising will not only improve your physical health but also give you more opportunities of becoming friends with your food and respecting your body, feeling gratitude towards the strength and abilities that your body encompasses which we generally take for granted and forget appreciating.

Impact of COVID-19 on my life

Physically, I am good. Healthy. But, psychologically, I don’t feel so top-notch. I am writing this to record the mental state of my being at this threatening period of our lives. I hope everything will be over soon, and this record will remind me of the fact that how beautiful our lives are and how much we take for granted: nature, mother earth, our house help, and our health. The intent of writing this is not to gain any form of sympathy. I just wanted to pen this down. Writing this will probably get me some sort of relief amidst all the panic I feel.

I am pursuing the degree of Ph.D. I had registered for one of the prominent summer schools in my area of research, which was supposed to be held in Italy. It feels so grim thinking about the situation of Italy now. The number of cases currently has crossed 80K, and the number of casualties stands over 8K. Yes, this is the situation almost all over the world now. Powerful and self-sufficient nations have knelt with their eyes to the sky for any hope from the Almighty. Just looking at the reports the media publishes, and the news channel disseminates, make my heart toss. I feel anxious and scared. Scared of the threat our nation stands at. This anxiety is of a sort like I have never felt before. So much uncertainty makes my brain fuzz. I wonder what would be the case with people who already suffer from any anxiety issues.

On 24th March, our government locked-down the entire nation for a good 21 days. When I heard it, I felt a great deal of relief. But I hardly had any idea about the consequences it will bring for my mind’s state. It’s going to be a week tomorrow from the day when I shifted from the hostel to my home. And still, I do not seem to be procuring a routine life for myself. I had a set routine in the hostel: waking up, getting some workout done, having breakfast, and then going to my lab to start with my work. It is going to take some time in my home to form and follow a routine. This is probably because all the family members have different daily routines, and when you stay at home, you want to have the meals together, you want to contribute to the household chores together, etc. However, I think all this randomness will subside, because, in the end, you have to get your work done, right?

The government is urging day and night to stay in their homes, but few people are not careful and venture out on the pretense of buying groceries, etc. If this situation continues, there might be a dreadful situation in India, and this gives me the creeps. Yes, I feel panic-stricken. Not for food, not because I do not get to go outside, but by the fear of the uncertainty. Thinking about what the next few days might bring gives me chills. I try to maintain my daily routine like before, but somehow at the end of the day, I feel I have not done enough. This makes me more anxious. And in those anxious moments, I try to remember the power of gratitude. I feel whole-heartedly grateful for my health, for a roof over my head, for my family, and for the food we are able to buy. I can not feel more respect towards the law-enforcement workers, paramedic staff, and all the essential services workers than I already do. My heart is filled with sheer love and thankfulness towards them. Being the daughter of a nurse, I can feel the pain the families must be feeling when their loved ones have to go outside to do their duties. Nevertheless, it is required, and I feel proud.

I know this time will be over. Hopefully, we will not be seeing any more deaths from today (we stand at 20), and everyone will come out of this soon. Till then, I will keep my vibes positive, and I will keep filling my heart with appreciation and gratitude for the wonderful journey that I am on.

The Trade War between China and the USA

Tariff means that a country imposes taxes on imports with another country. This is done to motivate people to buy goods manufactured in one’s own country rather than buying imported goods at higher prices. This, in turn, has an effect of creating more jobs within the country and it boosts the national economy. And this is how a country can try to decrease the trade deficit with another country. Many western companies settle their factories in China because of the low labor cost because of the low standard of living of the Chinese population. Producing the goods at lower prices and then exporting these goods to countries like the USA has been the primary factor in Chinese economic growth. As a result, the US stands at a $375 billion trade deficit with China as of 2017 (The US imports from China: $506 billion; The US exports to China: $130 billion). In his campaigns, Trump promised to lower the trade deficit with China. This tariff is the byproduct of that promise only. 

