Category Archives: Lifestyle

How To Stay Employed When The Robots Take Over

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Robots Take Over Jobs

There’s a lot of hand-wringing going on about how robots are going to steal our jobs. Experts predict that, by 2025, 25% of jobs will be replaced by either smart software or robots.

The employees most likely to be replaced by robots early in this transition are those who hold routine jobs that can be easily done by robots, such as driving a car, cleaning a house, writing reports or drawing up spreadsheets.

There’s even a robot chef that can cook you dinner. It still needs humans to buy the ingredients and input the recipes, but even those can be automated in the future.

A Chinese restaurant recently employed these two robots to make Japanese style ramen noodles for their customers. Unlike humans, the robots don’t take sick days or a salary.

Even farmers may soon be out of a job. Spread, a company based in Kyoto, Japan, is creating the world’s first fully autonomous farm where robots will take care of almost every aspect of the farm’s operations, from watering the seeds to harvesting the crops.

Will robots take over driving for us in the future? You can bet they will! With Google and Tesla competing to create the first completely self-driving car, and Uber planning to transition to driverless cars, taxi drivers will be the first to be laid off.

Truck and train drivers will be next. Rio Tinto has already rolled out fully automated driverless truck fleets in Australia, and the Delhi Metro got its first driverless train in 2015.

But even white-collar jobs like lawyers, architects, and doctors are not immune to the invasion of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, robot lawyers are helping retrieve legal documents, and “in the not-so-distant future, will have the ability to advise on whether to file a lawsuit, predict how it might be resolved and even draft portions of legal briefs.”

Robots will soon replace humans in construction jobs, as this six-metre-high tower at the FRAC Centre in Orléans, France, constructed by robot helicopters, shows. They will also grade student’s essays, and even, diagnose patients. The simple reason why robots will replace humans in these tasks is that they will be better (and cheaper) at them than we are.

If you think the creative professions are immune to the Autobots because AIs can’t write basic news reports or compose music, think again. It’s quite possible that robots will replace writers, artists and musicians. Here are some abstract paintings that are entirely computer generated.

According to The Atlantic, “Computer scientists in Paris and the U.S. are working on algorithms enabling computers to make up original fugues in the style of Bach, improvise jazz solos a la John Coltrane, or mash up the two into a hybrid never heard before.”

It’s not completely insane when you think about it, because “Western music’s 12-note system is highly mathematical, lending itself to complex algorithmic analysis.” It’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that artificial intelligence can write a bunch of notes strung up in a pleasing motif.

Sheet Music

That is exactly what music composing robots are doing right now. Here’s a tune called Kinoth, composed by a computer called Iamus, on violin and piano.

Robots might also be able to replace news writers soon. On March 17, 2014, Slate.com reported that the first news report on the L.A. quake was written by an algorithm called Quakebot. This is the article it wrote.

Quakebot-Story

In March 2015, the Associated Press (AP) announced it would use a content generation tool called Wordsmith to automatically generate news stories about college sports that it didn’t previously cover. Robot-written content or robo-journalism is expected to improve over time as companies refine their algorithms.

But even professional duties we see as distinctly “human” could be carried out by AI, says this article in Qz.com. “Just because machines can’t feel in the way that humans can, it doesn’t mean they can’t display empathy when it’s needed for the job. Indeed, emotionally sensitive robots currently exist.”

The recent World Economic Forum in Davos even saw it’s first Robot delegate, Hubo.

How to keep your edge over the AIs

What does this mean for future generations of humans? The smart way to address this predicament is to embrace technology, so we can create more interesting jobs once lower-skilled positions become obsolete.

Experts believe the best option for anyone who wants to keep their edge in a world of AIs is to find a profession in which they can either complement AIs or be better than them.

Economist Tyler Cowen, and MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have suggested that humans develop skills (like coding) that complement the functions that computers and AI systems perform well. That way, we can work with them instead of competing against them.

Those in the medical profession would do well to remember this advice.

