Raw. Real. Unfiltered. Daily blogs. Often, less than 100 words
If you feel you have less work to do today
And it’s okay if you put off the most important task to later
Just to waste a few minutes here and there
The Law of Productivity (that no one uses the nomenclature of, however, it exists), says that you will still be unproductive till the end of the day.
When riches come, they come in so much abundance that you would keep wondering where they had been hiding for so long – Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich.
However, richness is a state of mind. When you know you are rich, nothing can stop you. When you have accepted you are poor, no one can stop you either.
That said, why do we believe we are poor?
Because that is what we have been inculated since childhood.
Because we have been taught that money is evil.
Because we think money makes you bad.
PS: I am talking about all forms of wealth, not just cash.
Here is the thing: When we have more of anything, it just makes us a magnified version of who we are.
And who we are, is a choice we make every single day.
So, what is the choice we’re making today?
Do you sometimes feel that your hard work isn’t validated?
Let me tell you a story of the cool kid.
It is easy to be the cool kid.
The cool kid does nothing significant.
The cool kid is just hanging around trying to look cool.
Does things that get attention of everyone.
Anything that escapes hard work and still brings in validation is what the cool kid lives by.
Except, that they themselves know they are hollow.
And that’s sad.
Because every effort of theirs is an attempt to look cooler by covering up that hollowness.
And in a sheer suddenness of move, the cool kid does something that they were supposed to do. When they do this, all of a sudden they become cooler. Because no one had expected them to do this!
Isn’t that a “virtuous” cycle?
Friends, we all come across “the cool kids” in every setup, in every work structure that we are a part of.
But you know what?
I have never seen a cool kid being trusted.
Or being entrusted with responsibilities.
Or even being looked forward to as a professional.
We can play around with colleagues. Because their validation was the first thing the cool kid was after.
However, rising higher is always preceded by hard work. Always.
Hustling. Grinding. Slogging in the hours.
All of this is pop culture’s definition of hard work.
Except that it’s false.
True hard work is when someone’s good or bad deeds do not invoke a reaction from you.
If the above line seemed difficult, it may be possible that you’re just wasting your time instead of doing the real hard work.
This morning I had slept again after meditating.
In that sleep, I witnessed two dreams in one. The weird part is, for the first time I remember such a weird dream.
One was from the first guy I (perhaps) loved. I received WhatsApp messages from him dropping me three locations where I would have to “meet” him later during the day. Of course I ignored those messages.
Later when I reflected, it dawned to me that this was the essence of our so-called love: “Meeting” as per his convenience and then becoming absolute strangers.
Another one was from a school friend. In fact, we were never friends in school. Very late, almost 2-3 years ago we connected on Facebook and became sort-of friends. But then he vanished all of a sudden. I was never told why or how, nor was any conversation brought in. He tried bringing his “forwarded messages” into my inbox quite recently but now I was unsure.
It was just friendship from my end. And his as well. But somewhere I always felt he needed something from me. Can’t point out exactly. But there was something. In the dream as well, he took my iPhone from me for making a call and as I moved around a bit, he had already lent my phone to a careless friend of his, who was just playing around with it. It was in a moment of luck that I saw his friend and got my phone back.
That’s it! These were the two dreams. I don’t know what they mean. Except that I do. Here’s what they mean:
That was it! Weird dreams that I weirdly remembered. Perhaps so that I could finally forget them!
“As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen This is one of the tiniest books I’ve ever read, containing just 56 pages, however, each time I pick it up, I get a new direction to my thought. Here’s sharing the 18 timeless lessons from the book:
The book is easy to read, and needs to be read over and over again. If you could do yourself and your life a favour, get one here, today, PLEASE!
And when you’ve read it, reach out to me to let me know which one line are you going to take with yourself as a reminder. I’d look forward 🙂
A freelance company recently reached out to me and asked about my best work to date.
All artists have their best works.
Steve Jobs.
Seth Godin.
Leonardo da Vinci.
Robin Sharma.
Adam Grant.
However, the best thing about their best work is that they show up despite making a super hit.
I think the best piece about my work is “showing up”. Let’s say I have written a bestselling book and it breaks all records in all bestselling lists. Everything is great! But what if I stop writing altogether after that? Will my best work hold any relevance?
That is why, the best work any artist could do is to show up to produce their art every single day, irrespective of what mood, weather, or mindset they are in. If we just show up and show up and show up again, we build a brand of consistency which creates trust among the community as well as clients (current and prospective). That is the best work.
The best part of this best work is: We ALL can do it, yet most give up in the first year itself.
You can read the full interview here.
My laptop turned ten this January. (Lol, looks like I’m talking about my kid. Haha, except that it is not my kid, I’ve just typed so much that it is just my therapist taking all the mental health issues outta me 😀 )
So, coming to the laptop.
It’s slow.
Can’t work on videos.
Since my work is primarily writing, we are still in a relationship.
But it takes time to download from and upload to the drive.
With too many tabs open, may even occassionally hang.
But it’s trying its best.
Here’s a fact: This laptop is a laptop. Which means it does not have a replaceable CPU. Which means it can only be replaced for a new one.
But here’s a bigger fact: You are not a laptop.
Your brain is not fixed.
You can change it.
Your body replaces itself almost every year.
You can change your body.
Your lifestyle isn’t fixed, no matter how trapped you are.
Your tiniest of changes can make the biggest of differences.
You are not a laptop.
Don’t live your life like one.
Some quick lessons I learnt this week:
19th January 2015.
