Nishtha Gehija

When we go out there into the world, it is a fact that not everyone will agree with you or resonate with you.

Sometimes things may go worse and you might not have the easiest conversation with your client.

I would still say it is not the most mature thing in the world to go out there on social media and put out a version of “I was good. My client was bad.” In most cases it also projects you as a reactive human who lets their emotions get the better of them.

Learning the lessons, using those lessons in future assignments and learning to draw your boundaries are some of the ways you can escape the same tyranny again.

Being the torchbearer of someone else’s flaws never helped anyone, including the flawed.

I recently wrote a post that said as a writer I am not scared of AI. Of all things, it was not an anti-AI post.

I rather want AI to get better over time.

Case in point: I typed in Claude “suggest some easy to cook, home made breakfast ideas, no onion, no garlic”

And the first response was “scrambled eggs”.

Common sense is something that is yet to be made common in sensible AIs.

You work with 200% dedication. Don’t draw boundaries and people will take you for a ride.

You are full of empathy. Listen to everything people say and you are their trash can.

You want everyone to win. At some point you must know winning begins with you winning in the first place.

Every sin is a sign that it was a sensation first. Being a sensation is a responsibility, a signal that it does not summon you into the sin.

It breaks my heart to see writers I have been following for over a decade to succumb to writing their books via AI.

They perhaps seem to think that no one is noticing. Or that writing via AI would make their writing (presumably) better. Spoiler: It isn’t. Or that they think that they should outsource writing to an LLM and do something more meaningful themselves.

I only wonder, if a author thinks something else is more important than writing, what is the point of even playing that game?

As a reader (and writer and a book ghostwriter of bestsellers that have never used a single word of AI), here is what I think:

That the author did not do the emotional labour to think through the difficult parts of the book.

That the author did not have the understanding of their own thoughts, let alone providing the clarity to their audience.

That the author really does not care about a connection with the audience, and all they care about is capitalising on their past success, which was either through their previous works or millions of followers.

Art was hard even when Shakespeare used to write. Art is hard now even when we write on laptops lighter than Shakespeare’s pen. It is the journey of going through that hard which makes art worth consuming.

Not technically, but I looked up a picture of my sister from our childhood days.

It ended up becoming a bit of humorous conversation coupled with an important life take too. Enjoy!

If one of your life goals is to grow in your career, you have to be ambitious.

To take on one thing or the ten things you do with the zeal and zing that no one but you could have, that people would love to work with you.

Please know, this does not mean killing yourself and working 18-20 hours a day. Even if you work 2 hours a day, work like everyone watching you would pause to say “this is what work and worship looks like”.

The world already has too many people thinking there are too little jobs. I’d rather go and say there are too many jobs for people who really care. It all begins with us, like it always has.

The world will prescribe you everything you cannot get to getting what you really want.

Every day, you have two choices:

1. To listen to the world and shut your inner voice.
2. Pretend to listen to the world while you listen to your inner voice, and do what you know in your bones is right.

The first option makes you follow the herd. The second one makes the world fidget first, and then worship you silently.

More than the world, you are in alignment with yourself when you go for what you really want. That alignment could never be provided by a world addicted to a paved path.

If you really want it, you will really make it happen. And eventually the world will follow along. They have no choice but to.

Sermons playing from a distant place of worship.

Birds chirping peacefully.

Cold outside, yet not chilly.

And here we are, forgetting all the magic and hugging our screens or our blankets. Magic is found in the moments we show up to, instead of choosing to curse our life like the rest of the world.

If someone suffered because of you, you are responsible. Even if “they could have made a better choice”.

If someone is following up with you but you are unable to do the thing, it makes practical sense to buy some time. Leaving someone hanging even though they are much better off than you never solves the problem.

If you think you can do a task by tomorrow, take time for two days. Just in case the task doesn’t get done, at least you have a buffer.

Accountability is a wise man’s armour to relationships and reliability. People too busy to look beyond themselves cannot usually afford it.

Reading a blog by Seth Godin.

A book by an author who did not want to simply replicate their Instagram ideas onto paper.

Books written because the author could not not write the book.

Short-form online content was made to make your interest quiver and your focus narrower. Depth resists and wins over instant gratification every single day. And with that depth, every short form content (like a blog or one-liners) also come out to be meaningful.

Our existence has to find a destination beyond scrolling.

All my life, I have run away from Sudoku. Like run away. Never ever tried the ones that used to be a daily feature in newspapers. Cringed at people who did them. Never fathomed myself to be able to solve them.

But then some 10-15 days ago I tried a Sudoku (easy version) in the NYT games app, and quite liked it. (Also, because I was able to solve it.)

