Don’t get inspired…

Don’t get inspired by people’s success on social media, their blue tick, the content they create, how much money they make, what all they have done, etc.

Rather, get inspired by their courage, the vibes they give, the joy you feel being around them, and most importantly, how much do you get to execute from them to their lives.

Worshipping people is easy.
Because it puts blinders on our wisdom and makes us pure devotees.
Getting inspired by their hard work is tough.
Because now you will have to put in that hard work as well.

Stranger stranger

This morning I posted a one-liner on LinkedIn:

You don’t know how much you can learn, until you sign up to learn.

Had two really weird comments.

Comment 1:

Comment 2 (Reply to Comment 1 by a stranger):

Thank you, to the wonderful community that stands for strangers and corrects the not-so-good others are standing for.

Thank you! 😊

Giving up on trends

Okay, so I have finally decided to give up on creating Insta reels.

Not because I can’t.
Rather because it is distracting.

Creating a video requires a lot of effort. And a lot of screen time. Which is not the best use of my time.

Also, as I thought deeper, even if my reels get viral, even if I become a great influencer because of reels, even if each reel of mine hits a million views, I am encouraging mini content which anyway has very little impact for inducing change in viewers. Especially on a platform like Instagram where everything is designed to make you waste your time and kill your attention, I want to be someone who actually makes people NOT waste their time by creating text-only images.

The best part? They can be scheduled through Facebook Creator instead of actually installing the app.

So maybe yes, reels are trending. However, I am way happy with working on LinkedIn and Twitter, while creating text-only pics on Instagram. Instead of working on “virality”, I’ll work on my originality and let my tribe fall in love with who I really am – a words girl, not a video girl πŸ™‚

The search bar

The search bar is good. It helps us find what we are looking for.

Except when its disastrous. Like in case of Instagram.

If you are someone who sees their time go by, simply track how much of your time was spent navigating the search bar on Instagram.

Don’t say it was for entertainment. The real entertainment is in getting bored. If you are getting to a place of getting bored and not going to the Instagram search bar, you are going to the search bar of your life.

That’s cracking the best code ever!

37 YouTube subscribers

Around 2015-16, I started posting on YouTube.
Because I wanted to be a motivational speaker.

But of course, I failed. For several reasons:

  1. No consistency
  2. No research into customers
  3. No understanding of tags
  4. No understanding of re-indexing
  5. Zero editing

Also, over time I wanted to devote myself to writing full-time. So I stopped posting there.

Was it a failure?
I have recently gotten into a contract with one of the top ten startups of India to create video course for them on Content Writing. All because of those video speaking skills.

This is not to boast anything about. I still believe it was pure luck.

However, there is something from Steve Jobs that comes forward to help us: You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward.

Getting curious and doing the things without the intention of being famous or rich, just because you are inclined towards it is one of the biggest privileges of life.

And for YouTube, the subscriber base has finally grown. From 37, we have reached 41. LOL.
If you would love to extend your support, please follow me on Twitter as that is where I am planning to work more in 2021, YT is not on my list as of now. Thank you so much πŸ™‚

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.

Life on social media

Today I met a team with whom I’ve been working on for quite some time now.

We met. Had a lot of fun. Clicked a lot more of pictures. And right now our IG is filled with pictures of the celebrations. (PS: You can check it out on @nishthagehija26 on IG if you read this within 24 hours of posting :D)

But that’s not the point. The point is, that real life happens outside of the social media. And that is a truth not to escape from.

Everything on the phone is a delusion, what you create in silence is what you will be created of. Everything else, will eventually fade away.

Selfie while crying?

Everyone on the internet is doing fine.

And looking wonderful in their stories.

Which, of course, is a great thing.

However, bring me a successful person and I will show you the number of times they failed. Success is a numbers game. Zero exceptions. You can, of course, inherit wealth however what you do after that – become Mukesh Ambani or Anil Ambani is up to you.

So when you think it is only you who is scared while everyone else is already writing their autobiographies, remember that scene from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. where Ross is broken and shattered seeing Rachel going, and he says in a hoarse queer voice, “I’m fine!” That’s exactly the voice of the internet is. Trust your process, look up to people for inspiration, however, never ever mistrust or doubt your hard work. Because, no one ever clicks a selfie while feeling sad sitting in their balcony. Everyone will put a happy selfie, that perhaps a fake one just to join the bandwagon of impressing the social media that they are also like them.

The ability to say no

You could be a meaningful specific or a wandering generality,” said Zig Ziglar.

The internet with its many names, has made anyone, possible to reach anyone.

How we figure out to use the Internet, is up to us.

You cannot be and do everything, unless you  have a dedicated team to curate your contenet and distribute it to various platforms.

The solution, then, is to build a solid social media presence on one or two platforms.

For the rest, even if you  post less frequently, it’s okay. A part of maturity is acceptance of the fact that NOT everyone is your audience.

The bigger maturity is that you are going to be loved and revered when you master the art of saying no (gracefully).