“A man is born gentle and weak; at his death, he is hard and stiff. All things, including the grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life; dry and brittle in death. Stiffness is thus a companion of death; flexibility a companion of life. An army that cannot yield will be defeated. A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. The hard and stiff will be broken; the soft and supple will prevail.”
Lao Tzu
Explore original fine art crafted with love.
“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
When you dream, everything looks real until you exit that dream.
When you’re in the dream, you never know that you’re within a dream.
What makes you so sure that you’re not on a dream right now?
You might wake up from the dream you are in now.
Time for reflection
“If therefore you shall be remembered for what you did with what you had more than what you had, use what you have to do something distinctive now and leave a notable footprint before you go”
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, Ghanaian writer and a teacher,
Today’s theme is something on the premise of doing one thing really really well. I’m not sure if this is popping on my head as I’m getting older, but I’ve always felt that it’s inspiring to see people do specific specialties on a different level. It may not be necessarily in their regular jobs. It can be a hobby or a craft in which they’re ardently passionately into. As I get older, I am having a realization that too much multitasking actually kills us from the inside. Hopping between several things at the same time takes away the soul from any activity. I was lately reading a Zen book on minimalist philosophies and one of the aspects that the author touched upon was on being present in what we do. While eating, for example, it’s a different experience when we enjoy every morsel and munch it relishing every bit of it. We won’t get this feeling when we scroll our phones while eating, for instance.
Tim Denning writes on his piece The Power of Doing Only One Thing on bringing about focus and improvement with this practice.
Doing one thing gives you extreme focus. This focus can be channeled towards tasks that lead to mastery instead of trying to dabble in lots of unrelated passions. Focus is how you reach states of flow and achieve results that look impossible.
Doing one thing causes you to focus and practice more. Through this process, you can see your failures, areas of improvement, and areas that you’re good at. This form of reflection gives you real-time feedback that can further compound your results.
Similar resonating thoughts were read from Carl Newport in his book Deep Work
“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. Deep work is necessary to wring every last drop of value out of your current intellectual capacity. We now know from decades of research in both psychology and neuroscience that the state of mental strain that accompanies deep work is also necessary to improve your abilities.”
– Cal Newport , Deep Work
… “Shallow Work: Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tends to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate. In an age of network tools, in other words, knowledge workers increasingly replace deep work with the shallow alternative — constantly sending and receiving e-mail messages like human network routers, with frequent breaks for quick hits of distraction.”
To complement this, I’d highly encourage you to skim through a recent write up where we talked about Maker’s time.
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Every grain of sand brushing our feat weaves a story. This poster is inspired by beautiful moments pulling into our memory time machine, sort of like how the moon pulls the tide, and the tide pulls the sand. Yes, every grain of sand brushing our feat weaves a story. What’s your story?
Do you love posters with stories! We do. Let’s dive in! Grab your coffee.
> Exhortation of the Dawn
> Stories & Tea
> Wholly Alive
> Soul on Fire
> Humble Life
> Boundless
Do you love to be updated with the posts here & don’t want to miss them?
A beautiful cobweb style rooftop that I found somewhere near Abudhabi many years back (atleast six!). I’m unable to recollect the exact place, but I remember how the sunset hues diffuse through the roofing. I was returning from a site visit and found this on the way. Nema Al-Araby writes in Remnants and Ashes:
“And the cobwebs of time
would surrender,
dormant, so that the rainbows
of new eras can emerge
Despite the hollowness
of you.”
illustrated by The Border Of a Mind Studios.
“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”
―
In line with our vision, I’m planning to author a series of illustrations with some of the most inspiring stories and allegories that I’ve come across. Let’s blend wisdom and art. Write me your thoughts.
Some other artworks to explore:
Undream
Build with the mind
“forsaken steps” in objet trouvé concept.
Humble Life
Paint with Light
Choosing the Circus
Mind Vessel
Dreaming Beyond
Mirror
Done in Love
Enigmatic
Tranquil
Parallel worlds
Book of beautiful moments
Swayed In
About the storm
More Fine Art:
Build with the mind
“forsaken steps” in objet trouvé concept.
Humble Life
Paint with Light
Choosing the Circus
Mind Vessel
Dreaming Beyond
Mirror
Done in Love
Enigmatic
Tranquil
Parallel worlds
Book of beautiful moments
Swayed In
About the storm