The day I became a Chartered Accountant.
I still vividly remember the day.
We had just returned to Kota (my hometown) after an overnight train trip from Mumbai, after attending a family function there for three days. So the winter was a harsh reality from the pleasant zero winter of Mumbai to being back to Kota. Because of this train journey, I had taken a shower quite late, around 10-11 am.
The moment I came out, I saw a miss call from a fellow article at the firm I did my articleship from.
Oops, my heart started pounding.
As I called him back, he picked up the call and asked: “Kya hua?”
“Result aa gaya?” was my surprised response, to which he said yes.
My mom had gone to take shower and I was virtually alone at home. So I opened up the laptop, connected it to the slow BSNL router we had and checked the result.
452 out of 800, result: PASS. (*Top 100 scorers in India then)
Wow!
The day I will never forget!
Throughout the day I did not feel cold at all despite returning from Mumbai back to shivering winters of Kota. It was in the evening that I finally realised I should be feeling cold 🙂
My mom came out of shower and started crying a lot. A lot. She basically missed my Nanaji for whom I was a source of pride and who had passed away eleven months back. The day was something me and my parents had been waiting for, for years!
But this is the success story. That I cleared CA Final (both groups together) in the first attempt that too with very good marks.
Here is the back story: I failed in IPCC twice. As on date, given the number of failures we get to face, this doesn’t seem huge.
Back then it was. Especially for a class topper like me since childhood, who ended up with this major jolt for the first time in my life.
You know what, my Mom cried then as well, for how could such a thing happen to me? (Yes now I know that I was responsible, but I just couldn’t convince her to see that part. Maybe I didn’t want to see that either!)
But I did clear the IPCC exam eventually. One group at a time.
That is the word you need to remember my fellow CA students: eventually.
The world isn’t going to be smooth even if you clear all three stages in the first attempt with AIR 1. It’s true that social media is not going to have your pictures when you fail.
It’s true that your neighbours will probably stare at you when you’ll leave home for coaching classes.
It’s perhaps true that a friend who was not expected to clear is a CA today and you aren’t!
All this is real pain.
And it hurts, especially if you worked hard.
But there is one more thing that is real: Your grit. Your persistence. Your belief in your capability that no matter what, you will end up with the prefix CA before your name eventually.
Feel sad as hard as you want to. Clean your nose with your sweater that your friend likes who is a CA now. Look at yourself in the mirror and just be, it’s okay!
But when you are done, don’t waste a minute pondering about what was and what could be. Just focus on what you are going to do next.
Winning in life is less about numbers and more about your attitude.
For example, I’m not a cunning person and because of that I sometimes get walked over (sometimes by my hashtag friends), and that feels very bad. But then I tell myself that my systems and ethics are powerful, so I needn’t be scared. NEVER ever has been a place in my life that because of not being cunning, rather being a simple human being, I hadn’t won eventually. Things always turn out to be in the favour of the person who works hard with the rights systems and the right mindsets.
And if you are worried about number of attempts, yes I did get a bonus of 1L INR extra back in 2015-16 because of being a first attempt passout. But today, 5-6 years down the line, almost everyone is earning in the same income range. Time is a great leveller and a wonderful thing to forget.
So keep up your spirits high my fellow CA students, it is only a matter of time that you will become a member of the reputed ICAI. Till then, focus on building systems and attitudes that eventually and undoubtedly lead to success, instead of letting things happen.
PS: In case you are wondering if I used some systems while preparing for CA Final exams after failing in IPCC twice, of course I did! I won’t blabber them here because the purpose of this blog is not to show you how, the purpose is to show you what. If you need help with systems and processes while preparing for CA exams, drop me a note at ngehija454@gmail.com and I’d be happy to help you out.
PPS: It will happen, eventually!
Some things are NEVER right, no matter what. Here’s some of them:
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.
Today in the evening as I was riding on the Activa towards the park, I passed through our old home.
Just like every other day.
However, we had sold off our home in March 2020. So it wasn’t officially ours now.
Today was special, though.
A crane was demolishing the entire structure.
It was bought by our grandparents at the time of partition.
My uncles left their respective parts in 2000.
We left in 2015.
Sold in 2020.
73 years, in five lines. This is how quick life is.
Think of life this way: The girl who lives in an 8,000 sqft home with Anushka and Virat in Worli, Mumbai may have come from slums or may have come from a kingdom in her past birth.
But we all have to leave our homes. Sometimes being alive, always after death.
Nothing to feel sad or empty about, we all are there for each other – isn’t that epic?
The only home is the home humans take less time to think about 🙂
Anyway, here’s some pics from our old home.
Nothing awesome, just a few bundles of memories. Enjoy!
That’s it folks!
I went deep down the memory lane. Without a tear. Just a beautiful smile, to show that life is too small. Enjoy it while it lasts 🙂
Speak less.
And when you do, let your two words make the mark of a lifetime.
Work more on yourself.
It would make the work of working on others easier.
Sleep early.
The next day would be brighter.
Have a great week.
Your life matters.
January is the month of meditation.
Especially the day of 18th January – where all of our community members gather together and have a combined meditation, for throughout the day. At least for 8 hours of the day.
You know what, for the first 30 minutes, you are trying to meditate.
For the rest of the day, meditation flows through you 🙂
Imagine what would happen if we did this every single day?
Some life lessons that helped me today, might do that to you as well:
This is the collection of my musings while working, working out, figuring out life, and most of the times, showing up! Enjoy, and feel free to share 🙂
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.