Starting from zero

All the influencers you follow, none of them were born with the followers they have.

Also, none of them is Shah Rukh Khan’s kid.

So, when you feel that they got “lucky”
When you believe that you just can’t “get there”
When you think others had privileges “you don’t have”
When self doubts starts encircling you
When success seems possible only by magic,

Remember that…

Everyone started at zero. Everyone.

If the ones who made it had something special, they had this:

  • Breathtaking consistency
  • Belief in themselves when the world was busy rebuking them
  • Trust that if it is possible for others, it is possible for them as well
  • Learning from failure
  • Learning from others’ success

And many more pieces of the puzzle that get arranged once you actually step into the pool.

Start from 0. You did so in school. See where you are now. Start again, for a different curriculum of life you want to be living for.

Weird ideas

Having some weird ideas, don’t know when (or if) I’ll be executing on them, but let’s see:

  1. Be an English teacher to Class 11 and 12 students.
  2. Have a coaching curriculum online.
  3. Open a piano (read: keyboard) only Instagram account.
  4. Adopt a plant.
  5. Get on a counselling with millennials and GenZ (just like in my book Fit Doesn’t Fit)
  6. Do nothing for a week, other than reading and reflecting.
  7. Switch off the phone for a day a week. (Soon to be!)

Let’s see where things go:)

Btw, 1, 2, 6 and 7 are in progress – which may even lead to 5 getting somewhere in place. Let’s see!

How to get what you want

How can you get what you want?

One option is very valid: Try. Put in the efforts. Do the hard work. Which is all very beautiful and necessary.

There’s another option as well: See yourself as awareness, just aware of everything.

It takes a lifetime to learn the second one. But when we do, we won’t read a blog titled “How to get what you want” 🙂

Feeling worthy each day!

Warren Buffet says that he enjoys his work so much that he would tap dance to work, and paint on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel.

Life is supposed to be like this.

At a point of time in my life, my life didn’t look like this. I hated my days.

Yet I continued investing in my learning.

And what came out of it, is totally novel.

Life feels blissful. Even if I work more, it is the best version of my life so far. Still to get better each day.

The thing that saved me, that will probably save you as well, is: investing in my learning each day. No matter what.

Everything else is just a byproduct.

Some beautiful quarantine learnings

1. Watering plants makes you feel humbler and happier.

2. Your parents need nothing other than your presence.

3. Cleaning with wiper is both abs and back workout, sweeping the floor is a great cardio.

4. Home cooked chocolate cake is super delicious.

5. Life is wonderful without TV serials!

Nishtha’s book recommendations

The quality of your life is the quality of your associations.

Decade transformation pic

I posted this pic on Instagram, and got moderate traction.

Posted the same pic on LinkedIn, and got huge traction, because of course, of the like minded people.

One of them asked my favourite book recommendations. Well, 90% of them are recommended, however, here’s listing my top 10:

Self Development:

1. 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

2. How to be a Bawse by Lilly Singh

Finance:

3. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

4. Unshakable by Tony Robbins

Psychology:

5. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

6. Fit Doesn’t Fit by Nishtha Gehija

Business:

7. Trillion Dollar Coach by Bill Campbell

8. Linchpin by Seth Godin

Miscellaneous / Understanding Life

9. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

10. Give and Take by Adam Grant

Start with one of these, and see your life propelled in a totally different direction.

Will you?

How to achieve anything

You want to be successful.

The problem is, all winners AND losers want to be.

The way, then, to figure out the fact that you will be a winner is this:

Learn a lot. The one who has abundance of knowledge and applies it, is the one who can achieve anything.

Go to someone who has coined themselves as a failure, and there will be only one gap: they are not apt and fulfilled and consistent and relentless and relevant on their learning.

When the switch happens at the point of being knowledgable, success is an inevitable byproduct.

Feedback is (NOT) good

Learning is the fuel for the one who wants to rise higher.

The one who has the zeal to learn will learn from a thousand places.

Let’s reframe it this way: the one who has the zeal to learn will learn from a thousand RIGHT places.

The sad thing about feedback is you will receive it more from those who are not your ideal audience or who do not know anything about what you do or anything about your content.

Smile gracefully at them, pity them for not being able to follow their dreams, and get back to following your own.

Not getting affected by unsolicited feedback is the real definition of self-awareness.