New Year Resolutions - Week 2 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends, 

Week 1 was a success in all its ways and as you know the energy is huge at the start and I need to carry out the same throughout the year. Week 2 thankfully continued on the high-spirited self-aware where every minute was costly and planned for. I really loved week 2 overall as I could finish a lot of items which I wanted to do/read/listen etc. 

Week 2 - 8 Jan 2022 (Sat) to 14 Jan 2022 (Fri)

 

1. Walking was still on my mind and I took a giant leap to do it with some days doing more than 6.5kms in one go. It really motivated me to finish the intended 20KM so fast but with some rest, I relaxed too so that the tiredness from walking is divided and have no impact on the coming week.

2. Entertainment - I did watch some movies like Velle and Pushpa and also a web series called Kaun Banegi Shikharwati? starring Lara Dutta, Soha Ali Khan. I really loved Allu Arjun in Pushpa - The Rise. It's really an interesting movie full of action. In future, I plan to do the review posts of all these web series and movies I invest my time in. 

3. Daily Prayers - I was able to complete the 34 Years of Hanuman Chalisa this week and this has been a success in itself as it was only in some days I finished the whole year of chanting. It definitely needs focus, attention and concentration. I felt really happy about it and was at 12500 counts at the end of week 2 on Friday. 

4. Daily Commute - The school also started for Reyansh and Keisha and the daily commute began again to drop and pick them up. Again the division of responsibilities started to emerge else it takes one person's a lot of time which can't be found every day. Also, a lot of petrol station journeys are starting to begin too but that's part and parcel of life. If you have to enjoy life, some charges/rent needs to be considered as a necessity. 

5. Books/Audio Books - I started reading Retire Rich (Invest Rs 40 a day) and finished The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. It's really a must-read book and I plan to read it in 3 months time again. I also completed listening to The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey. What I have observed is that all the productivity champions these days are telling the same central theme to focus on one thing at a time. 

6. Thank You - I almost finished the week on the verge of completing 100k for the month but delayed it for some days to take it in Week 3 too. As I write this my counter is missing and I am unable to find the same. I will have to make a run to the China Mall this weekend for sure. 

7. Consistency - I posted a daily Facebook post and Instagram feed post on my social media channels and really felt good about it. Consistency is the key and there have been slow and gradual improvements in the rate of engagement and likes are also increasing. 

Affirmations, Meditation and the rest of all the items on the menu took a back seat this week. That's fine as I can always pick them up on this beautiful journey of myself. How are you making your own journey worthwhile? Do leave a comment on any of the social media platforms. 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

Honor 50 - A #Vlogging Smartphone For All Ages #ProductReview @HonorAfrica #Honor50 #WonderInOneTake

Hi Friends,

 

Honor has become a separate mobile/telecommunication company some months back but has it come out of the Huawei influence in their products and features is what we are going to check out in our blog post along with the review of Honor 50 which landed on my desk in December 2021 for some days. I really loved the device because of its capable camera which as I already knew will be good as Huawei premium phones cameras are still awesome without the Google apps support. 

Honor is now competing for the market share in the already flooded market where Oppo, Vivo, Huawei, Xiaomi, One Plus and other brands are trying hard enough with their constant launch in all price segments. Huawei already has upped their mobile game for the value segment in terms of the Y series and Nova series. Every quarter they are launching a new smartphone and keeping us busy too with the reviews and launch event invites. 

Honor 50 5G comes with a motto of Wonder in One Take with 3 main features specifically mentioned in all their releases and those are 108MP vlog camera which means they are directly targeting the content creators who are looking for options to carry a small powerful device in their pockets to up their IG reels or TikTok or YT shorts game. The phone software also offers a lot of added features to introduce so many colour palettes and frames to create videos and photos for you which are Instagram ready/Tiktok ready if I can mention that. The phone is totally backing this feature and has gone the extra mile to give the content creators all the necessary tools to be at their best. The more you use the camera, the more features you will be able to identify in the Honor 50 as they have provided options in bulk like stories, switching between cameras during a live shoot, fast motion or slow-motion videos, wireless audio recording using TWS earphones and so much more. 

Secondly, the 120Hz curved display brings back all the memories from the Samsung S7 and subsequent range of products where there was a curved screen going towards the edges of the aluminium side panels. The screen is bright and brilliant in Honor 50 and the touch sensitivity is really nice. It really makes playing games so good as every company has now found that this is the point to focus the younger generation of PUBG and other mobile gaming platforms. The 6.5 inches OLED display has a resolution capacity of 2340x1080 pixels and can produce 1.07 billion colours. 

Lastly, 66W HonorSuperCharge technology really works wonders as it charges the phone for around 70% in 20 minutes and 100% in about 45 minutes. It really gives it an extra edge to take its 4300mAh battery to recharge almost instantly and serve you for another 10-12 hours or so based on your usage. I found this fast charging to be an added advantage as before you know it, it's fully charged. The power adapter also forms part of the package which is not the case with several other mobile manufacturers. 

Coming back to the camera setup the phone takes awesome night shots (low light conditions) and great selfies too. The Honor 50 rear camera setup has 108MP Ultra clear camera, 8MP wide camera, 2MP Bokeh camera and 2MP macro camera in a unique double ring camera layout. This is the same camera layout you will find in the Huawei Nova 9 which also has the same 66W SuperCharge technology. The front camera is a 32MP selfie camera. The phone is capable of shooting 4k video recording using the rear cameras and 1080p using the front camera. 

