By Aditi Thakker:
“ True real inspiration and growth only comes from adversity and from challenge, from stepping away from what’s comfortable and familiar and stepping out into the unknown” – Ben Saunders
With our increasingly work-laden sedentary lives, here are a few talks addressing the importance of eating healthy, being positive, and most importantly trying new stuff all the time! Here are 4 TED Talks, that could help you get the balance you’re trying to strike in life, or just assist you in reorganising your eating preferences. What more, it could just mean you take off for an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro or walk to the North Pole!
Why I’m a Weekday Vegetarian by Graham Hill
Most people, who have read up on meat consumption know of the impact meat production has on the environment. The horrible hormones injected into caged chickens and the degrading treatment meted out to factory-farmed animals, has deterred many from meat consumption. Despite these factors, many meat-lovers find it difficult to choose between environmental sustainability and ethics versus their taste buds. Graham suggest a unique ‘weekday veggie’ way, by which you’re veggie during the week and free to eat meat on Saturday and Sunday. His talk is very relevant to people not wanting to take extreme measures, but making a happy compromise and enjoying the best of both worlds! Graham sticks to vegetarianism, but the weekday concept could well apply to things like smoking and alcohol consumption too!
The Happy Secret to Better Work by Shawn Achor
We’re all, at some point or the other told to ‘be positive’. But how often do we do it? Achor suggests that the more often we look at things positively, the happier we are likely to be. There is hardly ever an answer to questions like, “What’s not to be happy?” He talks about how to limit external influence on your happiness, and the need to ‘change the lens’ through which you perceive happiness or sorrow. To figure out what makes you happy, you have to keep trying new things.
Why Bother Leaving the House? By Ben Saunders
Saunders talks about his experiences as a Polar Explorer! He treks around the Poles, pushing himself to the extreme, in search of a new adventure each time! He talks about the beautiful sights he witnessed and lonely nights he has spend during his expeditions. Although most information that we may need today is available in books and on the Internet, we still need to get out there and do things to have real experiences! Until then we can only hear or read about things. You’ve got to leave the house to really experience things; to know your physical and mental limits!
Try Something New for 30 Days by Matt Cutts
There is always that one thing you want to do, but keep putting it off because you’re waiting for the right time. Truth is, the time is always right! Cutts suggest an innovative way to do things you’ve always wanted to try! Whether it’s Jujitsu, writing a novel or giving up sugar. If you’re not sure how to do it or how it will work out, try it for 30 days. It won’t always work, but you will only know if you try. Activities like yoga could become permanent after the trial period, or you could embark on a crazy soda rush after giving up aerated drinks for 30 days. Cutts talks about the importance of giving it that shot, and not stopping short of 30 days!
TED has over a thousand videos with something for everyone! What I am taking out of watching these videos is this: don’t be afraid to try, don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be afraid to admit that I tried and it didn’t work!