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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Creativity and content
Creating content is less about new ideas on a random day.
It’s more of a process.
Showing up each day.
Documenting what we did.
Being ourselves.
Creating content even when we don’t get the muse.
And listening to the audience about what lights them up.
If we keep on doing it consistently without worrying about it to monetise, the power of compounding will take us places even we couldn’t imagine.
But the universal caveat remains unchanged:
Creativity shows up when we do.
The extreme emotions
You got promoted.
Maybe getting married this year!
And oh, you got a pet too.
Or you got fired from a job.
Went through a tough breakup.
Perhaps the family went through a crisis.
These are extreme emotions.
People share them all the time on social media.
And there are responses like: “I’m so happy for you”, “So glad to see you like this”, or “Extremely sorry to hear that”.
However, no one feels what we feel.
No one knows what we are going through.
No one is as happy or as sad for us as they say they are.
We have only ourselves to know what we are going through.
What are we leaving behind?
We are still using some things in life.
Old words.
Old thought patterns.
Old behaviours.
Just because we have accustomed ourselves to them.
They’re a habit now.
They don’t serve any purpose.
As we form new habits, it is also important to question which are the old ones that we are leaving behind.
A good habit to have is to discard habits that do not work.
Why do we break new year resolutions?
90% of new year resolutions are broken by 15th January.
Why does that happen despite our best intentions?
The brain is always looking for shortcuts, and its default shortcut is to go back to what it is used to.
Deep down, we haven’t conditioned it to act in a manner aligned with those goals.
So, what if we change what the brain is conditioned to?
What if we create habits because of which it is possible to achieve our resolutions?
When goals go for a toss, habits are always there to catch you safe.
All year-round :)
Is it enough to ask questions?
We often ask ourselves a lot of questions:
Why am I doing this?
Why do I not want to do this?
What do I want to achieve by taking this path?
All are very meaningful and important questions.
However, are we allowing ourselves to get the answers?
Or are our lives a big question mark because of never getting out of a whirlwind of questions?
Questions give different directions; answers show the path that drives actions.
Is it cool to quickly get an MBA?
MBA immediately after graduating looks like a cool choice.
We will be a B-school graduate, have a great job, and finally “settle down”.
Gaining some work experience before that is coined as wastage of time.
However, what if the work experience turns out to be fruitful for an MBA?
What if we enter an MBA not to top the class, but rather to understand how business decisions work?
What if we knew that to understand business, it pays to have work experience?
The goal of college is to understand how college can help us.
For an MBA, that might mean gaining real world experience before college.
Performing amidst pressure
There are two kinds of pressures:
Performance pressure and peer pressure.
Performance pressure is the one we apply on ourselves.
That we have to deliver.
That we have to win.
That we have to achieve.
It is the story in our head.
Peer pressure is the one we experience due to others.
That they are doing so well.
That there is so much to learn from them.
That I too can be just as good.
We tend to perform better when we are surrounded by performers and achievers.
That is how top athletes train themselves.
Pressure can make a hard potato soft and a soft egg hard.
Choose your pressure!
Generalist versus Specialist
In our parents’ generation, it was a privilege to be a specialist.
To be the best and fastest in the world at one thing was the only way to survive.
With unlimited opportunities in the information age, things have reversed.
As someone who wants to climb the corporate ladder, your role is managing people instead of core work.
This needs breadth, experience and understanding of work, in addition to core skills.
Thus, becoming a generalist comes with possibilities of broader spectrum and a stronger profile.
If we are a generalist, we have a speciality of taking different paths.
How to find what you want to do
We’re confused about what to do in life.
And college education certainly hasn’t helped.
Why not explore our way through life, instead of being in a hurry to settle down?
Try out stand up comedy and share videos, and look at the reactions of people.
Create music if we love it, and see if others resonate with it
Get internships in design or coding, if that is what intrigues you.
It is better to be lost and busy in the chase of finding yourself, instead of being lost and busy in the rat race of never knowing yourself.
Which one to pick?
You have two ideas for your startup, but not sure which one.
Or perhaps two job offers.
Or two career options, and you cannot decide.
You are looking for a solution, but to no avail.
What if we looked for questions instead, whenever we were faced with a dilemma?
Why do I want to make that decision in the first place?
What would change for me because of that decision?
What do we want from that decision?
Looking for questions instead of solutions is asking questions about the problem.
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