Rubik Cube

No one’s childhood would have passed without being fancied to the Rubik Cube. I would not be surprised that the generation who did not see its inception during their childhood, ended up playing in their adulthood. For whatever reason, nobody reads instruction manuals. If you buy a new Rubik’s Cube, there’s usually a set of instructions that come with it, explaining the algorithms that you need to use to solve the cube.

What do we do when we encounter something- be it a personal, business or academic struggle- that seems completely over our current level of competence? How do we evolve as a person, learn new skills and accomplish increasingly harder goals without losing confidence in ourselves.

I think the answer is in learning ‘What’ & ‘How’ to learn.

In the context of the Rubik’s cube, this began with me researching how the cube was constructed and learning that it wasn't just a random combination of colored squares. There are actually ‘Algorithms’ which help to solve the maze.

Self-coaching to give yourself immediate feedback is just as effective. The first step to the process is having an end result in mind, then using deliberate practice to get there. For me this meant learning all the 8 sequential algorithms to the Rubik’s cube one-by-one and repeating them individually until I was proficient at solving that specific piece of the cube. My focus at this point was not solving the cube, but mastering the one specific algorithm I was working on which was, incidentally, a step in the overall big picture.

It’s all about filling in the gaps, the first stage is about figuring out what you don’t know. But once you know what you don’t know…then you need a specific strategy for filling in these gaps. Most people would make the mistake of trying to do more generalized study or practice harder here. The main way to fill in gaps is to attempt to actually teach what you've learned to someone else and see if you’re able to transmit the information in a logical pattern. You’ll usually find that the things you think you understand by grasping in the dark, guessing and checking, assuming the whole time. While communicating they are much harder to explain & transmit to others.

For me, this really broke down to trying to teach someone else how to solve the cube. Once I learned how to actually teach and transmit the information, I became much more competent in the skill. There’s a big difference between knowing how to do something yourself and knowing how to teach somebody else the same thing.

Motor Skills

‘Motor Skills’ I have been ambushed with this term several times. Yes & I vividly remember has no connection with my pristine car driving skills. A recap only makes me feel guilty as always thought was wise on the whole thing. Abandoning it to best of my ability with starting & closing it to body movements. Where deep & vast as an ocean it has still to give you more.

A fine motor skill is any skill that involves the use of the small muscles in the hands, in accordance with what the eyes see. Which requires the strength, coordination and precise movements of the hand muscles. Every fine motor skill requires that you are able to interpret your visual perceptions into corresponding physical movements. With practice, it’s possible to increase the ability of the fine motor muscles to work more efficiently together in a singular task. 

The research work I ended up doing in this only led me to a point where kids or old age were given the focus. Believe prior is balancing to the new & the latter is losing the balance to it. Where the age group of middle disappeared made me also disappear to it.

Gross motor skills generally refer to movements involving larger muscles, like those in the arms, legs, feet or the entire body (used for walking, jumping and so on). Furthermore Fine motor skills generally refer to movements involving smaller muscles, like those in hands, wrists and fingers (such as those used for holding a crayon or toy). However, as one thinks about these two groups of skills, it is easy to see how they overlap.

Our brain is not fully developed at birth. The brain grows very rapidly during the first several years of life. We, being highly conscious of our motor skills--our potential and abilities-- are greatly influenced by them. Our language betrays our need for motor excellence.  From birth, we judge the development of a child by whether he is rolling over yet, sitting up. But what if they can't "DO" like someone else?  What if the natural ability isn't there, or the skill hasn't been developed?  How does this child feel?  How is he seen by others in his world? What kind of feedback does he receive?

Our initial perception of self is an interpretation of how we think others perceive us.  So what can we do, to enhance the self-esteem? The point here is - this thing does not finish till the child level it goes on throughout our life. We are throughout our journey only busy magnifying our motor skills at no age do I see we have left it behind.

“I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill”

The Hare & The Tortoise Story

You learn something every day, if you pay attention to all your folds. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. Children have to be educated, but they also have to be left to educate themselves. As a child we all read many stories, In-fact we forget all except few. Somehow believe the story of Hare vs the Tortoise still holds strength in all. May be the reason being on various context throughout we kept listening to it as examples here & there.We can still spell magic with this story in a new light making it worthwhile for all of us.

The Hare & Tortoise story is one of Aesop's Fables, a collection of stories credited to Aesop, a slave from Ancient Greece. The hare blind to over confidence thought that he’ll win taking a nap or break was his right & the tortoise’s diligent regular, plodding pace allowed him, in-spite of being  slower competitor, to cross the finish line first.

