Based Zone

There might be a small delay. The file got deleted. Re-writing it right now. Thank you for your patience.

Part 1 of 2 part series on Expanding Your Thought Process will be posted today!

“Meditation is not something that should be done in a particular position at a particular time. It is an awareness and an attitude that must persist throughout the day” https://twitter.com/padamalai/status/1503536379426340871

The next post(s) on Based Zone will be a 2 part series on Expanding Your Thought Process Will be released next week

New Based Show Episode! I and Sana A Ahmed discuss: -Personal Philosophy -Role of Monsters in Life -Oneness and various other nuanced topics Tune In: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XTpl4CfdFW1eAqht91IIv?si=JLi9IZdbSA2VWR8euvPS1w

This article shows some good techniques to handle your motivational drive. At some point, we have all glorified the excitement we had as a child to different things. But as an adult, having that excitement will take you back in your work. Set aside your excitement for vacations. https://t.me/basedzone/331 A constant High is way better than rugged super highs and super lows. I never used to celebrate goals scored during football matches because of this reason, people thought I was no fun. https://t.me/basedzone/332 Life is largely filled with boring stuff. Redesign your life that you are intrinsically motivated all the time, instead of relying on cheap dopamine for happiness.

Additional Resource: https://twitter.com/Based_Realist/status/1493264002012569605

2nd Case: High Levels of Motivation Cannot be Sustained This is where the law comes into play. You pumped your excitement so much that it could not sustain itself. It naturally regressed to the mean (average). While, you should be able to work at a normal level of excitement, in this case you will not be able to. Cause you have gotten used to a higher level of excitement and motivation. Thus making it important for you to maintain a constant level. How do you maintain a constant level? 1. By avoiding dopamine suckers as much as you can. 2. By deliberately controlling your excitement The 1st one should be quite obvious to you. If you really want to create something good out of your life, you cannot fall prey to dopamine suckers. At least, not on a consistent basis. I don’t care how much you like them, it’s time that you take your life seriously. Coming to the 2nd point, this will take certain level of practice. For every time that you feel overly excited towards something, control it. Whether be it to get into a better shape or start a business. Save your motivation for the actual work, not the imagination of doing the work. Even when you achieve a goal, sometimes don’t celebrate it. You can still do it for certain achievements, but for some of them, avoid it completely. Directly move on the next goal or take a rest of 1-2 days. By doing so, you will maintain a constant flow of motivation and never run out of it. STAY BASED

Treating Sudden Drops in Motivation and Consistency The simplest answer: Take a few hours off. Before we get into a deep understanding, it’s important to get rid of a common misconception. Often, people refer to how a few centuries back people worked constantly, every day, without taking break. Hence we should be able to do the same. While it might be true a few centuries back, it’s not so simple in the 21st century. The device you are using right now is a dopamine sucker (without dopamine you can’t stay motivated). The second a notification comes; it takes away your attention. Even if you manage to ignore, it already sucked a bit of your dopamine by making you excited. We all have gotten used to using YouTube for self-education: another way it sucks our dopamine. The modern world is filled with such dopamine suckers. By the end of the day, it’s quite difficult to stay motivated. For certain people, it might be possible to constantly stay motivated while being prone to modern day dopamine suckers. For the rest, it isn’t. While it’s true that you can reduce your exposure to dopamine suckers, at the same time, we can’t get back to the life people lived a few centuries ago (with a few exceptions). With that being said, let’s dive right into the problem. What causes the drop in Motivation? Introducing the law of regression to mean. While the law does not perfectly apply here, you’ll still get a good understanding. Let’s understand the law through an example: Have you ever observed a kid perform exceptionally well in an exam but not so good in the next one? I bet you have. It’s a quite normal event. While everyone says it is due to the pressure from all the expectations, in reality it’s just the law playing its role When you perform way more than average, you reach a peak which you cannot cross. A peak achieved because of hard work and luck. Now, focus on “luck” part. Nothing exceptional can be achieved without luck. Nothing. Luck plays a greater role than you can ever imagine. Sadly, you cannot have luck everytime. Hence, the next time the kid fails so perform exceptionally. Now, how does it apply to your drop in motivation? Normally your motivation drops after competition of a project. You achieve something and suddenly your motivation is lost. You are no more driven towards work. Or maybe you were excited about your new year resolution and the excitement just dropped after a few days. The reason: In the 1st case: The source of excitement is lost In the 2nd case: High levels of excitement cannot sustain itself for a long term Let’s understand the solutions for both 1st Case: Loss of source of Excitement You successfully completed a project, what's next? There’s nothing. You considered your minor project to be a major one and lost all your excitement over it. The sudden rise in excitement due to completion of task dropped cause: 1) You became over excited over completion and could not sustain the excitement after the celebration 2) You had nothing significant to continue being excited for (more on both of points in 2nd case) How do I know it was a minor project? Cause you were able to complete it years before you died. A major project is not supposed to get completed so soon. Does this mean you are not supposed to take minor projects seriously or always keep chasing a new project? No. It’s important to have seriousness for each of your project. It’s important to stay satisfied with all you have while working for more. So, here’s what you do: Once the project is over, take a few hours or 1-2 days off. Do not do anything. No Netflix. Let your motivation recharge and get back to work. You can do the same when you feel burnt out. Though make sure that you do not resort to dopamine suckers when you are resting. Let your motivation level recharge itself properly. You can also create a practice of taking breaks once a week or once a month to let your motivation recharge. By doing so, you’ll never reach a state of absolute drop in motivation

Treating Sudden Drops in Motivation and Consistency will be posted today!

