1. Keep your good work.
2. Check before leaving (I bought full moong dal instead of broken).
3. No one will respect you unless you respect yourself.
Tag: change
Some rules of professionalism that you will never be taught, yet are the most important ones:
- Respond.
Yes, as simple as this. Bro, there is no point taking out the frustration of your bf / gf / ex on to your professional relationships. If someone is asking, it is professional to respond. If someone is sending an information, it is professional to give a thumbs up.
People don’t work with people for product or services. People work for the care. Give them! Because it’s the right thing to do. - Be on time.
On time means on time. If it is a Zoom call, 4 pm means 4 pm. Not 4:15, stating 15 minutes is okay. No it’s not. So is the case with in-person meetings.
The formula is again simple. People see how much you care about them. That will make them decide if they can refer you to others, or figure out a way to get out of this engagement asap. - Do what you say you will do. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
The line is maarofied from my boss, however, emotions are the same.
You say you will deliver a report by 7? Keep an internal deadline of 5 and email it max by 5:30.
You say you will come back? Be specific and tell by when will you come back. Not next week. Rather which day in the next week.
You say you need time to think? Perfect. Can you please communicate by when will you respond?
Repetition hashtag three: People care for people who care. It simply shows you are involved.
Living an organised professional life does not make you Monica from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
It just makes you an accountable human being, about whom people would not think twice, before referring.
1. Do more than you are expected to.
2. Speak less than you are expected to.
3. Work out each time you are expected to.
Letting go of 1.5 year old client at the end of this month.
We have grown together. In our business. And work. And maybe as human beings as well as our professional relationships.
However, as we grow, we change priorities.
For me, I need answers to work related questions to create content on personal branding. For him, he has just raised funding and maybe (rightly) does not have time. It is, thus, inappropriate for me to continue with inauthentic content.
The best part, which I also believe is the most mature part: He respected my decision instead of trying to stop me.
Btw, the reason for leaving that I have communicated to him is me not having time out of my day job. In reality, it is his lack of time for his own content that is making me make this decision.
Over the past few months, I have had several conversations with him about sharing his content, along with citing examples from other creators. However, since things aren’t changing much, it is better for us to part ways.
Still, he remains one of the most trusting and easiest clients I’ve ever worked with.
Bless him, with a better content writer, and the best business 🙂
I don’t know if my work sitting in a remote silo is making difference in the world.
I have no idea if the people I care for actually care for me (so I could move on or continue lol)
But you know what…
Sometimes not knowing is super powerful.
Because it makes you do your own thing.
Doing your own thing without the influence of others, makes you more of your better self.
It is under that “better self” that you become stronger and okay with the fact that the world is not okay with you!
Hey Nishtha,
a. Slowly and gradually, you will overcome the bad habits by creating good ones. Patience is power.
b. Your validation lies in your ability to do what is right.
Everything else, is people’s fickling moods.
c. You are the creator of time.
Why are you waiting for time to teach you the lessons?
d. Most importantly, the world just opens up for the human being who is ever flowing and giving.
Stop needing love from others and take it from God and give it to others. You will be fulfilled like never before!
- The ability to not press Alt + Tab while working.
- The ability to focus only on the Google Doc you’re working on, and not reach out to your phone.
- The ability to forgive your “friends” who never asked for an apology.
- The ability to grow your people yet be inspiring instead of dominating.
- The ability to sit for 90 minutes straight and only work.
One of the things I’m proud of, is I keep giving updates of my work to my boss.
Without him asking.
Because he ought to know of stuff.
Yet, at the same time, he loves not following up.
So I share.
Because it is right.
On the other hand, I followed up with a team member who is running late with her work.
Sure, I am telling you so that “tu aaraam se reh sake”
What?
Is that not your work?
I just wish…
I just wish!
Just completed a trip with my team.
Few life lessons learnt:
- If being a friend interferes with your ability to become a leader, helps to be the leader first.
- Talk about others in your mind just like you talk to them about them.
- Learn to value loneliness.
- Before loving others, have you tried to love yourself?
- Only broken people break people.
Also, a note to 2-3 of my teammates whom I know I wasn’t 100% present with:
I’m sorry. I can do better. I love you, no matter how much or how little we spoke during this offsite.
Also, you are an amazing kid. Let no one else make you believe otherwise.
I tried high rope walking in the morning. Was veryyyy scared. Gave up. I wasn’t even ready to jump off the harness when I decided to give up. Was pushed.
Tried climbing the wall in the evening. Failed again.
But didn’t have even an iota of regret. It’s better to try and fail than to not try at all, I suppose.
Other than that, I really need to work on my looks. Looking way more untidy or it is lack of confidence due to so-called friends not being around.
So much of a normal day. Yet so much to learn.
Life is epic. With life lessons coming in.
Very recently, my landlord Uncle and Aunty reduced the rent of my rented apartment.
After thanking them, I jokingly added: “I was, btw, expecting the rent to rise this year!”
“Beta actually we have let out other floors as well, and we’re charging them this lower rate only. So no point charging you a higher amount!”
I found it so cool. This new place is actually so cool bro!
Not just for the rent reduction.
Rather also because they played it honest, even though no one was seeing them.
If you really want to understand someone, see what they do when no one is watching.
PS: Other cool things they do:
1. Having a separate invertor for us tenants, whose electricity bill is attached to theirs
2. NO charges for water
3. Hiring a maid for me
4. Adding an additional (jaali waala) gate so that I can shut it and sleep in natural air.
5. Asking if I need some repairs – any time an electrician or a plumber comes.
Love love, to them! :))
1. Staring out of the balcony
2. Writing without editing (this blog is the only place where I write without editing)
3. Blessing those who hurt you
There is certainly ONE cool kid around you.