“The best doctors will hone complementary skills with computers. They will focus on relating to their patients as people, and when planning treatment they will have the humility to leverage technical tools rather than try to do it all on their own.”

Then again, there might be areas of work in which creativity, craftsmanship and human judgment will always be superior to what a machine can do.

Studies have found that a small degree of human error is essential to creating an arresting musical composition. Perhaps robot composers will learn to fake human error too, but when it comes to songs that require a certain depth of human experience (think sad country songs), I doubt robots will be able to replicate our range of emotional experience anytime soon.

Algorithms and software might make breaking news stories much quicker to write, but in-depth reporting with insights and fact-finding in the field can only be done by human journalists and reporters. And, it’s unlikely that we’ll have a robot equivalent of The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire anytime soon.

Update: Oops, looks like I wrote that too soon. According to this news report, a novel written by AI passed the first round in a Japanese literary competition. It had some help from humans, but as the article notes, “Creativity is hard to emulate inside a computer, but it’s surely only a matter of time before AI programs have the intelligence and the data to be able to do a passable job.”

In a world where even creativity will be usurped by AIs, humans will have to work hard to be original and innovative, bringing something to our experience that only we can.

Mud, Sweat And Tears: Bear Grylls’ Lessons For Surviving Life

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Bear Grylls Quote

In case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know who Bear Grylls is, Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter and is involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK and US.

Grylls was appointed the youngest-ever Chief Scout in the UK at age 35. He was voted the 30th most influential man in America, and the seventh coolest British man, as well as the most admired person by the middle classes, second only to the Queen.

When he’s not eating live worms or tarantulas, he’s throwing himself off cliffs and showing us how to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. But it’s not his insect eating or rappelling skills that I found interesting.

Having been a Bear Grylls fan for a while, seen many episodes of Man Vs Wild, Running Wild With Bear Grylls, and having just read his autobiography, I thought I would distil the lessons I learned for surviving life from his book, Mud, Sweat and Tears.

1. Do what you love

At a young age, Bear realized he was not great at academics, but he loved climbing and adventure, and was really good at it.

Having spent many happy days learning to climb and sail with his father, he went on to start Eton’s first mountaineering club, learned to skydive and earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate.

All those kids for whom academics is not the goal can take hope from Bear’s struggle. He found something he loved, and then worked hard to excel at it.

2. Push yourself to the limit… and then some

Bear endured a grueling training for selection with the 21 SAS Regiment (Artists Reserve). Often, during the training, when they were pushed to the limits of their endurance, he found himself having to push just that much more to complete the course.

Although he failed the selection the first time, he was called back and completed it successfully the second time. He joined as a reservist with the 21 SAS until 1997.

Having been told he was “too dumb” to quit, Bear realized that the reason he succeeded where stronger and smarter candidates failed, was because he refused to give up. He held in just that little bit longer, and it made all the difference between success and failure.

When you think a goal is too hard to achieve, don’t give up just yet. Sometimes it’s darkest before dawn. Hanging in there a just little while longer might be just what it takes to make it.

3. Know when to give up

In 1996, Bear suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia, crushing three vertebrae and requiring 12 months of recovery.

After that, he knew that the back-breaking training with the SAS was beyond his abilities and quit the SAS, which he had worked so hard to join. He took it as a sign that he was meant to do other things instead.

When you know, in your heart, that something just isn’t working out for you, whether it’s a life goal, or a relationship, have the courage to quit and try something new. 

4. Have a dream that inspires you

If it was Bear’s heart, hope and doggedness that got him into the SAS, it was the same qualities that helped him through his recovery.

Going from an active life, with few limits to what he could endure physically, to having to rebuild his body, goals and confidence shattered him.

It was the support of his beloved family, and his dream of climbing Everest, that kept him going through his darkest days, when his confidence and faith in himself were at their lowest.

Having a dream that inspires us, and holding on to it even when it seems impossible, can get us through many dark nights of the soul.

