For those who think a lot about the future || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Patna (2021)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 03.07.2021, IIT-Patna session (Online), Greater Noida, U.P.  Context: Are you afraid about your future? How to overcome the fear of the future? What is fear? What is fear of failure? Why we are thinking a lot about future?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Whenever you are thinking, it is with respect to something that may happen in future or

00:21something that you need to do in future.

00:27And then there are various options with possibilities.

00:31Some of those possibilities appear gainful to you, some appear harmful.

00:41Why not simply do what needs to be done right now?

00:51First of all, that will take away the needlessly vacant mind space, you will not be left with

01:01that much opportunity to worry.

01:09And secondly, when you indulge in action, many of the alternatives that you were able

01:20to imagine about the future, those alternatives just disappear.

01:28The worst thing is to postpone action and keep worrying or keep thinking, overthinking

01:40as you said.

01:43So whenever you find yourself in that mode, the best thing is to ask yourself, isn't there

01:51something that I need to be rather doing at this moment?

01:57Not thinking, doing, shouldn't my energy be rather flowing into some right and constructive

02:07action at this moment?

02:10And once your energy starts flowing in that direction, there is less and less space, energy

02:17and opportunity available to needlessly worry.

02:23See thought obviously is very useful, one needs to have the faculty to think.

02:33But thinking must conclude in understanding and action.

02:44Action includes the option to not act at all, in the light of understanding.

02:54In the light of understanding, you may decide to act, you may decide not to act.

02:58So thought is not an end in itself, thought is a means.

03:06You want thought to end, you use thought so that it comes to a conclusion.

03:14Now if you are not letting thought result in something, instead thought has become a

03:22self-serving inner mechanism, then thought is of no use.

03:29So do think but ask yourself, what is emerging out of my thinking?

03:35Is my thinking really leading to understanding or action or is thinking just leading to more

03:44thinking?

03:48And if you find that thinking is leading to more thinking, then you need to start acting.

03:55Have you noticed this?

03:56That when you act and you put everything that you have in the action that appears right

04:03to you, then there is not much space left to wonder or despair.

04:13So I am not saying that one must indulge in action without thought.

04:19I am not saying that one needs to become mindless or thoughtless.

04:26What I am saying is that one needs to know the proper place of thought and action.

04:34We think so that we understand, don't we?

04:39If you are, for example, working on a mathematics equation, why do you follow all the steps?

04:49Let's say solving the equation involves some 14 steps.

04:53You follow the 14 steps so that after the 14th one, you come to something.

05:02What if the way you are proceeding with the equation involves an endless number of steps

05:10that lead to nothing and were still, they are iterative in nature as if there is a circular

05:21motion going on, the same steps in some form or the other are getting repeated one after

05:29the other.

05:31We don't want that to happen.

05:32So when you see that now thought or the process of thinking has entered that phase where it

05:38has become cyclic or iterative, that's when you need to say enough of thinking because

05:45now thinking is not yielding me anything.

05:48Now thinking has just become circular or cyclic or iterative.

05:55Now I need to do something, enough of thinking.

05:59So there is space for thought, there is space for action and one needs to be attentive towards

06:07both of these.

06:09Sir, another issue that I generally face is that in the morning when I get up, I generally

06:18have a to-do list made, ki haan, aaj mujhe yeh yeh cheeze karni hai.

06:23So when that list becomes too long, it kind of messes with my mind and I stop doing things

06:29and rather than that I end up procrastinating as you mentioned.

06:33So that's what happens with me, mujhe lagta hai ki agar mai planning nahi karungi cheeze

06:39ki toh phir I end up doing something random.

06:41But when I sit to plan out things, I end up wasting too much time just planning and thinking

06:47and instead of actually doing what I am supposed to do.

06:50So is there any way that I can stop myself from indulging in all this?

06:55See, listing must necessarily involve prioritizing as well.

07:03You cannot list down 22 tasks without assigning them a priority level.

07:14And 22 is a small number, think of someone who might have 200 things to take care of.

07:25If you just list down 200 things without knowing which one is more important or valuable or urgent,

07:35then you simply get overwhelmed.

07:40200 is a large number, right?

07:44So when you make such a list, also segment the list A, B, C, D.

07:55A is the most urgent or the critical section, then B, then C, then D and even within A,

08:05let's say if there are four or five items, then you need to accord them priority, right?

08:12You need to have something within that knows how to value rightly.

08:20So give them values.

08:26Alright, sir. Thank you, sir.

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