The Frost Crystal body is really stylish and brings a lot of attention as it looks really premium in just 175 grams body. The Magic UI 4.2 looks really similar to what is installed on the Huawei smartphone (EMUI) as Honor didn't change the colours etc so far. Almost all the inbuilt apps of Honor (like the Honor Club, Health etc) are exact replicas of Huawei apps when they used to have GMS is what I felt. 

It's a capable smartphone in the price range of R13999 but the company needs to sort out the retail channels and after-sales service centres. I am not much aware of where these smartphones are being sold currently (other than Takealot.com) and how good are the service centres in South Africa to provide screen replacements and other repairs. I am also not aware of the costs associated with the same and time to do so too. 

I totally loved the Honor 50 and wanted to have this one for my blogging and content creation journey but it went back after a review period of a month or so. I do love phones which has a powerful camera and this is definitely one after my 2020 lockdown falling in love with Vivo X50 Pro which also only came for review. Currently, I am not using any phone which has such an amazing camera in a point and shoots mode because if the software and hardware are good enough, you don't need to edit much. I believe in presenting the photos without any editing whatsoever by just applying some filters in Instagram mostly but no snapseed or vsco cam etc. If I feel the photos coming out of point and shoot mode of the smartphone camera is good then it's the way I go about it. I don't make many efforts to edit them in a post-processing session and hence I believe this Honor 50 is a good one because it takes good photos in one take. 

If you want to check out the Unboxing video of the smartphone, please do check this detailed video on my Youtube channel - https://youtu.be/qeE4u0vP_bg

Let me know if you have any questions for the Honor 50 and any comparative analysis you want me to do. Though I don't have the phone available to me now I can definitely do a cost comparison based on the features with the other brand you are also deciding to buy. Honor is a brand that has had some of the great launch events in India earlier and now the same should happen in South Africa to bring the market awareness and differentiate them away from the legacy of Huawei into a world where they are allowed to have Google Mobile Services and all the apps and their subsequent updates in real-time are available to download from Google Play Store instantly. 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

New Year Resolutions - Week 1 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

I have been writing a lot of TO-DOs for the new year and dividing the year into 52 weeks out of which 50 weeks I will be focussing on my goals and for 2 weeks will be totally rejuvenating and relaxing. I am not answerable to anyone but still feel that I should share what happened during this first week of January towards all those main goals I have had, where I failed and where I was able to accomplish the goals.

Week 1 -  1 Jan 2022 (Sat) to 7 Jan 2022 (Fri) 

As this year started with a weekend first we thought of using Week 1 right from Saturday/Sunday and then relaxing on days like Monday and Friday where if you have achieved the week's agenda then you can rest. Monday's is a troubled day as I am always tired due to extended binge-watching on Friday, Saturday nights lacking some sleep.

1. Walking - Completed the 20km walking target I had for the first week. It was a great feeling as I started walking on a daily basis again. It really gave me the motivation to continue working towards my 1000 kilometre goal.

2. Prayers - I really loved praying and also completed 33x Hanuman Chalisa as I explained in my blog post. Along with that I also thought of doing the Sundar Kaand path every week once and completed for Week 1. It also came to my mind in Week 2 that meditation can be made in parallel with my daily prayers while I do the 108x Navkaar Mahamantra or Maha Mritanjyu Mantra or Gayatri Mantra.

3. Books/Audiobooks - I started listening to The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel and started reading Do Your Shit by Ankur Warikoo. I also came across his Youtube channel and watched a lot of shorts and other videos because of our common interest in Microsoft excel. I also completed listening to Kunal Nayyar book - Yes, My accent is real.

4. Thank You - I chanted the Thank You towards my goal of 1 Million by the end of the year. I completed the 100k for the previous month this week and started afresh for this month. I reached around 45000 counts at the end of the week.

5. Healthy Living - I missed taking medicine for a single day for the week and took care of my health a lot. Drinking a lot of water is a daily task that I achieve using my 3 water bottles. I love water bottles and am in search of a copper one now to fill it overnight and drink first thing in the morning. I also directly drink tea every morning but plan to have a habit of drinking water first starting Week 4.

6. Attitude/Mindset - I wanted to achieve a wealthy mindset and this week was successful in creating that for me. I felt really happy and confident that I am on the right path. I will continue to work towards getting the right wealth mindset throughout the year 2022.

7. Affirmations - I only thought about it in Week 2 so didn't start the same in Week 1. Affirmations are a great way to start uplifting your day. I am targeting to complete the Affirmations videos on my Youtube channel to be launched in Feb 2022.

January has been a wonderful month with so many things planned and being executed too. Step by step we will reach our goals in a slow and steady manner. Looking forward to getting in touch with my real self so that you get ideas and suggestions as well as how I am implementing them on a day to day basis.

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

#TheLifesWay Ideas To Implement - Manage Energy and Not Time

Hi Friends,

I have been a fan of productivity habits and dedicated all my adult life to improving myself, challenging all my thinking patterns, channelling my belief system and never believing what has been told to me unless I experiment with the tips and tricks myself. I always have mismanaged/misjudged my capabilities to the thing that I am like a Superman every time I will make a timetable whereas life happens and you can't perform at the same energy level all the time. It made all those timetables go waste as following them made it so difficult on a day to day basis and the time invested to create them also goes wasted. I have always made it my top priority to have all the resources available to me before executing and this is one of the worst habits you can have. I read all the books possible on time management from Arnold Bennett to Brian Tracy to David Allen and totally loved following them. These books helped me a lot and I still follow all the principles laid out in them. 

