gaawrites

[gaawrites]

5 Killer Habits - Be a Rebel - Book Review

There are many great human beings, leaders who write motivational books; of these, only very few thinkers follow what they preach. I, for one, was never a fan of self-help books, mainly due to my lack of focus, but Sree Krishna Seelam Sir’s book “5 Killer Habits—Be a Rebel” became a total game changer.

I always thought success was always something I would get, no matter what. Yes, it needed hard work and luck, but I always figured I would thrive in whatever field I was working in. Only to realize the world isn’t what I presumed it to be. I understood I was privileged and sheltered.

In the title, the author is asking us, the readers, to become rebels—to become extraordinary. As a child, I wanted to be someone out of the ordinary too. But it must have been my lack of knowledge or real understanding about the world around me; I thought I would be someone different by not living according to the timetable—by not being disciplined. Hence, a child who used to get up every day at 6 in the morning started to wake up whenever she felt like it—which, after many years, she has come to regret.

After reading the first chapter, I realized the concept of discipline isn’t what I thought it was. It wasn’t just about following a timetable; it was about owning it. The author emphasizes the importance of waking up before the sunrise to be more productive. I am someone who wakes up early in the morning, on the day of an important examination, and still studies everything at the last minute, only to score above average in all the subjects. I have done this for as long as I can remember—even from first grade. Looking back, I realize I could have topped all of my exams if I had been punctual and consistent.

This publication calls out to the readers to be initiative and take bold actions to change their lives around. And to prove all the pessimistic people wrong, the author himself opened up about some of the problems he had faced in his life. He even challenged himself to achieve a goal, where he forced himself to overcome his fears, like when he swam across the Krishna River, even though he was always afraid of the water.

His personal anecdotes helped me connect, understand, and relate with him more. This book, as a whole, was filled with truths he learned, facts he understood, and wanted to spread to everyone who wanted to learn. This book acts as a guide to introspection and learning.

Growing up, I watched my father help and support a lot of families. Both my parents grew up in poverty, especially my mother. A family of 5 depended on her by the time she turned 23. They worked hard, and they sacrificed a lot to reach where they are now. They are my role models. They aren’t exactly great parents, but they are great people.

It is my dream to give back to my community, to my home. Maybe that’s the reason this book has resonated with me so deeply. The author mentioned how love plays an important role in motivating oneself. Just like what he said, I am my parent’s extended version, and the love they have given me plays a huge role.

He also provides the readers with tools and exercises that will help them reach their goals.

One of the most spoken phrases that I have heard is, ‘Don’t be a hero,’ and here Mr. Seelam Sir said the opposite. Volunteering is a foreign concept to a lot of people. Maybe it’s because we, Indians, focus more on report cards and careers, which are highly respected in our society, than doing what we really love. Our obsession with money seems to be the main culprit, along with the invisible societal standards everyone’s so hyper-fixated on.

I understand that even the thought about blaming money emerges from privilege, but if the people on the top tried to keep their greed away for even a little bit, a lot of things could be changed.

In today’s world, everything and anything is a moneymaker. Be it medicines or education. Frederick Banting, the inventor of insulin, refused to patent his discovery as he believed that it should be free for everyone. But today, it is considered one of the expensive medications in the US. The same goes for education. Everything is in numbers and marked in profits.

In the book, there was a quote by Socrates: “An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.” Nowadays, degree certificates are starting to be considered useless because of corruption.

There is a change in trend, where the current youth seem to be more understanding about the necessity of giving back. With this mindset, they are not only developing leadership skills but also finding their life’s purpose.

Research shows that our quality of life and lifespan will extend when we have a purpose. The author mentioned how interconnected a country’s life expectancy rate is with being content.

In India, the retirement age for most of the institutions is 60 years old, and our life expectancy rate is around 70 years. After retirement age, our parents or grandparents started becoming isolated and idle. They should be encouraged to pick up any new hobbies or passions to keep them engaged and content. People who volunteer from a young age are more optimistic than others and are said to be living longer than others as well.

He also pointed out that we are turning our planet into a graveyard. To the future generations, we must be representing the dark ages. Due to humanity’s ignorance and stupidity, the world as we know it is collapsing around us, and we choose to ignore it. The analogy he used—when our kitchen is burning, will we wait till the whole house is on fire to take action—struck a chord within me. We were notified about the environmental problems 20 or so years ago, and even still, we choose to be ignorant. Our future generations might be cursing us when they are forced to face the consequences of the problems we caused.

We exploit the ecosystem as if we own it. We forget that there are other species, other than us, alive too. We should have forgotten that others occupy this space; that would have been better than what we are doing now.

We are killers. Status is important, I understand, but is showing off important? Killing animals for their skin and teeth. Animal abuse for our entertainment.

There are a lot of laws and regulations regarding animal killing, but the system has built-in loopholes that are not left exploited. In India, most of the states consider cows as something holy and yet play a huge role in the global market for providing cow skin.

As if all these problems weren’t enough, there are islands forming in the middle of oceans that purely consist of waste and plastic. One plastic alone takes more than a century to disintegrate. There are areas in the ocean where living organisms can’t survive. Imagine the conditions of the fishes, being unable to breathe in their own homes. With the way we are going, I think we will be buying oxygen to live, in the near future. I hope I am wrong.

