The Wise Series: Watch Wise.

Let’s jump right into it by skipping the introduction paragraph because this is important and for they shape your perspective

We are humans for a reason and have abilities that animals don’t, for a reason. A gift that is, to think and build our perspective.

What is perspective?

Oxford dictionary says, “a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view”.

Why is that now I am talking about having a perspective?

See around once, see your social media, listen to the people around you and sit down and observe. The fast social world today has turned perspective into a tool. Which originally was meant to be one great ability of humans.

Breaking it down further, perspective for me is making use of our sense organs to receive information and further use our ability to think, and to make a decision on how to create a projection of that thought. The next stage of this projection is sharing our point of view with others and having them see through it.

The sharing of one's perspective is the part which social media is guilty of, in reducing the importance of having ‘our’ perspective. The platforms we use today are all about dividing, channelising and creating a bias in one’s mind, which also is enhanced by the chaos involved. (Read it once again and relate to the different situations being faced in the world.)

Even though the world around is guilty of disturbing one's perspective, the greater threat is the chaos I mentioned earlier. The chaos is about deciding now and deciding quick.

I am sure you think that why is that a problem? It’s a fast world, and we’ve got to be quick.

Yes, sure! But was the view you promoted solely yours? Do you take responsibility for the actions and consequences?

The ability to analyse in the fast world has reduced so much so that our attention spans are now being compared to those of goldfishes. What’s the point of our analysis if in the first place if we were never even there physically or mentally?

The reason I wanted to write about ‘Watch Wise’ is that it has become highly necessary for us to latch on to our perspectives while the world around us is trying the hardest to make us prisoners of standard thought.

So what exactly do I mean by ‘Watch Wise’?

Watch wise is all about feeding the right information, using your thinking and projecting your thought all by yourself. We’ll now see how do we do that the way, it’s supposed to be done.

1. IS IT WORTH YOUR TIME?

It’s about how you prioritise what you want to be, where you want to be and how you want to be. Now, this might be your dream or a goal. You already might have come across the herd mentality. The same holds good for what you see. It doesn’t matter if you don’t watch a series, not aware of gossip, or any other irrelevant thing unless it’s a part of a goal or a part of your dream.

A simple example, I haven’t even watched the trailer of Game of Thrones. Should I have had the fear of missing out? No, not really because I don’t care about the world around me binge-watching it. “I didn’t want to, so I didn’t” was my answer to anyone who asked me, why.

The best part, I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland and also go on a Games of Thrones Tour. Haha!

Your “No” is enough for the world. But It depends on how intense you want to be to your dreams. It’s your choice.

2. IS IT RELEVANT NOW?

A personal example, I was a veteran in diving into the Youtube Spiral. So whatever I say has to be the extreme.

The day starts and I have a thought in my mind:

Hey, I wonder how Drones work?

hmm, hello YT!

After videos on drones, TEDx talks on them, innovation in the space and some good stuff around it, I was done with knowing about them.

Seems interesting, and it’s a good thing to know about innovations around you, isn’t it?

But,

After Lunch: I remembered seeing a recommendation before leaving for lunch. It was Jon Olsson’s YT video on Drones. And I know that they do an overkill job when it comes it to videos. So knowing that, I was tempted to watch. Reason to myself was “a short break after lunch”. Let me tell you that, the video was amazing. The best part was, I had travelled to London, the U.S, Maldives, and Tokyo with the Olsson Team, virtually. and I am now talking about 8 PM.

Me to myself: It’s ok that it’s 8 PM now and I can always start tomorrow in a fresh mood.

Haha! The whole day’s gone after watching a few insane builds by Freefly Drones and learning about the drone laws in India after dinner. Also let me tell you, that the laws are way strict here and India needs to speed up in the space.

After a few days of this pattern and some regret in wasting time, I realised to have had asked myself one question and that is “Is it relevant now”?

3. BE SELFISH

I’ll keep this short. Say you want to meet a successful person. The first thing we do is that we make an appointment, right? Exactly my point. It’s the same recipe for all. Be selfish with your time and make yourself a priority.

That person knows what he wants to do first and knows his priorities. And that’s how he has got you to meet them.

A simple example again. God once asked a man about was his in this world?

The man replied by saying that his family and his wealth was his.

God says, no it isn’t yours. You are going to leave it all behind one day.

For this, the man smartly says that his body, was his.

God laughingly replies that your body and soul aren’t yours too. It’s just your form.

The man is left with no answer and asks God, what it was that was his?

God says that your time here is all yours.

Isn’t it's surprising that we spend so much of our time being involved in things we don’t want to be involved in?

Finding a niche in ourselves can make us selfish. And that’s one step closer to your dream.

4. REMEMBER WHAT YOU ARE THERE FOR.

The overload of information and the mentality to know more than necessary has put us in situations of forgetting the actual reason of why we were there in the first place. Taking my example above, if you observe, I was there to know “How drones work?” That was me trying to learn a technology and the innovation around it. Would’ve been great if it was just to that. But I forgot the reason until I regretted. So I felt we must be consciously aware of the reason for our involvement.

There’s Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and now Tiktok. These platforms which are purely for entertainment purposes should be used for entertainment alone and not to compare yourselves with others or feel bad with your progress.

All that’s a common saying these days and wouldn’t be useful if it's not you who is consciously applying it.

All I feel is that, what ‘I’ see, alters ‘me’. Hence I feel that by being conscious about who we are is necessary. I don’t mean to say “Travel and the world and find yourself” kind of ‘finding who we are’. I mean to be present and do what you are doing now in the best way possible because you are in the present and are perceived by the world for your presence. Continue to be the best in the present, be unique in finding a niche in yourself and please don’t kill the child in you. It’s really important to be creative, to be yourself.

I read books. Sometimes it sounds boring but I love how my ability to imagine goes above and beyond, and that’s what keeps me to stick to my habit.

Also notice that it’s hard to mark yourself as a priority, even so, when you see others who are comfortable enjoying. Well, don’t care about it and enjoy what matters to you. Seeking Discomfort is good.

Reflect now and remember that we all are a work in progress.

- By Nirup Kamagethi Chakravarti