Category: Random

Food For Thought, Inpsiration, Journal, Myself, Random

Rigor and Accountability

Sanjay Sabarwal

Recently, a dear friend asked me my secret to my “rigor” i.e. my commitment to my vision to the various areas of my life. For a while, I didn’t know how to answer that question because to be quite honest, most days I feel like I am playing catch up. It’s easy to disregard the tasks that got done and compare myself to my large declarations for the year. I forget that to eat a whole pie, one has to start with the first diet (oh yeah, I love food).

Each morning, I wake up to a choice. stay put or move forward. There are days I go back to bed, but more often than not, I get up and begin my morning ritual of morning pages, meditation, morning reading, dog walking and sometimes the gym. I do it not out of obligation but the fervent belief in my vision: to be the best version of myself in all areas of my life.  I really sat with that. It wasn’t a wish or a desire. Well, it could be if I did nothing to make my vision come true. You see, vision doesn’t have to be specific, but it takes specific action to realize your vision.  To that end, I now have an accountability group that cares not only about my vision, but is more than willing to call me up when I am not feeling 100%.  I also use a planner, a time for tasks, google sheets to keep abreast on pending tasks and goal. I use many tools to ensure I am on task.

The past few weeks have not been easy as good friends are dealing with personal losses, and I wish I could do more to be in service to them. It’s tempting to lose focus, and allow the day to happen. And I admit there is time like that, but when I take time to reflect, to remember my reasons for being, I can do much for others when my heart is full.  There will be always be a crisis going on. Always a loss. Always something that pulls you toward an issue not of your making, and it’s remembering time and time again that if I am not fulfilled, if I am not committed to my vision, I will not be the best person for those tough situations.

So I train each day. I get up. I focus. I make declarations, and hope that I get to all of them. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Rigor isn’t about getting shit done, but it’s about checking in what it is that I want my life to be. It’s about knowing that I never gave up on myself. That I get to be my word to myself first because if I am not in integrity to myself, how can I believe i can be of service to others? So I get up. Kick ass. Then repeat.

Happy Monday!

Food For Thought, Inpsiration, Journal, Myself, Random

Integrity is Cheap

Sanjay Sabarwal

Monday mornings. A time I cherish. A time to reset, to consider, to take a hard look at my declarations. To drill down to what worked, what didn’t and what was in the gap. To review my various Google sheets and ask if I am in line with my vision. Some Mondays are not pretty. I see task after task and other idealistic declarations untouched week after week. And I realize that it’s easy to state things without a plan, or a real buy in. Easy to say I will become a published writer, or grow my business but then not have a deadline or a specific task to make it happen.

I find it’s easy to lie to myself. To make excuses, or justify that I am doing well in other areas. Easy to give myself a break, to let myself off the hook, to not be in integrity with myself or my vision.

Vision. That word keeps coming up in my life more and more. As I get closer to the big 5-0, I am motivated to complete some long standing dreams. To do a pull up. To run a Marathon. To be a published author. To be a successful law practice. To travel the world with my wife. To keep deep connections with family and friends. To be in service. To try new things. And yet, some things come easy, and others I just putting up over and over again.

So integrity to myself has become cheap. I cover it up with other actions, and stories that I am doing all that I can when I know there is so much time I waste on things and people who don’t serve me. I realize now that Integrity is a practice, and not a goal. It’s something I get to engage in daily and consistently, and there will be days I will not be honest to myself, and the best thing I can do is acknowledge it and then dig deeper on why that is. More times that not, it’s because of fear, or self-worth, or another failure. All fear-based emotions. And I get to work on that.

Integrity to myself requires constant work. And you know what? That’s okay. Because it’s about vision over circumstance. Being comfortable being uncomfortable. A choice: Give in, Give up or Push Forward.

Happy Monday

Food For Thought, Inpsiration, Random

First April Monday

Sanjay Sabarwal

The quiet of the house surrounds me at my favorite part of the day. Just me and my thoughts and laptop.  I put the timer on for 25 minutes. Each morning usually the same:   I do my Morning Pages from The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, then write the remaining of the time till the bell sounds. Those 25 minutes allowing me to just flow and put down my thoughts and fulfill part of my vision of being a writer.  It is that time when I truly feel like a writer, yet there is a growing urge that this time cannot remain private.

With the first quarter of the year done, it hits me that visions are completed with action. This first Monday of April is a reminder that only actions can move me forward not just wanting things to be  a certain way. It is a lonely road as many won’t or cannot understand my desire to better myself. It is never easy to explain what pushes me so towards this path of betterment.I don’t always succeeds, but those times that I do, I know I am on the right path.