Doing it consistently over the past few days, and it has taught me some lessons too:

1. There is always a hint. You have to be open enough to look at it.
2. If a number is not showing any hint, move on to the next number. True for life also. But there is a hint, a small door somewhere.
3. If a game could be won, you could be the one winning it too. If you are interested and committed enough. This is particularly true for life because not everything is going to be a piece of cake. You have to be lovingly passionate and committed to the game in order to win it.
4. Look at all the options. Clearly. A hurry is more often the reason for an error more than a wrong judgement.
5. The best part is also the fact that you might gain a sharper brain in the long run by doing Sudoku, but I would happily outsource that to reading good books. Other than that, do it for entertainment. And know the game you are playing. Instead of just blindly copying someone else.

A couple of months ago I lost the keys to my car. It’s a new car. Like 6 months old. Not the fate I wanted to land into.

It reminded me of my previous car too. Whose first pair of keys had landed into the same fate perhaps a year down.

So this time I decided to do something different.

I told myself that I will find the keys somehow. Each time I was reminded of the keys, I visualised myself telling my landlord uncle with celebration that I found the keys. I kept visualising this scenario about “finding the keys and telling my uncle” each time I was reminded of the keys. Other than him, I told no one about the lost keys.

Note that the car was still being used with the other key. The goal was to find the first key back.

Lo and behold, I found the keys at one of the places I used to keep the keys at, but had stopped doing that lately. I don’t know why I had stopped doing that. Also, I found those keys because I knew like I knew like I knew I would find the keys, and never stressed about “not finding it”. I just let go, and I knew.

So much of life is just that. If we just keep manifesting, instead of “not hitting it right in week 1”. You are always manifesting. Why not manifest the right things anyway?

And too little time spending time alone, thinking and going within.

The former makes you confused, entangled and left with “no options”.

The latter gives you clarity, a beeline to the solution, and a joy that most people hardly experience their entire lives. But often this decision is harder than the first one in the short term. So most people don’t even tread that path.

The ones who do, are rewarded with courage, calmness and eventually way more cash.

Divorcing chaos should be a course everyone must be taught in college.

There are two connotations to this question.

One, helplessness. “What can I do?” Deciding outright that you have no power to change anything, and thus, succumbing to victim mode.

Two, responsibility. “What can I do?” You understand things have not been working as expected, and you are curious to help. You know that sometimes one step of help and understanding towards positive change is more than enough.

You can do a lot. Or you cannot. The best thing is you are the one who decides, regardless of what is happening.

Yes someone acted out of character and hurt you badly. They made you diffuse your trust in them. They did something that you know would hurt you.

But till when would you hold your hostility towards them?

It is wise to know better and act better the next time. But for now, just let yourself be easy.

If you think you being easy would make you think you are easy to lose your power, you are making that come true by clinging on to anger. Read that again.

Learn the lesson. Let go. And let love be your forever nature. Someone else’s wrong should make you even more right. It should not turn you wrong too.

Remembering routes

Hosting parties

Being too chatty in a meeting

Organising a picnic

Digging out time to watch movies

This is a small list of things I am bad at. Without guilt. Because I purposefully spend my time writing, doing nature walks, reading, and cooking just for myself and sometimes for my parents too.

Without being pompous, I like chasing excellence in these pillars of life.

Being bad at a few things is perhaps an excellent place to be at.

It is a medical term, where the person suffering from it is not able to pay attention or concentrate on your tasks.

I have an alternate theory for attention deficit disorder. When you do not get attention from your friends, family, life, etc., you end up doing things that make you grab attention.

It is often unintentional, because you are not aware. All your awareness is directed towards making people aware of you.

Wanting to be seen is undeniably a human emotion. But we must see ourselves and make ourselves feel seen, lest we might end up doing things that might give make us gather attention, but rarely be seen.

I’m in a carpool with a bunch of extended family members.
The two next to me start gossiping, so I flesh out my Kindle and start reading some spiritual texts on a PDF. It is a good way to keep your mind in tune with the right wisdom throughout the day.

To no surprise, I am now mocked. Loudly. In a manner that they expected me to contribute to the “tea” too. Cute 🙂
I continue reading nonchalantly.

Which later reminds me that the same people have more than once complained to me that “they do not have time to read books or watch a 5-minute inspirational video because they are too busy.”

Who is NOT busy, my friend?
But we need to dig time from goss and tea and mock to being the student of life. And do that religiously when others do that to us too.

It was also a reminder to me that people are always going to find flaws in the way you live your life.
Whether it is a life where you make time for your inner self.
Or when you are out with others but choose to read instead of gossip.

No one is ever pleased, often for no mistake on their part.

You do you. Because you get to live with your mind 24*7. If you input trash of goss into it, do not be surprised with the output.

…that people will communicate the most important truths to you in the harshest, rudest manner. Your job is still to look for the truth and accept it, instead of clinging on to them to change the way they said this.

…that no matter how hard you try, some people will still hold you wrong for absolutely nothing. Sometimes those are going to be family too. You have to be strong enough to get out of that rut of “making them understand you” and change yourself.

…that some people are never meant for conversations. They will live their lives in hell in order to avoid a conversation and live like nothing happened and create diseases within them.

Accepting the facts is a good point to starting to quieten the fire within yourself.