
Dear
“You don’t have to become something you’re not, to be better than you were.” ~ Sidney Poitier
Become more of who you are. That’s the theme of my newsletter. All you have to do is chisel away your superfluous habits. To let go any relationship or thing or activity that’s not growing you. The starting point is, do you really know who you are? I mean do you know what drives you, what terrifies you, why you do the things you do, and do you know how others perceive you too? There is a difference between self-awareness & self-delusion. The starting point is self awareness. But there’s really no way to change your life if you don’t know what you’re changing about yourself in the first place. We all are stuck to some old habits, beliefs and behaviours, which don’t let us grow. I have been highly influenced by Osho or Bhagwan Rajneesh and few years back had heard a very interesting story in one of his discourses.
One very dense dark night, a caravan was resting at a caravanserai in the desert. The caravan had a hundred camels. The men had tethered the camels with ropes to pegs they had hammered into the sand, but they found that one camel had remained untied. Somehow they had lost a peg and a rope. It was midnight and the markets were closed so there was no way to get another peg and rope. So they woke up the owner of the inn and said to him, “We have lost a peg and a rope and it would be very kind of you if you could lend us some. We have tied ninety-nine camels but the hundredth camel is still untied. It is a dark night and he may go astray somewhere.”
The old innkeeper said, “Don’t worry. I don’t have a rope nor do I have a peg. But all of you are really mad: you have been living with the camels for so long and still you have not understood them. Just go and hammer the peg, tie the camel to it with a rope, and tell the camel to go to sleep.”
They said, “Are we mad or are you mad? If we had a peg, why would we come to you? Which peg do you want us to hammer in?”
The old man said, “You are all really unintelligent. You can also hammer imaginary pegs and tie camels with imaginary ropes. Just go and pretend to do the whole operation of hammering a peg into the sand. In the dark night even a man could be deceived, so what to say of a camel? Go and pretend that you are hammering a peg, and pretend to tie a rope around the camel, just as one ties a real rope. Then tell the camel to go to sleep. The camel will sleep. Guests usually have their own ropes. So I don’t keep pegs and ropes because we can manage without them.”
Now they had no choice, although they could not believe what that old man was saying. They went and made a small hole and hammered in a peg that did not exist. There was a noise as if a peg was being hammered and the camel sat down because he thought that the peg was being put there. Every night they used to hammer the peg to which he would be tied, so the camel sat down. They placed the imaginary rope around the camel’s neck and then they tied the rope, which did not exist, to the peg – and the camel went off to sleep. They were really amazed. They had stumbled upon something unique. Then the men went off to sleep.
They got up in the morning, as the caravan was to set off early in the day. They removed the ropes and the pegs of the ninety-nine camels and those camels stood up. The hundredth camel did not have a peg that they could remove so they did not remove his peg. They started pushing him so that he would get up but he would not get up; he remained sitting.
They said, “This is the limit. It was fine that he was deceived in the night, but even now in this broad daylight? Can’t this idiot see that the peg is not there? They kept on pushing him but the camel refused to get up. It must have been very religious.
They went inside and they told the old innkeeper, “Have you done some magic or what? What have you done that the camel refuses to get up?”
The man said, “You fellows are really idiots. Go and remove the peg and remove the rope.”
They said, “There is no rope!”
He said, “Just as you had tied the rope in the night, remove it in the same way.”
Unconvinced, they went and made a noise as if they were uprooting the peg. No sooner was the peg removed than the camel stood up. When they untied the rope, the camel was ready to walk.
They thanked the old man and said, “You are really unique; you know so much about camels.”
He said, “No, I didn’t find this out by knowing camels. I learned this by knowing men.”
We are all tied to pegs that exist nowhere. Tied with ropes that have no existence and we remain tied to them whole life.
The first key is to see those pegs properly and clearly – whether they really exist or not. Once you see the reality, there is no question of removing the pegs and getting up.
The first step is knowing the purpose
Know your purpose – Have you ever watched the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. In this film, an 85-year old named Jiro Ono is considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef.
Check out a clip here, where you can see the perfect craftsmanship of Jiro himself. The sushi that Jiro creates is so good that famous people from all over the world fly in to enjoy their $300 sushi dinner—often booked several months in advance. So how did Jiro become the best sushi chef? He had one simple mission: to pursue his lifelong quest to create the perfect piece of sushi. For Jiro, it was as simple as that. He didn’t aspire to have a chain of restaurants or create the largest sushi mall in the world. Just one perfect piece of sushi. To become the best version of yourself, you have to know your purpose.
Embrace fear of failure. 75% of businesses fail within the first 10 years. That does not mean you give up. The people on the top are the ones who take calculated risk. When you are running from a pack of wild dogs, you will be 100% present in the moment. And goals that are not frightening are not worth having.
Control your mind. Fear is the killer of success… but mind wandering is the killer of dreams.

During Covid times, I started gardening. Now I spend a couple hours a week tending to my garden. During this time I am 100% focused and relaxed. In a study it has been found that 50% of people are mentally wandering during their conscious time. And a wandering mind is unhappy mind. That means, for almost half the time you are conscious, you are also unhappy. If you accept your circumstances as they are, you are the camel as in the story above. Be mindful in your actions. Present in the moment.