So the quiet of the house supports me in writing even though sometimes it feels that no one else will.

Random

The Compass

Sanjay Sabarwal

Another week starts while the month is about to end. The same questions come up for me. What did I create so far? What will I create this month? Half of the year is gone, where am I at with my resolutions and all the thing other things I wanted to get done? For once, there is no hesitation. I am on the right path. To be sure, it hasn’t been easy, and there still ways to go, but the point is that I am going in the right direction. I no longer dawdle in a pool of uncertainty to not knowingness.

From worrying about finishing 5 essays, wondering if I will be ready for the marathon in October, figuring out where to take the wife out to vacation and working on getting new clients for my law practice, I now see that I am asking the right questions. Whereas before I fretted on where I wanted to go with my life, I now see that I am on a journey to be the best Sanjay I can be.  Have there been setbacks? Sure. Are there days I feel overwhelmed or not worth? All the time. But my compass points in the right direction and for now that’s all that matters.

Family, Myself, Random

Walking Dreams

Sanjay Sabarwal

A gray morning. Perfect for my fuzzy thoughts as I pulled Bella along our 2 mile walk (the pedometer on my iphone told me so). I wondered what my obsession was with tracking all that I did lately.  As if the pedometer made the walk real, or it made it more than me just being the valet for my dog to take her shits’ which I dutifully scooped up. Or perhaps it was a way to distract myself from seeing the hurt on my parent’s face as they still processed what someone close to us had done. We don’t mention their names anymore, but that doesn’t make them disappear, in fact, it makes the hurt deeper. Their recent actions now are scrutinized under new lenses, and it makes me wonder when they began resenting or perhaps even hating us to do this.  I want to ask why they didn’t tell us what they wanted, but maybe they didn’t want our input or perhaps wanted to get away from our shadow to mark their own territory.

Yet I know that stepping on someone’s back to get up maybe OK occasionally, but not to break it. Each day, I want to text or email them ranting away, but really it’s just pain I want to get out. The pain of lost holidays, and the loss of seeing their faces. The number of relationships that we thought were made of love now just a shared last name. And Bella keeps tugging, the pedometer keeps recording steps, and I struggle to be grateful for the rising sun, and the slowly awakening street. I as for forgiveness for my unkind thoughts, and ask for the strength to forgive who just threw away a relationship like an empty wrapper.

I turn on the app TuhiTuhi, and I get lost in the voice of Veer Manpreet Singh, and for the next 15 minutes I just listen with an open heart and express my gratitude for being still being on this earth, still having the ability to walk my dog just 9 months after brain surgery. It hits me that I am recording everything because I wish to remember that I am not sitting idle. I am not letting life pass by, but am trying to live it each day to the best of my ability. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Family, Myself, Random

Disconnected

Sanjay Sabarwal
English: on skullcandy
English: on skullcandy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was a beautiful morning yesterday.   Wisps of wind traveled around me, and the sun pierced jaggedly through scattered clouds. It was chilly by Southern California standards (69 degrees or so), but one filled with small bursts of heat. Bella was busy sniffing at each clump of grass as it was something wondrously new, and at that moment I could honestly say I was grateful for what I had in life. I saw this girl on a swing, going back and forth but something was different. She couldn’t have been more than 10, but she was glued to a phone. I wondered what had to happened to just experiencing things for what they are. What is this need to amplify every experience we have by posting it on social media or just mindlessly do it while we miss out on true beauty on us?  As I looked down upon her, my headphones squawked to let me know a call was coming. Shit! I had my headphones on, and while I defensively thought that I was listening to Shabads, the truth was that I was no different from that little girl.

It struck me that I have been walking for weeks, and because of my headphones, I barely managed a hello to strangers or to the old Indian cross guard who always smiles and seems like he wants to say something more to me. In a sense, I have been using the headphones to disconnect myself from the outside world.  I want that time to catch up on Umano or listen to Simran so as much as I would like to be friendlier, it struck me that I want these early morning walks just for me and Bella. As someone who has taken a break from social media, I find myself that I am no longer aimlessly scrolling through countless updates about what people had eaten for the day (something that I am notoriously guilty of doing myself), and that I have found other ways to fill in that empty time by catching up on the New Yorker, Men’s Fitness and Poet and Writers. It’s funny how more and more of us are becoming disconnected by posting things up on Social media in the hopes of finding validation. We are no longer engaging in conversations or connections. We are just pounding on the chest that we are HERE! LOOK AT ME!  At some point, that just doesn’t do it for me anymore.  Don’t get me wrong, I do miss knowing about friends and family, but I have found that I can always text or whatsapp them, and in the end that has made all the difference.

Related articles