Inspiration on Janusworx

Rules for Life

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 05:45:00 +0530

Ryan Holiday writes about 11 expressions that you will help you with life.

I have always used Memento Mori and Amor Fati.
This list has several more!

Festina Lente
Carpe Diem
Fac, si facis
Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum
Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful)
Per Angusta Ad Augusta
Amor fati
Fatum Ingenium Est
Semper Anticus
Vivere Militare Est
Memento Mori

Go on, read about what they mean and how they can change you.

How to be Unhappy (Or Happy!)

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 05:45:00 +0530

Riffing off a quote in last week’s newsletter,

Make any behaviour you want to encourage easier to do, and any behaviour you want to discourage harder to do.

How to Be Unhappy:
#

stay inside all day
move as little as possible
spend more than you earn
take yourself (and life) too seriously
look for reasons why things won’t work
always consume, never contribute
resent the lucky and successful
never say hello first
be unreliable

Invert for happiness:
#

get outside each day
move: walk, exercise, dance
spend less than you earn
view life as play
be the one who looks for solutions
develop a bias to contribute and create
learn from the lucky and successful
be the first to say hello
be reliable

I stole this from James Clear’s 3–2–1 newsletter.
You should subscribe. They are short, pithy and awesome!

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P.P.S. Feed my insatiable reading habit.

My Friend

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 10:34:29 +0530

I have to learn to make time for reading and writing, which has slowed to a crawl ever since I am slowly getting back to life.
Hence these untimely letters.

This week, I present a little story I read when I was, oh, about ten years old.
Thirty years later, it still guides my actions and affirms my faith.
It has always given me a strange kind of freedom, when it comes to my how I go about life, encouraging me to do my best, and not to worry even if I stumble.
It planted the very powerful seed, that God if (s)he exists, is more loving than just.
I just ought to be a good human.

Malik, son of Dinar, was much upset about the profligate behaviour of a youth who lived next door to him. For a long time he took no action, hoping that someone else would intervene. But when the youth’s behaviour became intolerable, Malik went to him and insisted that he change his ways.

The youth calmly replied that he was a protégé of the sultan and so nobody could prevent him from living the way he wanted.

Said Malik, “I shall personally complain to the sultan.” Said the youth, “that will be quite useless, because the sultan will never change his mind about me.”

“I shall then denounce you to Allah,” said Malik. “Allah,” said the youth, “is far too forgiving to condemn me.”

Malik went away defeated. But after a while the youth’s reputation became so bad that there was a public outcry about it. Malik decided that it was his duty to reprimand him. As he was walking to the youth’s house, however, he heard a voice say to him, “Do not touch my friend. He is under my protection.” Malik was thrown into confusion by this and, when he was in the presence of the youth, did not know what to say.

Said the young man, “What have you come for now?” Said Malik, “I came to reprimand you. But on my way here a voice told me not to touch you, for you are under his protection.”

The profligate seemed stunned. “Did he call me his friend?” he asked. But by then Malik had already left his house. Years later, Malik met this man in Mecca. He had been so touched by the words of the voice that he had given up his possessions and become a wandering beggar.

“I have come here in search of my Friend,” he said to Malik, and died.

This lovely parable is just one of many, in Anthony de Mello’s beautiful compendium of parables, The Song of the Bird.

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Sow Seeds

feedback@janusworx.com (Mario Jason Braganza) — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 17:25:35 +0530

Twelve years from now, your future self is going to thank you for something you did today, for an asset you began to build, a habit you formed, a seed you planted.

Even if you’re not sure of where it will lead, today’s the day to begin.

— Seth Godin, A note from 2030

Indeed!
That is exactly what I learnt the hard way!

But Jason today thanks young Jason for investing and saving up, so that he could live through bad times … and good ones.

And Jason in 2020 will thank me, because of what I do today.