5. Faith, Friends and Fun

If there were three things that kept Bear going when he was training to climb Everest, it was his faith, the amazing friendships forged in adversity, and his love of climbing.

By his account, it wasn’t much fun training on Everest, but when you love mountains and climbing, it makes up for the suffering you have to endure at high altitudes.

When life puts you through the wringer, having faith in a Higher Power, friends you can trust with your life, and a sense of enjoyment in the journey can go a long way to helping you cope.

6. On the other side of pain is growth

High-altitude mountaineering is not much fun, especially on a mountain like Everest, that claims 1 out of 6 lives. The lack of oxygen, the constant threat of death, the cold and the suffering can take the mickey out of even the most experienced mountaineers.

Through it all, Bear endured. From falling sick to falling into a crevasse, the mountain put him through the toughest endurance course he had ever experienced. And when it was done and he had climbed the summit, he couldn’t wait to go home.

Image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

When you’re facing an experience in your life that is painful, it’s hard, if not impossible, to think of it as a stepping stone to personal growth. But that’s exactly what it is.

It’s only when you’re past it, that you can look back and know that some of the most painful experiences you endured are the ones that shaped you into the person you are now.

7. Stay grounded

When Bear was young, his Dad told him that the three traps that would get him in trouble were, “Gold, Glory and Girls.” It’s a lesson that he took to heart.

Remaining grounded in faith and family, not letting fame go to his head despite a successful TV career, and remaining loyal to his one true love, Shara, are the values that make Bear Grylls the man he is.

Fame and fortune are ephemeral. Family, faith and friendship are what last. They are what keep us grounded when everything else is fading.

There are many more lessons that I learned from reading Mud, Sweat and Tears, including the lesson that Nature is not something to be “conquered” but respected.

Reading the book has given me a greater appreciation for the phenomenon that Bear Grylls has become, and an insight into what makes him tick.

Bear Grylls: Mud, Sweat And Tears is a bestseller and is available at all major bookstores.

Learning To Let Go With Love

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One of the hardest things for any person, man or woman, is letting go of a relationship that’s not meant to be. We are often attached to the illusion that this person is “the One” for us, and that if we don’t have him or her, we’ll never find somebody new.

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Holding on to disappointment, hurt, blame, anger, resentment, and bitterness, we convince ourselves that “all men are jerks” or “all women are bitches.”

If you’ve just got out of a relationship and are harbouring a lot of resentment against your partner or against the opposite sex, now is NOT the time to start dating again. Your anger and bitterness will poison even the most loving relationship.

When we hang on to baggage from past relationships, we end up projecting our pain on to others in our lives – our families, children and, eventually, our new partners.

Our emotional baggage is usually rooted in our relationships with our own parents, or in bad relationships we’ve had in the past. We have to lighten our load and heal our pain before we can love again.

[bctt tweet=”We have to lighten our load and heal our pain before we can love again.”]

Some of the practices you need to cultivate in order to heal yourself are:

Radical Personal Responsibility:

Take responsibility for the role you played in your relationship, either by taking inappropriate action, not acting altogether or expecting too much. Stop blaming your partner. Own your feelings, so you can change them.

Self-Awareness:

Are there patterns that keep repeating in your relationships? Do you have a tendency to get into relationships with abusive people, or become abusive yourself? Become mindful of your reactions to people and situations. Learn to identify your patterns, and the unhealthy beliefs that are causing them.

Acceptance:

Accept yourself and your partner the way you are. Accept the fact that the relationship was not meant to be, that it didn’t work because it was not your highest and best.

Forgiveness:

Learn to forgive yourself for all the damage that your anger and pain may have caused, and forgive others for being human and acting out their own anger and pain.

Gratitude:

Be grateful that you’re out of a bad relationship, so you can be with someone better suited to your needs. Be grateful for all the lessons you’ve learned from your partner.

Compassion:

Learn to look at all people as human beings dealing with their own pain. Spend some time seeing the world through their eyes and you’ll become less judgmental.

Detachment:

Learn to let go of unhealthy attachments to people, things and situations.

