Improve your life

If it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
God did not create the universe in six days but has taken about thirteen and a half billion years so far to evolve the universe to what we see today. So often we are paralyzed by perfectionism and never complete anything. Eventually deadlines get to us and our procrastination leads to a rushed bad effort. However, that’s all right we tell ourselves since it was not our fault. It was the fault of lack of time. Notice that through procrastination we give up our responsibility (ability to respond).

Since evolution is good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for us. Thus do what you need to do. Take action. Do it badly but do it and then improve it. That is exactly what I am doing with this series. I am writing them and putting them out there and later will edit them and make them pretty. I will put the final version on the website and let everyone know where to find them.

I was once doing a software project when I was programming transitions (cuts, dissolves, and such) in a non-linear video editing machine. Initially I was given a prototype of a dissolve (the simplest transition). From this I made a transition engine which allowed me to create 8 transitions. I learned from this system and then evolved the system and improved it so it could do 24 transitions. By this time I understood the capability of the hardware better and also understood how I could improve my code to its final version. This allowed me to produce 50 transitions. The interesting thing is that through this process of evolution the final system, which had 50 transitions, was only twice the size of the original prototype I had been given. In effect the final system was 25 times more efficient than the original system.

The corollary of the above is to jump in the deep end. It may not look pretty. You will not drown. Which reminds me about this kindergarten teacher who asked the children, “Can any of you tell me why did God make Eve after making Adam?” After a little silence, tiny Mary piped up, “Please Ma’am, God created Adam, looked at him, and then she said to herself, ‘Surely I can do better than this,’ and then she created Eve.”

So in order to improve your life take action, do whatever you need to do in some way or other and then improve it and improve it and improve it. Of course, there are times when you need much preparation and the first time you do something is the only time you can do it. This is definitely the case when you have to assemble those “some assembly required” furniture. You do not want to glue everything together only to find two extra pieces. However, even then it is good to first put all pieces on the ground and assemble parts without gluing before doing the final assembly.

Teaching story for today:

Actually we have two Mullah Nasrudin stories which appear to say opposite things but in fact the inner meaning of both is the same:

Mullah Nasrudin was a professor in the university. He was teaching his students about certain theoretical aspects of Platonic philosophy. A disgruntled student (later an MBA no doubt) asked, “What use is this in the real world?” The Mullah gave his student a gold coin and said, “This is useful in the real world and now leave. You are expelled.”

The Mullah was earning his living by running a ferry across a lake. He was taking a pompous scholar to the other side. When asked if he had read Plato’s Republic, the Mullah replied, “Sir, I am a simple boatman. What would I do with Plato?” The scholar replied, “In that case half of your life has been wasted.” The Mullah kept quite for a while and then said, “Sir, do you know how to swim.” “Of course not,” replied the professor, “I am a scholar. What would I do with swimming.” The Mullah replied, “In that case, all of your life’s been wasted. We’re sinking.”

In the first story we learn the utility of theoretical aspects of life and aesthetics and knowledge. However, there are times when practical matters are important. Also Mullah Nasrudin is the enemy of dishonesty, pomposity and lack of authenticity. The above two stories remind me of the need for balance which is demonstrated the by the following statement by Aleister Crowley: “If I see a licentious rake, I prescribe he spend six months in a monastery, but if I see a chaste puritan, I prescribe he spend six months in a house of ill repute!”

In the same way the Taoists believed the middle way was the best. In the tree of life of Kabala there are three pillars or aspects of reality and the Godhead. One is the pillar of mercy (as this is an important aspect of God who loves us unconditionally) and then there is the pillar of severity or justice. In the middle mediating between justice and mercy is the pillar of balance. Beauty and the material universe lie on this pillar of balance. In this series we will be writing about both theoretical maters and practical how to do things.

Interesting factoids:
Despite the claims of the pork industry as far as your health is concerned, beef, veal, lamb and pork are all “red meats” which means they are to be avoided especially if you have heart problems in your family.

Truth and lies about your finger nails. they grow about one-eighth of an inch a month - twice as fast as your toenails. However, the tiny white spots on nails are not signs of calcium deficiency. They form when the nail root is injured and grow out with the nail.

Learn from Napoleon Bonaparte: Napoleon always expected his lieutenants to prepare at least three solutions for any problem before telling him about it. So never take any problem to your boss without taking possible solutions.

Finally from the mind of Napoleon Hill: “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, the mind of man can achieve.”

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