Raw. Real. Unfiltered. Daily blogs. Often, less than 100 words
When we use a comma, the latter part of the sentence elaborates the former.
In case of an exclamation, there is surprise.
In case of question mark, there is dissatisfaction.
A full stop is the fullest way of expression. Whatever has happened, has happened. Be easy and bring a full stop to it. (Because other ways of comma, exclamation and question mark never generated a response anyway.)
Why not try a full stop now?
Try a full stop.
Hope they help you, as much as they do to me.
Remember how I wrote about a neighbourhood Uncle a few days back, and how he used to address me Moti?
Well, today morning we bumped into each other again, and what followed was magical! (Okay, not magical, yet surprising :D)
Chalo, the essence of this post was that now both that Uncle and me are away from our “addressing” me blatantly issues to the usual ones 🙂
Aal is well!
You must have seen people partying on the beach on Instagram.
Or making teddy bears of snow.
And making you feel like it is your life only that is at loss.
Here’s a silent truth:
Someone I know personally posted a vacay pic of theirs, with a thoughtful caption and how happy they were truly being in this flow state of life. However, I know they are going through a really, really tough time. A super tough time.
It is great that they took a break, no doubts about that.
But here is what I want you to consider:
Choose the form of happiness you want to live in. And the coolest of the coolest people, who are your (real) role models, they hardly share their vacay pics online with a “success-filled” caption. Because they know that real happiness is the remaining 350 days as well, when we are not on a holiday.
Read the above line again.
For yourself.
Sometimes people say I sacrifice my Netflix and late night binge watching to rise early.
Or why do you workout and avoid all the junk foods?
Why don’t you work full time, and why is family time more important to you?
All these are sacrifices.
Sacrifices are good.
Because from those we create our destiny.
When we sacrifice Netflix, we create a destiny of peace and a good eyesight and a powerful brain.
When we sacrifice junk food, we create a destiny of a healthy and fit body.
When we “sacrifice” full work and spend some time with family, we create a destiny of joy and happiness.
It’s not sacrifice.
It is a creation of a happy future.
It is not a trade off.
It is creating a trade with yourself.
It is not lacking something.
It is accessing all that you have.
Sacrifices create happiness.
There is someone in my circle who comes across as a very sorted, chilled out person.
They are least affected by all the hype happening at work or in someone else’s life, don’t respond to extreme events, and enjoy their work the most.
Very recently, someone in the group asked them what was the biggest personal lesson of 2020.
You’ll be stunned at the response!
“I realize I am the biggest source of stress in my life.” They went on to say that in the nine months of Covid alone, they had developed more grey hair than all the past years combined together.
It made me think. I always used to think of her as a chilled out, I-don’t-give-a-damn kind of person. Maybe they are that. However, just because someone doesn’t show it, that doesn’t mean they aren’t carrying a heavy load.
For some people, the very nature of not showing is their way of dealing with their load.
Aceeptance, not judgement, opens the doors of empathy from us to them, instead of we pigeonholing them as ruthless.
Each human is suffering, and the best way to save them is acknowledge it first, instead of judging them
One question that I get asked a lot is:
“How were you able to make your career switch? Did you not face any challenges? Did you fail? How did you bounce back?”
This blog, is an attempt to answer that.
Well, to give you a background, I am a Chartered Accountant by profession. Worked in the corporate for five years, and kept writing on the side because I loved it.
In 2020, I quit my job and took up writing full-time.
How was it possible?
Before how, let me address the question of why.
I used to work as an Internal Auditor. Which meant on any given day my high rating would be a function of how many errors and how huge errors I detected. It, in turn, meant that someone else had to screw up badly in order for me to perform greatly.
And I kid you not, I was great at my work.
Sometimes people were fired because of me, sometimes people were issued warning memos, and almost every single time someone else’s annual rating was adversely affected.
With all this going on, I was not very happy. If wherever you go, you are welcomed at a superficial level yet at a deeper level people wished I didn’t come or went away quickly. The money that we earn brings blessings. For me, it came at the cost of many people’s career. My career, no matter how legit, was someone else’s nightmare.
And with my love for writing, it was just nudging me daily to make that move.
So here’s how I quit my job and made a career switch:
Simple. That’s it.
I did not know this would be the process, I just kept creating content without any direction of where it would go, and soon it did lead to some good places.
As far as problems that were concerned, I solved them the way I solve all my problems – by surrendering them to God. The results are never short of epic.
Try it out! And reach out to me to tell how it was 🙂
Been sitting next to a new room heater. The RHS of me is in Mumbai now, while the LHS is in Delhi, while me sitting in Rajasthan.
***
Had gud+cashew as a mid meal snack. My fingers are greasy, helps with a smooth zoom out on the trackpad.
***
If you want to feel really hot, keep your laptop on your lap. 100% tried and tested super effective technique!
***
How to distinguish an amateur from a pro?
A pro is someone who has enabled “Add Space After Paragraph” in a doc, instead of pressing “Enter” twice.
***
Desi culture is
Moms being okay with kids carrying
heavy bags of groceries or even suitcases
But not trusting them to lift a pressure cooker at home.
Tu gira degi!
***
That’s it folks! Worked whole day on it 🙂
Chalo, have a great Sunday!
If you are reading this, chances are you were not born with a silver spoon.
Don’t worry, even I wasn’t.
The point is, when we are born into a humble family and grow up to make a decent amount of money, it is easy to fall into the trap of speaking, thinking and behaving like the rich.
Nothing wrong with it.
However, remembering your raw nature, remembering the village you came from, remembering the raw tone you were raised with – if you can live with that even while shopping your clothes from Sabyasachi and be proud of that instead of being ashamed, there is nothing that you can’t do!
