ECONOMIC GROWTH IS A MEANS TO ACHIEVE AN END, NOT AN END IN ITSELF..

Our societies have gone through a complete overhaul after the industrial revolution kicked in. This changed many values that were widely accepted earlier and brought in a generation that had different kind of desires and aspirations. This flow emerged as the basic human necessities were met and there was scope to venture into new arenas. The social establishments that came up had to work towards making those aspirations a reality.

These establishments emerged but had a hurdle they had to overcome first. This hurdle was not prominent in western European countries but was itself an aspiration for many others. This was the hurdle of economic growth that was crucial because the dreams and aspirations of public could only be a reality if government had enough funds.

From the very first it is clear that economic growth was not an aspiration of the general public, rather it was a tool to make the actual aspirations a reality. In the 50's when UN set targets of economic growth for member nations, it had in mind that development in these newly independent countries needed funding. The funding as aid was hard due to the aftermath of second world war , hence economic growth was given priority before everything else.

Economic growth thus became a development indicator in early days. Most of the studied indicators of development established this fact. The well off countries were able to fulfill the aspirations of the public which made them stronger. Every country that came up in the later years followed the same trend which was thought to be the way to glory.

To elaborate this above fact we can sight some examples such as GDP, HDI, HPI and many others. They all aspire to give the depiction of reality. Thus the modern day nations focus on them and improve them through time bound developmental plans, priority sector lending, fiscal targets etc. They are all multi dimensional but aim to achieve a good standard of living for the people. The one thing that is common in all of them is that all of them require funding which is possible through economic growth. The economic goals are thus mere necessity to achieve the set goals.

Now if we consider economic growth to be an end product we are somewhat wrong. Yes, there are factors like trade, FDI etc that boost economic growth. To better explain it we can sight the aspirational target of India to become a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024. There have been plans etched out to achieve it but it can not be said to be an end of growth. With changing times and growth of population the demands and aspirations will also grow. Thus a day would arrive when even better economy would be the need of the hour hence pushing the boundaries further.

Arguments can be many. There can be many examples sighted. But with all of them we cannot deny the important role money plays. Everything we do or aspire to do has a monetary aspect attached to it. Thus economic growth cannot be considered a stable target but rather it is dynamic. It changes with time. It never is the end but it surely is the most important aspect to achieve many ends..

IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD CIRCLE..

The group we hang out with truly defines us and our personality. Some can also say that our personality is shaped by the people we choose to hang out with. It is rightly said that we are as good as the circle we choose to be in.

People learn from their surrounding. They seek traits from all sort of sources, other people being the most important of these sources. Thus it is advisable to choose these people wisely. The group you want to be in should be in every way supportive and enriching. The result of choosing a wrong group to hang out with can be disastrous. It can result into complete deviation from the path you aimed to trail upon. Our focus thus while choosing our group should be on quality because quantity in no way helps in this race called life.

Leadership is an important quality in today's society. People who have such influential qualities are always of great value for corporates. This value is inculcated in us by the group we choose to be in. They are the people who support for a growth with pure heart and have healthy criticism to offer which moulds our character further. Life skills can be learnt. The thing that is crucial is that we choose the right source to learn them so that they don't backfire on us.

Taking about life skills, another important trait in leadership is mutual growth. Leaders lead the way so that everyone under them can achieve their aspirations. While being in a group we learn to have this mutual feeling of growth. Members together grow and handle the setbacks together. This the very reason that we find little contrast in a group which has been built with the primary aim of building mutually. Billionaires prefer the company of other billionaires in their group because this group would help them grow, learn from other members mistakes and most importantly handle the set backs together.

The value of things can never be known until we look back on their influence on us as a person. Similarly the value added to us by our group can only be known when we look back and analyse the sources of the traits in us that we value today. Almost every such trait must have been developed by being in the company of that select few or have been perfected by them. Having an influential group is very crucial but choosing those select few should not be done in haste. People add up at every stage of our life. We have to be the judge to know who are worth keeping and who are just for the time being. After all life is in the quality and not quantity..

HAPPINESS IN LIFE'S SIMPLICITY..

