How i learnt my way of "Man Proposes, God Disposes"

Yes!!!I made a list of things I got done in 2024! I said to wisdom

"You still don't get it, do you Tanu?"

"Don't get what?"

"That there is a whole universe at play between what you do and what gets done"

Recently we planned a "girl's only" trip. And the start was awesome as the pictures below reflect.

But the evening, we reached, I fell sick when accompanying my two little daughters (of 6 & 4.5) and my mother in law (Senior Citizen). 

The next day was planned for the next destination (MAN'S PLANNINGGGGG....) and with a medicine in, we decided to move to our next destination.

My health deteriorated even more, but I think that was how the God had planned it for us!

The third day, as planned (our plan) we had to go and attend a kid's outing... And guess what! I was burning with fever and everyone around were even more scared than me. But my Mom in Law (as the iron lady she is) stood strong, got the kids ready and took the kids out, while I rested on the bed almost immobile.

Final day, we got the booking done for back home and with the support of two dozes of medicines (1 while starting and another during the journey) we somehow reached back home.

HOME where everything seems perfect, fine and all your worries flies away because you are surrounded with your loved ones, your environment and your four walls.

This trip taught me few things:

1. How unpredictable life is!

2. How important it is to value our family!

3. Who are our well wishers!

4. And various other meanings and interpretations of life!

5. Pictures do create memories (on a lighter note)!

No matter how hard the time was, or will be, I know I am Blessed with the Best people around and I am and will always be grateful and thankful for that FOREVER :)

So, My answer to "What does it mean to say, Man proposes, God Disposes"

would be

Probably, NO MATTER WHAT YOU PLAN, NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY TO EXECUTE YOUR PLAN, THE END RESULT WILL NOT BE IN YOUR HANDS!

Well Everything is in God's hands, we give our best but God wasn't willing to make it work! Because God always have a better plan/ lesson for you.

The year didn't go as planned

We often get disappointed to see that in 2023, things didn't work out the way we had wanted. 

But I do think that it's good to set intentions and expectations because it can guide our choices and be our North Star but I think holding on to them too tightly it can actually get in the way of us experiencing life as it's really happening when reality doesn't meet our expectations which is most of the time, I think that is when we become unhappy and dissatisfied.

If things would go the way you plan, how scripted the life would be. Hence it is the unpredictability that keeps us going and the moment we embrace the unexpected wholeheartedly, that's what lead to the most memorable moments and valuable lessons.

These will give you lessons that are much bigger like how you handle yourself in specific situations.

'AS YOU START TO WALK ON THE WAY, THE WAY APPEARS." RUMI

"LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE BUSY MAKING PLANS" JOHN LENNON

So if life throws another curveball, embrace it wholeheartedly and just enjoy the ride.

Whatever happened or didn't happen, it's already passed you but you have the power to define what this year meant for you. 

Trust the magic of New Beginning

 We hope you don’t just have a happy new year but we hope that you have an abundant one.

We hope you embrace the twist  and  turns and you don’t forget the simple joys in between.

Because that is what add colours to our lives and resemble the true beauty of life.

#HappyNewYear

Trust God’s Timing

 

God knows the future and the past and everything he plans comes to pass

God knows everything, but we don’t. We see the world from a limited perspective, but he sees everything. He knows the future and the past and everything he plans comes to pass. He knows when you’re supposed to land your dream job and he knows when you’re meant to marry the perfect guy. You can trust him because even if it takes many years, it will come to pass. If God planned it, it’s bound to happen. 

His word has never failed and it never will 

God’s word has never failed, and it never will. You can trust his timing because if he gave you a promise, he intends to follow through no matter how long it takes. He didn’t make a mistake when he made you a promise. It was deliberate and intentional. He knows what he’s doing when he allows you to wait. Even if it seems like your timing is better, we know that God’s ways are best. Again, if God spoke it, it will happen no matter how long it takes. 

God has good intentions for you 

God has good intentions for you and cares for you deeply. God says even the hairs on your head are numbered. You are valuable to him. God isn’t making you wait to hurt you. He has no intentions of hurting you. If he’s making you wait, it’s for your good. You may not be able to see the bigger picture, but you can trust God’s timing because he loves you and only wants what is good for you. 

He has proven himself trustworthy before 

God has always kept his promises. Look back on your life and think of a promise God made to you in the past. Hasn’t he kept it? While you may not understand God’s timing, you can believe in his faithfulness. When the waiting season feels long and hard, remember how he’s always been there for you. Don’t believe the lie that God isn’t for you. He is. He’s been faithful to you before and he will be faithful to you again. 

He’s always on time

Finally, God is always on time. He’s not on our time but he’s on time. The Holy Book/s says that a day in God’s eyes is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. So, when you’ve been waiting for two years and it feels like forever, remember that two years is like seconds to God. He sees a much bigger picture than we see. Trust his timing because he’s never late. What is meant to happen will happen in the right time if you walk according to God’s lead. 

I know that the waiting isn’t easy but God will carry you through it if you let him. I hope this list has helped to remind you of some of the reasons to trust God’s timing. There are so many more but these are just a few. Ultimately, we trust his timing because we trust him. If we believe that he is who he says he is, it’s only natural to believe him when he tells us to wait a little bit longer. Keep the faith, keep holding on, and keep trusting God in this season.

Mastering the art of becoming an expert

 Here's my question to you all !

Ever wondered why sometimes you attend a lecture at university / seminar / classroom and the instructor seems brilliant but you walk away not learning a thing? 

