Random Musings 😏, Part-3
Soul Letter #16
Hi folks, Shubham here.
Let’s kick off your weekend with another exciting edition of Random Musings.
We begin to accept that it’s not realistic to do something we truly love for a living. Too many of us who start down the path of compromise will never make it back. Considering the fact that you’ll likely spend more of your waking hours at your job than in any other part of your life, it’s a compromise that will always eat away at you.
- How Will You Measure Your Life?
Even with our inherent flaws, each one of us tries our best to be a good human.
At times, we compromise with our aspirations or desires. The reason may be our family obligations, financial constraints, or lack of conviction.
But compromise ends up eating us from within. It's a pill you have got to swallow daily, one which turns sourer day by day.
Being an amateur while one is exploring, compromises are inevitable. It's the ideal way to learn.
Freshers experimenting with new careers might have to take a pay cut or work for odd hours. A trade-off for which they pick up key skills in return.
Compromises make in critical aspects of life such as career or relationship can have long-term repercussions.
Staying in a high-paying job that requires you to work 15 hours a day may seem rational at first. However few years down the line, you may regret not spending time with friends or family.
Or people abandoning their dreams because they didn't want to disappoint their family might never forgive themselves for not trying.
I guess there isn’t a significant consequence in a short-term sacrifice, but a long-term compromise might lead to regrets and envy.
Whether it’s a professional quandary or a crucial life decision, I ask myself “will I be able to live with it throughout my life?”
And if the answer is ‘Yes’ then only I proceed with it.
Language Dancing
Todd Risley and Betty Hard studied the effects of how parents spoke to their infants during the first two and a half years of life.
They found as the child progressed through school their performance in reading comprehension and vocabulary was directly proportional to the number of words spoken to them in their first thirty months.
An average parent spoke 1500 words per hour to their infant whereas a talkative parent spoke 2100 words per hour and a less verbal parent spoke 600 words per hour. If you do the calculations for the first thirty months, the child of a talkative parent has heard 48 million words and the child of a less verbal parent has heard only 13 million.
Moreover, the way the words were spoken had a more profound effect than the number of words spoken.
The researchers identified two types of conversations—Business Language and Language Dancing.
Business language is dull and direct. They are not rich or complex therefore have a limited impact on an infant’s cognitive development.
“Finish your meal”, “Take your nap” are the example of business language.
Language dancing on the other hand includes having a sophisticated and chatty conversation like one might have with an adult. These chatty talks lead to enormous cognitive development.
Langauge dancing includes talking aloud with a child, commenting on what they are doing, asking them for their opinions, etc.
It’s basically you treat them like a grown-up 👩
“Do you want to wear the red shirt today?”, “Do you remember the time we went for a picnic?” are examples of language dancing.
The science behind this is, the more you talk to a child the more of the brain’s synaptic pathways are exercised. A child who has heard 48 million words has better brain connections than the one with 13 million words.
Risley and Hart summarized that some working poor people talked a lot to their kids and their kids did well in life. While some rich businesspeople spoke frugally to their kids and they performed poorly.
Next time you meet any new parents, do tell them about Language Dancing 💃 Apparently, the first year is the most important time for the children to hear the words.
Instagram, we need a break 🙄
Recently I read an article by John P. Weiss titled Beyond Social Media and Likes: How to Grow Creatively.
The following lines are from his article.
The part that concerns me, and that opportunists play off of, is how the Internet and social media seduce our need to be liked at the expense of our desire to get better.
The ironic part is that if we spent more time honing our craft instead of chasing gimmicks, our creative work would improve exponentially. And the better the work, the more likely people will take notice.
In the last couple of weeks, I have spent the majority of my time writing posts or contemplating story ideas for Instagram.
However, in doing so, I struggled ☹ to write for the newsletter.
Earlier I wrote daily for 40-50 minutes, but now I spend 30 mins on Instagram content and the remaining 20-25minutes on writing.
Making Instagram daily posts is a tedious task that I hardly enjoy.
People say it is a great place to attract new readers. It's true, I garnered 10-15 new subscribers within one month, but it feels more like a chore.
On the contrary, I love working on the newsletter. I can write for hours and it never feels like drudgery. The flow state attained in doing so is satiating.
In contrast, creating IG posts doesn't come close to it.
I believe the content is the visceral nectar that captivates the readers.
If the quality is good we will end up with more subscribers eventually.
After reading John's article I have made up my mind 🤔 to put a hold on Instagram activity for now and focus on my writing.
Maybe in the future, we might experiment with it again.
That’s So Wholesome😭
You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy
Final Words
It’s been pouring 🌧 continuously for the last two days. Water water everywhere! :(
There has been a surge in the number of viral infections so take care guys. I don’t want any of my readers to fall sick 🤧
I am traveling to New Delhi tomorrow to see off a friend who is going to England for higher studies.
In the last month, several of my friends have gone abroad. It’s kind of weird :(
That’s all from me. Have a solid weekend.
See you on Tuesday until then, Houdoe! 🙋♂️
In case you missed the previous newsletters, we have got you covered.
Soul Letter #15- Let's Rethink Technology 📱, A coin has two sides.
Soul Letter #14 - Random Musings 😏, Part-2
Soul Letter #13 - Motivation and Job Satisfaction, it's not always about money 💰
Soul Letter #12 - Random Musings 😏, Part-1
PS: If you would like to share anything, mail us at lettercallsoul@gmail.com.
That’s really Wholesome!