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To go for the career of your choice. It’s risky.
To choose your happiness over society’s validation. It’s risky.
To leave the comfort and chart for new territories. It’s risky

Of course it is risky. But isn’t not taking that risk a bigger risk?

Anger is an unhealthy emotion. So we want to control it. However, when it arrives, it arrives in a wave sweeping all our resolutions away.

No matter how much you resist it, anger wins each time.

The key is in not resisting it. 

Yes, you read that right. Don’t resist anger. Rather spend time with it. 

“Why do I feel what I feel?
Which need of mine is unmet?
Why am I letting my denial take over where I could have an open mind rather than being a sceptic?”

As we answer these questions honestly, there would be no need to resist anger. 

Because then it won’t arise in the first place.

The extreme emotions are usually a result of not spending time consistently with our own selves.

Two mantras of life I live by, that I recently told my team:

1. Never complain: Never. Ever. Even if it is the worst day of your life to date. It robs us of our power and tricks us into believing that we don’t have any.
   
2. Trust: Trust people for what they say. Living life with that sense of awe and wonder, to never let doubt creep in. If someone else’s lies comfort them, what’s the point for us to be discomforted by that?

Two extremes. Never and always. 

When you take care of never complaining and always trusting, the balance that forms in between takes care of everything else.

We keep running after work experience. 

We think it will make us better at what we do.
But experience comes with its own baggage — a blind belief that what we know is what is right.

However, it is the maturity of realising that we are constantly learning, that things are constantly changing, and what we know today might not work tomorrow.

A truly experienced person knows when to use and when to challenge that experience. 

We have this habit of checking the strength of our relationships, every now and then.
“Let’s see if they can be trusted.”

The minute we test it, we break it.
It is either earned or established through conduct.
It’s not to be tested.

To test trust, is to not have it.

There is always a reason behind how we feel. 

If the reason for that feeling is someone else, why blame ourselves?
It will pass. 

If we are the reason, why blame someone else?
It’s time to fix it.

The key is to find the source.

Our feelings are self-imposed. If we can create them, we can end them too.

It’s unfair to compare our progress with someone who is just starting out, and feel good about ourselves. 

Just like it is unfair to compare ourselves with someone who has been at it longer than us, and feel bad about ourselves.

Different durations. Different people. Different destinations.
Then why the same place of comparison?

Why not compare ourselves with who we were yesterday?
It’s fair, we know the one being compared to really well, and the best part, we can make any change we want to! 

It’s not about who we are today.
It’s about who we will be tomorrow, from who we were yesterday.

Your college.
Your job.
Your car.
Your phone.
Your clothes.
Your choices. 

Remember that people judge because they want to feel good about themselves.
It has nothing to do with you.
It is their insecurity.

1) The Energy Drainer: 

You feel tense and uneasy after each interaction with them.

2) The Pessimist: 

They have a negative outlook of the world.
Always try to talk you out of your dreams.

3) The Criticizer: 

They don’t support you in your decisions.
They criticize every move you make.
They make you feel like you can’t do anything right.

4) The Manipulator: 

They try to control everything. 

Pretend to like you and other people.
But they just want to make every decision for themselves and others.

5) The Victim: 

They blame others for their misfortune.
Constantly seek attention from others.
Talk mostly about their excuse for failing.

Which of these have you encountered the most? 

Harder question: 

Which of these are you often?

While you are building your skills, the most important thing to build is your reputation.

Your goal is to make people say “I am not sure if they know how to do it. But I am certain if told to do it, they will definitely figure it out. I trust them.”