The one wearing a high attitude.
The one whose WhatsApp messages everyone responds to.
Here’s the truth about those cool kids:
- They are suffering a lot inside
- So they use that coolness to mask it
- And not treat others well
- And get to feel good about themselves
- And the cycle continues
Here’s what you should bear in mind, whenever you come across these cool kids in whose company you don’t feel welcome:
- Respect your own journey
- Move on
- Bless them
The ones who make others suffer, are the ones who are suffering hugely inside.
I returned to Delhi yesterday.
Was waiting for this for long.
Still, I miss Mom. And Papa. And kids. And the drama 🙂
Change is hard. However, change is what we must.
Maybe I will go back. Maybe I won’t.
Not pronouncing any decision as of now.
But really trying to spend time with myself.
And telling myself, “It’s okay. You will get through this.”
Yesterday I was feeling typically heavy after my therapy session, which ended at 4 pm.
I went out of my room, and sat in the balcony with my Mom and 3 year old nephew.
We were talking random stuff. And having fun, because – kid 🙂
And then, he randomly went to the kitchen, brought a plate and a spoon, and started banging them against each other.
Nishu Masi, dance!
Somehow, I got up and started dancing. And doing the cartwheel. He stopped banging. I stopped dancing. He started banging. I started dancing.
Lasted for 5 minutes. But something I will remember forever.
No lesson to derive from. All good. Just life. And moments worth remembering.
Our biggest problem is believing someone else is responsible for our problems.
If we realise this is our biggest problem, all of a sudden, we gain power over our problems.
Isn’t that magical?
We both used to be friends once, to the extent that we used to ask each other “kya delete kiya”?
Things change, we change.
Even if we don’t want, we move on.
I wish I could give you a happy ending, but I myself don’t have any. Sorry 🙁
Last week, I wrote an email to a year-old client, asking for revision in prices.
However, I was shivering 🙂
I’m a content writer, I happen to write the most effective emails, and I am on very good terms with the client.
However, I was still shivering because subconsciously we have been taught that money is evil, and asking for what you truly deserve is filthy.
I finally googled 2-3 formats of price raise, and sent him the email.
“Noted with thanks” was the response.
That’s it!
That’s it?
That’s the beauty of working with clients who care – that they really care for you as well 🙂
It turns out, the only person standing in our way is us.
About hiring:
- Don’t make a decision while getting drifted by emotions
- Send a regret email + feedback
- Care, but understand that you cannot hire everyone
- Sometimes wishing for the best for your team means saying a lot of no.
About trust:
- Take a lot of time to trust anyone who has broken your trust before.
- Tell this to them
- Even when you trust again, verify.
About negativity:
- Even if someone in the team is performing negatively, talking to others would NEVER solve it.
- If you can’t resist, write it down. But NEVER talk to anyone about it.
- What you think radiates before what you talk.
Earlier this month my father completed 40 years of his shop.
He’s 67, and had already worked in multiple “jobs”, before “starting on his own”. Here’s a journey of his work, starting from age 6!
1. Worked for FREE in a bakery at the age of 6, used to get crushed powder of toasts as daily “stipend”
2. Worked at two general stores in later summer vacations at school.
He was so much into cleanliness that once the shop owner’s bag of cash fell off from a higher shelf!
Guess what, my father had such a repute of honesty that the shopkeeper never changed its place!
3. Worked at a readymade garments shop as he “grew up” 🙂
4. Worked at a crockery of a relative, created a huge repute and profit for them, however, later the relative had to sell it off due to financial crunch
5. Worked as a typist at the age of 18, at one of the reputed shops in our city
6. Got placed at a factory by his employer, where he almost died by sinking in a pit while riding his cycle back home, and “someone magically appeared from nowhere” and saved him! Yes, he and a friend went to search for cycle the next day and got it 🙂
7. He found refute that day at a nearby factory, which later hired him. That factory was JK Paper Mills. He was even hired by DCM, Waterworks, and all the factories but he was underage!
8. Along with working at JK, he opened his shop on 05 August 1981. Used to work there in the mornings and nights.
9. Quit his job in October 1982, while his kids were 3 and 4 respectively. Talk risk!!
10. When he started, his shop was in a narrow street. His Uncle, in 1983, suggested to buy one of the new shops coming up at the main road. He didn’t have the deposit money. The bakery shop owner, with whom my father used to work “for free”, lent him the advance deposit. Till date, our shop is exactly at the same place.
11. Not to mention, he also used to do “flipping” by getting socks, watches from Delhi and selling them in our home town in Kota. However, he felt he wasn’t playing it ethical by showing a low-quality item as shiny and that was unfair to customers’ money.
Last year, as I was freelancing, I had once suddenly lost a high-ticket client. One morning I was sitting in my room and thinking, I saw my father doing his prayer rituals as usual.
He was as tensionless, as free and as “let life come as it wants to” attitude on his face.
If 40 years of business could keep him tension free, I had no right to get tensed that day.
That day, my father gave me hope.
Today as I asked him this entire story, he gave me the power of resilience.
And every day, he gives me the power of love by getting apples / mangoes for me (instead of bakery stuff that both my parents love :D)
We are not the best of friends, but he accepts me when I’m doing a headstand in the middle of the room, and I accept him when he “turns on auto-download” of WhatsApp forwarded pics, and together, we all are imperfectly perfect!
Just as we should be 🙂