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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.

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 realizing 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.

“I am doing this job only for financial stability. It does not make me happy”.
Our heart lies somewhere else. Yet, we continue to put a lot of pressure on our job. We expect it to not only provide us with financial stability but also with work satisfaction.

Ultimately, we would like to achieve that balance.
But while we are on that journey, why not find that satisfaction by working on our passion? It can be an internship, a part-time job, a side business – anything at all that gives us a sense of fulfillment and makes us happy.

If financial stability is the only reason why we are doing our job, it’s our responsibility to find that happiness by making time for things we truly enjoy.

We wake up and feel this intense need to work out because somehow, we are feeling inspired today. So, we go and work out rigorously.
But one rigorous day at the gym can hardly change us or make us healthy.

We think of inspiration as an occasional dose of injection that makes magic happen.
But a single dose of injection can hardly change us into the person we wish to be.

Why not sign up for regular doses?

Inspiration requires discipline.
It is a decision to consistently do something that inspires us- until it transforms us.

Two mantras of life I live by, that I downloaded to my team yesterday:

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.

Work from home is here to stay.

Which makes it more important to have non-work spaces and time.

Working only at a fixed place, not dining table or bed; wearing work attire to get into the zone; calling out specifically “this is my work time, this is my family time, this is my reading time;” trick the brain to get into and outside the zones. And help us live our life in a more balanced manner.

More we grow our power to adapt, the change becomes less of a challenge.

Imposter Syndrome isn’t reserved for a few. Almost everyone suffers from it, multiple times during their lifetime. Thus, coming up with a process is the way to deal with it:

1. Helpful vs best. You cannot be the best in world yet whatever you do and know, use it to help people
2. There will always be someone better than you. That automatically takes off a lot of load
3. Try not to be the imposter that you were. Being a little better than yesterday is the best progress. You’re giving yourself time. That’s the best thing

For anything that is recurring, process is power.
PS: You aren’t an imposter or a hollow human.

It’s February 2020. Just a usual autumn morning. Just the usual dread before going to work. Just the usual impossible desire for having permanent work from home.

March 2020. Wishes granted. Welcome Work From Home. No more offices. Waking up three minutes before meetings. Life couldn’t be happier!

March 2021: We somehow miss office. Not the meetings and doodlings (perhaps that even). Rather the cafeteria conversations, wisdom on walks, and talks while table tennis. 

Work is still being done, but only work is being done. The spaces that we used to enjoy, are the spaces we do even more work in!

It is a threat, if we keep waiting for the time to get back to office – which might never happen in the same manner before.
It is an opportunity, if we replicate those casual conversations even while working from home.

Knowing each other in weekly catch-ups. Or book club meetings. Or any other activity that is a “scheduled meeting” beyond work.

A year back, almost every company had a challenge to deal with: WFH.
Fast forward to a year later, almost every company has a low hanging fruit to catch: Engaging their teams. 

As always, we get to choose.

What is the best way to offer help to someone suffering from Covid?

Some Don’ts:

• Don’t send them a positive forwarded message
• Don’t send them #goodvibes
• Don’t give them examples of how someone else was positive when they were infected.

People don’t need positivity coming in from someone else, they just need to be acknowledged.

Thus, some do’s:

• Check on their fever and oxygen levels every morning
• Ask if there is something they need help with 
• If they do, helping to arrange that help even if we can’t help directly, is the best help!

The best way to offer help during such mentally and physically tough times is to give them the space to just be, while letting them know that you’re there!

A lot of people sadly don’t. We end up labelling them as bad listeners, while in reality, we haven’t been able to listen to what they’re saying.

If we know what we are talking about and we speak well, bingo! However, if we do not speak well but are aware of what we are talking about, learning storytelling would take us places!

Here comes the biggest part: We speak well but we don’t know what we are talking about: People will be drawn to us at the start however will fail to respect us. It’s worse than not speaking well, because the one who doesn’t, knows that they’re on a journey of learning.

Awareness of what you are talking about, or the awareness that you know you don’t know what you’re talking about, is bliss. People always sniff the one who isn’t real.