Till when do I keep trying?

Everyone has dreams, not all come true but those who chase after their dreams often wonder till when do you chase them? what time should one give up? what if its just not going to happen? First of all know this that every successful person who has achieved his or her dream and made the impossible possible has had these thoughts many times over during their journey and what led them to success was ignoring these thoughts and never giving up.

Never stop trying, you might be this close.

 

The picture above says it all. The dream dies when we want it to die. Worked too hard, take a break but don’t quit and get back on it with a fresh mind and will to achieve it this time around. Perfecting something takes time and so does achieving something big or doing something different. Normal is not what you want to be, do you ever refer to a billionaire as normal or the top athlete normal; think for a moment would you ever call Mr. Usain Bolt normal? the answer in your mind is probably no because people like that are extra ordinary! they are not even close to the average Joe. To be successful, to be an achiever and to be ahead of the game; you have to be not normal; you gotta do what others don’t; think what others don’t so you can achieve what others don’t. Now go out there and never quit! Be consistent and show persistence towards your goals so you may one day achieve them.

 

O ye who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy; vie in such perseverance; strengthen each other; and fear Allah.that ye may prosper (Surah Al-Imran, 200)

How to live better? This is how I do it.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

Travel as much as you can, when you can.  Here are some good and affordable places to travel to while not draining your account.

1. Nepal

Easy to get a visa from Pakistan and very affordable indeed. According to my contacts in the travel agency business, a tour to Nepal for a single person can cost you as low as 80,000 PKR this of course depends on the hotels you choose to stay at but that is a minimum for a good week long tour.

2. Cambodia

Not a developed country but this is a place that is near and as cheap as they come, the ticket might be a bit more than a ticket to Thailand but the place sure is cheap, you can pass a week here in less than 50,000 PKR; haven’t been there yet but its on my go to list for sure.

3. Thailand

One of the best indeed, its affordable, it is too much fun. If you didn’t know it yet I will tell you, Bangkok is one of the most visited cities in the world and it is the place to be when you want to get out of your routine life and be somewhere fun, this place takes parties to a whole new level. Visa’s are issued within a few days, I went there in 2013 for about a week and it cost me 70,000 PKR and that was when I stayed in 4 star hotels.

4. Prague

This is Europe so yes you cant expect to get a visa easily from Pakistan and yes it is a bit expensive but keep in mind Prague is one of the cheapest cities in Europe therefore it has to be included in this list. Ticket is gonna cost you but you can keep it affordable if you dont go for fancy hotels and get this done within 200,000 PKR. One of the places I plan to visit very soon Inshallah!

5. Colombia

Great Colombia, oh I wish it wasn’t that far. Visa’s are not so easy but you can get them if you have an invite from a Colombian. Its an affordable place to go if you ignore how much the ticket costs, as far as I have heard you need to be careful and also keep a Spanish dictionary with you not many people speak English there. Cost of a weeks tour without the ticket of course would be approx 150,000 PKR

 

Go plan your next visit, get out of your daily routine and see the world as much as you can. Yes that’s how you live, Thank me later!

TAKE A STEP TOWARDS BEING MORE PRODUCTIVE, THIS HELPED ME

We often get distracted specially when we are online and loose count of the time we spent here and there. What I am going to  recommend here is not something that will magically get you more time in the day, no not at all! but it will help you keep track of it and then reflect upon what you did with those precious 86,400 seconds allotted to you in the day. We all have them equally, the guy who made it to mount Everest and the guy who is sitting on the street hopeless both have the same time if not the same opportunities so use yours well, every second counts!

Be Limitless is a Google chrome extension that does the job of tracking the time you have spent on different sites very well, plus it will show you some good one liners that might refresh your mood, I also enjoy the pictures they have on the background too, so try it and thank me later!

How to get more time in a day, my way.

I have heard people say it over and over again, “I don’t have time”. I used to say the same but not anymore. There was a point where I literally did not have time to do the things I wanted to do; 24 hours were just not enough for me in a day and I needed more. Eventually I came up with a solution and was able to over come this and today I shall tell you how.

Before I let you in on my recipe to “make time” it should be clear that this worked for me and it might not work for you or it is not made for you. So what did I do?

Instead of cutting down on other activities or things that I needed to do, I simply cut down 2 hours on my sleep time, instantly gained 2 more hours in the day and it was that simple. Now lets do some math.

2 more hours everyday got me 14 hours extra every week  or shall I say about 2 and a half days extra every month? or you can say another whole month! Yes I now have 13 months in my year.

For some more perspective, in 12 years I will now witness an year more than I would have witnessed before.

I have been doing this for more than an year, I sleep for 5-6 hours which is good enough for me to stay healthy, you might be sleeping less or more because sleep needs are individual, different age groups need different amounts of sleep. Same as any other characteristic that we are born with, the amount of sleep you need to function best may be different than for someone who is of the same gender and age. So if you are unaware of how much sleep you actually need, you might be spending more or less time in it. Test yourself and get to that perfect sleep time.

As always thank me later for all that extra time you earned!

Challenge yourself, You are made for it

Image: keithpyt
Biking is also considered to be a challenging sports game aside from it being a past time for others.
Source

We face different challenges throughout our lives,  it can either be an exam, a recent loss or that marketing pitch that you want to go through with flying colors. Each and every challenge you face makes you stronger and more prepared for the next one.

Challenges are healthy not only for our brains but for our body’s too.  Mentally challenging games have proven to increase mental capability, similarly physically more challenging games make us push our body’s to the limit. So if you are facing any type of challenge in your life know that once you are done with it, it would have made you stronger in one way or another. Take it and win it.

If you aren’t facing any challenge right now, here is a fun one for these winter days, try a Scottish shower; it will test you and you might ask yourself why are you even trying it but that is the fun part, you are doing it because you can!

P.s do tell me how it went

Quick and easy way to boost your focus

If you are someone who looses focus again and again. Struggles with doing something consistently; then you are not alone. We all face numerous distractions during work and what it does is decrease our ability to do one thing continuously. You might switch tabs or feel like you need to check your email one more time or that skype message might be something important and you should pause what you are doing and look at it. The fact is all of this will kill the focus that you had just formed and to get back at what you were doing with the same level of concentration will take more than just a few mins.

 

How I got through this is by using Focus booster. Its a simple and helpful tool that enables you to time yourself and boost your focus. When you need to get something done and cannot afford to get distracted set a time and when you see the time slipping by on focus booster you will somehow see more value in it and letting it slip by wont be easy. Each minute counts!

I also use it daily by setting it to 25 minute sessions of work followed by 5 min breaks, I call this “Power working”. I got more done in 3 to 4 sessions of power work than with my normal 8 hour day trying to work continuously and not loose focus. So try this out and tell me if you saw any improvements and differences in your productivity.  All the best!