Excerpt of Simple Rules for Simple Life

I am going to keep this short.

Thanks for picking up this book. I will set some rules straight before going into this small journey. A few facts that you have to keep in mind:

• It will not be easy but it’s not impossible.
• Things take time.

All of the things mentioned in this book may appear obvious, but sometimes — in order to figure them out — one has to be in the right state of mind.

This book is not something that will change your life, and honestly, no book can change your life, it’s only you who can do that. If you narrow things down, it all comes down to hard and smart work.

Work is compulsory.

If you can do what’s stated above, then stop reading the book and start working.

If you can’t, then grab yourself a cup of coffee and let me give some pointers and lessons that I follow in my life. (At the end, it is you who will have to work, keep that in mind.)

You can read the book in its entirety, or pick up the chapters that you believe will be of help to you.

A few pointers to note:

• Keep a pen and paper with you, relate to the concepts, rewrite, draw and learn.
• Write your own manual for working and work with a simple language.
• If you come across a point that doesn’t make sense, don’t force yourself to make sense of it.

The excerpt from the first chapter, “There Is No Straitjacket”

Before starting with the book, we need to understand — there’s no “one” formula for anything. The only formula you have is that of trial and error. Keep on trying until one strikes. Obviously, remember you have to use your energy judiciously.

Save your energy for the bigger things.

Focus on exploring and remember — if it has worked for someone, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you. And if you want to create something unique, then you have to do something unique to reach there (it might not be true for everything).

We’re all experts in different fields. You have to focus on YOUR strength and play with them. Let’s say you are better at planning, then keep honing it and implementing your plans. If you are better at implementing, then stay onto it and only plan a little.

Get good at your weaknesses but get better at your strengths.

Always play to your strengths and make it a habit to achieve goals through your own ways. Learning new things and growing is good, but you can only excel in matters that come naturally to you.

Let me tell you about an example from my university life. I experimented with different activities, but the one thing that I stuck with was writing. The reason for that is because I have a natural inclination towards it. Writing is not something that I can get tired of, it’s like a child’s play for me and something I can play with the whole day. Thus, I encourage you to work with things which are child’s play for you. Find your game and keep playing.

If you’re playing then make sure it’s on your own turf.