Happiness is perhaps the most desired feeling. People do a great extent of things so as to achieve happiness. Some people work very hard and accumulate a lot of riches in search for happiness. These people associate happiness with riches. They consider happiness to be a destination. When they accumulate riches and still don't feel happy, they spend those riches on materialistic possessions in hope to find that long desired happiness. But most often than not they get disappointed.

Happiness is a very powerful feeling, this is true. But what else is true is the fact that happiness is a choice. Every situation of life offers us two choices. One is to get the negative side and react accordingly. The other is to look for the positive side and choose to be happy. The second trait is rare. People react easily and showcase natural feelings like anger, sorrow etc but rarely choose to be happy. This is probably because of the misconception they have about happiness being a destination.

Some people live a more fulfilling and happy life than others. This is because these people choose to be happy. But the most important thing about them is that they do not associate happiness with some costly materialistic possession rather they know the secret of finding content in the small things that life offers. Simple things like birds chirping, sight of the rising sun, feeling of the wind blowing on the face, smile of a baby etc are abundant and can fill the soul with happiness only if one chooses to recognise them.

Life is a journey. Its short. The purpose of life is to live happily. If we postpone happiness to the later years in search for materialistic happiness, we are destined to die unhappy, having never lived at all. All other feelings are natural reactions but happiness is a choice. God had this planned for the souls to be fulfilled even in the harsh conditions that life throws at them. At times of war people see destruction. But the souls that are enriched can etch out happiness in such harsh scenarios because they have the eye to find the smallest of things that can make them happy. The simple sight of a grass growing on a war torn land can fill them with happiness and re-affirm their faith on God's will. 

Life is a flow chart of simple events. It is upon the individual in charge to direct the flow towards happiness. Simple things of life are very fulfilling. It requires no riches to be happy. The person who has understood this has enlightened his/her soul and is destined to have a satisfying death after a life heavenly lived. There is heaven where we want there to be a heaven, There is happiness where we want there to be happiness..Nothing suites better to end this flow of thoughts than this saying,"SIMPLE LIVING, HAPPY LIVING"

HUMILITY..

Our life is a beautiful play of opportunities. These are the chances that life offers to us so that we can change our circumstances for the better. The people who have an eye for detail can pick up these opportunities and utilise them. The form of this varies from person to person. The opportunities depend on the goal set by that individual. These lead to achievement of goals and success in life. They take us to the top but remaining on the top requires some effort and changes to our behaviour. The most important behavioural change needed is the inculcation of humility in our personality.

Humility is rare. It gets rarer as one starts to climb up the ladder of success. It is a prized possession. A person who is humble and down to earth even after being on the top is a person with deep ethics and enriched soul. Humility at first is a choice. A person can choose to be humble and down to earth even when he/she need not be. This is a character trait symbolising strong personality. This trait is the one that keeps a person on the top protecting him/her from the dazzles that often blind the masses that make it to the top.

Success is hard earned and often fought for. Humility is a choice for many but then there are those people who have been humbled by the struggles they have faced in life. Hardest of struggles result into the greatest of success. A person who had to go through such hard struggles values success like no one else. That individual knows what it takes to achieve that height. This enriches his/her soul and makes the person humble towards life. They value their position and do not boast about it. They also are sympathetic and encouraging for those who are in their struggle phase working their way to the top. 

 Life offers us opportunities.We recognise them and put in our hard work. The end result is success. But this is also a soul enriching process. The struggles and opportunity that life offers us make us humble. Whenever we get overwhelmed  by our success, the experiences from our struggling days bring us to the reality keeping us down to Earth. Such is life. Humility is a prized possession. One should search for this quality in persons they want to get inspired from. Because being humble is a choice that people make when they have everything which requires a mindset that is worth its value in gold. Be humble and down to earth. Ending this with the words of Steve Jobs is appropriate because he was an epitome of humility.. "STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH"..

INSPIRATIONS AROUND US..

The Sun is our primary source of  energy. This energy is important directly or indirectly for all life on Earth. This drives the life force within every organism and brings about crucial changes in the non living components around us. Sun has been shining in the same way for billions of years and sustaining life on this planet we call home. It will keep shining in the same way for billions of years to come.