Morning Thought Survival to the mind is not about earning enough for basic needs Survival to the mind is about not accepting the harms caused (to self and others) for you to earn enough for basic needs (and further) Escape the survival mode- Not only in regards to your basic needs. Also in regards to your ideologies and every single action you take. PS: Read THIS for a simpler explanation

Next post on Based Zone will be on Treating Sudden Drops in Motivation and Consistency

Morning Thought Human Perspective can only cause problems It can not solve your problems (In a general sense, the perspective that caused the problem cannot solve it)

Life is not about knowing the future impact or consequences You can never truly know whether what you are doing right now will work out the way you want to Yet you take your chance You pick the most favourable option by analyzing the past, knowing that the circumstances can change Sometimes you pick the option while blinding following someone else's research or experience Often you end up the way you wanted to. Sometimes better that you wanted. The patterns you recognized prove to be true and sometimes they don't At the end of the day you still make a choice and you live with it You don't pass on the blame Cause that's what life is

How to Stay Consistent and Avoid The Regret of Constantly Quitting Habits Assume a situation where you have been following a habit for 20 days. For instance, you have step foot in the gym for 20 days. Every day your mind asks you to stay home, open a packet of chips and watch Netflix. Though you manage to control it. You manage to force your mind to listen to you. Yet, in the back of your mind, you want to do what your minds says. On the 21st day, you are unable to control your mind anymore. You skip the workout, open up the packet of chips and watch Netflix for next 10 hours. What happens next? You either regret or you form justifications. Or you do both. You try to form reasons for why you had to stay home. Maybe it was because you were in a “too tired". Same goes for eating chips.. You probably had nothing else to eat, right? No, you had 1000 different options, including fasting. All of it gets worse when you start lying about the impact. “What can a few chips do to me” and "I have time on the clock" Oh, it can my friend. It can impact. It will impact you. Everything has consequences. You can lie to yourself that “once in a while” won’t change anything and that you have plenty of time. But it will fuck you over and you don't have time my friend. Life is way too short. You are born and you are gone just like that. Finally you end up with Habit Formation Techniques. You try having a morning routine, atomic habits, techniques I share. And so on. I am not calling these techniques shit. They do have their own importance. It’s important to have a better environment. It’s important to have a strong “Why”. It’s important to sometimes trick your mind. Cause, everything has consequences. Every single thing that you do, impacts you. Every single thing. Every single habit. Every single technique. They all impact you. Nothing you ever do goes without having an impact on you. The justifications you make. The judgements you do. The ignorance you deny. The promise that you break. They all impact you. What’s the most important among all these for now, is the non-acceptance of the impact of “doing it once in a while” and "not truly having much time on the clock". Every time that the process of quitting starts, you fail to accept that what you are about to do is gonna cost you. You don’t accept that you could be doing something else with your time. All cause you want to believe that the a few chips won’t screw you over. That exact non acceptance is what’s screwing you over. Cause the day you accept it; it won’t screw you over anymore. Will you stop quitting all at once? Maybe. Probably not. But once you accept that you could be doing something else, you start to slowly want to the right act. Once you truly accept the seriousness and impact of your decisions, you will start making the right decisions. Maybe you won’t become a holy god all at once. Maybe it will take time. Maybe you’ll still sometimes screw over. But you’ll know the Truth. You’ll stop fooling yourself. You’ll stop ignoring the problem with quitting. The mere fact of quitting will shake you. Most importantly, it won’t feel like quitting anymore. Cause your habits will become a big part of you. This my friend, is the power of Awareness. You may not yet completely understand the greatness of it. But once you stop lying to yourself, you'll know what I am talking about. As a reminder, you might not become consistent in an instant. or you might. You might still do what's wrong for you. Yet, by being true, you will start to become serious. You will start to slowly internally want to do the right act. You don't need any other technique. Cause the techniques will come naturally to you. Until then, I am here. The techniques are here. Make use of them. At the same time, start accepting and growing your awareness in every area of your life. Cause you shouldn't need me forever. STAY BASED

We have a lot of new members Thank you for joining in. Welcome to the Based Zone I would recommend you to check out the pinned text and the following posts: 1st Step Towards Losing Control Over Your Mind How to Never Quit Your Strong Habits Again How chasing happiness, validation and social status can lead to motivation and actions A Complete Guide on Procrastination Next post comes out today! Stay Based

Normally I don't recommend movies. Mostly cause I don't watch them anymore. Yet, if there's 1 movie all of you should watch, it's: "Eternals by Marvel" You'll understand perfectly the difference between human and universal perspective. Also the idea of Creation and Destruction. You can also watch this video by Actualized.org for the same: https://youtu.be/nJsyiFJ1iVs