But some years back I read an article in a famous magazine (which I am unable to recall) to Save Energy rather than Time. This really gave me an insight into a different world as sometimes in our Services industry, you are dependent on other teams where you have to execute your part once the other party does theirs. In those scenarios, it's necessary that you don't waste your energy where time has no significant value while you wait for the other to finish. When it's your time to show or execute your work then you will still have the energy to go the extra mile to finish the task at hand. I worked on a project where I had to work for 12-13 hours in the night shift in London for the tracking of data migration and it was my first ever such job. Within 3 months of this cycle to work only on nights from Thursday to Sunday, made me like a zombie where my body cycles were all around the place. At that job, managing energy attitude would have been much better than managing time because data migration reports used to come at a certain pre-listed time. 

The other thing I learned from one of the other books (don't remember - will update once I find it) is that don't consider your time highly valuable and it will automatically reduce a lot of stress in your life. If you are in a job or work where you are dependent on someone else to provide your inputs, it reduces a lot of stress, anger and irritation if you stop valuing your time much. This is contrary to the thinking pattern all my life where I would give my time the most priority throughout my school and college life. This led to a lot of relationships not getting enough time to bloom and a lot of loss for the networking which could help in your career later on. I could have made a lot more friends and a lot more moments to cherish if I would have not valued my time and my goals so much. This even applies to your first job also that you should never consider your time highly valuable during the initial years of your career as you invest in learning opportunities and networking with your colleagues and it ties back with my Cross-Learning blog post too. 

The concept got a new angle in the book The Productivity Project (2016) by Chris Bailey which I just finished listening to this week only. In the book, Chris says that there is a triangle comprised of Time, Attention and Energy in our knowledge economy to get things done or to finish tasks on or before time. It's very much just like the Project triangle where time, money and scope are the three factors governing the overall quality of the project. Chris says in his book to identify the time zones within the day when your body is energetic and your mind is responding perfectly well with all the focus and might. This is the time zone that will help you achieve your top tasks as your mind doesn't wander off. He also suggested that you put your phones on silent/far, notifications off, keep the internet off on the laptop so as to avoid any kind of distraction during these prime hours. I totally agree with all his concepts and it will definitely bring all the attention and energy to focus on your work at hand. 

I have felt many times when I take away all the distractions and only focus on one task at a time, not only do I achieve a lot more but also be satisfied as well at the end of the day. FOCUS is something you need to learn to get as and when you want it. This is like a habit that can only be formed if you know where are your time and energy going and how much attention you are during your daily day to day tasks or studying or calls or whatever you are doing. I am intentionally taking away all the distractions during all my meetings so that I can totally focus on the calls and it brought me so much power to think on my feet. If you are doing so many multiple things at a single time, it's so difficult to finish even a single task. Multi-tasking is something we need to take out of our minds. One task at a time will definitely improve your energy usage as you can then give full energy to the work which required more and conserve energy when it's not required like browsing through your social media feeds etc. 

We all got the same amount of time but attention and energy vary based on your health and attitude. With the right attitude, the attention span can be increased. With healthy habits, the energy can be improved. With both attention and energy, time can be saved. The more attention and energy, you will put into your daily tasks, the less time it will take you to finish them. If you have the time and attention, you can solve a lot of complex problems because the mind can think so much. When you have the time and energy, then you should work towards your long term top priority tasks and finish them. When you have attention and energy, you can do whatever you want even in less amount of time. When to save energy and when to save time is also a pearl of wisdom that will develop with time as no one rule fits all situations but you should have the tools to use it to change your attitude towards time immediately forecasting the job assigned. As you grow this attitude, you are going to be invincible my friend. 

More and more ideas will be shared based on my real-life experiences. You are also welcome to add to the ideas in comments or via tweets or any form of social media comment. I hope you liked my point of view and will definitely benefit from the same as much as I loved saving my energy from time to time. 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

#TheLifesWay Ideas To Implement - Hanuman Chalisa For Each and Every Day Of Your Life

Hi Friends,

I generally don't talk about religion in my blog posts but that doesn't mean my faith is not strong or I am an atheist. I have a lot of incidents in my life that can happen only with the blessings of the Supreme Lord whom I refer to as Lord Bajrang Bali Ji or as Lord Hanuman too. There are three Supreme Lords in Hindu Culture and they are the creator, keeper and destroyer of life in this Universe - Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva. To understand that better, Lord Hanuman Ji is a God who remains unmarried and as per Hindu Mythology and Culture, he is one of the few people who are still alive today. He is a divine follower of Shri Ram who is the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Bajrang Bali Ji has an image or we call it ansh of Lord Shiva in himself. In Northern India, we celebrate Tuesday as Lord Bajrang Bali Ji's day where people flock to the temples all day especially in the evening with Prasad (offering) called Boondi (sweet) and there is so much fun to eat that boondi after the visit to the temple. I was born on Tuesday and so despite being born in a Jain family, I still feel more connected with Lord Bajrang Bali ji as during all my problems I only call him and pray to him for giving me strength and courage to fight with all these problems. 