Believe in Luck. I can assure you—if you believe you are lucky, good things will happen.
Assimilate your expectations. Try believing in expectations. Align your expectations with your goals. A growing body of research shows that expectations can influence everything, from our perception of taste and enjoyment of experiences, to our performance on specific tasks. Setting high expectations for yourself and those around you can help those beliefs become reality.
Don’t strive for perfection, but strive to do the best you can. And then do more. Even if you strive to do 1% better every day, you will be 100% better in just over 3 months. Be great, not perfect. Remember, no matter who you are or how successful you have become, You will have bad days, you will make mistakes, and you will have hurdles.
Be a good listener. Listening to others, and really hearing them out with an open mind, is one of the best things you can do for another person and for yourself.
Live with integrity. Integrity is your personal compass, and it will shape the kind of person you become over time. Living with integrity means being true to your ideals. It means that your outward actions reflect your inner beliefs and values.
“If you plan on being anything less than you’re capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”- Abraham Maslow
Be Open to Change. Whether trying a new restaurant, traveling to an unknown part of the world, or doing something that has always scared you, you should always be open to change. This allows you to grow because you experience something new.
Be Respectful of others’ time, thoughts, ideas, lifestyles, feelings, work, and everything else. You don’t have to agree with any of it, but people have a right to their opinions and yours is not necessarily correct.
Because high blood pressure rarely has any warning signs or symptoms, many people with this stealth condition don’t realize they have it. But pressure that measures 130/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or higher — the official definition of high blood pressure — injures blood vessels, causing them to thicken and stiffen. Left untreated, high blood pressure eventually damages the heart, brain, and kidneys.
That’s why every single health care visit should include a blood pressure check. Keep a record of your readings, which can fluctuate due to a range of factors, including exertion or stress. If your readings start trending toward the high range or you’ve already been diagnosed with high blood pressure, you should get a device for home-based checks. Blood pressure at home better represents what your heart and brain experience most of the time than blood pressure during the 15 to 20 minutes you’re at a doctor’s chamber.
At the doctor’s office
If you’ve never had your blood pressure checked in both arms sequentially, ask to have this done at your next health care appointment. If the reading from one arm is higher, that side should be the one upon which to base any treatment and to check in the future. (Note: women who’ve had a mastectomy should generally have their blood pressure checked in the arm on the side opposite to the breast that was removed). Take your home monitor to your next medical appointment, to compare its readout with the measurement taken at the doctor’s office. If the readings vary by less than 10%, you can consider your home monitor validated.
General advice
Many factors (some of which may be connected) can slightly elevate your blood pressure — for example, drinking a lot of coffee, having a full bladder, and crossing your legs. Caffeine is a stimulant that raises the heart rate and also blood pressure. A full bladder and crossed legs can both reduce blood flow returning to your heart; your body’s natural response to this is to raise your blood pressure to make sure your kidneys and brain are getting enough blood.
The following tips can help you get the most accurate blood pressure reading:
- Avoid caffeine, tobacco, and exercise for at least 30 minutes beforehand.
- Empty your bladder.
- Sit with your feet flat on the floor.
- Place the cuff on your bare arm (not over clothing) with the bottom edge about a finger’s width above the crook of your elbow.
- Support your forearm by resting it on a table, with your elbow positioned roughly at heart height.
- Sit quietly without talking (or doing anything else such as reading, watching TV, or checking your social media feed) during the measurement.
Current guidelines suggest that people wait one minute, retake the reading, and then average the two numbers. Follow your doctor’s advice about when and how often to check your blood pressure at home. A training video on how to check your Blood pressure here from the from the American Heart Association
Going through these amazing creations by John Weiss on how to become the best version of yourself



I believe Usain Bolt is one of the greatest athlete to be ever born in this earth and without doubt the greatest sprinter ever. I repeatedly watch his wins in Olympics. What a perfect example of focus and concentration towards a goal. You will also love watching this again
We had installed few weeks back a gantry system in one of our production line and that eventually will take away some manual jobs. When I posted the video on twitter some one commented that about losing jobs and how sad it is. Historically the world has belonged to creative people. Whether it is manually ploughing the field to tractors or using ropes and bucket to pull water from a well to using pump. The only way to work your way up is to be creative and upskill yourself every day. Here’s a wonderful video by Dan Koe on this.
With some stressful days regarding my passport renewal ( had a name change issue with ‘Kumar’ in between my first and last name), it finally seems on its way and after few years of practically being off my first love, Wildlife Photography, I will back to doing it. Off to Kenya soon. I will definitely try to keep this newsletter going camping at the Masai Mara forests.
If you like this newsletter you have a zero cost way to support it by sharing with your friends and family and giving a shout out on your social media platform.On Twitter and Facebook or if you have received it as a forward please Subscribe.. Please leave your feedback and suggestions. You can mail me or tweet to @SandeepMall using #goodvibeswithSandeep.
We have also archived all the old issues and you can access them at www.sandeepmall.com They contain some very good tool kits to take charge of your health.
See you next week
Sandeep Mall