You Are a Badass at Making Money - Jen Sincero

Jen Sincero has a racy, funny way of telling a self-help story on how to get rich which gives the book rare energy. I picked it up thinking its a one evening read. But she has some decent stuff in the book including her own little quotes ("Worrying is praying for things you don't want!") which makes the book very readable. It also inspired me to make the self-help genre a bit more readable by using humor. Jen worked herself out of a bad financial shape into seven-figure life and is now a bestselling author of the Badass series and a Life Coaching business.

Stuck - In Hope
Jen starts with her story about how she was broke and was majorly freeloading, cutting corners, trying to make do, not able to decide while buying, working hard - everything that reeked of not taking responsibility to get out of her situation. The irony is not lost - she was working hard at low paying and comfort zone stuff and "hoping' it will help her out of the situation. One can understand her fear, her sense of not understanding what was happening and how to correct the same. Then she did some really uncomfortable stuff including hiring personal coaches at great sums of money (85000 USD per annum with one) and broke out.

First, Give Yourself Permission to get Rich
She says - Making money is about giving yourself the option and the permission to be, do and have whatever lights you up, instead of acting like a victim of your circumstances. It's about making the wealth that affords you the life you'd love to live instead of settling. Time wasted rationalising the mediocre, could be time creating the magnificent. Jen says that one of the biggest obstacles to making the money is that we refuse to give ourselves permission to become rich.

Wealth is not Bad nor Does It Make You Bad - Get That In Your Mind
A healthy desire for wealth is not greed, she says, it's a desire for life. Grow and expand - take up space on the planet she says. You are worth it.

Greed comes from the same mindset as poverty. A lack mindset.

Understand Money is Only a Means of Exchange
Money is a mechanism of exchange. It is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. Ayn Rand.

Getting Rich is All About Thoughts and Emotions
Emotions are high energy. The thoughts, beliefs and emotions we don't consciously reject, we unconsciously accept. Awareness is the key. Get attached to your why. Stretch your imagination. Love and appreciate. Getting rich is about your thoughts and emotions

Imagine. Hallucinate. Create. Create. Create. Creating is burning up all that is not necessary. The cocktail of creation - Belief/clarity/focus/faith/urgency/decisive action/tenacity/gratitude

"Riches comes to those who believe anything is possible even when all signs point to No Way in Hell."

If you want to change your life you must be more available for the ridiculous. The ridiculous shifts your energy.

'It's not your situation but what you are experiencing at this moment. The reality you want."

"You can't do anything if you try to do everything." Do what comes easily. What pays. What you value and what others value.

Revisit Your Stories - Grow Up
Our realities are make believe - what we make ourselves believe, we experience. Your external world is a mirror of your internal world. So it implies that we can tell ourselves new stories and believe in them and change our experiences. What you can and cannot afford is all in your mind."Change your mind. change your life.

"The walls of your comfort zone are lovingly decorated with your lifelong collection of favorite excuses.'

Stop behaving like a kid. Grow up. Don't seek security. Flow!

Some Immediate Outward Changes - Words, Thoughts 
Jen warns us to be careful of words, the language we use. What comes out of your mouth comes into your life she says. Similarly watch your thoughts. Your thoughts inspire emotions that inspire action that forms your reality. When you get limiting thoughts, rewrite them and say it aloud.

Shut up. Meditate. Visualise. Stop being the victim.

Communicate with Universal Intelligence and Keep the Faith
Jen says that there is something bigger than us - trust it. It's got our back. The invisible world creates the visible world. Watch out for the outgoing thoughts to that world and incoming thoughts from that world. If your outgoing thoughts have the right emotion and action, you get incoming thoughts that are intuition, synchronicity, inspiration, desire, coincidence. To receive incoming thoughts quiet your mind, receive information, be present. Trust the information. Surrender, head into the unknown. The Universe will lead the way.

When you take a decision and alert the Universe, pay close attention to any thought of big ideas that come into your head. Act on ideas that seem out of your reach cost money but are right.'Recieve and spend money with faith and gratitude that it's coming back to you, keep your frequency high and focus, do everything, take scary steps and don't stop.

Your fortune is your faith. The faith that it is there. faith raises your frequency. Faith is a muscle.
It usually comes after we think we literally cannot take one moment more of uncertainty, or the pressure or the disappointment. The Universe will challenge your faith. Badassery comes to those who take risks.'

Increase Your Frequency, Increase Your Value
Money is currency and currency is energy. Increase energy and it increases the energy of your product. Money comes to you through other people but it comes from Universal Intelligence.

Raise your frequency to match the frequency. Don't limit your focus on the person which acts negatively. Focus on your desire for the money and what's it for, your excitement to share something of value, your clarity on how joyful it will make that person, your gratitude and your belief that the universe has your back. Do the energy work, get thought, actions and words in line with what you desire to create and surrender. It's all about the energy of exchange. Lowering prices is a sign of lowering energy. Blaming a person is a sign of low energy.

