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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 Rowling

It 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.

What are you good at?
What are you really passionate about? 

Do they intersect?

The world wants us to “settle” after college.
Quickly find a job and settle.
Quickly choose a profession and settle.
Quickly start earning and settle.

However, how do we know if what we are settling for is worth settling for?

What if, instead of settling, we tried as many different things as possible?
What if we experimented more often, along with taking care of our finances?

What if we sat on as many chairs as possible, instead of continuing to sit on the first chair we sat on?

Our education system doesn’t teach that to us, that is why we have to do that for ourselves. 

How would you ever know what you want to do, if you never showed yourself what all you could do?

It’s human nature to be inclined towards people who are like us.

They make us feel comfortable, validate our ideas, and even protect our opinions.

However, they don’t help us grow.
We just become a bigger version of ourselves, not a better version.

What if we spent time with people whose worldview was exactly opposite to ours?

How would our life be different if we were to, as a discipline, spend time with people who have a different worldview from ours. 

The goal is not to become like them.
The goal is to explore different perspectives, while evolving as who you are.

The people that we do not want to spend time with are the people who know something we don’t.

Most of us won’t laugh at the same joke again.

Then how is it that we get upset with the same situation again?
How is it that the same past makes us feel hurt again?
How is it that a painful event keeps us unhappy for years after that?

We react to the stories we tell ourselves.
Long after the story is actually over. 

We are constantly fighting for something.
With someone.

Fighting with our parents, our siblings, our boss.
Trying to convince them that we are right.

And that they are wrong.

Defeating them, however, is easy.
Winning over them is easy.

What isn’t easy, though, is to win them. 

Real victory is not in winning over people.
It is winning people over! 

“I want to move on.
Want to forgive them.
However, I don’t want them back in my life.
Is that possible?”

After career advice, this is the most frequently asked question I get.

Most people believe if they forgive someone, it is also permission for them to come back in their lives. 

The two needn’t happen together. It is your choice.

You can forgive someone and still not give them access to your life. 

Forgiving and moving on is important.
So are your boundaries. 

And you can have both.

If we truly love someone, we would never call them a failure.
No matter how they had tanked at something they were enthusiastic about.

We would rather appreciate them for the relentless effort they made, how they overcame their fears, and the fact that they shipped instead of waiting for perfection.

Then how is it that we do not love ourselves enough to have a similar conversation, when we fail?

How would that change things? 

Failure is something we cannot control.
The conversation we have after that with ourselves, is a choice.