There is no lack of awareness. Everyone knows everything. It is the lack of action, and this publication calls for brave action from the readers.

In the third chapter, Be a Dromomaniac, the author emphasizes that the key to personal development is solo travel. He tries to convey how solo travel can change a person by providing his own experiences. He encourages everyone to live in the moment, a moment that is not disturbed by likes, comments, and pictures on social media. Spending money on something like solo travel is not an expense considering how it helps us not only unwind but also gain experiences and make lifelong friends. Solo traveling can help us build our confidence. At the end of the chapter, he asks the readers to go somewhere nearby, alone for the weekend, and explore.

Solo traveling helps us prioritize what really matters. Is it the expensive clothes or cars that matter, or is it trying to look after our family and community that matters? Solo traveling helps us change our materialistic and bigoted perspectives to valuing experiences and keeping an open mind.

It is also another way to stay curious. Staying curious is important in learning. Learning is a journey; it is never-ending. To learn the truth, to understand the world, we need exposure, and we need knowledge.

As a psychology student, I understood that no one was inherently evil, i.e., no one is born evil. It is their circumstances and the environment that makes them choose to be evil. In the streets of Mumbai and Bengaluru, there are little kids on the road, trying to steal.

Lack of knowledge and poverty led these kids to make choices that they might later regret in life.

Knowledge can only be attained through reading. Reading improves your critical thinking and logical reasoning skills. It should be a habit that is developed from childhood. Most people don’t like reading because they connect it with school books. Reading should happen outside what’s taught in our school books.

I have been an avid reader from childhood, all thanks to my mother, who used to tell me stories and buy me books regularly. I spent a lot of my childhood reading. Reading helped me grow in ways that schools could have never done. Reading helped me to be more open-minded and empathetic. It strengthened a lot of good values and ethics that my parents instilled in me growing up.

In my mother tongue, Malayalam by Kunjuni Mash, there is a famous phrase roughly translated to –

‘Whether you read or not, you will grow either way.

But the one who reads will be fruitful, while the other will not.’

Great thinkers and leaders were all avid readers. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and many others took up reading while they were imprisoned and later started writing.

It is highly recommended to read nonfiction as it contains facts and information that help you. Any type of reading is encouraged, but nonfiction reading is recommended.

In Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment, he proved that children are the extended version of their parents. They imitate and act just like their parents, which is why parents are asked not to fight in front of their children. It is said that a reader lives 1000 lives. Reading helps us develop a skill called visualization.

The author also recommended some of the nonfiction books as a starter, like Animal Farm and Tuesdays with Morrie. Books like this help a lot in thinking and observing our society. It’s like when a blind person can see the world for the first time.

He also requests the readers not to read newspapers much as they contain a lot of misinformation. Current media’s objective is not to provide accurate information but rather to provide items that have drama and entertainment.

Apart from the media, another institution that spreads fake news is the religious institution. There are still people who believe the earth is flat, even though it was proved otherwise years ago.

The education system across the globe is corrupted. The syllabus and books are not selected according to the knowledge they contain; it depends on people with power. Students’ education is in the hands of some people who don’t even bother to read or update the books accordingly.

Indians are brought up with a hatred towards Pakistan and vice versa. Children are not born with hatred; it is ingrained into their minds.

My parents never taught me that there is only one true God. I was brought up in a way to see our society as a whole and not differentiate it according to religions. Just because someone follows a different culture, why would they be inferior or superior to me?

Most of the wars happened because of this religious propaganda. They manipulate people who don’t have good critical skills and make them do their bidding. In Nadia Murad’s autobiography, The Last Girl, she explains how her community was treated by Iraqis, even though they both belonged to the same country. The Yazidi community was almost driven into extinction. Iraqis would capture the girls and sell or enslave them. They will kill the men and manipulate boys who haven’t reached puberty. Nadia’s own cousin, a young boy barely 14, was brainwashed and became a terrorist.

Just like this, there are many instances where people fool others, saying they are the messenger of the God or that they are the god itself!

Uneducated people who fell for their tricks will do their bidding all for entering heaven. There were many cults that all have done massive suicides to enter heaven. This has happened way too many times. It is time to separate culture from education and politics. Many religions are still aggressive. Though child marriage and Sati are all considered crimes, they are still happening right in front of us. Supernatural powers may or may not exist, but no supernatural power has ever asked us to do harm to other people in order to preach about them. I believe the gods we follow aren’t gods but rather humans, extraordinary leaders. We, many years ago, must have idolized them just like what happened with Buddhism. The only difference is Buddhism happened far more recently than other religions. After all, history depends upon the one who’s writing it.

Islam is about brotherhood. Hinduism is about Dharma. Buddhism is loving everyone. Christianity is about loving your neighbour. There are over 100, if not 1000, religions across the world. That means there are ten thousand scriptures. What matters is how we decipher them. Respect each religion but don’t let it be the cause of destruction.

In conclusion, it is a privilege to know this, to understand this. What matters is what we do with this knowledge. And I believe it is the privileged who should take the action this time around.