A lot of instances in my life has happened, where some kind of supernatural power only saved me as it was too difficult for my little, fragile human body to achieve that task. To thank him for my existence here on Planet Earth, I wanted to chant his verses formed in the booklet named - Hanuman Chalisa for all the days I have lived so far which came out to be around 365.25 * 42 Years = 15340. The goal was formed a long ago when I was only 30-31 years of age or maybe before that too but never had the strength to finish. It was lying just like any other goal of bodybuilding, running 5kms etc but during the lockdown, it came to life and since 2020, I sincerely started to complete the daily numbers so as to reach 15340 times Hanuman Chalisa. I have only crossed 34 Years of Hanuman Chalisa so far as on date today and the intention is to reach 42 Years of Jap (Chanting) of Hanuman Chalisa by my 42nd birthday on 22-July-2022. 

My strongest belief has been that if I do 108 times Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesday in a single go, no work, no wish or no need will go unfulfilled. 

I have tested it again and again and it has brought whatever I desired during the times where I needed Almighty Lord's blessings. I have not kept this a secret as people closer to me know about it and I also have recommended doing 108 times Hanuman Chalisa if they are stuck in life. I made the goal to complete 15000 times Hanuman Chalisa as something of a big goal which I am slowly and steadily moving towards. I am reproducing Hanuman Chalisa in this blog post for your easy reference and you will find a lot of websites dedicated to Bhakti and also a lot of Youtube videos from Lata Mangeshkar to Hariharan to Sudesh Bhonsle to Sonu Nigam to Amitabh Bachchan to Anuradha Paudwal singing the Hanuman Chalisa. Based on your liking you can listen to any of them too. 

Shri Hanuman Chalisa!

Shri Guru Charan Sarooja-raj Nija manu Mukura Sudhaari

Baranau Rahubhara Bimala Yashu Jo Dayaka Phala Chari

Budhee-Heen Thanu Jannikay Sumirow Pavana Kumara

Bala-Budhee Vidya Dehoo Mohee Harahu Kalesha Vikaara...

Jai Hanuman gyan gun sagar Jai Kapis tihun lok ujagar

Ram doot atulit bal dhama Anjaani-putra Pavan sut nama...

Mahabir Bikram Bajrangi Kumati nivar sumati Ke sangi

Kanchan varan viraj subesa Kanan Kundal Kunchit Kesha

Hath Vajra Aur Dhuvaje Viraje Kaandhe moonj janehu saje

Sankar suvan kesri Nandan Tej prataap maha jag vandan...

Vidyavaan guni ati chatur Ram kaj karibe ko aatur

Prabu charitra sunibe-ko rasiya Ram Lakhan Sita man Basiya

Sukshm roop dhari Siyahi dikhava Vikat roop dhari lank jarava

Bhima roop dhari asur sanghare Ramachandra ke kaj sanvare...

Laye Sanjivan Lakhan Jiyaye Shri Raghuvir Harashi ur laye

Raghupati Kinhi bahut badai Tum mam priye Bharat-hi-sam bhai

Sahas badan tumharo yash gaave Asa-kahi Shripati kanth lagaave

Sankadhik Brahmaadi Muneesa Narad-Sarad sahit Aheesa...

Yam Kuber Digpaal Jahan te Kavi kovid kahi sake kahan te

Tum upkar Sugreevahin keenha Ram milaye rajpad deenha

Tumharo mantra Vibheeshan maana Lankeshwar Bhaye Sub jag jana

Yug sahastra jojan par Bhanu Leelyo tahi madhur phal janu...

Prabhu mudrika meli mukh mahee Jaladhi langhi gaye achraj nahee

Durgaam kaj jagath ke jete Sugam anugraha tumhre tete

Ram dwaare tum rakhvare Hoat na agya binu paisare

Sub sukh lahae tumhari sarna Tum rakshak kahu ko darnaa...

Aapan tej samharo aapai Teenhon lok hank te kanpe

Bhoot pisaach Nikat nahin aavai Mahavir jab naam sunavae

Nase rog harae sab peera Japat nirantar Hanumant beera

Sankat se Hanuman chudavae Man Karam Vachan dyan jo lave...

Sab par Ram tapasvee raja Tin ke kaj sakal Tum saja

Aur manorath jo koi lavai Sohi amit jeevan phal pave

Charon Yug partap tumhara Hai persidh jagat ujiyara

Sadhu Sant ke tum Rakhware Asur nikandan Ram dulhare...

Ashta-sidhi nav nidhi ke dhata As-var deen Janki mata

Ram rasayan tumhare pasa Sada raho Raghupati ke dasa

Tumhare bhajan Ram ko pavai Janam-janam ke dukh bisraave

Anth-kaal Raghuvir pur jayee Jahan janam Hari-Bakht Kahayee...

Aur Devta Chit na dharehi Hanumanth se hi sarve sukh karehi

Sankat kate-mite sab peera Jo sumirai Hanumat Balbeera

Jai Jai Jai Hanuman Gosahin Kripa Karahu Gurudev ki nyahin

Jo sat bar path kare koyi Chutehi bandhi maha sukh hoyi...