Independence:

Stop expecting other people to give you the love and acceptance you should be giving yourself. Learn to meet your own needs, let go of expectations, and enter a healthy, inter-dependent relationship.

Optimism:

Optimism is not essential, but it makes life so much easier. An optimistic outlook, positive attitude and belief that everything happens for the best, can help you bounce back from your loss. Have faith that the best is yet to come.

It takes a lot of tears, hard work, and introspection to break the chains of the past. But it’s worth every moment! The feeling of freedom and contentment that you experience is just awesome.

Getting rid of your anger and hurt will help you stop blaming others for your pain, and allowed you to see your former partner as they really are – a wonderful, sensitive human being with the capacity to love, to care, and to hurt just as deeply as you.

It will allow you to love life again, to see the beauty in every experience, to be non-judgmental and open to new relationships.

No time spent in a relationship is ever wasted. Every experience is a lesson and only when you learn the lesson will you progress to the next level. So stop beating yourself up over all the years you “wasted” with that “loser.”

[bctt tweet=”Every experience is a lesson and only when you learn the lesson will you progress to the next level. “]

If it didn’t work, it was probably not meant to be. You can’t force someone to love you, just as you can’t force commitment or marriage. These are stages that should happen naturally, when it feels right for both people.

Contrary to popular opinion (and sad love songs) love is not meant to hurt. If you’re in pain, what you’re experiencing is not love, but attachment or codependence. Too often we fall in love, not with our partner, but with the IDEA of being in love.

[bctt tweet=”Too often we fall in love, not with our partner, but with the IDEA of being in love.”]

It’s best to let go of a relationship that’s causing too much pain. Instead of wallowing in the past and writing your own sad love song, do your inner work, get rid of the anger and disappointment and get on with your life.

Let go of your partner with love, so you can move past your hurt and learn to love again.

© Priya Florence Shah

Addiction – The Hole In Your Soul

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During the course of my spiritual growth, I realized that most people are addicts, in one way or another. And that addiction is not a physical or a psychological disease, but a disconnection from Source Energy and from our Higher Selves.

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When we’re disconnected from our higher selves (the source of love and higher emotions), we must look for something outside of ourselves to fill that hole in our soul. This attachment or craving (not desire, as is popularly believed) is noted, in Buddhism, as the cause of suffering.

And so we turn to people, relationships, sex, food, alcohol, drugs, meditation, prayer, caffeine, cigarettes, television, music, work, exercise, shopping, gambling, internet usage, pornography and other ways to bliss out, just so that we don’t have to face the fact that we’ve disconnected from our life path and from the purpose that we came here to fulfil.

That’s why all programs for recovery from addiction, like the 12-step program, mandate a reconnection with a Higher Power as essential for recovery.

But, you might say, almost all of the things I’ve listed above (barring TV, internet, pornography and stimulants) are necessary for existence. So how do you know when something becomes an addiction?

The easiest way to know this is to CHECK YOUR INTENTIONS. Be honest with yourself about why you believe you need it. If TV is merely a distraction, if you use food only to nourish your body, if you turn to people and relationships solely to stay connected, you are most likely not addicted to these things.

Another way to test if you’re addicted to something is to GO WITHOUT IT. If you can easily do without it for a while, especially under stressful circumstances, you are most likely not addicted.

But if you compulsively do any of the following – overeat, get drunk, smoke, gamble, take drugs, cling to relationships and people, exercise too much, watch too much porn or do anything to bliss out – you may be using it to fill that hole in your soul, to mask your disconnection from the true nature of your being.

If that’s so, then you need to rediscover your life purpose and reconnect with Source, by doing the psychological and spiritual work you need to become whole again. Some of the attitudes that helped me heal my own codependence are:

Self-awareness: Becoming an observer of my emotions and reactions.

Self-love: Knowing that I am worthy of love, that it has to come from within me. Learning how to develop high self-esteem and stronger boundaries.