Give as much as you can as often as you can., receive with gratitude and joy, think of money as your pal, raise your frequency and get in the flow. One fine exercise she suggested that I liked is to give something away every day for 29 days. Just get in the habit of giving.

To Raise Your Frequency
Live it up.
Spend in new ways - raise your frequency
Make one big, scary, non-negotiable decision right now

Do little things that pep you up - with your clothes, food, music etc. 

Be with people with high energy. 
Make a vision board
List things you have to give up to get rich
Improve your environment and upgrade (home, car, clothes, appearance, exercise, food)
Make two new high vibe friends
Strech your mind.
Do what excites you.
Meditate.
Affirm.
Be nice.
Be patient.
Up confidence.
Give every day. 
Lighten up.
Celebrate.
Forgive.

Gratitude allows you to raise your energy, gets you out of the loop of lowness, opens new possibilities, sets you free.

"The number one things holding people back is resisting change."

Change is Terrifying But Do It
Jen says that the leaps she had to take to get out of her comfort zone were terrifying. But once she decided - new opportunities and ideas and income streams started showing up in her life. What it takes is to agree to get really uncomfortable. It's about taking risks. About being visible, about acknowledging your awareness and about risking looking stupid. Live large and in charge, she says. When it comes to changing your life, if you're not scared, you're doing something wrong.

"Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich."

Tips
1) Take scary action (bust your belief with it)
2) Watch your mouth (I want/I wish/I need/I'm trying/I hope/I should/I don't know to I have/I create/I am grateful for? I enjoy/ I can / I choose/ I live)
3) Shut up even more - meditate, visualise
4) Have an "us" talk with money

'You have to want your dreams more than your drama."

Find the Path of Least Resistance
Align with the truest you - what comes easily, when can I make the money

"Your heart is the most powerful muscle in your body. Do what it says."

'If it's in your mind, soon it will be in your lap."

First, decide the figure
Why do I want the money?
What will I use the money for?
How will I make the money?
When will I make it by?

What you focus on, you create more of. Look at what you have and raise your frequency. Shift  from "No way" to "There must be a way". Jen made her USD 85000 like that. Check for your deep beliefs about why you don't want money.

"Changing your focus to the positives of what you have and what you desire changes your attitude and raises your frequency so you can align your energy with and open yourself up to everything you need to change your life."

Apply 10x principles.
Decide (who you are going to be). Deciding means there is no plan B. If you've made a backup plan, you have not made a decision.

Anticipate and figure how to deal with obstacles

Raise your bottom line - keep raising it

Some Actions and Principles to Adopt to Improve Your Relationship with Money
Treat money as you'd like to be treated.
Get clear on it.
Change what you are worth.
Treat money with respect.
Hire professionals to manage your money.

Conclusion
Lovely book. Very entertaining with her badass style. I am trying to rearrange and reorganize the information that's given in the book to make more sense to me.

Meanwhile, my big takeaways are
1) to raise the frequency to the level we want to be at (by using thoughts and emotions and actions and by retelling the victim stories we tell ourselves)
2) to keep the faith in the universe and take risks, so the flow and trust is maintained
3) to enjoy the process of creation, of enjoying and receiving

The idea of increasing energy by going out of your comfort zone is something I like. Now to practice some and get ready to improve the flow. Now to be badass!

My Musical Notes (Radio, Vinyl Records) - Part 1

Not very different from the manuscript prepared by Vinay Pathak in 'Bheja Fry' of his tryst with music, I have a story too. One that I will tell through 300 of my remaining cassettes that are till safely locked up, stuff that I can use as bricks to build my dream house when I want to.

The musical notes story begins way longer than I can remember. I am talking of those days when the mind is in some kind of a haze and you don't remember much except some crazy emotions or near death experiences. I am talking of the age between 1 and 5 years. I was subtly influenced by music even then simply because my father loved his music and like me, spent all his money mainly on his music systems, radios, books and the odd spot of experimental food for us at home. 

My first memory of music and Dad, was of him bringing home a giant-sized Phillips radio with knobs "big a car wheels" as the servants said. It blared music, none of which made an impression on me, but the size of the instrument, the grandness of it all and the songs it played must have registered someplace! For a while, in my later years, say 13 years from the date of purchase of the monster, I quietly usurped it and shifted it into my bedroom and used its speakers to generate more sound from my small cassette player. By then of course, the player was in bad shape and we wondered how to get rid of it. Needless to say father also had a record player at home - a Phillps again - and operating both the radio and the player were his prerogatives. 