The rich human who hasn’t forgotten the raw human that they are, is the most priceless asset ever.
When we love someone, we don’t want to cry for them.
Because had they been around, they wouldn’t have liked seeing us cry.
Go live your life in the happiest version possible, in a manner had they been around.
Not because you are rejoicing that they went, rather because we want to let them know that in order to keep them happy, we will stay happy.
Our happiness is a token to tell them back, that we love them
These life lessons are deep, and never shared.
Here you go:
PS: Number 6 — Diamonds are formed under pressure 🙂
Negative things about getting a positive life
1. Honesty is an expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people.
– Warren Buffet
2. When people show you who they are, believe them.
– Maya Angelou
3. The best way to deal with corporate politics is to live by and speak your truth. It will make you undefeatable.
4. People will play games against you. Worry not, for they not know against whom are they playing the real game.
5. Don’t trust your extremely good or bad moods. What happens in the middle – your intuitions, people’s behaviours, what you want to do – that is the real stuff.
Some small reflections about life, that were sadly not as positive, however, very important to inch towards positivity and not being affected by the negativity of others.
Today I came across a wonderful story on LinkedIn, wanted to share the lesson from it here.
A guy had gone to a tea stall, where he saw a father struggling to get his daughter admitted into a top college.
The man had worked really hard, and the daughter had gotten into a top engineering college. More so, he was willing to work harder to support her through college.
So this guy who posted on LinkedIn offered his help, and after few minutes of helping him out, also offered this Uncle to keep his phone number. Now he will help Uncle and his daughter.
Which brings me to hunger.
When we are hungry in life, we help others in satisfying their hunger.
When we are happy in life, we help others get happier.
When we have risen from nothing, we love to help others rise up.
However, only the people without entitlement can do it.
Only the people who love hard work can help others in theirs. The ones who feel they can work less and get done with, don’t know what lies ahead of them.
Only the people who believe they “have it all” actually have it all. As the 1984 Apple commercial states: “They push the human race forward.”
So, are we pushing the human race forward? Or are we pushing ourselves backward by letting entitlement get in?
As a kid, a neighbourhood uncle used to call me “moti”, which is a Hindi translation for “fat girl”.
Not that I was fat, rather because as I introspect now, that was merely a reflection of his un-developed brain’s immunopsychological response to bringing people down.
People do it all the time:
You don’t appear happy, while in reality, they aren’t.
I can’t love you, because being devoid of love was how I was raised, and changing myself is a mammoth task.
I won’t update my LinkedIn profile and network with people, because struggling to find a job is how I finally get a job, and that struggle keeps me safe.
The blankets we throw at others are virtually the ones we are covering ourselves with.
Which brings me to this neighbourhood Uncle.
So when he used to address me “Moti” as a kid, I used to retaliate. Get angry. Cry. Scream. Literally beg not to call me moti.
Today morning, while returning from my meditation class, that Uncle saw me again. And he called me “moti” thrice. And I moved on, without responding.
Sometimes, what we were years back, we don’t drift from there even a bit.
I’m glad I wasn’t that today morning.
I feel for him that he hasn’t grown a bit in years.
So, my question to you is: “Are you still fat,” where “fat” means the thickness of the brain that makes it almost impossible for new knowledge to percolate?
Or have you lost that weight and become lean, where you allow the new muscles to form and happily let go of the stagnant ones?
Anyone can “get it done” by working late nights, being on phone 24*7 and “hustling” too hard.
The real hard work is sleeping on time, knowing when to disconnect from the devices (yes the devices that make you money), and not push too hard and let your boredom make things happen.
The smart ones choose Option 2.
The ones who want to look “smart” keep writing on Internet about it – because, busy!
What’s the point of living life if you don’t even know where your day passes or your body has become what even a senior citizen’s body isn’t or in this endless consumption, you didn’t even remember a line of what you consumed.
Slow down is the new fasttrack.
The past was horrible.
How could they do it to you?
How could you do it to yourself?
Do these thoughts sometimes encircle your mind? Like if that person from the past came back to you right now, you would hit them and vent out all your frustration?
Here’s the catch baby: Even if you did that, that won’t take away the past and its bruises.
To heal yourself, you have to heal yourself.
That is difficult.
That is the real hard work.
That will break you down into pieces several times before it actually makes you.
That will make you question yourself over and over again.
However, that will also be the right thing for you.
What’s the point of being behind those prison bars when on the sides of those bars is open space to run anywhere you need to?
Some money lessons:
Tell me, have you tried these and succeeded?
Do you get the same engagement on all your social media posts?
Do you feel the same emotions for your parents always?
Do you like having chocolate cake / pizza / (your favourite dish) for all meals of the day?
Do you like watching your favourite movie every single day?
Do you like going to the same place for vacation every year?
We want novelty. That’s where the brain’s sweet spot lies.
So when you don’t receive the same responses from people. They have their patterns, and places.
You’ll find yourself to be more peaceful when you live from that awareness.
I also want to have as much engagement as GaryVee.
I also want to have as many views as MostlySane.
I also want to not think a bit before buying Zara clothes.
I also want to…
We want to do a ton of things.
And probably that will take a lot of time.
That’s not the problem.
Problem is that we are not even starting.
Problem is that we keep waiting for that ride without getting out on the road.
Problem is we don’t trust ourselves.
Problem is, we don’t even know that we are the problem.
How will we ever get what we want, if we never get out of our own way and take action?
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Confucius
What is it that you are waiting for?
There will come a time when you will want to give up on that one thing, about which you intuitively knew it wasn’t meant to be so anyway.
At that point, just give up.
It would be the best thing you’ll do to yourself.