Self-acceptance: Learning to accept my flaws and forgive myself for my mistakes.

Detachment: Detaching from a situation so I can respond appropriately.

Overcoming my fears: Learning to act from Love (Higher Self) rather than Fear (Ego).

© Priya Florence Shah

10 Ways To Step Into Your Feminine Power

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10813734_sIt’s not easy for a woman in India to be powerful in what is still, in many ways, a man’s world. Every day we encounter negativity from those who are threatened by the strides that women have made.

It’s reached the point where we feel that we either have to be a bimbo or a bitch to succeed. But we don’t have to be either. We just need to be human beings with the ability to express our unique gifts and talents.

Here I list 10 ways that have helped me live a bigger life and make choices that can have brought me the self-awareness, freedom and contentment I now enjoy.

1. Cultivate Self-Love and Self-Esteem

One of the most important things a woman must cultivate is her self-esteem and the ability to love herself. If your self-love and self-esteem are strong, you can bounce back from almost anything.

Having a healthy self-esteem gives you a positive outlook in life and this is reflected in your performance on the job, in your relationships and in the way you live your life.

2. Know that you ALWAYS have a choice

Most Indian women have this sense of hopelessness because we feel we have to make everyone happy, but ourselves. But remember that you ALWAYS have a choice – even if it is one that the people in your life do not agree with or believe is selfish.

As one of my teachers, Abraham- Hicks, says, “If you’re not selfish enough to connect to Source Energy (your Divine nature), you don’t have anything to give anybody anyway.”

Which brings me to the next point…

3. Nurture your Divine connection

As women we are definitely more intuitive and have the ability to easily connect to our Divine source of wisdom and well-being. The ones who gave the most, like Mother Theresa, were also the ones who were most connected to their Divine wisdom.

You have the same potential to share your unique gifts with the world – all you need to do is to start cultivating your spiritual life and listen to your inner guidance.

4. Cultivate empowering beliefs

Your life is a reflection of the beliefs you hold. Even if you say that you want to succeed, if your subconscious beliefs don’t match your desires, it will not happen. You need to become conscious of which beliefs are holding you back and clear them from your system.

As geek-speak goes, “Garbage In, Garbage Out”. What you put into your mind, you get out. If you fill your mind with endless negativity from soap operas, commercials and the mass media, your life will become a replica of what you see there.

[bctt tweet=”If you want to have empowering beliefs, only expose yourself to empowering thoughts. “]

Read empowering books, subscribe to empowering newsletters, stop watching TV (yes, it can be done) or watch less of it.

5. Be mindful of the company you keep

I read somewhere that you are the average of the 5 people closest to you in every area of your life. If you want to be more successful, hang out with people you admire and want to emulate, not with those who are in the same boat.

Success can be scary and the journey to the top can be lonely. Find a mentor and ask them to coach you. Spend your time with people who elevate you, not those who pull you down.

A very good quote I read recently is that [bctt tweet=”Your companions are like the buttons on an elevator. They will either take you up or they will take you down.”]

6. Never apologise for your success

Your family and friends might not support your goals and plans. Learn to draw strong boundaries with those who you cannot avoid.

Explain to those who offer “well-meaning” advice that, while you appreciate their input, you would like the freedom to make your own mistakes.

[bctt tweet=”Never put yourself down or underplay your achievements just to make the other person feel better. “]

As Marianne Williamson said, “when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

7. Take care of your body

Many Indian women stop caring for themselves after they have kids and reach middle-age. But the way you look tells the world a lot about your self-esteem.

You don’t have to go overboard and spend thousands on beauty treatments, because looking good is an inside job. If you feel good about yourself, you will naturally take pride in your appearance.

8. Invest in yourself

Invest time and money in learning and growing. Take courses, learn new skills. It will make a huge difference to your success, whether you have a business or career.

If you run a business, you will attract better quality clients who are also willing to invest in their own businesses. The logic is that “why would anyone invest in someone who is not willing to invest in themselves.”