When the sky is covered with clouds we loose the sight of Sun. The intensity of light decreases and life on earth receives a set back. These are temporary and by no means it reduces the capability of Sun to shine and give life a boost on Earth. The Sun never deviates from its duty. After every darkness, light is a must. After gloomy days , sunny days follow. This natural phenomenon has kept inspiring cohort of poets, writers and philosophers. The philosophies of life have not been thought of by aspiring minds, rather they are the results of deep observations of phenomenons that surround us. The inspirations and teachings that we need in life is all around us. It's just the eye for detail that is necessary to draw from them.

A person who draws inspiration from the above will gain the urge to bring some changes into his/her life. The Sun teaches us to be bright, dutiful, diligent, caring, silent and most importantly resistant to temporary set backs and experiences. The clouds come and go, but they do not influence the Sun's ability in anyway. Similarly a person should not loose his/her path due to temporary set backs. These times of turmoil are temporary and has no power on someone who is fixed and sincere with a clear thinking. The other characteristics like duty, diligence etc are important milestones of one's career. In the long run, only those succeed who have been able to draw inspirations and enriched their souls. We do not need to dig into books for inspiration.They are no doubt great sources of inspiration but are well below those from which we can draw inspiration via experience. Souls are eternal similar to the wisdom around us. We just need to have the urge and the eye for detail in life's inspirational processes to draw from them..

DECLUTTERING..

Our life has many things that demand our attention. Our dreams and aspirations are in constant demand of our time. They are the most important things in our life. But we are not able to give them the due attention as our life is cluttered with many other things that demand our attention. These things can literary be things and other social responsibilities. When we start to give our time to these. As a result the time demanded by the things that help us grow is unmet for because we all have the same 24 hours in a day.

The behaviour we talked about earlier is a major hurdle in the way of living a fulfilling life. The dreams that we have ,often remain dreams because of our life's clutter that drain away our precious time and strength. These clutter can be of many types. Relationships that pull us down can be a clutter. Things that we no longer use can be a clutter because they demand our attention. Social media is a big clutter of our lives. Our phones drain away most of our valuable time. We get indulged in mindless gossips thanks to social media sites. We spend endless hours gulping not so useful content on video sharing sites. And not to mention the time we lose just scrolling on the newsfeed on our social media sites. All these are life's clutter that should be done away with.

Saving ourselves from our phones can be very beneficial. Doing away with the apps that we rarely use along with cutting our time on social media gossips can be of great help which would result in spending time doing things that are useful and enriching. Our wardrobe is also a clutter of our lives. The time we spend every day deciding what to wear also clutters our mind. Simplifying our wardrobe can be of great help. This will help us restrict impulse purchases which has become easy thanks to the online retail apps. 

Decluttering simply means to get rid of the unnecessary things in our lives. Those mentioned above are just a few things of the massive clutter we accumulate throughout our lives. We come into this world with nothing and are going to leave this world in the same way. Thus there is absolutely no meaning of hoarding non necessary things in our lives.
Spending life with those things that are necessary makes our mind grow and help us flourish financially. When we are away from junk we are able to give quality to our lives. The time that this method saves is impressive and the value can be instantly felt. 

The simple living is a technique of the sages. People with their materialistic aspirations have done away with this technique. But it's coming back as well as getting due attention and popularity. The benefits are endless. Try decluttering your life and witness the growth yourself. Start from getting rid of the non necessary and go on adopting this as a way of living. Share this philosophy with others and let them enjoy the benefits offered by a simple life. If these benefits don't draw you towards it, then the financial freedom it offers sure will. YOUR LIFE IS YOURS TO BUILD, IT'S UP TO YOU HOW YOU WANT IT TO BE!! 

SILENCE AS A HABIT..

It is an old saying that an empty vessel sounds much. People can derive various meanings of this proverb. But we should focus on the very essence of this saying i.e silence. Silence is a term that has been in the backdrop for quite sometime. The society has developed as well as the surrounding. This era is the era of industrialisation and urbanisation. These so called metropolices have every essentials as well as luxuries. But they lack silence which is a necessity for the well being of mind. 

Silence is a real luxury now a days. People often seek peace of mind by moving away from the hustle. This explains the so called urban to rural migration that is often considered a step back in life today. Silence in the surrounding is very important and can really create wonders but silence on lips is a whole different story.

