Video Information: 03.07.2021, IIT-Patna session (Online), Greater Noida, U.P.
Context:
Are you afraid about your future?
How to overcome the fear of the future?
What is fear?
What is fear of failure?
Why we are thinking a lot about future?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Context:
Are you afraid about your future?
How to overcome the fear of the future?
What is fear?
What is fear of failure?
Why we are thinking a lot about future?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Whenever you are thinking, it is with respect to something that may happen in future or
00:21something that you need to do in future.
00:27And then there are various options with possibilities.
00:31Some of those possibilities appear gainful to you, some appear harmful.
00:41Why not simply do what needs to be done right now?
00:51First of all, that will take away the needlessly vacant mind space, you will not be left with
01:01that much opportunity to worry.
01:09And secondly, when you indulge in action, many of the alternatives that you were able
01:20to imagine about the future, those alternatives just disappear.
01:28The worst thing is to postpone action and keep worrying or keep thinking, overthinking
01:40as you said.
01:43So whenever you find yourself in that mode, the best thing is to ask yourself, isn't there
01:51something that I need to be rather doing at this moment?
01:57Not thinking, doing, shouldn't my energy be rather flowing into some right and constructive
02:07action at this moment?
02:10And once your energy starts flowing in that direction, there is less and less space, energy
02:17and opportunity available to needlessly worry.
02:23See thought obviously is very useful, one needs to have the faculty to think.
02:33But thinking must conclude in understanding and action.
02:44Action includes the option to not act at all, in the light of understanding.
02:54In the light of understanding, you may decide to act, you may decide not to act.
02:58So thought is not an end in itself, thought is a means.
03:06You want thought to end, you use thought so that it comes to a conclusion.
03:14Now if you are not letting thought result in something, instead thought has become a
03:22self-serving inner mechanism, then thought is of no use.
03:29So do think but ask yourself, what is emerging out of my thinking?
03:35Is my thinking really leading to understanding or action or is thinking just leading to more
03:44thinking?
03:48And if you find that thinking is leading to more thinking, then you need to start acting.
03:55Have you noticed this?
03:56That when you act and you put everything that you have in the action that appears right
04:03to you, then there is not much space left to wonder or despair.
04:13So I am not saying that one must indulge in action without thought.
04:19I am not saying that one needs to become mindless or thoughtless.
04:26What I am saying is that one needs to know the proper place of thought and action.
04:34We think so that we understand, don't we?
04:39If you are, for example, working on a mathematics equation, why do you follow all the steps?
04:49Let's say solving the equation involves some 14 steps.
04:53You follow the 14 steps so that after the 14th one, you come to something.
05:02What if the way you are proceeding with the equation involves an endless number of steps
05:10that lead to nothing and were still, they are iterative in nature as if there is a circular
05:21motion going on, the same steps in some form or the other are getting repeated one after
05:29the other.
05:31We don't want that to happen.
05:32So when you see that now thought or the process of thinking has entered that phase where it
05:38has become cyclic or iterative, that's when you need to say enough of thinking because
05:45now thinking is not yielding me anything.
05:48Now thinking has just become circular or cyclic or iterative.
05:55Now I need to do something, enough of thinking.
05:59So there is space for thought, there is space for action and one needs to be attentive towards
06:07both of these.
06:09Sir, another issue that I generally face is that in the morning when I get up, I generally
06:18have a to-do list made, ki haan, aaj mujhe yeh yeh cheeze karni hai.
06:23So when that list becomes too long, it kind of messes with my mind and I stop doing things
06:29and rather than that I end up procrastinating as you mentioned.
06:33So that's what happens with me, mujhe lagta hai ki agar mai planning nahi karungi cheeze
06:39ki toh phir I end up doing something random.
06:41But when I sit to plan out things, I end up wasting too much time just planning and thinking
06:47and instead of actually doing what I am supposed to do.
06:50So is there any way that I can stop myself from indulging in all this?
06:55See, listing must necessarily involve prioritizing as well.
07:03You cannot list down 22 tasks without assigning them a priority level.
07:14And 22 is a small number, think of someone who might have 200 things to take care of.
07:25If you just list down 200 things without knowing which one is more important or valuable or urgent,
07:35then you simply get overwhelmed.
07:40200 is a large number, right?
07:44So when you make such a list, also segment the list A, B, C, D.
07:55A is the most urgent or the critical section, then B, then C, then D and even within A,
08:05let's say if there are four or five items, then you need to accord them priority, right?
08:12You need to have something within that knows how to value rightly.
08:20So give them values.
08:26Alright, sir. Thank you, sir.