SOLUTIONS 1. 20 Second Rule Do not take more than 20 seconds to act. That’s all you need to motivate yourself. Take any longer and you’ll start creating justifications. Initially, it will be difficult. You will need a lot of power and firmness against your mind, but it's ALWAYS worth it. For instance, want to go to the gym? Get your ass up in 20 seconds. Stop taking more than that to get your ass up. The more you delay, the harder it will become to get your ass up. You will start creating reasons to not workout. You will postpone it to tomorrow. You will try making yourself busy with un-necessary activities. In the end, you are gonna end up with nothing but Regret 2. Use Regret as Fuel Let’s say you do end up procrastination. You do end up having regret. Use this regret as a fuel. Say to yourself: “The fact that I couldn’t do, is an opportunity for me to do it”. After all, you can only start doing what you can’t do yet. This small perspective change will play a big role. 3. Transform Your Perspective The reason your procrastinate is to avoid pain. Which demands a change in perspective. Bringing the example of Cow & Buffalo Whenever a storm comes, both the animals act in 2 different ways. The cow runs away from the storm. Hence exhausting itself. Though the storm catches up, and since both are going in the same direction, the cow spends more time under storm. While the buffalo runs towards it. Hence reducing the time under pain but slightly increasing the intensity. You have 2 similar options. You either go through the pain sooner or go through it for a very long time. Which one are you going to choose? 4. Energy Conservation Don’t waste all your time on distractions. This includes over thinking, Netflix, un-necessary discussions, etc. Stop debating over every world issue only to sound wise. Be focused on your life’s purpose. That’s where most of your energy should be spent. Once you stop drowning your energy, you’ll naturally feel more pumped to act. 5. Stop Letting Any Part of Your Day Impact the Other Often when people go through a bad morning, they let the effect continue for the rest of the day. If they fuck up their morning routine, they’ll fuck up their entire day. Stop doing it. If you miss the Morning Tasks, move on to the evening tasks. Don’t get stuck on what should have been done. Do what has to be done now. Break the loop. More on this has been discussed here 6. Gain Self Trust The most important of all, is to gain trust in self. Start believing in yourself. Regularly affirm to yourself that you can do it. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t achieved anything yet. You can still practice affirmations. Though make sure to not get stuck in the loop of affirmations, wherein you never act. Use affirmations as a way to gain enough self trust to act. And start acting using the 20 second rule in order to gain self trust. Thus creating a loop of self trust and action. The only loop you truly need. Miscellaneous There are various other solutions. For instance, starting small, having deadlines, etc. Though as mentioned earlier, they can impact you depending upon your perspective. While they can help you act, they can also further increase your procrastination. Additionally, for steps like having a better environment etc can help. Rather they do help a lot. Though a change in environment alone cannot transform you. Hence, making it important to focus on the most essential elements: -Don’t give justifications the time to form using 20 second rule -Turn any regret which you might have into fuel -Transform your perspective towards pain -Conserve your energy for the most essential activities -Break the loop by not letting any part of your day/week affect the other -Gain Self Trust to act and act to gain Self-Trust That will be all. Thank you for Reading. STAY BASED

5. Scouring the Internet for Tips to End Procrastination Similar to Productive Avoidance, this too leads to a massive wastage of time. You spend hours finding the perfect trick. You think you are being curious. You think you will change this time. Though you are only wasting your time. Additionally, scouring the internet can lead to you a trap. A trap where you start with solutions to procrastination and end with knowing how Big Bang took place. This is a trap which is an integral part of the Web, especially social media. You enter with an intention and get lost into something extremely stupid. 6. Bad Priority Distribution You are bound to procrastinate when everything on your To-Do list has the same priority. While in reality, this principle does not act in absolute sense, yet it plays its role. In better words, you obviously don’t spend equal time doing everything. You do not sleep for 6 hours, work for 6 hours, eat for 6 hours and shit for 6 hours. There’s clearly a time difference. Yet, the real problem is that you don’t have anything as your top priority. You only have a list filled with- exercise, meditation, walking, journaling, etc. And what you end up doing is Netflix. Over-Thinking In continuation to point 1, over-thinking plays a massive role in Procrastination. It does so in 2 ways: -Formation of Justification: The more time you take to act, the easier it becomes to form justification. Your mind gets time to justify why you shouldn’t act. When you are motivated to act, you don’t spend time thinking. But as soon as you give yourself a few minutes, you come up with justifications -Loss of Energy: A high amount of energy is used just to think and make decision. Often more than it takes to truly act. When you spend a lot of time thinking and forming justifications, you have already lost a lot of energy. This further forms as a justification to not act and rather watch Netflix. 7. Loop of Self-Destruction It’s unlikely for my readers, but in general, people have entered a loop of self-destruction. You eat junk food. Watch Netflix. Never exercise. Read negative news. Play video games all day. This puts you in a loop of low energy and high levels of laziness. Making is more and more difficult to breakout, but not impossible. This often happens when you become Obese. With time, it become near impossible to get back to normal. Though this is the time to breakout, and here’s how