Jo yah padhe Hanuman Chalisa Hoye siddhi sakhi Gaureesa

Tulsidas sada hari chera Keejai Nath Hridaye mein dera...

Pavan Tanay Sankat Harana, Mangala Murati Roop...

Ram Lakhana Sita Sahita  Hriday Basahu Soor Bhoop.

There are so many methods you can pray to Lord Bajrang Bali ji but Hanuman Chalisa is one of the easiest ones to follow and the other one is Sundar Kaand. You can buy the Hanuman Chalisa book from Indian stores or get it printed or even have it on a visiting card size which I also use. Some years ago, I distributed around 100s of Hanuman Chalisa to various temples and devotees in Gurugram, India. I intend to do it again and will bring some back to distribute here in South Africa too. My maid from Zimbabwe also knows this by heart which is a great achievement for her in itself. I will start another series where I could surely say that Bajrang Bali has significantly improved my life by his blessings and carrying me on a daily basis where I could not even walk or run. 

I have never shared my mental journey with anyone other than myself and the Almighty Lord but I was once on the brink of depression and taking some negative steps way back in my life after my engineering graduation in 2002-03 and I can only say that Lord Hanuman Ji and some other people really kept me going in real life. There are many such stories that will continue to come on my blog posts soon and much more as I concentrate on sharing all my ideas, thoughts and the real me with you openly. Thank You for your time and May God Hanuman Bless You too! Jai Bajrang Bali Ji Ki Jai!

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Jan 2021 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

January is generally known to be a Galaxy month where a new smartphone from Samsung comes to the market and last year Galaxy S21 was launched and I was using the same till the end of the year courtesy Samsung South Africa. As the smartphone goes back to the company, I am missing the powerful camera on the S21 series has and mind you that I am not even talking about the S21 Ultra. Let's forget about these memories as the new smartphone is in the pipeline by Samsung this season and I am hoping for the best.

1. @SamsungSA Introduces Latest Innovations for A Better Normal #CES2021 - CES 2021 happened and it showcased some of the latest innovations by Samsung Electronics. CES 2022 is currently going on and I could not put effort to check what's happening this time around and maybe check it on the weekend to catch up with all the latest technology released to the market. 

2. @SamsungSA Sets New Standard for Flagship Mobile Processors #Exynos2100 #CES2021 #ExynosOn #Exynos_is_back - Exynos is the silicon chip made for the future and will continue to power and guide the smartphones in 2022 also on some of the Samsung Smartphones which will be revealed in 2022 and going further into the future.

3. Premium Comes Standard with World’s First QLED #GalaxyChromebook2 @SamsungSA #CES2021 - Chromebook 2 was also launched last year but never made it to the African markets as far as I know. 

One of the photos taken using Samsung Galaxy S21 Smartphone

4. Meet @SamsungMobileSA #GalaxyBudsPro: Epic Sound for Every Moment #SamsungUnpacked - This is the best audio wireless earbuds that produces such great sound that you will fall in love immediately. I totally loved them when I used them and my review is also here in case you want to check and read. 

5. Make Every Day Epic with @SamsungMobileSA #GalaxyS21 #GalaxyS21Plus #SamsungUnpacked - Samsung S21 series is something I totally adored and fell in love with because of the camera quality in point-and-shoot mode also. I never do any kind of editing on my photos and everything you see is just directly coming out of the device and my Instagram has images from the Galaxy S21 model mostly in 2021. Check out the review of the Galaxy S21 on my blog post. 

I only did 8 posts in Jan 2021 and some of them are produced here. The wisdom to write more and more of my personal content has come to me in 2022. Just copy-pasting Press Releases is not going to benefit me as I am at the mercy of brands in hope that they will send me something or will invite me to their launch events etc. At the end of the year, I am not even getting any sponsored posts nor any gifts from them so why waste time promoting their posts. Hence, fewer brands, fewer press releases unless it's a trade exchange or sponsored posts, more collaborative posts, analysis posts and self-written content. I am sure you will like the idea. I will do all kinds of comparative posts based on the knowledge I have about all the gadgets and new products specifications. Happy New Year 2022 once again to all my readers! 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

#TheLifesWay Ideas To Implement - GRATITUDE Journal Each and Every Day

Hi Friends, 

I used to have a daily tasks planner in the form of a folding page which my brother taught me and I followed it across my MBA to capture the tasks for each day of the week. It was really cool how you can convert a piece of paper into an eight pager diary form (will post a video to create it) to jot down all the assignments, tests and other things you want to do and need to check on. I have followed that over the years from 2003 to around 2015 or so. I didn't use it afterwards as I started using a diary along with in between an app which is now closed to jot down all the contests I have won on Twitter and Facebook and whether the goodies have been received by me or not. For some of the goodies I have chased up with the concerned brands for more than 6 months too but I have never let it go if they have done any contest and declared the winners, goodies need to come. I have only missed some of the goodies not received because of them stole by the courier delivery boys or at the courier centre itself. To counter that I started giving the courier boys some of the items from time to time on a regular basis but then another problem got raised when one of the courier boys wanted a Superdry t-shirt which I also had 2 at that time won through their online contests only as the price was around Rs. 2000 each. Over the years, the quality has declined and improved from time to time with someone facing the heat as million of packages change hands. 