Today silence has been attributed to shyness. People are drawn to gossips and other futile conversations because it helps them to mingle and get accepted in their immediate surrounding. This is wrong and has impacts which often go unnoticed. Scientifically speaking, the very act of speaking drains our body of energy because various organs and muscles have to be pulled in to create speech. This energy could have been used otherwise in certain productive activities that can really influence the life individuals live.

Mindless gossips are a new trend. This begins at the teenage and remains with an individual all of his/her life. People waste their valuable time and energy in them. This energy could have been channeled in order to get more out of life. People who are silent are really blessed. They have some unique characteristics that the others lack. Once a person becomes silent he/she becomes more aware of the surrounding. The idea of nature speaks that we often come across is well explained by a person who has achieved the brilliance in silence. A person who has mastered silence has surely mastered self control because he/she can efficiently control the urge of speaking. Silence also opens new doors to look at our surrounding because the energy saved activates the essential senses that makes a person better observer and listener. To clarify this we can pool in the example of deaf and dumb persons who have heightened abilities because they have essential energy saved. Things and behaviour speak, we don't always need to hear to know about them, thoughtful observations are enough.

Heightened abilities or not, silence is very rewarding. The time and energy saved can be directed to carry on productive activities that can add meaning to life. Sad reality is that people who have mastered this ability are looked down upon and are considered non social. They are left out and thus have to drive themselves on their own. Many give in to this social discrimination but one who has really mastered self control keeps his/her way of life intact. This life is not to please someone else rather to find meaning in one's own existence. 

Path of silence is difficult but the end result is very rewarding. Any habit as explained by many scientific researchers take 21 days to become embedded into ones life. Silence as a way of life is a habit and is worth the try. Yes this can result in social disconnections but the ones that were meant to stay would stay. Its the universal truth. Last blog explained about decluttering ones life. Silence has the power to declutter your life of the individuals that were not good for you. Take the challenge and give it a go. You would not be dissapointed for sure.In addition to that you would become one of the very few to have gained mastery in self control. Now that's something! Silence is really an answer to many problems which demands dedication and gives extensive value to life..

INDIAN EXTRAVAGANCE

Celebrations are an important part of life that makes life interesting. We Indians have unique festivals and unique ways of celebrating them as well. The festivals in India are times of extravagance with most people spending huge sum of money so that they are accepted in the society as a rule abiding citizen. The celebrations can be social phenomenon or family phenomenon. But in both the cases society plays the determining role. 

India is a large and diverse county. The festivals and celebrations are different all over India. The ways of celebrations are also different. The festivals of same religion also varies from region to region in the way it is celebrated. Thus it is clear that diversity is vast in this subcontinent. The social festivals include religious festivals or some kind of community celebration. Such festivities are celebrated together. If someone tries to avoid such festivals they are often branded as anti social and are discriminated in the society. Similarly there are several family celebrations like marriages, birthdays, annaprasan etc. This sect has a mix of traditional as well as festivals that have been burrowed from other cultures such as anniversaries, birthdays etc. Although they are family celebrations they are hyped and the whole society gets involved. This helps in creating bonds that are crucial for a social being like the humans. But this also creates competition that leads to more spending and extravagance. Such spending is just to get social recognition and respect. People show their money and resources at these functions. From decorations to guests invited, all are planned and carried out with precision. Such behaviour is acceptable when a person is well off but when people with limited resources are pushed to spend on such extravagance then the problem starts. 

Such stupid game of showing off has put many under financial stress. Some have gone into debt for lifetime due to such spending. And such things are not exclusive to some, it is spread far and wide among all the societies in this subcontinent. This thinking of competition drives a very healthy business in India. People who are involved in event management use this ideology to get their clients spend more on the events just to look cool in the so called judgemental Indian society. This ideology is like a virus which spreads and is not limited to the current generation. The coming generations learn as they see,thus expecting a change is foolish and radical change is even more so.This drives many homes but extinguishes the happiness in many others.

 Change to this has to be gradual. People should know what is important and what is not. The concept of judgemental competition should be eradicated. The rule that all should follow is that the primary goal of living happily is to be rich and fulfilled, not to look rich and fulfilled. Think over it and change the deep seated ideology that corrupts most minds here in this society..