Also, the USA has been very clear and communicative about the unfair policies China has been using to increase its market. (1. China has been promoting the unfair transfer of technology from America by imposing US companies to disclose their technology and intellectual property if they want to do business in China. 2. China has been a currency manipulator for a very long time (more on this later).) This tariff move has come as a sort of punishment from the Trump government. The USA has placed similar policies on Mexico, Canada, and the Europian Union nations by taxing the imported steel and aluminum (among many others) from these nations. As a result, the car industry has suffered and reported a lower profit for the year 2018 (Ford and General Motors). These nations have retaliated by imposing tariffs on the goods imported by America. China cannot do this because it sells much more to the USA than it buys from them but the people who are following this trade war closely have said that China will not bow down in front of Trump. 

This trade barrier does not only impact these two nations’ economies but other nations too. Asian countries are interlinked with each other’s trade profits or losses through supply chains. For example, Singapore serves as the largest transition hub for China. Many shipments destined for China make their way through this tiny nation’s port and that is exactly how Singapore has benefitted from this globalization and trade revolution. Many products that are assembled in China draw their subparts from other Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The elevated costs of Chinese goods will, in turn, affect the prices in Singapore and many south Asian countries. This is pointed out clearly by Singapore’s minister of trade, Chan Chun Sing, that “to produce a product, chances are it would be a global production chain, and if one part of the global production chain gets disrupted or distorted, it hurts not just one specific country, but all countries”. 

The International Monitory Fund (IMF) has issued a report saying that this trade war has and will affect the world economic growth and predicted 3.7 percent growth as opposed to the earlier prediction of 3.9 percent. Actually, this trade war is just not a war for fairer trades, it is a war to become or remain the global influence/leader over the world. What can America do to improve the situation: instead of aiming for power all over the world, it can try to become a team player and a statesman. After all, you can do good only when your neighbors are doing well too.

The Balance between Economic Growth and the Environment

The Nobel Prize in 2018 has been awarded to two American economists: William Nordhaus (77) and Paul Romer (62). They have been chosen for this honor because of their very novel contribution to the research connecting economic growth and the environment. They have come up with a complex model depicting the effect of environmental perturbance on economic growth. We already were aware that the harm we do to our nature affects our health, our resources, the ecological balance, etc. But never did we know the exact monitory loss caused to us for every ton of our carbon footprint. The model tells us the exact dollar loss for every ton of carbon-di-oxide produced by us. This model gives us a way to predict that if we spend even one less dollar in developing the technologies to curb the amount of C02 than the dollars equivalent to the amount of C02 being produced, we will be successfully saving our future for a long time without hampering our economic growth. 

Coincidentally, this award was announced at the time when the UN claimed that within 12 years from now, the environment's temperature could increase by 1.5 times if we keep polluting our environment at the same pace. Basically, this is a global alarm to all the countries to start developing less harmful technologies and to start enforcing the governance and some policies to tax the producers of the harmful technologies which cause an enormous amount of carbon footprint. No discrete solution to impose strictness on nations with higher footprints has been given by the two winners. The theory of taxing (proportional to the amount of C02 produced) proposed by Nordhaus does not seem to be a practical solution. This is because the money will indirectly be charged from the consumers of the benefits of the technology (the developing nations) rather than the producers (developed nations) of the technology which is actually causing the pollution.

The research also aims to bring forward ways to stop the effects of environmental change. The solution is in our knowledge. Innovation is our tool. Also, we need good governance policies and lifestyle changes. They say that such technology or innovations have to be developed which cause less harm. Now, there is an interplay between innovation, economy, and the climate. Every nation has two kinds of investment policies: long-term and short-term. When a nation wants to invest in researching the new technologies to improve the environmental conditions, it is a long-term investment and obviously, it affects the short-term investments of developing nations because their primary focus is to feed and clothe their population. In such cases, it is the responsibility of the developed nations to invest in the long-term finances for developing high-class technologies, either by themselves innovating or funding the research in countries like us. After all, those nations are and have been the primary cause of this level of environmental degradation in the first place. But, some countries like the USA do not want to participate in global coalitions at all (thanks to Trump’s policies) and some pseudo developing countries like South Korea and Saudi Arabia hide behind their “developing” tag so as to restrain from contributing. In this case, we have to find a sweet spot such that the economic growth and the environment can go hand in hand without us having to beg in front of developed nations.