Felling grateful about the stuff/people/places/family/friends you know and have been granted by the Universe is the most powerful feeling in the world. I too started writing a daily gratitude journal sincerely for the last 3-4 years where I note down the top 5 things I am grateful for on a daily basis. Writing a daily journal gives you consistency and something to look forward to like spending time with your own thoughts and yourself. You can write anything your heart and mind says. I generally write about being thankful about my blog, about my daily walks, daily prayers, family and friends from time to time and also about special days like Salary day, birthdays and days when I receive some new gadgets to unbox and review. It really helps me connect the dots for some inspirations which I have got but never thought about again. I always try to think about all the things or experiences that I wanted in life and see in amazement that I was thinking about it some days back and it has converted into reality despite not mentioning the same in the journal too. This process is called co-creation where the universe listens to your subconscious calls and immediately delivers the same. It has also happened to me whereby I declared in my journal as a wish to be in Singapore by a certain date a year ahead in future and I was there on the same date enjoying the Orchard Road shopping mall. Another instance that comes to my mind is about wanting to meet one of the Bollywood heroines and identifying whom I want to meet on a Sunday afternoon at my house in London, and you won't believe I was standing next to her on Tuesday 530pm and that was Deepika Padukone and I think it's all because of my gratitude journaling habit. 

For the best part is that it doesn't matter what kind of diary you use - expensive or cheap ones as I have used the A6/A7 sized diaries I received from the various launch events. Only one or two I have bought so far from the China mall in Fordsburg or any other shop. My current red coloured one is from the Huawei launch event is going to end in 3 months time and then I will find a good one with a good paper that can take the Parker fountain pen's ink. I have been using the gratitude model from the first time I watched the secret in 2007 to 2011 where I will use A5 sized notepads. It used to be in a different format where I used to assign a page to a week and freely flow the text without any order or numbering. In 2011, I moved to Bilt Weekly Planner and carried on till 2013 and still have them which really helps me to remember what happened in my life during those years and carried on with the weekly format in free-flowing form too. I am also grateful to the diaries that I write in and the pens I am using to help me write it. I have shared them on my Instagram posts from time to time. 

Gratitude is the single biggest force that can move mountains if done with faith and heart. You have to remain humble all the time and I have seen in my life whenever I have deviated from being humble, I found myself lying in the dirt immediately. It's these sensors that I have developed to keep my attitude in check but as life happens so does your mood changes and irritation crops in. The only way is to move your focus to gratefulness during those times as compared to the success or failure you are facing. I can narrow down the benefits which I have received writing the daily gratitude journal as it keeps my attitude in check for sure and I feel happy all the time. These journals really helped me gain an understanding of my own value system and how much I admire the small stuff and waste my energy on getting and keeping them. Since this wisdom has come to me, I have significantly reduced my unnecessary items and keep giving them away to charity or to someone who wants them. If I am feeling angry these journals really tell me that I am not able to write even a single line, then I just browse through the previous pages and feel good about those days and it internally boosts me up to face the challenge and struggles of my mind. 

I kept changing the style of writing a gratitude journal over the years to finally reach the point of writing my daily 5 things. Earlier I have written 100 people/places/things to be grateful for which used to take a lot of time and also the top 3 things to be grateful for every day. Also, I make it a point to keep changing the topics for which I am grateful so that I don't mention the same things again and again. Last year, I thought of doing things like writing gratitude about the people/places/friends/family/things etc as per the dates of the month. It meant that on the 1st day of January or any month for that matter, I will write 1 and as the date progresses so will be my list. That way you write about 465 grateful topics at the end of the month whereas if you do daily 5 you will only reach 150. Freestyle format is also one of the ways when I feel heavy in my heart to pour down my feelings and thoughts on the paper. It has given me much more than any other format in the long run and I continue to do so as and when I feel like in a separate journal or sometimes instead of writing 5, I only write about 1 in a free-flowing format to take out all the anger and pain in my heart and Let it Go!

It depends now on how you want to take it forward based on the dates of the month or daily 5 or a freestyle format? The time to write based on the dates is of course higher but the impact will also be huge in your life. I will try the same for sure too in one of the months and most probably Feb-22. What about you? To end with another instance that comes to my mind was to meet some of the Bollywood movie stars and it came to reality whereby in a single week I met a lot of them in Mumbai Blackberry Sharp Nights and Delhi in separate launch events. That's all because of how grateful I felt internally in my heart and mind to attract whatever I wanted in life! I wish the same for you and let's make it a reality! 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

New Year Resolution #5 - 25 Books To Read & Listen To In 2022 #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends, 

I already wrote about the habit to inculcate reading books and magazines into your daily life as this is one of the ways to learn these days and has been a truth always. I can still recount that Warren Buffet read all the books on finance and stock markets from his local library if I can remember correctly at a very young age. 

In this digital age where you have a kindle, iPad, Audible and other various modes to read books and magazines which medium is great always remains a question to ask and consider? I can certainly put down my viewpoints as I thought over the years and have been using all these mediums from time to time on a daily basis. 

I have a Kindle Keyboard which one of my friends bought in the USA for me and I paid him in Rupees and I got it in 2012 and since then I have been using it on a weekly basis at least. I really love that this can convert any book into an audio translator using a built-in text to audio converter. I still feel that the eyes don't get hurt while reading on Kindle and I am using software named Calibre - eBook Management to manage all the books on the same. 

Secondly, coming to the iPad 3 I have which has a great retina display as compared to my earlier iPad mini used by my dad is not working anymore and is being replaced by iPad 8 by my brother on their trip to the USA last year. I love the kindle app on the same and because it has a backlit screen, you can read it during your bedtime too. Also reading news articles or magazines is really good due to the bigger screen size and touch panel makes it easy to move between the pages. Zooming in and out is also really easy and you can finish the magazines so fast using your iPad. 

Audible is an Amazon app for listening to a big list of audiobooks which comes at a premium membership where you need to pay some monthly subscription and receive 1-2 books per month for free and the rest then you can buy as per the rates. This is an app that saves your listening history and gives you badges for every minute of listening to keep you motivated. The audible app is really nice and I totally love it. 

Coming to my personal list of books that I plan to read for the first time will be shared here as well as some of the books I want to re-read again this year. 

1. Do Epic Shit - Ankur Warikoo (Reading - Wk-2)

2. One Minute Millionaire - Mark Victor Hansen & Robert Allen (Re-reading in Wk1-2)

3. Retire Rich: Invest Rs. 40 a Day - P V Subramanyam (Reading in Wk-2)

4. Keep Going/Show Your Work - Austin Kleon 

Some of the audiobooks I plan to listen to 

1. Yes My Accent is Real - Kunal Nayyar (Completed in Wk-1)

2. The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel (Completed in Wk-2)

3. Shoe Dog - Phil Knight (Planned for Wk-3)

4. The Productivity Project - Chris Bailey (Listening in Wk-2-3)

I will keep on adding to the list as I find more and more books to commit to. It's like a continuous decision to find the right ones and find the time to read them too. So far I have observed I can listen to some of the books and complete them during my daily walks. I am sure my audiobooks list will be around 20+ and other books will be around 5. I am committed to reading much more than that but let's break them week by week. The first week I completed a book by Kunal Nayyar and the second week of the year I will be finishing The Psychology of Money which is a really nice book. 

Though the count of books seems to be really small as compared to the productivity gurus on Youtube saying 100s of books in a year or so what we need to realize is that my only task is not to read books. We have jobs, kids, family, our own entertainment, rest and sleep which gives us some time to keep up with books. Hence, I will only target to read books I really wanted to pick up consciously and go through and can drop them too if I am not deriving any value out of them. It's all about your return of investment of your personal time to books. I recently wrote another post on inculcating reading habits from the start which my father did in us. My brother is much more of a voracious reader and reads all kinds of topics as compared to me to a limited set of books. He even has a policy in his company to gift every employee a Kindle of his own choice as well as Kindle Books fund to buy books from his company's expenditures. I hope you will have your own book's goals if not, you should definitely have some at least 10 in a year or 12 in total - 1 per month. Happy Reading! 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

#TheLifesWay Ideas To Implement - Inculcate READING HABIT Since Childhood

Hi Friends, 

I still remember I always used of dreaming to take membership of private library in my city in India where there were a lot of comic books though I used to read a lot of books from the school library as well as a library of a university where my Uncle was a Professor. My parents never stopped us from annual memberships of various magazines throughout our school and college days with Competition Success Review being one of the magazines which really helped me improve my General Knowledge. By virtue of reading that monthly magazine, I have won a lot of GK based contests in person as well as online. Another one which I remember reading a lot is India Today (weekly), Reader's Digest and some of the other Hindi magazines for kids like Motu Patlu, Champak and Suman Saurabh. Later after I started earning my own money, I invested in Outlook Money (monthly) magazine over the years. But it's my habit to always leave a lot of the part unread whereas that problem I don't face with the books and I really love reading non-fiction as well as Self-help books and business books. I always used to propose books to buy to the various libraries I have visited which used to be on my wishlist or favourites during various years of my life. 

I started reading Fiction only for Amish (The Shiva Trilogy) series in particular and later I read all his novels and Ashwin Sanghi's as well as other Indian and International Authors like Dan Brown. I always used to pre-book their written books including Rhonda Byrne even before the launch and I have had the pleasure of meeting Amish Tripathi in person at one of the Westland Books events in Delhi and similarly Chetan Bhagat at one of the Blackberry Sharp Nights events in Mumbai. Even during my MBA and Engineering courses, I have read a lot of books (Business, Management, Productivity and Non-fiction) on a weekly basis other than the course books picking each and every one of them from the library shelves choosing which one I want to spend time with for a week. I even have a Chicken Soup for the Soul book autographed by Jack Canfield when he visited India thought I could not meet him in person. I did review a lot of books for BlogAdda in their Book Review campaign on my blog. 

Last few years since 2013, I was only reading less than 5-6 books per year since I came to South Africa and a part of me was always feeling that constant pain of not reading the books. Though I had the Kindle Keyboard and iPad available with me, reading consistency has been an issue for me as well as identifying which book to read. Also, I subscribed to Getaway magazine in South Africa for many years in a row but initially there used to be delivery related problems of the physical copy but later they sorted it out with advance SMS and other tracking details. One magazine I subscribed to never reached me not even a single copy and all the money was lost so was the confidence in the delivery methods used by the publishers in South Africa. They never returned the money nor sent the copies. What a shame!  In India, I remember I used to start a book on Friday evening and will continuously read it through till Sunday night till it finishes. Reading is something from which I can easily say that I derive my thinking process and it has helped me through the ups and downs of life. Books Festivals, Book Fairs has been my first to go points whenever it used to happen in New Delhi and I love those stalls as they used to give an unlimited amount of books from thousands of publishers on display to see, touch and buy if you like them at some discount. 

