Chapter-wise thoughts on the book ‘5 Killer Habits – Be a Rebel’ by Sree Krishna Seelam. Click on the link below to read the full book.
Chapter 1: ARISE, AWAKE AND KICKASS! SLEEP TO SUCCEED, CHASE YOUR DREAMS
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a person healthy wealthy and wise! This widely-known saying taught to us in kindergarten, stands effective even today. However, now that we have grown up, we tend to think of it as insignificant as the most other things we used to do as children, perceiving it as just another line of poem.
Waking up before five in the morning is as important as getting enough sleep, as the author mentions. What we tend to do is bring into perspective just the requisite amount of hours our bodies need to sleep and totally disregard the time of the day we require to do that task in. Rather, we try to adjust that chunk at any time of the day, whether the sun is up or not. And unsurprisingly, at times we end up dividing those chunks further, placing them randomly at different times of the day. The flexibility with which we use our requisite amount of sleep hours is as high as the gravity of the issues that arise with this act of ours.
Some people prefer pulling up an all-nighter if they have an early morning flight to catch. They say it is impossible for them to wake up that early. Although, these little shifts we do here and there might not spoil anything for us in the short term, but in the long span we may end up having harmful impact on our overall well-being.
What we humans are drawn to in this fast-paced, doom scrolling, low attention span world, is the outcome in a snap of a finger. That is how we tend to judge things, “Is doing ‘this’ harming me right now?”, “No! So it must be not that bad.” Same is with doing the right things. They would, with a mound of effort, wake up early one day and ask, “Is it reaping me any benefits? I don’t think so, because I have a headache and feel fatigued.” Instant gratification drives us, and the idea of persistent efforts to gain delayed gratification drives us crazy.
Chapter 2: BE A HERO! VOLUNTEER, PROTECT THE PLANET
My heart aches seeing the cruelty of humans on Earth and its animals who cannot voice their rights. Whether it is to look at the neighbors roam around with the goats they are going to eat, cows scavenging through the garbage, or trees getting chopped, I’ve always raged at such heinous sights. The pollution made by people burning the garbage, rather than segregating it, is another one. It is nothing but horrendous of us humans to have done horrible things to this planet where we could easily have managed to live harmoniously with every other living creature.
At a personal level, I try to avoid plastic as much as I can, still wondering what impact such little efforts of mine would make. Whether it is saying no to One-use plastics, avoid buying packaged food, and if at all I have to buy one, opening it so as to keep the plastic wrapper in one piece. The list goes on.
As the author talks about sparrows, I can’t help but think about how freely they used to roam around in our home, making nests. But now, it’s a rarity to spot one, even after setting up food and water for birds.
Chapter 3: BECOME A DROMOMANIAC! TRAVEL ALONE, EXPERIENCE LIFE
When we fail whether in relationships, academically or in any other part of life we end up alone, most of the time. It stirs the thoughts for self- discovery. What is the purpose of life, what is death, why certain things happen, and thousands of such questions arise in the head. And another one like why are we not content even after having our material wants fulfilled; what is that one thing that is going to quench this unending thirst of wants.
Travelling comes to the rescue, given we are not financially unstable. Travelling makes us go through such tremendous types of experiences; including both good and bad. What stays with us though, are the happy human interactions that we had.
What humans always want is belongingness, they want to be loved and respected by the people around them. And at the end of the day, at your deathbed, you won’t recall the expensive items you own but will feel the satisfaction of having been impacted by or impacting human lives for their betterment.
Chapter 4: LIVE A 100 LIVES! READ AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, LIVE MANY LIVES
Reading is a solace from the extremities of the human life. Being provided an environment with books since the childhood, it became a habit early on. I cannot forget the joy I felt reading in my school library and getting books issued one after another, endlessly. When we used to get new books in the new session, I would quickly scurry through to find the Hindi and English literature ones, and would finish them even before the classes began.
Chapter 5: STAY CURIOUS: THE WHY HABIT! STAY CURIOUS, EXPLORE RELIGIONS
Staying curious is asking the Why(s) and How(s) behind the things we wish to know more about. But, the author however has surprisingly made the entire chapter about being curious about religions and gods. So, here is something about being curious.
There are some aspects of life where we experience inferiority complex. Also, there might be some aspects where we suffer from superiority complex. Either is not good, but both can be taken care of by being curious. When we feel inferior, we should question the importance of the thing we feel inferior from and try and learn it if it is a good thing. Feeling superior is worse as it comes with rigidity of thoughts and an unquestioning mind upon the thing we feel superior at. Trying to question even what we strongly believe is one way to deal with being superior. Listening curiously to other people’s point of view without being judgmental is another.
Having a harmonious conversation over difference of opinions in this world, where algorithm drives our confirmation bias, is extremely difficult but the need of the hour. What we think is the ‘truth’, might just be what is been fed to us or something we have fed ourselves for the longing of being ‘different’. That ‘truth’ might just be an opinion. It was as difficult as it is today, to find whether any information is coming from a credible source or not because humans tend to twitch or at times change the facts to suit their own benefits. They won’t pay heed to how it affects others, even if in harsh ways. Being curious and questioning the credibility is going to make the difference for you.
This was all about being curious about the external world. What we should also be curious about is ourselves. What are our strengths and weaknesses, what are we naturally talented at, what drives us to wake up early in the morning and what is the purpose of our life. Introspection is crucial and that comes by being curious about our own little selves.
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