9. Have fun

If you asked me the purpose of life, I would quote my teachers, Abraham-Hicks, who say that, “The Basis of your life is Freedom; the Purpose of your life is Joy.”

If what you are doing does not bring you joy, ask why that is and what you can do to change it. Perhaps you want to do work that is more meaningful (many women do), even if you earn less money in the process.

Do whatever nurtures your spirit, whether that involves travel, hobbies or just spending time with friends and family who you can have a good laugh with. Don’t take life too seriously.

10. Seek help when you need it

If you have faced serious problems in your life and need professional help, go to a qualified psychologist or an energy healer. Better yet, learn to heal yourself. We all have the ability to do it and it’s just one more way to take care of yourself.

This is an excerpt from the book, Step Into Your Feminine Power And Rule Your World: 24 Empowering Ideas for the Modern Indian Woman, available on Amazon Kindle and Flipkart.com

© Priya Florence Shah

How To Stop Trying To Please Everyone And Get Your Life Back

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[bctt tweet=”Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. ~ Lao Tzu”]

The disease to please is very common, especially among women and even more so among those who suffer from low self-esteem. While the need for acceptance or belonging is a normal human need, it is also true that acceptance begins with the acceptance of the self, first.

8007651_sThe need to please everyone or be a “people pleaser” stems from a lack of self-love and self-acceptance that causes us to try to get what we need from other people instead of giving it to ourselves.

But when you spend your life trying to please others, you are essentially giving your power away and making them responsible for your happiness. When you act like a “people-pleaser”, you give up your own needs, ignore your own inner voice and give up your self-respect and dignity to make others happy.

In doing that you are not doing anyone a favor. Instead you invite people to treat you with disrespect and to exploit you. Your unhappiness stems not from the fact that others are taking you for granted or treating you badly, but because, in working to gain their approval, you are treating yourself badly.

It is our own lack of self-worth and self-esteem that causes us to seek approval from sources outside of ourselves. In our efforts to keep everyone else happy, we end up doing too much and catering to everyone’s whims.

We continue to feel unappreciated and our feelings of resentment get stronger and stronger until we can no longer ignore them. When we do things to garner approval from others and don’t get the approval we seek, we end up resentful, burn out physically and emotionally and collapse from exhaustion or depression.

It’s not easy to give up approval seeking behavior when your self-acceptance and self-esteem are practically non-existent. The cure for this is to focus on building your sense of self-worth and realizing that you are worthy of love and acceptance just for being you.

Your sense of self-worth will then becomes so strong that even another person’s disapproval will not shake the belief that you are deserving of love and affection, for the only reason that you exist.

Take note of your motives when you offer to do something for someone else. Are you doing it because you expect something (love, affection, acceptance) in return, or without any expectations of them reciprocating your caring?

[bctt tweet=”Are you acting from a place of fullness and love or from a place of lack and wanting?”]

If you’ve made people pleasing and caretaking others a habit, it will be hard to change unless you remain ever vigilant of your actions and motives.

You can get out of people-pleasing mode by starting to allow your family and friends to do things for themselves. From folding their own clothes and putting them away to helping out in the kitchen, get your family to chip in and support you in taking care of yourself.

You are not doing your loved ones a favour by doing everything for them. Instead you are making them dependent on you, for the wrong reasons. Allow them to take over their own chores and start taking care of yourself for a change. You can grow your self-esteem and self-worth by doing good things for yourself.

Practice extreme self-care and stop doing everything for others, especially when you realize that you are doing them for unhealthy reasons. When you take loving action on your own behalf, you will have more faith in your ability to do what is right for yourself and your sense of self-esteem will increase.

Take small actions everyday to nurture yourself. Cultivate positive self talk and do not be critical with yourself. Over a period of time your beliefs will change and you will be able to resist the unhealthy lure of approval seeking behavior.

© Priya Florence Shah

This is an excerpt from the book, “From Doormat to Devi: 10 Steps To Stop Overfunctioning In Relationships And Take Your Life Back” available on online bookstores.