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What’s the one thing you would want, if you are lost somewhere?

Most of us will have the same reply.
We’d need a map.

Except, a map would not help because you are lost and you don’t know where you are on the map.

The same is true for life.
When we are lost, we crave for a map.
We crave for directions – a diagram of which road leads to where.
What we don’t realize is, we don’t even know where we are.

What might help?
Retracing our steps!
Going back where we have come from, to a point where we aren’t lost anymore!

Reminding ourselves, what kept us going!
And reminding ourselves, why we started!

Because no matter how lost we are, we always know where we come from.

How many college lectures do I remember?
Not many!

If you ask me anything from those classes, how much would I be able to reproduce?
Not much!

It’s because the best learning comes from what happens outside the class.
It comes when no one is teaching. It comes by listening and by observing!

It’s not what they teach you that matters. What matters is, what you learn instead!

“But I have already spent so much time on this. How can I leave it all?”

This statement when thought out loud ignores everything.
It ignores signals, it ignores intuition, it ignores advice and it ignores the truth.

Think about it.
Does it really matter how much time has gone into it, when you know it isn’t working?
Does it really matter how long you have been doing something when you know it needs to change?

No change has ever happened without realizing that change needs to happen.
But once you realize it, would you really want your past to determine your future?

When you say you do not have time, what you are essentially saying is that you do not have the energy.

Physical energy
Do you take care of your body? Do you eat healthily? Do you have a night of quality sleep?

Emotional energy
Do you believe in yourself? Do you talk positively to your own self?

Mental energy
Are you optimistic? Are you feeding your creativity?

Spiritual energy
Are you honest? Do you live a life of integrity and commitment?

One’s desire to manage time is one’s attempt to manage their energy.

The best mental model for taking tough decisions in life.

Ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
Then close your eyes and imagine it happening.

Ask yourself another question, “Will I be okay mentally, socially, financially, physically, emotionally?”
If the answer is yes, go for it!

It’s crazy how much of our time goes towards taking the right decision when no one knows what the right decision is!
Why not spend that time and effort into finding the courage within?

When you meet someone who is successful, who is knowledgeable, who is experienced and seems to look way beyond your reach – the best emotion is to have is curiosity!

Curiosity to learn as much as you can from them!
Curiosity to ask them why they do what they do!
Curiosity to ask them how they have reached where they are!
And the curiosity to ask yourself if that’s something you have or are willing to develop!

Not intimidation, not underconfidence, not nervousness – sheer curiosity!

We were all born curious.
We asked endless questions, whether to know, to irritate or to engage.

And then, we were told to listen and not to ask.
We were scolded if the questions were dumb.
We were discouraged if the questions were too many.

So we stopped asking “Why?”
“Why am I doing what I’m doing?”
We were all curious until the world killed our curiosity.

If we are curious, we are alive.
If we are not, we are simply a slave to someone else’s curiosity.

This question can be answered by asking 3 more questions to ourselves:

1. Who am I?
2. Who am I likely to become?
3. Who am I ought to become?

Most likely these 3 individuals are not going to be the same. 

Within the space between who are we likely to become and who are we ought to become, lies the answer to what do we ought to do in life!

Investing in your 20’s is not just a fashionable advice.

It is also to build a corpus for yourself, so that:

– to take a career break,
– to go on with exploring life for 6-12 months
– or simply creating opportunities when you’re stuck in your job and have responsibilities to cater to.

Investing is not just to make money.
It is also to create freedom for yourself. And that’s priceless

When we feel pain, we can see ourselves getting lost in it.

Not being able to get out of it. Despite being aware that it is not the right feeling, we are unable to nudge it away.

So it consumes us. Makes us feel hollow. And takes away our attention from what’s important.

Pain does not come with degree. It just is.
But if it comes for a shorter duration, is it even pain? Or simply a chance to be more self-aware?