20/20

"I think a well-rounded education keeps us from being bored and boring!" ~ John C. Mather

“One day an aeroplane cleaner was cleaning the pilots’ cockpit when he saw a book entitled “How to fly an aeroplane for beginners. Volume One”. He opened the first page which said, “To start the engine, press the red button.”. He did so and the airplane engine started.

He was happy and opened the next page. “To set airplane moving press the blue button.” He did so and the aeroplane started moving at an amazing speed. He wanted to fly so he opened the third page which read, “To let the aeroplane fly, please press the green button.” He did this and the plane started to fly. 

He was excited! After 20 minutes of flying, he was satisfied and wanted to land so he decided to go to the fourth page. He fainted after reading the instructions…….The fourth page read, “To learn how to land, please purchase Volume Two at the nearest bookshop!"

A situation like this is not new in life. Sometimes, we know that we need new skills, and therefore, new volumes. In my understanding, the book called life has five volumes. They are:

1. Education
2. Management / Wealth
3. Relations
4. Health
5. Life skills / Spirituality 

Recently, I had an opportunity to talk about this in a college (to students). There were 20 topics to cover, as each of these broad “dimensions” had 4 major “components”, as the following illustration shows (I named it “Growth Dimensions”):

But I had only 40 minutes to present. 20 topics in 40 minutes is impossible. Hence, I prepared 20 tips and backed the tips with 20 quotations. Here is that presentation. Following are those tips and quotes in text:

Education

(Note: The four components of education are: intellectual understanding, analytical skills, creativity, and current affairs or general knowledge. And my tips and favorite quotes for the students were...)

1) Read a book a month

“Reading is still the main way I learn new things and test my understanding," Bill Gates

2) Pick formulas and use them in your daily life

"Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics," Simeon Poisson

3) Understand and express with doodles (or songs, dance....) 

"In my experience, design thinking is a great approach to help us find problems, to help us see what is not there,” Vishal Sikka

4) Create a scrapbook for news articles of your interest

“There was never a time in our history when ignorance of current affairs could be so dangerous,” Edgar Dale

Management / Wealth

(The four components of management are: creating vision, organising, project management, and operational excellence. And my tips and favorite quotes for the students were...)

5) Read annual reports and chairperson’s messages, as many as you can.

“There’s lots of bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: it’s to change the world,” Phil Libin

6) Come up with your own list of top 10 listed companies and invest in them - at least one share a month 

“Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it,” Robert Kiyosaki

7) Get there at least 15 minutes before 

“I owe all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour before my time,” Horatio Nelson

8) Keep a log on things you want to improve

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice," R. D. Laing

Health

(The four components of health are: food, exercise, cleanliness /hygiene and hobby. And my tips and favorite quotes for the students were...)

9) Learn to cook a good briyani

“True healthcare reform starts in your kitchen, not in Washington,” Wolfgang Puck

10) Walk or jog 10,000 steps a day

“My schedule goes: wake up, running, exercise, downstairs, running shoes off, then to the shower. That's the Jackie Chan diary,” Jackie Chan

11) Don’t outsource washing clothes or cleaning vessels

"Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely," P. J. O'Rourke 

12) Raise a garden

“When your hobbies get in the way of your work - that's OK,” Steve Martin

Relations

(The four components of relations are: socializing, emphathizing, admiring, and fighting non-violently. And my tips and favorite quotes for the students were...)

13) Be active in at least 10 different social and professional clubs

"In our normal lives we see ourselves as members of a variety of groups,” Amartya Sen

14) Have lunch with the difficult people

“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher,” Pema Chodron

15) Start a fan club or two.

“Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be,” Warren Buffett

16) Fight but with a different weapon

“With violence, they had weapon and we did not have. With non-violence, we had the weapon and they didn’t”, Gandhi

Life Skills / Spirituality

(The four components of life skills are: volunteerism, prayer/gratitude, mindfulness, and contemplation / self enquiry. And my tips and favorite quotes for the students were...)

17) Donate one percent of your time / energy / resource 

“Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you,” Albert Schweitzer 

18) Have a to-thank list

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow,” Melody Beattie

19) While having food, have food

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves,” Thich Nhat Hanh

20) Listen to a discourse on Bhagavat Gita or Bible or Quran, everyday.

“The wise man knows how to run his life so that contemplation is possible,” Gabriel Marcel

Bonus Tip: Don’t be hard on yourself. Ever.

At the end of the presentation, the students asked the obvious question: “Do you you yourself follow all of these?” And my answer was: “I am trying but not at the cost of the bonus tip.” :)

Let’s try to live a rich life. We have many role models, who have done it - doing it.

Happy living!

Following is the presentation I used: