Quests

-
Happy Holidays!
Enjoy time with your friends and family!
Donate.
-----------
I have listed books I read in 2017 - hopefully you will find some of them interesting.  There is one book in particular which made me think in a quite different way. Let me talk about that.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
THE HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT

Exact same words but it's a completely different way of thinking. The first line about pursuing happiness and the second is all about being happy pursuing whatever you want. The goal is not important.  We say many times, enjoy the moment, be happy, it is all about journey ...




The author talks about Quests - His quest was to visit all the countries.  He has defined what should be a quest.
  • A quest has a clear goal and specific end point.
  • A quest presents a clear challenge - It has to be challenging enough to get out of your comfort zone.
  • A quest requires sacrifice of some kind - something has to be given.
  • A quest is driven by sense of calling or sense of mission
  • A quest requires series of small steps and incremental progress.
In summary, a quest has a clear goal, a real challenge, and a set of milestones along the way.

The Key is to "Believe in your quest even if others don't."

In the last two years, I have done some stuffs which has pushed me out of comfort zone like biking 100 miles or sky dive or even starting to write a blog.  This book gave me a fresh prospective on how to define my quests in a organized way.  It's a good book to read.

I have defined 5 quests for the next 10 years. Each of them will push me out of my comfort zone.  I will share one ..

Quest #2: Publish a second poem book by .... (keeping the date a mystery now)

Hope you find your quest and happiness pursuing it ...
Happy holidays!
===================

Books read in 2017

  1. Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari. The "Sapiens" book was much better.
  2. Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
  3. Gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee (*) 
  4.  How to be Alone: Essays - Jonathan Franzen
  5. Men without Women - Haruki Murakami (*)
  6. The happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
  7. The Broken Wings - Khalil Gibran (*)
  8. Unshakable - Tony Robins 
  9. The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day - David J. Hand (*) 
  10. Tuesday with Morrie - Mitch Alboon (*)
  11.  Algorithms to Live By - Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths (*)
  12. Whose Global Village? - Ramesh Srinivasan (did not finish)
  13. Desert - J.M.G Le Cezio (*)
  14. The Rise of Theodor Roosevelt - Edmund Morris (**)
  15. 30 lessons of Living - Karl Pillmer
  16. The improbability principle - David J Hand
  17. THE HAPPINESS OF PURSUIT by Chris Guillebeau (**)
  18. The speaking Tree (collection - Part 1) - Times ofIndia (*)
  19. Originals - Adam Grant (*)
  20. The five people you meet in heaven - Mitch Alboon
  21. God - A human story - Reza Aslan
  22. The End : A story of Truth  - Adam Rudolph
  23. Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson (*)
  24. Einstein - Walter Isaacson (Reading) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Retirement Journey

-
Image
Retirement Journey At age 58, I decided to retire after working 32+ years in computer technology, all in the Bay Area, CA. I am sharing my retirement decision journey and some experiences from the last two years of post-retirement life. You have to look for answers yourself. The 3 BIG Questions I Needed to Answer (for Retirement Decision): Why should I retire or not retire? Do I have the financial capability to retire? How will I spend my time? There may be many other questions, but let's start with these key questions. I will share my thoughts. You have to think about yourself. Why Should I Retire? In November 2022, I convinced the company to lay me off with a package instead of someone else. I initially decided to take six months off and then consider the next steps. In January, I came across this article, " Would You Trade Places with Warren Buffett? " I read the article but did not spend much time thinking about it. Thinking about the next step, I d...
Read more

A Pilgrimage - Walking on Camino Frances

-
Image
The Beginning of a Calling Almost a decade ago, I stumbled into the world of Paulo Coelho, beginning with The Alchemist . His words struck a chord—an elegant blend of spirituality, self-discovery, and emotion that felt both intimate and universal. One book led to another, until I had read nearly all of his works. Even today, when I find myself restless and searching for my next read, I return to Coelho—or sometimes to Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha —as if to steady myself. Among his books, The Pilgrimage left a lasting imprint. In it, Coelho recounts his walk along the Camino Francés to Santiago de Compostela, a journey of endurance, faith, and reflection. I could almost see myself there, step by step, breathing in the silence of old paths. Some time later, I watched The Way , the film where Martin Sheen walks the Camino to complete the journey his son could not. That story deepened the pull. The idea of a pilgrimage was no longer just in books or films—it began to live inside me. Since...
Read more
-
Image
Consciousness ---------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer : I am neither a spiritual Guru who has meditated on consciousness for years nor a neuroscientist or psychologist who has studied this topic and thought about it deeply. My goal was to write to clarify my thoughts for my own sake based on reading books and articles and listening to lectures and texts from spiritual masters and scientists over the last few months. This article is dedicated to my Uncle Late Saroj Behera. He was interested in this topic during his last years and also got me interested. We had many discussions during my visits to Arizona. I was mostly listening and learning from him.  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDF Version of the article What is Consciousness? Consciousness is first and foremost a subjective experience. It is a first-person experience, e.g., Why do I feel Happy? Why...
Read more