Being confused about which book to read is due to the digital mediums which people, blogs, critics keep on praising and criticizing a lot of books whereas when I used to pick up books from the library, it was generally my unbiased choice from the cover and preface etc (look and feel) of the book. The actual copy when I used to pick from the books store also will require a kind of decision to spend your money on. People who love books are still glued to the paperbacks or buying books at stores due to this fact only that it gives me power and commitment to finish the same. A small part of life in terms of time spent on the book is measured and remembered forever and that's what makes it unique and that feeling doesn't come with the digital editions of the book. I re-read a lot of books during the lockdown to better understand them as I last read them some 10-20 years ago when my mind was not as experienced as now and it really gave me a new perspective to learn from the same book again. You shall always mark some books for re-reading on a frequent basis. 

A small incident I remember was when my wife was travelling after marriage to meet me from Mumbai to Delhi via a flight, the guy sitting next to her finished his book and gave it to her as she showed interest to reading the same and the book was called 3 Mistakes of my Life by Chetan Bhagat who gained fame from 5 Point Somone earlier. You should definitely check out movies on both the books named 3 Idiots and Kai Po Che. Another incident was when I applied for The World Book Day (pre-listed 25 titles) in London in 2011 and got selected to distribute one of my favourite books (received around 100 copies of the same) to random people in my office, on the streets of London and to the various libraries. Last year in Feb 2020 when I went to India, I donated all the physical books I bought over the years to our Building Society library (pocket or block or street) so that other people can enjoy the same too. 

Going back to my childhood I used to always ask my parents to buy me comics but it was way too expensive for them but whenever I used to visit my cousins who got a collection of comics available at their home, I used to ask them to give them all so that I can start reading them immediately and my whole dinner, breakfast and lunch used to be with comics most of the time till I finish all the stories before leaving them during my school holidays or whatever be the occasion of the visit. I used to hire comic books on rent which used to be very little as compared to buying the whole comics and then exchanging with various friends so that we could read more for less money. My father always supported us with the magazine subscriptions as compared to reading comics or buying comics though the price of annual subscriptions used to be way higher for the 12 copies received in a year. I think he had the intelligence that comics won't serve a purpose whereas magazines like Competition Success Review will always be a better friend in the long run even if his kids finish 10% of it every month. 

I don't see that kind of eagerness in my kids to read comics or magazines as I have not shown them the world of Motu Patlu, Champak, Super Commando Dhruv, Chacha Chaudhary etc which my father showed me. The reading content changed over my growing years and I am sure that I need to introduce my kids to the books which can help them grow into independent decision-makers, to stick to their value systems despite all criticism, to gain knowledge of the outside world, to face difficulties virtually before facing it in the real world and always have a winning attitude. I felt that the right books have imbibed me with some of the great habits and thinking patterns that can be considered as the best of the best. I feel comfortable in my own skin all the time. I could connect the dots even before the famous speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford and it all has come due to the various books, magazines, articles I have read over the years from all the libraries around the globe. Thank You So much to the magical world of Books, Magazines and Libraries!

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

New Year Resolution #4 - One Million Thank You #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends, 

There have been some of the habits I have followed over the years to increase my gratitude power as per the Law of Attraction and also to increase my productivity in several areas from time to time. I have watched The Secret movie way back in 2007 for the first time and since then I am glued to the video. I have learned a lot from the video as well as followed so many practices over the years. Last year during the lockdown, I came across a book named Happy Money by Ken Honda where the writer told me that any of your tasks which is pending for a long can be achieved if you say Thank You 100,000 times and be grateful about it and I took it really seriously to adapt into my lifestyle. He further told that there is nothing that can stop you from achieving that task if you have the belief and conviction in your gratitude towards the Universe. 

I generally walk and bought a hand-held digital counter to implement saying the 100,000 Thank You continuously in a jap (in Hindi) way meaning the muttering of a mantra. I generally try to achieve as and when I remember but for 2022 I am setting a goal to achieve it every month once for sure. For the same, it boils down to 3333 per day which can be achieved if you walk for around 3 kilometres every day then you can easily say Thank You as you take each step. One by one you will reach a stage where your counter will show 99999 and I can tell you that's one of the happiest moments for sure. 

I have been irregular at this task so I have not seen or is not able to connect the dots where this has helped me in my life in a big way in 2021. But I am sure whatever small I have achieved in 2021 is only due to this for sure. I have seen myself winning contests where I really wanted to win, I have seen myself getting things I wanted to buy. It's really a habit that you should adopt to take you a frequency where you can feel great about yourself and others around you. I also felt internally happy that I am doing this task and slowly I will have the conviction with belief too and that's what I wish for you too! I am sure if I go by this rate and at the end of the 12 months, I will be crossing One Million Thank You's for sure. It will be 1.2 Million THANK YOU's that will create a great life for me this year in 2022. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I am sure that you are following my new year resolutions and I plan to update these posts once I achieve a particular goal for the week or month or as I feel about it a little later in the year. I also plan to create some of the affirmations videos in the various categories on my Youtube Channel and the same will be released soon. Let the process begin today! 

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!