Rounded Man

How did music help me become a better and a well rounded man? Other than the joy music itself and the cognitive boost that it provides, its biggest benefit has been elsewhere. This benefit can be reaped in many places outside music. I am talking about learning how to learn. It is also called as deliberate practice. A bit of background on my music learning journey. I have been captivated by instrumental music. It can relax me and hold me in a spell. So I was naturally inclined to learn. I enrolled myself into violin classes about 10 years ago. I have enjoyed the learning all these days. But I was not aware of an aspect of music learning, that was a revelation. During the first few classes, I realized that it needs immense amount of practice. Elite musicians practice 10-14 hours a day. They practice a composition hundreds or thousands of times. With my day job, I could not afford to spend so much time on practice. But it did not discourage me. Importance of deliberate practic...

How did I fall into this trap? Should I give up on my self improvement habits?   From my childhood, I have been ingrained a mindset of competitiveness. I was focused on my academics. I would try to get into the best universities. I wanted to get the best appraisals at work. I have achieved most of these. Aphorisms such as 'If you are not growing then you are not living', etc. Then I read the book on 'Growth Mindset' which resonated with my spirit of competitiveness. There is an overload of influencers on social media preaching the ultra perfect lifestyle. All these underscore my life's purpose to get better every minute. I have a packed weekend routine. I learn music. I practice two foreign languages. I brush up my technical knowledge. I have self improvement, career related and personal finance books which I am constantly racing to finish. I am fanatical about the cleanliness of my room. I workout till I am sore. I have a to-do list which seems to be ever gro...

I spend the peak productive morning time going through frivolous short videos on YouTube and worthless Reddit discussions. This habit has singularly created a significant downgrade in my professional and personal life so far. This article will outline how I fell into this vicious trap and what I am going to do. It will partly be an accountability article to improve my own life.  Doom scrolling on my phone has insidiously destroyed my life. It started with the apparently useful and self help videos during the Covid lockdown. Now I am hooked to it. Now I watch the cat videos and the adorable Golden Retriever videos more than anything else. Did you read about the dog influencer becoming a millionaire? I was one of the contributors to his wealth.  These worthless videos give me a dopamine rush. It makes me feel good at the moment like an orgasm. But it sucks me into a whirlpool of such videos. The algorithms make sure that it churns up an infinite number of such content to hold my...