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In my childhood, I learnt about a totally unexpected side of money. 

It was bittersweet. 

Even if it saved us, it taught me something I would never forget…

This happened at the peak of our family crisis.
We had received news we would be compensated for our destroyed family home, where my father grew up in.

Dad would never have the home he grew up in.
But he had miraculously saved his family now.

I think he cried that day.
I could not tell.
And I have never asked.

That day, I learnt that money by itself is emotionless.
But it makes you feel and do things that are almost always driven by emotions.

Money generates emotions.
Emotions that you may like or not.
But can’t ignore.

A few days back, someone in a live session asked me, “How can you be so energetic throughout the day?”

Here’s the truth: I am not!

I manage my time and life in a manner that for all those instances that require me to be on my high energy, I am there.

If it means that usually at 8 pm I am winding down my day but I have to be on a live call, I will take a nap in the afternoon, and do less things that take my energy away, thus, leaving myself energetic for that live call.

Energy management is the most powerful thing you will come across in life. However, it begins with tracking your time to understand your energy first.

Should I have a time table in my day?

I get asked this question a lot, partly because I run a course on time management; and partly because I have been sharing my schedule with my audience openly.

A schedule is a game changing thing to have, if you stick to it.
You will stick to that schedule if you arrange it in a manner that you put the important as well as entertaining tasks there.
You will know the right mix when you track your time, meticulously, before getting there.

And tracking your time begins with wanting to understand your relationship with time.  

You can thrive in any relationship only if you understand it first. Including the one with time.

When will I feel fulfilled?

When should I quit my job?

When will I find satisfaction and joy in my relationships?

The answer to these questions isn’t the timeline.

The answer to these questions is reaching a place where you aren’t concerned about the time you reach there, and experience them in the now. Or better yet, you are okay not knowing these answers.

It is good to be curious.

However, curiosity acts as a rocket ship when it is fueled by being okay with knowing or not knowing some answers. Your job is to get to that place of being okay, so that you use your curiosity cells in the right direction.

To get to a place of stopping to ask some questions is sometimes the real way to get curious.

Make it personal, i.e., authentic.
Document your journey. Be real.
Just start.

The third is the hardest. And the only thing you can control.

All big things start off small. But they start :)

It is truly a secret. Because not too many people talk about it.

The secret to creating endless opportunities is doing the daily work with consistent growth, without worrying about making it big.

This is the secret to me getting an offer for a book deal.
Or me having offers for speaking gigs.
Or to create courses for corporates.

None of these happened because I wrote on my goal card “to make this happen by xx date.”

I rather jumped on to taking the smallest action on the very same date, and hence, landing up opportunities because of those habits.

The secret to having endless opportunities lies in micro, daily habits of doing the difficult task, and growing at it – day after day. Even when no one is watching. Because you are. And that is more than enough.

I recently posted this on Twitter:

Companies want to shower you with perks and privileges so that you feel entitled.
They want to give you money so that you take on loans.
They want to keep promoting you so that you get addicted.
They want you to think that this job is your only true definition of success.

That’s sad yet true.

When someone asked me if I also used to do this, the truth is, I still do it.

Companies don’t change. People realize this and make changes.

The other day I went to Sandeep Maheshwari’s office, to record a video for his channel.

Amongst the multiple question that were asked to me, I asked Sandeep what was his daily routine like.

In the broad outline that he shared, he explicitly mentioned how he spent 2 hours every morning and evening working on himself, contemplating, thinking – basically nurturing himself.

He sleeps 8 hours everyday. Out of the remaining 16, 4 are spent on himself.

THAT is the secret! The secret is to work on yourself, do things that energise you, before you go on and give to the world.

Once you have given to yourself, whenever you go out into the world, you will be a forever giver. That’s the most beautiful thing about being selfish :)

It is one of the strongest bonds that we look forward to, as kids.
However, while growing up, we dilute that relationship. Because we do not feel ourselves there. We don’t feel seen.
And then, to get back to loving them, because you have too little time left with them.

Your parents will go away some day.

You might not love being around them. But you certainly will hate them not being around.

The time to not have regrets is now. Because love and time don’t wait.

What happens when a legendary sports player retires from the game officially?
What do they take away with them?
What do they leave behind?

As Roger Federer announces his retirement today, I get into a reflective mode. It got me thinking:

• The game continues. It always does.
• There will be players better than him, worse than him, but no one like him.
• His dedication to the craft, the sacrifices he endured, the body of hard work he built – were his and his alone. And now ours, to draw inspiration from.
• However, the reason he could rise to such exemplary levels and create multiple records without setting out to create them, was because he focused on what he could control: his game.
• That is what we all get to control: our game. Nothing else. Not that of the competitors. Nor of anyone else. Just our own. And that is, more than enough.

Here’s to winning our own game. Because we choose to play it. Just like Roger. Roger that :)