Self Reflection Byte - Resonance

What is Resonance?

What does Resonance mean? It's a concept in Physics (Remember our school days!!)

At it's core, resonance is the extraordinary phenomenon where an object vibrates at the same natural frequency as another. (Source : here)

Resonance is the phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subject to an external force or vibration that matches it's natural frequency. In simpler terms, it is the tendency of an object to vibrate at a specific frequency when exposed to a vibrating source at the same frequency. (Source : here)

I studied physics in college & even though my profession is entirely different from what I studied, I find the subject fascinating. Why?

It is about immutable laws through which the universe works & physics is how we understand & dissect those laws.

Anyways, coming back to our subject of Resonance, it simply means two objects which have the same natural frequency are placed next to each other & when one of them vibrates, the other object will also start to vibrate. The objects resonate with each other in terms of their frequency & vibrate in sync.

The above is good to know, but why do we care?

Why we care?

Kids are innately curious & explore everything around them. So did we when we were kids. Some activities makes them intensely focused & they can go on for hours on it. It can be something as simple as building lego blocks or as complicated as playing video games or tinkering with electronics.

Each kid has his or her own activity that they love & are passionate about. They do it without anyone prodding or pushing them and they are lost in their own world. Why?

That is because they feel alive or energetic when they do that activity. Why?

Because their inner being vibrates in sync with the activity being performed which means they RESONATE with that activity or activities.

Then kids grow up & life happens. They give up their passions or what they resonated with & go after things to have a secure life (family, house, job etc). There is nothing wrong in it. All of us are trying to live & support our families and that requires us to do what is practical.

But that vibration or resonance that was within us when we were kids still keep vibrating in the background. We may hear it and ignore it due to circumstances in life or we ignore it but it keeps vibrating nonetheless in the background & make us reflect or think about how we are driving our life.

What is the solution to this? Ray Dalio said "Make your work & your passion the same thing".

Hence it is very important that we pursue a career in something we resonate with otherwise we will end up in a situation where we have to go to work daily to do something we don't feel for or like & that can result in burnout which can affect other areas of our lives.

I got lucky!!

Some do that with intention, some of us get lucky. I was pursuing science (Physics) as my graduation major & I had no intention of making it a career. Why? Though I loved the subject, I didn't love it enough to pursue a career in it.

So, a friend told me why don't I consider pursuing Chartered Accountancy profession. (Thank you bro, I don't know where you are now but you changed my life!!).

I didn't know what it was first. He recommended an accountancy professor in our town (we called him "Prabhu Sir" - May his Soul RIP) & after his guidance, I just dived in!! I didn't think through it much since I "felt" that it would be fine. That "feeling" got confirmed once I attended his classes (Thank you Sir, you have guided our lives in ways you can't imagine!!!) & decided to pursue accountancy as my career.

As my career progressed, there were ups & downs but it was only because of external circumstances (those stories are for another day!! 😄) but never once due to me falling out of love with the underlying subject - finance.

So basically my work & passion are the same thing.

Another thing I really (really!!) resonate with ever since I remember is READING. I resonated strongly with books (it was mostly comics - Tinkle was my favorite). I used to be regular patron at the local bookstore (it's name was Vidyarambham - meaning "Beginning of Knowledge") that I could walk in & go to their store room where they put the old unused books & I used to dig through them like an archaeologist digging through an ancient ruin. Some of the books were put there as it was not popular but for me, these were treasures from which I benefitted immensely & guided me in life. Even now, going into a book store is like sunshine coming into my soul.

It taught me we have to go out there & explore (like I explored books in the store room). We will not know what life has in store for us till we explore. Don't you want to find out what life has in store for you?? Go Explore

I also realized one thing that my job required me (& still does!!) to read. Read a lot!! Otherwise we cannot keep abreast of what is happening in the profession & market.

Find your frequency

I didn't think of all the above points in terms of resonance till I read Tiago Forte's book (Building a Second Brain). This is what he wrote. The below excerpt is from the book in terms of capturing ideas:

Like a scientist capturing only the rarest butterflies to take back to the lab, our goal should be to “capture” only the ideas and insights we think are truly noteworthy. Content tends to pile up all around us even without our involvement. There are probably emails filling your inbox, updates popping up in your social media feeds, and notifications proliferating on your smartphone as you’re reading this.

It’s already there, but we tend to capture it haphazardly, at best. You might email yourself a quick note, brainstorm some ideas in a document, or highlight quotes in a book you’re reading, but that information probably remains disconnected and scattered. The insights you uncovered through serious mental effort remain hidden in forgotten folders or drifting in the cloud.

The solution is to keep only what resonates in a trusted place that you control, and to leave the rest aside.

When something resonates, it moves you on an intuitive level. Often, the ideas that resonate are the ones that are most unusual, counterintuitive, interesting, or potentially useful. Don’t make it an analytical decision, and don’t worry about why exactly it resonates—just look inside for a feeling of pleasure, curiosity, wonder, or excitement, and let that be your signal for when it’s time to capture a passage, an image, a quote, or a fact.

By training ourselves to notice when something resonates with us, we can improve not only our ability to take better notes, but also our understanding of ourselves and what makes us tick. It is a way of turning up the volume on our intuition so we can hear the wisdom it offers us.

The sentences in bold above are what hit me (or resonated!!) when I read the book. I wish I knew this much before in life. But it's never too late. There is a time to know & understand everything.

We can resonate with anything - music, arts, the type of music we resonate with when we hear it & stirs our inner emotions. Also pursuing what resonates with you may lead to another thing that you resonate but the vibration was not strong enough before. For me, it is writing.

So, go explore, find your frequency & see what you resonate with or even what your kids resonate with & encourage yourself & them to go explore!!!!