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When the ink in the pen gets over, we keep the pen under the tap to clean it.

And that’s a messy process. Ink all over. More than you thought there is. 

However, after that, the pen is absolutely clean.
Ready to write again with the newly-filled ink.

Any clean up process in life will be messy. 

But as much as we would want to avoid that mess, it is only after that mess that we will see something more beautiful emerging at the end. 

It is not the mess during a clean up that we should fear.
It is avoiding the mess that we should fear. 

You see a video and feel inspired.
What if you hadn’t seen that video?

You read a book and feel inspired.
What if you hadn’t read the book?

You meet someone and feel inspired.
What if you hadn’t met that person?

When we leave inspiration to chance, it leaves all those things that depend on our inspiration to chance as well. 

What if we made inspiration a discipline?
What if we showed up to it daily instead of serendipity to bring it to us?
What if that consistency made it impossible for inspiration to escape us?

Inspiration isn’t just a choice.
It’s a habit that shows up when practised daily.

“Your content is really inspirational.
I also want to create content.
However, I feel I have nothing to share..”

This is the fear of a lot of people struggling to create content online.

We are constantly thinking what we know isn’t good enough.
What we do isn’t cool enough.
What we have accomplished isn’t attractive enough.

And so we do not share.
Thus allowing someone else’s content to come out.
Someone else who believed their work was good enough.

Sharing what you know isn’t about what you know.
It is about how you feel about yourself.

We’ve all made mistakes.
We still do.
We will continue to.

However, the first mistake rarely brings any harm. 

Ignoring the mistake and not learning a lesson from it causes real harm. 

Because we’ve wasted a learning opportunity.
Because we might repeat the same mistake again.
Because we have let a life teacher go by without giving us a lesson.

Committing mistakes is not the mistake.
Not learning from them is.

What is the role that we define ourselves by?

Am I a Product Manager?
A painter?
An engineer?
A leader?

Society has trained us to believe that we should be just one thing in our life. 

However, none of the successful people in history – from Michelangelo or Albert Einstein to Bill Gates did just one thing. 

They did multiple things, and that helped them excel in the one thing we know them for.

What if our role was not limited to just one title?
What if we could do everything that nudged our emotions?
What if we made this possible?

We have just one life.
Why live it with just one identity?

When we only do what we were told to do, we own the output. 

If anyone else gets that work done better, cheaper, faster than us – they would replace us.

Owning the output makes us dispensable

However, if we stopped and asked ourselves, “Why am I being told to do what I have been told to do?” we will own not just the output, but the outcome as well. 

Owning the outcome will surprise people each time we deliver stunningly more than what we were supposed to do.

Owning the outcome, instead of the output makes us indispensable.

Given how rapidly everything changes now, I often wonder what is the most important skill of the 21st century?

Is it to code? To become an AI expert? To be a storyteller? 

I believe the most important skill of the 21st century is the ability to learn something new, whenever required. 

If we have the ability to become a student whenever we have to and not think of our school or college as the only occasion to do so, we will have the superpower to face the world.

The future belongs to those who stay students forever.

Have you ever heard an artist say, “I would love to work less.”
“I wish I could get away with doing less.”
“Let me figure out a way to bypass the hard work”

An artist truly in love with their work would never think of their work like that.
Because for them, their work is their identity.

Their work is their liberation.
Their work is their existence. 

What if we were also artists when it came to our work?
An artist never gives up when it comes to their work. 

The only thing they refuse to give up is their right to create more magical work.

Whenever we’re working on something new, we’d love to have positive feedback.

“Oh, you’re doing such great work.”
“We love your product.”
“The app is seamless.”

As humbling as feedback seems, it doesn’t help us grow.

What really helps us grow is listening to people who do not have positive feedback about our work.
People who chose not to engage. 

They are the ones who tell us what we could be working on next, what we should be fixing, what could be the next version of our work. 

While it is not necessary for us to accept everything they say, it is important for us to be aware of what they have to say. 

Acceptance is a choice.
Awareness is a discipline. 

I get asked quite often, “How can I build a recession-proof career?”

And I am always left wondering, “Is it possible to have such a recession proof career?”

What if we asked a different question: Is it possible to walk without ever falling?
Then how is it possible to build a career without creating space for failures?

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — JK RowlingIt is through the process of falling, that we learn the art of walking.
It is through the process of failing, that we learn the art of growing.