That same old feeling again.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man- George Bernard Shaw.

That time of the year. The day yours. The right to get wasted, high or spend the day at Landmark just browsing. It’s the 3rd of November. It’s been 28 years on this planet. I have 2 years before I hit the big 3. What have I learnt? What do I want to do?

28 things learnt

1. Less talking more doing.
2. Life is short, grey hair hits you earlier than you think. Get out, go play.
3. There is no “The One”, anyone can  be the one with proper attention and love.
4. Compromise.
5. Looking back you always remember the best things in life. Forget the petty arguments, life’s too short.
6.  Keep learning. There are a million things to learn about with the web.
7. Less is always more. Incorporate simplicity in as many ways as you can.
8. Never say no to a new opportunity, you never know when you’ll meet interesting people.
9. Give credit where it’s due.
10. It’s ok to say no.
11. Me-time is very important.
12. There’s only so much you can give. It’s ok to take just as much.
13. Everything happens for a reason. Don’t spend too much analysing what that reason is.
14. Some people may not feel the same about you that you feel about them. That’s ok. Let them know what you think.
15. Everything will take time. Develop patience.
16. The stuff is important, not the degree the person has.
17. Everything you do, do it well. Everything can be done with hardwork.
18. Take as many pictures as you can, you’ll often smile at the memories. Get everyone’s pictures archived too.
19. Everyone has a lesson to teach you. Observe closely, even the annoying teach you what not to do.
20. Ride a rickshaw, do something you haven’t ever done a week and then make it daily.
21. If you face yourself the mirror and don’t like what you see, how do you expect others to like you?
22. You are unique. Don’t compare your insides to someone’s outside.
23. Everything you write online today will be known. Don’t give in. Express yourself the way you do offline.
24. Remember friend’s names and birthdays. Send them something special everytime.
25.  Don’t be THAT guy.
26. You are your own brand. Offer excellent customer service. Remember, people remember.
27. Family. Family. Family. They never let you down, they are who stand by you.
28. You can sleep after you are dead. If something takes 15 hours to do… finish the job first.

28 things to do

Setting goals is important, gives something to plan out when you need to plan what to do next. I was very inspired by Gaurav’s post on 30 things to do before he hits 30. That has served as motivation enough to come up with things I plan to work towards.

1. Become a TED Fellow – I love the guys I met over at Delhi, smart, fun and talented. Seems like a good place to be a part of.
2. Get my first million dollars worth of liquid cash.
3. Learn to play the guitar thoroughly – Inspiration is here.
4.  Learn cooking really well – Kishi from Foodaholics is a definite visit if you haven’t tasted her cakes yet.
5. Learn calligraphy and word art properly – Sample here.
6. Write a comic book story and cartooning together.
7. Take this blog to Adage top 150.
8. Hit Technorati top 100 too while I’m at it.
9.  Establish one area of expertise as a skill – currently looking at UI/UX/Information Architecture and Persuasion Architecture.
10. Direct and act in a movie.
11. Host my own podcast talk show.
12. Meet every entrepreneur I admire and chronicle his journey (possibly in a book).
13. Meet Will Smith, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ratan Tata, Chris Brogan and Kamala Hassan (Shruti too).
14. Write for a syndicated magazine or paper a monthly/weekly column and get paid for it.
15. Learn French.
16. Learn Spanish.
17. Have filter coffee at the Eiffel Tower.
18. Drive and then later on own a lambhorgini and an Audi TT coupe.
19. Start a healthy coffee shop/ restaurant.
20. Visit every country in the world.
21. Get on the cover of a popular magazine.
22. Become a guest lecturer at a university.
23. Buy a sea facing house with a porch on the beach.
24. Buy a private jet. Take my parents around the world.
25. Go to outer space and say hi to earth.
26. Run a full marathon.
27. Cut down to 80 kilos and 12 percent body fat.
28.  Have one friend in every country in the world that I can talk to.

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.” – Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Welcome to Karthick Gopal.com! To stay in touch with all the posts, subscribe to myRSS feed or follow me on Twitter for more interesting stuff.

If you don’t have something to say..

If you have something to say, and the talent to say it, then shout it out. But if you have something to say and you don’t know how, then learn. If you don’t have anything to say, and you don’t know how, then please, save the bandwidth for those who do and find other methods of releasing your passion. You don’t have to blog just because everyone else seems to be doing it. – Lorelle

In other words. If you know something and are an expert, be cool and share it. If you aren’t an expert and want to say something (like me) then learn (which I have started doing). If you aren’t either then please just stfu. Taken from one of the best blogs I have read that talk about WordPress and content – Lorelle on WordPress.

Focus on the important, not the urgent.

I have always been a fan of all things involving lifehacking, prioritisation and money making online. Primarily because I have no clue how the leaders in those fields do it. That’s one of the “goals” of this blog, to share with you whatever I learn. I know you might end up earning more through this, but that’s ok, you’ll atleast get profiled by me here then .

For effective time management, it’s necessary to know a couple of things.

Goals determine your tasks.
You are on a football field, you see a goal. Your aim is to score. It’s that simple. Everyone who comes in your way from the opposite team (and there are loads of them) are just distractions.  You have to write down your goals and what it is you wish to achieve and be a selfish bitch about it.

Tasks in decreasing order of priority
Brain Tracy has a nice book called Eat that Frog. The basic idea is you have to eat the frog first and forget the tadpoles. Aka do the shittiest job first. AND THEN only do the small ones. This I find is an easy concept to write a book about… but to do is another task.

There are 2 types of tasks

• Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals.
• Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with the achievement of someone else’s goals, or with an uncomfortable problem or situation that needs to be resolved.

That’s all, in part of being selfish Focus on the first, ignore the second. They are just distractors and they come in pleas, cries, bargains, orders whatever. Learn to say no, be nice while saying it and keep to it. In the end if you don’t achieve your targets, you’ll be the one thrown out.

So in the end, effective time management is -

- Set Goals (Lose weight 10 kilos)
- Set tasks that will get you to those goals (jog everyday, diet till you are reek thin, don’t dream of cakes and melting chocolate)
- Avoid distractions (please come for dinner, let’s go partying, “dude jog tomorrow man..”)
- Focus on the important