The year 2020 was the year of change, it may be painful for some, but at the same time, it has taught us lessons in life. I have written about it earlier that we have to accept it, and it will be remembered and will have an impact on our whole life and after our life, no matter what we do. So it is important that we live the present fully.

Change is the only constant, early we accept, early we get ready for the future. 2020 is a year of change, accept it, and change our lifestyle and get ready for the future. - 2020 - The year of change

I am ending this year by reading the book “Power of Will” by Frank Channing Haddock. It explains the power of Will;

The strong will is master of the body. We can achieve above and beyond if our actions are directed from strong and right will.

The author talks about educating the Will, by cultivating memory, imagination, perception, and self-control. There are few exercises mentioned in the book that may help train the Will. I can very well relate to a few instances of the year 2020, where my Will played a bigger role, and unknowingly I was training my Will by observations, imaginations, actions, reasoning, physical senses, and actions. In this article, I reflect on them and in 2021, I will focus on consciously training my Will. I believe, we all have such instances, list them down, and educate the Will. With a well trained Will, we can achieve much more than what we think.

A Better Start

Always plan for a better start, it sets good motives to boost the Will. We started with a quickly planned trip to Ganga, at Rishikesh a holy place, with my cousins. They traveled from 500 km to join me, and from there we drove to Rishikesh overnight. We had been observing the situation in hand and few motives of being together, thoughtful conversations and imagination of driving near the riverbed. It boosted our Will, such strong that we took the trip in just a few minutes and the rest of the planning was done on the go.

This trip definitely gave us positive vibes that helped us go through to strongly face the challenge of 2020 and come out stronger. We were very clear about the flexibility needed for such a little unplanned trip. This gives us the capability to handle the unplanned. The positivity of the trip remains throughout the year and Ashok Ostwal, Gourav Ostwal in picture employed in 2020. Books also help in building point of views and strengthen thoughts, read here my take, Success Mantra from Amazon, change to become more successful from “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” by Marshall Goldsmith.

Change of Workstyle

Who does not know the Covid19! The next big thing, nationwide lockdown, and restrictions forced all of us to think differently. Things that were occasional or non-preferable became a norm and maybe the preferable choice of work for many — The Work From Home. This change happened due to a strong Will to survive, and defeat Covid19. We are still educating the Will to deal with it, but we are now much stronger than before.

See how my day has changed! from kids school to whole day video calls, to energizers and more…

Covid19 has challenged the way we eat, the way we commute, the way we socialize, and the way we work. In short, it… - XR development from home

HumansOfRemoteWork at ThoughtWorks also covered my story.

Kudos to the whole team for their strong Will power! Now we as a team are well placed, and continuously cultivating our Will to deal in the future.

Finding the ways

Work from home and Covid19 have not just changed the way we work but also changed the way live at home. Our ways of celebration have also changed. I have written about this change in an earlier article

Such kind of changes have given me more points of view and facts that there are always alternatives, life does not stop at the current situation, it must go forward. I consider all such instances as a booster to mind and grow my will power.

There is always a lot to uncover in human potentials, read about it in the article below, and see how family members have uncovered their potentials in 2020.

Covid19 has challenged the way work, I have penned down my earlier article to cover my workday and our shift toward new… - Uncovering the human potential

Since the first change start from self, so I recorded my observations in the above article, now all these are good material to boost my will power, the will keep getting educated itself naturally, however, if we consciously put effort to train the Will then the result would be more fruitful.

Sharing and Caring

Another important thing that helped me stay highly motivated throughout 2020 is a newly developed habit of sharing and caring. I have written more than 20 articles on thinkuldeep.com, ThoughtWorks Insights, XR Practices, TechTag.de and Dreamentor around technology, and motivations. Participated in 10 events as a speaker, guest lecturer, mentor, and juror at a platform like Google DSC, HackInIndia, Smart India Hackathon 2020, Techgig, Geeknights, The VRARA, GIDS, Nasscom.

Apart from this, I have been a mentor at PeriFerry, this has been a life-changing experience. Actually, we learn by sharing more and more. Here is my learning equation - The Learning Equation

The learning equation — Learning is proportional to Sharing; Learning ∝ Sharing

These instances give me good motives and to strengthen the Will to keep sharing. It is a continuous process.

Work from Native Home

By now, work from home has become a norm, I started full work from home at Gurgaon where we have an office, but later I shifted to my native place that is 500 km from the office. I have to spend this much time with my parents and natives after almost 20 years, it’s now an all-new experience with kids also enjoying non-metro city life that is more close to nature. This change enabled me to change my lifestyle, and focus on healthy living.

Became a cyclist with 1000 km run so far, the will is already trained to the next level, and hope to continue the same. Keep moving then only you can balance life. Watch the video with Ashok Ostwal, the mega cyclists.

Home Renovation

Last but not least, after moving to my native place, I was observing the home that is 25 years old and it was requiring repair and also some car parking space. It definitely requires real willpower not just from me but also from each family member here, as renovation means a lot of disturbance to daily life. I followed the principles of educating will and design the home in 3D, it not only helped me observe each change well but also imagine the future, then the next step was to train the will of the family by letting them imagine the future.

Read my article here to know how technology helped me achieve this. XR enabled me to renovate my home!

Other motives that got added to strengthen the Will are employment for the needy during these Covid19 times and keeping family busy. It was challenging to follow Covid19 safety protocols and continuing construction work with the office work, and however, as I said with a strong Will, we can achieve much more than what we think. I must thank everyone who has supported this directly and indirectly and bear with me.

This is definitely a life-changing moment for me that has trained my Will. Once things settle, I may move back to work from the office or from home near to the office, but this learning will remain with me and keep motivating me.

These were the few instances I consider as a contributor to my Will power, They have helped me provide a better perspective, imaginations, observations, reasoning, physical senses, and finally provoke actions. Most of these contributing to my Will unconsciously, but in the future, I will consciously exercise the will cultivation, to be better at it. I suggest reading the book “Power of Will” by Frank Channing Haddock, and share your thoughts.

Thank you, everyone, and wish you a strong Will Power in the year 2021.

Updated in 2021

Start of 2021 with anniversary celebration

This article is originally published at Medium