Often times Instructors have lost conscious awareness of 3 elements to becoming an expert and may neglect them from practice.

We all are working towards becoming a master or an expert in a field. So what steps does it take to become an expert?

Probably these three elements are required to developing mastery. 

We must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what we have learned. 

Let me break these down one by one and also provide you with some tips on how you can practice these for your own learning.

Acquiring Component Skills

Acquiring component skills include the basic learning of skills such as reading writing, analyzing, critical thinking. For example: when you are reading something, be it a novel or a book chapter or while analyzing a case study, component skills would include identifying the question, articulating perspectives, recommending solutions.

Tips for practice:

• Identify your blind spots
• Seek support from your mates, guides or supervisors with task decomposition
• Discuss with colleagues
• Explore more materials 

Integration

Practicing these component skills is needed to integrate them into your work, both separately and in combination with different skills. This element is often more difficult and demanding than the first.

Tips for practice:

• Give yourself time to practice and increase fluency
• Temporarily constrain the scope of the task by breaking a large task or skill down and focus on one aspect at a time
• Explicitly include integration in work activities by being intentional with practicing these skills into your day to day

Application

Obtaining the ability to integrate component skills successfully, knowing when and where to use what you have learned is as important as learning it. 

Tips for practice:

• Identify conditions of applicability i.e. identify contexts of where and when you can apply certain skills
• Apply skills and knowledge in diverse contexts meaning application of these skills in multiple situations
• Use comparisons to help identification. This requires identification of other problems, scenarios or tasks to differentiate characteristics and hence the application of the learnt thing in the most suitable situation / task

In order to become a master in your field, acquire the needed component skills, practice and integrate these components for grater automaticity and then understand the conditions and contexts on when and where to apply.

I found this helpful for my learning, I hope you do too. 

Power of little things

Today's post is inspired by the quote "If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way", often attributed to

Martin Luther King, II

Sometimes, we set a high bar for ourselves and strive to do the same, if not better. We set high expectations on who we should be, what we should do and push ourselves to so just that.

Except that it doesn't always work out. It fails as we become weighed down by the enormity of our goal, and stresses by the need to do great things, we decide to do... nothing. Days turn into weeks, which turn into months, and nothing happens as we hold on tight to our grand goal, waiting for the perfect moment to set ourselves onto it.

In such cases, here's something to remember: If you cannot do great things now, for whatever reason, then start by doing small things in a great way.

This means,

• If your goal is to start your restaurant, then start by perfecting your recipes for your meals, right in your kitchen.

• If you goal is to develop the next big app, then start by developing tools that people will use, that solves people's pain points.

• If your goal is to be a best - selling author, then start by refining your writing skills, through your daily writing and researching to understand what makes other tick.

• If your goal is to be a top YouTuber, then start by creating simple videos that convey your ideas well.

Whatever big goal you have been putting off, ask yourself: What is that small thing I can do well instead?

Because it's so easy to overlook the small things in favour of that big goal we want to get to. Yet our results in the long-term are built on the little steps we take today.

• An athlete wins the race because he has spent each day following his workout regime without fail.

• A singer achieves her / his big break because she/he has performed many small gigs which helped hone her / his vocals and develop her/his onstage persona.

• An author publishes a best - selling  bool because he has spent years building his expertise and his writing skills.

We are, in essence, not what we will do on some fine day, but what we do today.

While doing small things well today may not seem like a great deal, especially when we stack them up against our final big goal, a 1% improvement each day, done for 365 days, leads to a 37 - times improvement.

But it starts by first committing to these small steps and doing them well. it is not that grand big goal that you're going to work on at some point in the future that matters. It is what you do now, today. these small steps determine what you eventually become.
So, what small steps can you take today? And how can you do these small steps in a great way?

I am starting with my YOGA JOURNEY today by a small step of 1 hour for at least 3 days a week.

Looking forward to knowing about yours...

Ways to handle stress

The pictures below are taken from web and are self-explanatory in their own way, listing few keys to manage stress. 

But when it comes to actually managing the devil, the biggest problem, the worst nightmare; sometimes even these tips fails to do any good and that’s what makes it difficult for us to face the reality with the good lively spirit.

Hence here I have tried to list down some of my personal favourite ways which are tried and tested in my life and might help you as well.

1. Focus on what you can control:

Most of the things that stresses out have nothing to do with us. They aren’t up to us. They aren’t worth worrying about. 

2. Prepare for it in advance:

Don’t just do positive visualization, do negative visualization as well. Seneca says, the blow you anticipate, lands the least heavy.

3. Morning Journal:

Every morning I spend a few minutes with journal; writing down my thoughts, working out what I am stressed about. Then I do the same thing in the evening, where I review how the day went, what I could do better. Did I really need to be worried? Did my worry make anything better?

4. Have a hobby:

Have something that’s different than your work. It’s different than your kids. That allows you to put some of your energy to good use. 

The Stoice like to say that we should laugh at life, don’t cry about it. That is, don’t let everything weigh on you so much. Life is absurd rather than terrible. 

5. Memento Mori:

You are going to die. We are all going to die. None of this is just permanent. Relax. In the light of your very fragile mortality, almost nothing is worth stressing about.

Wishing you all a very nice and less worrisome life. Don't expect it to be without problems. After-all, it is life and hence synonymous to problems; just be an expert in managing the things what life brings to you.

Looking forward to know your views on these in the comment section below.