Are you a tortoise or a hare when you approach a large task?

There’s no right or wrong way, but just whatever system works better for you.If the story is dissected to the given living conditions in which we nurture can be forked into two ways…

A Tortoise prefers to work more days, for fewer hours–three hours a day for seven days - Slow and steady.

A Hare prefers to work fewer days, for more hours–seven hours a day for three days - Bursts of effort.

I am a Tortoise. I like working every day, but I don’t like feeling that I have to get a huge amount done in any one session. I like having distant deadlines that I approach slowly and steadily.

A friend of mine is a Hare. She allows herself to take a day off here and there, but she makes up that work. She doesn't mind the pressure of needing to accomplish a lot over a short period. She feels energized by deadlines.

One problem with being a Hare is that to be effective, you really do need to catch up. You can’t sleep through the entire race. I see quasi-hares fall into the trap of the “tomorrow problem”. “I didn't work today, but I’ll work seven hours tomorrow”–but when tomorrow becomes today, they don’t feel like working the seven hours. If that’s a challenge you face, you might try a tortoise approach. Don’t try to do too much on any one day, but push yourself to be very, very consistent.

Interestingly this story scores on many morals, where we had earlier one…

·        Slow & Steady Wins the Race

·        Consistency can beat Over Confidence

·        First identify your competence & then change the playing field to suit your core competence

·        When we stop competing against a rival & instead compete with the situation we perform better

·        Never give up

·        Never under estimate the weakest opponent

E-Go

Ego when donned to hilt must have always lost his balance through. We all are blessed with it. How to keep it in balance is another trait one needs to own. I like to hammer my Ego to a pulp, let it lie to breathe its last breath. Learnt to do as no one is gifted with this boon. In fact love toying it more than feeding to its itch. E-GO the word itself says let the E Go forever from it. This helps me win over it, but will always do cannot say. As with being positive I have a realistic approach to all what I do. I understand being perfect is not attainable, but always trying is a habit to be never given up.

Ego is easily shaken up, always in search of food, that somebody should appreciate it. That’s why you continuously ask for attention. Try to understand your deeper self as this has to be truncated & unless you throw it will never be able to reach your real self. An analogue which justifies difference between a real & a plastic flower. The ego is a plastic flower – dead, in fact justification of being called as a flower also fails as biologically needs to flower & grow. We humans have a flowering center as explained in Hinduism too, depicting a lotus with infinite petals to our sight.Which goes on flowering till our end making it permanent, but not eternal.

When you let the plastic flower take over your center? How can the real flower take its stand? This Ego comes continuously in conflict with others because every ego is unconfident about itself. A conscious being can never miss not knowing that his Ego is false. When someone says the truth – nothing hits harder to us than the truth. Your defensive attitude comes to its best cause if you don’t where will you be? Your Identity which you feel is so fragile will break. Is it true? Before playing this game make sure to be true to your conscious as this is one thing you can never be inseparable too. 

You expected something, but your expectations got drained. The thing which is shaken the most is called your Ego due to which you stand in misery. Causes are not outside us but within us. We always end up looking outside more. When in misery try to ask why? Nobody can try & create humility through any effort of his own. When we let the Ego slip from us humbleness naturally will take its place. It’s not a creation but a shadow of our real flower showing its light outside. When humbleness has its shadow on us the holder stands unaware of his own quality, if he stands boosting on the same has still Ego to GO.

What is Ego? Ego is a hierarchy that says no one is like ‘ME’.

Intersections

Turning traffic has an impact on pedestrian travel. Motorists who are turning left have their concentration focused on the oncoming traffic. They while concentrating on identifying a suitable gap in automobile traffic traveling on a perpendicular path, often pull into the pedestrian crossing area. 

Summing up the whole world we have different names for pedestrian crossings: Zebra, Pelican, Puffin, Toucan & Pegasus.

·         Zebra crossings are named after their stripes & are used in many parts of the world.

·         The word Puffin comes from Pedestrian User Friendly Intelligence (making the buttons available beside you!)

·         The word Pelican comes from Pedestrian Light Control(You ‘control’ the button for the ‘green man’ from the other side of the road)

·         The word Toucan based on the idea that two can cross –  these are joint for pedestrian and cycle crossings.

·         The word Pegasus crossing is a special consideration for people on horseback.

Putting all the crossings in a bag making it a mixed bag. Let us pull threads on the art of walking.

Choose a place where there is a space between two cars, making it easier to reach the other side of the road.  A hidden message for all when split between varied streams should always be able to find space between each by making it a To & Fro move.

