Mark Manson asked a question on Twitter today: List three things you wish you understood 10 years ago.
Here’s my response:
1. To say no in a potential relationship, where you know it ain’t going to work, is power.
2. Invest in equity.
3. Build a community.
PS: I was already working out, meditating, reading books and eating right at that point. So missed out these basics 🙂
There’s a country where citizens become organ donors by default on attaining a certain age. It’s a law. They can choose to opt out if they want to, however, they will be in the last priority for consideration as organ recipients.
However, this is not possible in developing countries where there are fights on basic things like bank accounts or food and shelter.
There is nothing wrong or right. It is just the culture that pushes people to think certain way. It’s the reason why desis act like firangs in the countries of firangs. The culture gets it done from them.
This pretty much explains why we do what we do, and why is it impossible to change people without their prior choice or change of culture.
Someone who grew up in corporate culture does not know the nuances of starting up at all. Perhaps an eighteen year old knows more.
Someone who grew up in an Omkara apartment in Worli Mumbai won’t ever understand the nitty-gritties of arranging the basic things in most households.
Someone who meditates at dawn daily won’t love the culture of drinking till sunrise in Goa. They just aren’t that.
People aren’t wrong. They are just different. Simply due to changes in the people we are surrounded by.
While we cannot control whom we are surrounded by unless we make some drastic changes, we can always change whom we are surrounded by online.
Since humans spend a lot of time online, we have the choice to think like the people of the country where becoming an organ donor is mandatory.
We always have a choice.
It is said that when you make something public, there are far greater chances of you getting back on course with things that aren’t serving you.
So, here’s me trying to document my day.
Not sure if I could document everything, but here’s the good and the parts to be changed.
To be changed:
Good things that happened:
Hmm…that was fun. I should be doing more of these. Makes life accountable.
Alright then, see you tomorrow.
Till then, take great care peops!
With the mental health issues going to peak ten days back, I deliberately started taking extra care of myself.
Here’s what I realised:
Here’s what I have started doing now:
The journey is hard. Only if I label it so. Remember – creators of our experiences? Now I have unabashedly started living for my own happiness – without hurting others, however, not allowing anyone to enter that bubble and burst it.
To break the norms does not mean break the legal norms and go murder the person you’ve desperately wanting to do for years.
Breaking the norms, may seem useful (and powerful) when you break the ones that are not serving you, like:
You have tonnes of norms to break, that aren’t serving the society. More than that, you.
Will you break the norms for You?
There’s this pool you want to jump into.
But on the outside, it looks too deep, too dangerous, perhaps terminal to jump into.
Hey, wait…you know that voice that’s telling you it’s dangerous, because you surely know it isn’t yours.
It’s the voice of people who are sitting at the back, and haven’t ever had the audacity to even walk up to the edge of the pool.
You clearly know it isn’t your voice.
Then a strange thing happens.
You jump into the pool, and realise it wasn’t that deep or that terrific at all.
Maybe sitting back on recliners and boohoo-ing isn’t so peaceful and powerful as jumping in feels like.
Now that you’re able to navigate that pool, here’s my question to you: “What if, the pool is actually too deep and dangerous, and is tougher than you thought?
Isn’t jumping in still better, so you develop your skills to the next level, instead of staying away from arena for the rest of your life?”
Isn’t jumping in still better than reclining?