The records fascinated me with their different colours and sizes. I quickly learned to differentiate between EPs and LPs and realised that the smaller ones went by faster and the bigger ones went around slower. The smoothness of the surface, the problems caused by scratches on the surface, the odd breakage or two all added to the mystery. Most records were black but I remember that he bought a transparent red one from Japan or someplace. But it was their covers that were most interesting.

An early traumatic musical memory was that of one Rajesh Khanna movie and the screechy and scary ‘Kaanton se kheechke yeh aanchal..’ which till date reminds me of some unknown fear. I also hated with equal fervor the song ‘Happy birthday to you…’ which started like ‘O nanhe se farishte..’. Again incredibly sad for a birthday song. In those formative years my troubled soul was further affected by viewing the movie 'Papam Pasivadu' and the haunting ‘Amma…choodali..’ knocked out all my interest in music. It was a sad and scary proposition.

Then out of the blue came ‘The Sound of Music’ and my life changed. The songs were happy and we could sing a few lines along. ‘I am sixteen..’ or ‘Raindrops and roses’. Wow. Life became happy and exotic. I was just getting the hang of it when I realised that Dad would buy a record each time he went to Vijayawada. Even there, he experimented and one horrendous record he bought was an English song sung by P.B. Srinivas. It had a song about man landing on Mars. I still remember the lyrics – "After landing on the Mars, Man will get some golden bars, And from Mars to Mercury, Man will fly in a century". Forgettable. And then a record of the Ventures – with a young, buxom lass wearing a silver bikini that was enough to knock all morality out of six-year-olds. I am sure she had a role to play in my life too. Dad’s record collection grew and I have some vague memories of listening to the songs he played on his record player at night. But by now, music had made a small entry into my heart and remained there.

Some faraway impressions of 'Yaadon ki baraat' and its songs were registered in my mind, mostly from posters and songs heard on the radio. My next recollection of music was in Warangal by which time I had grown to be 8 years old. Now I could actually enjoy the songs of Hugo Montenegro – with the Beach Boys singling out 'Good Vibrations' as one of my favorites. In fact the whole album was brilliant. We kids would shut all the doors and play a few records loudly and feel rebellious. It was our way of celebrating Woodstock or getting high I guess.

"Sholay" came and every single one of its songs was known by heart. I remember the songs of "Dharam Veer" which I saw on screen in Warangal and was profoundly impressed by the song ‘Mere Naine..saawan bhaadon..’ in the movie Mehbooba of which I saw nothing but a trailer. Definitely my musical boundaries were expanding and I was enjoying it in all types, languages in a very intuitive manner.

Meanwhile, I made a useful discovery. I discovered the healing power of music. It was my eldest sisters wedding and I had somehow developed a solid headache. Everyone was busy. Someone offered me tea. I could see no escape from the noise and no respite from my throbbing ache. I decided on an intuition to go close to the mandap where the band was playing the nadaswaram and focused on the rhythm and immersed myself in it. All very intuitive you see. Voila, after a while I cured myself of the headache. I still remember the entire incident clearly and my intuitive decision to listen. I used the same method when I went to Srisailam when grown up and used the rhythm of the 'Om Namah Shivaya' to rid myself of another headache.

By the time we came to Hyderabad when I was 12, my musical sense was primed. Suddenly my exposure boomed. AIR Hyderabad had a radio station which played half an hour of western music in the morning between 730 and 8 called Yuva Vani and we would not miss it for anything even as we dressed to go to school. Suddenly the music of Abba, Boney M, Beegees, Cliff Richard, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John and others crept into our lives. Happy, happy music. Those few half hours were the happiest hours in those days.

My eldest brother in law also bought a record player and he had a small collection too one which I remember clearly – a double LP of 'Hum Kisise Kum Nahin'. I think I memorized all those songs and also fell in love with Kajol Kiran. That record had several pictures on it and I was thrilled to get a sneak peek of all the action. That was how starved we were for movies and visuals of movies.

By now I also had a sense of Dad's record collection. The English collection was rather limited. But his Hindi record collection was extensive and so were the Telugu ones. How those delicate records survived our activities and even the delicate record player I wonder but they did. At home there were five children, including two young boys of whom I was one clumsy oaf, frequently breaking things or hurting myself, but the player and the records did survive, for years.

To drive home the final nail, ABBA the movie played in Tivoli and somehow me and Chanti, the last of my four older sisters, got our brother in law to take us to the movie. It was a complete fan movie - with John Fonda posing as a journalist and following the hugely popular band across. The songs, the crowds, the mood. I was sold. And when Asha, Mohan's sister spun a few songs on  Yuva Vani including 'Ring Ring' my musical loyalties lay firmly with the western chaps. they did a great job of selling it to me. Can't blame them. It was happy. It was inclusive. It was peppy. It was rebellious.

I was now all set for my foray into my own ocean of music. The pond was too small for me. I was in my 8th and was waiting for a chance to break through.

