I think the right answer lies in deciding based on your subconscious mind and intuition. I might be wrong, but for me whenever I have taken a decision based on my subconscious mind, I was right. That is why people say, sleep over the problem, as the subconscious mind then answers the question. There are other methods of activating the subconscious mind – like answering 5-whys or following the Da Vinci method. Then if it has to be a choice between mind vs heart, heart is better – trust me, the universe is wired to act right that way :-)! I will write about activating the subconscious mind at will in more detail in the coming days.

I am adding this paragraph two months after writing the post as I felt this is a very important addendum. The mind decides practically, based on your strength, society and what we call local minima. The heart decides based on global maxima without knowing how to take it practically. Let the heart decide and let the mind work on the heart’s decision – you will have bliss and be successful. Don’t let the mind decide and the heart work on it – you will suffer and be a life failure. I wish the best to you – feel the bliss and be successful.

You can decide in any situation based on one thing: if love/care/compassion increases by doing something, then that is the best decision. You can go back in your life and see that whenever you did that, you were happy later about that decision. Myself, I can say that I always not only felt but can prove that when I took a decision not based on this principle, I took the wrong decision. Also, whenever you take a decision towards your passion, that is always right, since in that you are showing care/love/compassion to yourself. (In turn it increases care around you, too – that is the exponent of your rightness in your decision.) There are many different theories and I will write about them, but in short this is what I have experienced leading me to a good decision.

We invest either to grow and preserve or to hedge our capital. So any investment should help in at least one of these goals. Bitcoin is beautiful in both senses. Indeed, it is as beautiful as investing in art!

Hedging: One good rule for adding a new asset to your portfolio is that it should not be closely correlated to your other asset classes. When assets are not correlated, they behave differently to each other, so even if there is a strong south wind in other asset classes, this asset could behave differently and therefore help in preserving capital. In that sense bitcoin is a great hedging instrument compared to other asset classes. It has shown that it does well in currency crises too. When Brexit happened and we saw the pound literally pounded, Bitcoin was standing and growing tall. It exhibited the same strength when the Chinese currency outflow was happening.  So in short, when world fiat currencies are being printed left and right, we have something we can use as a hedging instrument. It is very much a digital nirvana of gold from the hedging angle.

Growth: People like Horowitz say bitcoin may rise to hundreds of thousands of dollars; others talk more in the range of five hundred. So there are different expectations, but the reality would be somewhere between that. There are many reasons for price increases, but the most conservative way of looking at it is that the total number of bitcoins is limited to 21 million, and bitcoin rewards get halved every 4 years. So purely by a supply/demand calculation, we should see a doubling of its value at least every 4 years, which is much more than any normal investor ever can produce as returns. Things are changing: the whole world is moving online, and that includes investment and money. Bitcoin happens to be the online currency, and it is reshaping so many different industries. So it stands to grow with massive fundamental support.

I will write more about bitcoins in the coming days, but if you feel bitcoin satisfies the two main simple reasons for investment, go for it. But to start, do not allocate more than 1% of your total portfolio to bitcoin. As you get more comfortable, you can invest further – but again, never forget the principle of diversification and asset non-correlation while investing.

There is so much going on in this world that many of us feel overwhelmed, stressed and burned out. I have been through the same thing and to be honest always needed a good way to win over these feelings. Fortunately I was able to overcome these issues very well.

First thing: meditate. That itself solves most of these issues. But for those of you who are not into meditation or it is not your cup of tea… then you can apply the following, which has also helped me and many others in a big way.

Strategic Step 1: Know/analyse exactly what is absolutely important for you, your well being and your fulfilment. This is of paramount importance. Get very clear on it. If you are not clear with this, then you can never overcome the feelings mentioned above. Once that is clear, only undertake tasks that fit the above.

Strategic Step 2: Anything that does not fit into the above, just say “no”. Like Warren Buffet says, successful people say no 90% of the time.  Say no for almost everything and selectively – very selectively – say yes.  Analyse yourself, do you say no 9 out of 10 times? The reason is very simple: the more yeses you say, the more is on your plate, so unless you practise selectively saying yes, you are going to have a hard time. In business sales, you will hear the term “qualify”. Qualify, qualify, qualify everything before you say yes.

So it is like a funnel: you say no to lot of things (the top of the funnel) and only say yes to very very few things which are absolutely essential (the bottom of the funnel). In the middle of the funnel, you have a few tactical options to manage the task items better.

As the very first option, see if the task can be reduced to something minimal. If there are many more open items, research first, before jumping in. Then see if you are able to delegate it to the right people. Another effective tactic is delaying it – appropriately, paying attention to the calendar. After that, when the task is screaming at you, embrace it and give 100% of your value to the task. Please do each task one by one. Men especially – please make sure you don’t multitask, as most men are bad at multitasking by nature. This understanding itself will reduce your stress many times over. 🙂

When you make the above a ritual in your life and continuously apply it, you are bound to be in control, and you will also let others be in control of their life. 🙂