Break free from Passive barriers

How to break free from Passive Barriers

I was just reading a very interesting blog by Ramit Sethi on “The Psychology of Passive Barriers: Why Your Friends Don’t Save Money, Eat Healthier, or Clean Their Garages” , and thats how I came to read about Passive Barriers which are like things that do not exist and hence, make your task more difficult.

Examples of Passive Barriers could be a missing pen on your desk. Or a delayed renewal of your driving license if you have to pick your visiting parents up from the airport. Even not having a printer and having to go out and pay for printouts in the busy shop around the corner.

How to fix life to become more efficient

Smaller things like, having untidy clothes or small cupboard space, can lead to a further mess in your room. Sometimes small things like a laundry bag, and hangars can help you to considerably reduce the mess in your room.

Having lived alone in my parent’s apartment in Hyderabad after graduation while my Parents lived in a different city for work, I had learned a little about how to control the meetings and parties at home so as to be able to affectively return the apartment to it original clean state. I luckily had a maid who visited every day to help clean the place up. In Italy, I was helpless and by my own.

There went my will to host parties again in my life. I would do it only as a team and that too a hardworking team. You never want to be the guy cleaning up all the mess left behind by the most ungrateful party rockers. With small changes, you can maybe influence your friends to behave more responsibly in parties.

Silly self imposed rules that help you get the job done

I visited a pretty Airbnb cottage on the outskirts of Munich recently. This was during the Parents trip to Germany & Italy. We surely did have a great cultural experience as an Indian family in Europe. The house we visited had a culture of taking out your shoes at the entrance.  Something very similar to our old Indian culture. Presently, we are too Americanized to care.

The owners were British actually, and the little small step in requesting us to take our shoes out acted like a reminder to the visiting guests to behave and keep clean.

But I also had to study for some competitive exams to get into business school, so I didn’t want to party and drink with friends on a regular basis. So we had study meetings that involved tea & snack breaks, thus the group of guys found to be playing poker and drinking beer one evening of the week, would be studying and staying alcohol free for the other days.

How small steps lead to big gains

Small important changes taken by responsible adults can lead to a smooth life. These small changes like not keeping change in your pocket, to avoid using the coffee vending machine too much, packing extra food neatly for later, in order to not eat too much or cook again, buying a vacuum cleaner to save time cleaning your apartment, buying a simple water purifier with filters that need to be changed every month instead of regularly buying bottled water, can go a long way in making your life simple and efficient.

Finally, we all wish to accomplish a lot in life. But often the time needed to cook a nice meal a day ends up eating up a lot of your time. This is because when we attempt tasks outside of our habit, its natural to take more time. So with small changes you can bring your life in a different direction.

Living in an apartment with new tenants that keep changing every once in a while, I have got used to the ever changing tenants making up my 4 flatmates. A lot of people are surprised when, I tell them I am blogging as a career for now till I began a new employment in Finance.

In a way, the uncertainty of interactions in my apartment make blogging the ideal career for now. Till I move to a new apartment to enjoy privacy. Something that existed in Aquaviva for a brief period once upon a time.

When you cant beat them, join them

For now, let me bask in the noise and chaos as I try to improve my Italian. Time to get new ideas for my blog and learn more about the challenges of living with other people. How to get your work done with minimum hindrance. To learn more about why its important to collaborate with other people. Have a look at this silly little example that speaks a thousand words.

To get rich, you may just have to surround yourself with richer people. To quit smoking, make sure your friends do not smoke. What to do to start a business as a novice with minimum capital and time but maximum enthusiasm? just go ahead and write your blog. One small step at a time, to break free of those barriers towards the direction you wish to head to.

You could learn any language you wish, if you took small baby steps every day. Want to know how I went from not speaking a word in Italian to doing sales in Italy?

Can I learn Italian or a new foreign language?

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By Vineeth Naik

Liberal part time Blogger and full time Researcher with a broad range of experience, professionally and personally in Austria, Italy, UAE & India. Loves Finance, Business & Technology. Cares about society.

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