Rampage - Movie

Dwayne Johnson is a primatologist and communicates in a sign language with gorillas - that in itself is a sign that the movie is not going anywhere. Energye is an evil company that is doing some mutant work with genetic editing in a space station and is headed by two people - a wimpy brother and an evil sister.

The company creates a monster rat which eats up everyone in the space station. The pathogen falls all over and infects a gorilla, a wolf and a crocodile and they grew to be twenty times their size and even more aggression. By the end it's too much for a rational mind to handle as the three animals destroy Chicago and then destroy themselves somehow. It all ends with a joke between Johnson and the gorilla - George who survives it all (the wolf is Ralph and the crocodile is Lizzie).

Avoidable fare.

Hotel Transylvania 3 - Movie

In the run up to see Transylvania 3, we had to watch T1 and T2 before which we duly did the week before and I was familiarised with a Jeeves like Dracula, his daughter Mavis, his pals Frankenstein, Mummy, an invisible man, a werewolf and a blog of glob. In the earlier movies Mavis, who is a monster like Drac and pals, falls in love with a human (whom they are supposed to hate).

The human, Johnny, a DJ type of fellow with no aim in life, marry and produce Dennis, a half human half monster. In this 3 rd edition, Mavis decides that Drac needs a vacation and the entire bunch of monsters go to the Bermuda Triangle on a cruise vacation. Unknown to them they are being set up by the Van Helsings ( a family who has vowed to exterminate monsters) and Drac and Johnny save them by playing some good music. Macarena is the winning song!

In the end, evil wins over good - or what we think is evil, wins over what we think is good.

Column in The Sunday Hans - The Backbenchers Are Taking Over

It's happening everywhere - the backbenchers are taking over!

Enjoy reading.

http://epaper.thehansindia.com/1745799/SUNDAY-HANS

/SUNDAY-HANS#page/13/1

A Gang of Fast Bowlers

A rare meeting. Suresh threw a party for his MBA mates and invited a couple of cricketers - Ehtesham and me and Rajesh Yadav. Now what we did not know was that Gavin Soorma, who was Suresh's classmate at the Osmania University College of Commerce and Business Management back in 1988, was also in town. It was a nice reunion of fast bowlers - Rajesh, Gavin and me. Of course Suresh and Ehtu were premier batsman of that time.

Rajesh, Gavin and me
(The garland was some quirky welcome by Suresh and I decided to sport it all evening)

Rajesh and I played much junior cricket together - from the Under 19 to 22, 25, Buchi Babu, Ranji. Gavin was slightly junior to us and probably came in as I was fading away. Rajesh went on to play over 70 Ranji games. I played 7 and Gavin said he played 1.

I remember Rajesh plucking out Randolf Carroll's middle stump with a pacy inswinger and it went flying towards the wicket keeper and one furious bouncer he bowled to Namdev Phadte of Goa, an accomplished batsman who could not handle the heat. He was easily the best of the lot. Gavin had a slithering run up and generated tremendous pace and nip off the wicket. The season he got picked he got many wickets. Though he did not bowl bouncers, he was a handful, with a pacy outswinger. His long sleeves flapping about his wrists, Gav was a smiling assassin and I remember his six wicket haul against Kerala in an Under 22 game at Bangalore.

We met Gavin after 30 years. He looked exactly the same. After cricket, he went into flying and was a commercial pilot with Kingfisher airlines. He was involved in one belly landing and after that he stopped flying and went into IT. He is now in Australia and is pals with Arjun Raja, who played Under 15 with us at the zone level and Universities at the zone level too. Rajesh  dabbles as a match referee with the BCCI and as a bowling coach.

Looks like we cricketers are all stuck forever.

Thought for the Day - Energy and A Sense of Well Being

A sense of well being is a decision. It's not the money, the success, the beauty - but the feeling that you have it all anyway (even if you don't) that gives one a sense of well being. This sense of well being is certainly related to simply feeling that all is well. One just has to believe, or as my friend, AP once told me, 'hallucinate' that it is, and it is.

I can. It will. I know.

Once you feel that way, the little decisions get taken (or not taken - but mostly taken). No more dilly-dallying over things and feeling bad about this or that. I am doing this. I am not doing this. A decision taken is energy saved. Nay, energy multiplied. If you want to experience it take a decision - something that pushes you over the comfort zone and see how it kicks in that energy, that sense of well being.

Now this sense of well being, this feeling allows one to take risks, to take life less seriously, to smile, laugh or cry more easily - or just to live more fully. It is attached to a high energy that naturally seems to follow that state of well being, of high or good energy.

From whichever angle you approach it, this state of mind also seems to be a decision - in the mind.  It is the cause, and not the effect.

Like anything else, it could be practiced perhaps.