Make sure a stationary vehicle is true to its core by observing for driver, lights & d silence of the engine playing to its best. With presence of our mind our sight has equal weight. Use it to your best not only to see superficially but deeply.

Never to cross blindfold near large vehicles. You could be standing in a blind spot, where the driver cannot see you. When mentally you have already fed yourself that the given situation is bigger than you make sure your visibility is not diminished to the same. Sometimes your acting skills is not only a veil for others, but for you also in making you believe that you can envision more than you see. 

Walking to the outside edge of the cars circumferencing and halting to the sight of drivers or vehicles. Make your journey worthwhile give time on your stoppages. Appreciate from where you started till where you have reached. When we are passionately involved with our Goals, we forget to appreciate ourselves how far have we reached. As we tie our success only to our Goals fail to acknowledge the others.

Use the Green Color-Cross Code. Make sure you find a green lining in all you do, the expression “golden lining” stands nullified. If your eyes fail to see green than it must be STOP.

Forbearance to Pain

Conversations always end up as starters, heading me with blank canvas towards a new direction. Being a part of a group as not active but passively listening to all. The steaming topic of discussion was getting inked to a tattoo with erratic pain level to all. Blink of a second I could relate to several different faces of the past, who have shared different experiences on the same. The Y which is ’Why’ never leaves me to rest. There has to be a reason why people experience different level of pain even when all are going through the same.

Pain tolerance is the maximum amount of pain someone can tolerate. Experts do not yet agree on why we have different levels of pain tolerance. Psychology might explain pain tolerance as a result of “mind over matter.” In fact, some people can even control their reaction to pain consciously. People can increase pain tolerance a number of ways. Some examples include stimulating positive emotions to override negative emotions during stressful situations, suppressing pain via distraction, or by training and conditioning the mind to focus attention elsewhere can help minimize pain.

Dodging all the other studies which weigh around Gender, Age, and Culture & Genetic. The psychological study which takes human behavior as prime makes it easy for us to learn the key for un-keying our self. Throughout my life I have been red faced to needles. Sight of it would make me turn my face to the opposite direction & getting a shot without hitting my voice till the roof was rare to see. My height & age had stopped protecting me so I decided to be brave. How much can you relate to the word ‘brave’? But for me that time it meant nothing less than uprooting a mountain. I knew I had a strong will power that was enough for me to get ignition than rest was history.

In this whole process I realized it’s just an act of ‘Mind over Matter’. If we stop feeding our self with negativity we can do wonders. I have felt it, done it & experienced it. No blind fold approach I’m talking about. The power of our thoughts are so strong we our-self do not know….

Mahatma Gandhi ‘A man is but a product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes…’

Luminary

Gaping into the sky had not decided to be a head hunter but was overwhelmed by the sight. The twinkling stars had enveloped me with an unbreakable bond. The brightest out of the lot, which we always name it to be “North Star” is far away from the factual. North Star which is also called Polaris has been gifted with medium brilliance. The story line builds up now “Why automatically  do we presume the brightest to be North Star?” left me also scratching my head.

This star is a boon to travelers throughout the Northern Hemisphere, both over land & sea. Finding Polaris means you know the direction north.  Polaris – is famous for holding nearly still in our sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. That’s because it’s located nearly at the north celestial pole, the point around which the entire northern sky turns. As you face Polaris and stretch your arms sideways, your right hand points due east, and your left hand points due west. Due to its placement its visibility is easier to naked eyes even while being placed as the 50th brightest star.

There are some trade secrets from the world of amateur astronomy where they apply to read stars which are placed at unimaginable heights. We at arm length also tend to miss out things. May be need to take a page from their book to learn it through.

Your eyes need to get adapted to the dark before you go out. That means not just getting up from watching TV, or staring at your computer screen, before you look outside. You won't see much because it takes your eyes at least 10 minutes to adjust to the dark. For the same reason, astronomers prefer to use red lights to view their star atlases & then look up at the real thing with little trouble. Tie a knot to yourself to the new to be the best observer in your first 10 mins. 

Another tip for finding really faint objects, particularly when looking through binoculars or a telescope, is not to look directly at them. This isn't because they are shy, but the central part of your eye is not the most sensitive to light. It is best at distinguishing fine detail, but the side parts are actually better at seeing faint objects. The technique of looking away from where you expect something to be is called averted vision. Keeping a focus on the main the sides are not to be sidelined a message for all to learn.

William Shakespeare

     “It’s not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves”