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As humans, leaders and wise humans, we love to solve problems for others. It makes us feel better, and we believe that it would make them feel better as well.

Except, that it doesn’t.

Smart people suffer from a problem called The Curse of Intelligence. They want to solve things fast. Make everything aligned. Remove the chaos. 

It hardly helps anyone. The one whose problem needs to be solved – the company, the family or friend have a certain way of operating that is different from who we are as an individual.

A really smart way is to ask questions. Questions help them understand the problem better. So do they help us. 

The best part? The one seeking for help gets it in the manner best for them.

When we talk about secrets to productivity, mostly we think they would be Pomodoro technique, having a schedule, working out, etc.

While all of that is true, there is something way bigger than it: Our rest schedule.

Rest and rejuvenation is not sitting idle, wasting time, and something to be done when we will have more time. It is rather a way of getting more productive. Because even when we are not doing “work” on the outside, amidst the games that we play, the music that we work on or maybe while folding clothes, the mind is working on its own patterns to bring us our solutions.

And that, in turn, accelerates our productivity.

When you’ll do things their way, they will be happy.
And so you kill your own happiness to make them happy.

However, they still don’t get happy.
Guess what happens? You aren’t happy either.

Why not do what makes you happy?

If you’re getting it right for others, you are certainly not getting it right at all.

Of course a gap year “wastes” a year of your life.

However, if we get prepared for 15+ years to work – why make a choice of what to work on immediately?

How will we ever get to know the depth of the pool without stepping into it?

How will we ever know what we are good at if we don’t try what all we could be good at?

A gap year is simply the stopping at the petrol pump to give much needed fuel to the long drive of your career. 

Without it, we may be in an illusion of the car while in reality it is stagnant.

If it made you happy yesterday, don’t put the pressure on it to make you happy today as well.

We humans change.
External things don’t.

A wiser choice is to pick something different that matches your current state of happiness.

One of the happiest definitions of happiness is to know that happiness isn’t rigid.
Nothing could be a happier realization!

You should not stop watching news because someone on the Internet tells you to stop watching news.

You should stop watching news because your brain cannot focus on the good if it is being fed the bad that is happening around.

Making decisions from a point of why we want to do them makes them stick vis-a-vis doing them without awareness of reason.

Most of us have been raised to study, work hard, and get a comfortable job.

Except that most of us want to pursue something else that we love.
So we work toward it.
Waiting for that big break.
Waiting for someone to recognise us.
Or the least, to get at least one chance.

If we work hard and if we’re lucky, we somehow get that chance. 

But what happens after that chance? 

Do we work harder or do we become complacent?
Do we underpromise and overdeliver or do we commit and don’t fulfill it?
Do we become more fierce or do we lose our fire?

Shah Rukh Khan was once asked the reason behind his success, to which he replied,
“Most people work hard to get a chance. But no one works as hard as me after getting a chance.”

Working hard when you don’t even have to gives success when you don’t even ask for it.

Our parents want us to choose a risk-free path of life. 

Engineering, CA, lawyer, doctor. 

Stability was something they craved for.
Stability is something they wish for us as well.

However, we have a different take on life. 

Rightly so, because we have way more exposure, opportunities and options than they had.

And most of us want to go against our parents’ wishes and choose the path of risk and see how things unfold.

As we have these conversations with our parents, they may understand our PoV.
Or they may not. 

However, there’s one thing that we ought to communicate to them: 

Us disobeying them does not mean we are disrespecting them.

Most important things in life that need to be said are unsaid. 

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?

Your biggest enemy is not your competitor.
Or a newbie changing the world.
Or a viral trend you missed.

These are parts of life.

Your biggest enemy is someone who tells you that it is impossible for you to think beyond what lies in front of you. 

They make you think small because they want you to be, even if unintentionally.
You cannot move further.

It could even be your closest friends, family, or yourself.

Anyone who tells this to you is the one you should move further away from.