100 Push Ups Challenge - Week 2

Now I am into week 2 and the routine is as follows:

Day 1 (August 11):
12 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
12 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
9 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
7 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
Max push ups > 10 (I did 30)

Day 2 (August 13):
16 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
13 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
11 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
11 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
Max push ups > 15 (I did 20 with some difficulty - laziness)

Day 3 (August 15):
15 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
15 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
12 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
12 push ups followed by 60 sec rest
Max push ups > 15 (I did 20)

Day 4: Number of consecutive Good Form Push Ups done: 50 (improved from 43)

Total Push Ups this week: 263

Total Push Ups since I started the program: 494 !!!

Moving on to week 3 .... it is going to get tougher

Sufi Poetry

My love for all things "Sufi" now extends to Sufi Poetry. Here is a piece that I absolutely loved. It takes our image of death - going from leading a vibrant life into a confined coffin - and turns it upside down. Beautiful.

In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, "This world is like a closed coffin, in which
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers."

Farid ud Din Attar, translation by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut - 'Perfume of the Desert'

100 Pushups Challenge - Week 1

Day 1 (Monday, August 4) - The routine required the following:

• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 8 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 6 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• Max Push Ups - In my case, I did 20.

Good start to the challenge

Day 2: (Thursday, August 7) -

• 12 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 12 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• Max Push Ups - In my case, I did 20.

Day 3: (Saturday, August 9) -

• 15 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 13 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• 10 Push Ups followed by 60 sec rest
• Max Push Ups - In my case, I did 20.

Good week 1!!

What I am currently reading

I have picked up "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" and 50 pages in, I find it extremely informative and fascinating.

The book delves into human history, starting with the ancient Greeks, and identifies the important milestones that have changed the way we manage risk and the impact this has had on human civilization. It starts with an interesting idea - The boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk: the notion that the future is more than a whim of the Gods and that men and women are not passive before nature.

This is a book that should be markedly different from what I have read in the last few months. I am sure I will enjoy reading it and I hope the ideas introduced in the book stay with me well after I am done reading it.

100 Push Ups Challenge - Initial Test

I finally started the 100 Push Up challenge that has been on my mind for a few weeks.

The first step is to put yourself through a test of how many good form pushups you can execute at one go. I am glad to report that I could perform 43 pushups before my hands gave up. That puts me in Rank 4 - a very good starting point for the challenge.

The goal of this program is for you to be able to perform 100 good form pushups in 6 weeks. Sounds exciting! I will post a weekly status on this blog.

For more information on the 100 pushups challenge - Link Here

Moments and My Fear

Life is made up of moments - hundreds of thousands of them. Some of these moments are more important than the others. These are the moments that define your life. What you say, what you do, what you feel, everything that is contained in those moments, will determine the path that your life ends up taking. There is no way you can prepare for these special moments - the sum total of everything you are and what is within you decides what happens in them. You cannot see them coming, you can only see them in retrospect.

Looking back at my life so far, I have had many such moments - may be adding up to a total of 10 minutes. I can proudly say that I have lived most of those moments well thus far. There are some of them that I am not proud of and I can only wonder what-if. I know that I will experience many more such moments and I hope that I can look back and remember them fondly when it is all said and done. I fear making a mistake in any one such moment. It seems grossly unfair that your life, which contains thousands of moments, be defined by just a few of them.

Creativity

An article in the Times today triggered my thoughts on this topic. I consider myself to be a creative individual and I strive to be creative in anything that I do. The reason for blogging on this is for me to organize my random thoughts on this topic and hopefully identify the conditions that enable creativity.

First and foremost, it is important to define "Creativity". Creativity lies in doing ordinary things in extra-ordinary ways. You can be creative while doing anything - washing your car, solving a math problem, arguing, making music, whatever - it is just how you do what you are doing. Upon analysis of the times when I had done something creative, I have identified the following conditions that had enabled me to get there:

State of Mind: I can be creative only when my mind is 100% focused on the work at hand. It is impossible to come up with any creative ideas when the mind is half-occupied with other thoughts. So when you know that conventional solutions will not lead you anywhere with a particular matter, clear your head and work on it only when you can give it your undivided attention.

Goal: Are you working towards efficiency or are you working to meet a deadline? If you are working towards a deadline, you are trying to satisfy someone else and it will hamper your creativity. Work towards a simple goal ... your own pleasure/happiness from the activity at hand and creative ideas will flow.

Fresh Perspective: Question the details that are regarded as "basic principles". You will realize that some of them are made up just to guide you and are not meant to be adhered to every time. When you follow alternate principles, you are more likely to buck the conventional trend and be creative.

I am sure I will keep adding to this list as time goes on. But for now, I like my chances of being creative if I follow these 3 steps. People and organizations should pay more attention to how things are done instead of just caring about the results. It will make the world a better place.