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There are 3 things that can help us gain confidence:

1. Seeking feedback from people who genuinely want us to progress.
   
2. Measuring progress because that helps us see ourselves moving forward.
   
3. Knowing ourselves.
   
   Knowing if we are the best.
   And knowing that if we are not, we will do everything in our capacity to become the best.

To get confident, we need something to be confident about.
It doesn’t need to be our strengths only. It can very well be our progress.

Often we are told that the most powerful people are the ones who never make mistakes.

We’re also told that making mistakes is a sign of weakness. That, if we make mistakes, we are not powerful. So what do we do?
We hide them.

But when we look at the most powerful people in the world, their strength isn’t in not making mistakes. Their strength lies in admitting that they made one.
It lies in making sure it never gets repeated.
And when another mistake comes their way, their strength lies in admitting it again!We can’t escape making mistakes.
It’s the courage to own up to these mistakes that makes us powerful.

If you often find people around you saying, “You’ve changed!”
“You were not like this.”
“You are not the same anymore!”

And if you are confused – Should you change? Should you not?
You think people will dislike you.
People will leave if you aren’t who they want you to be anymore!

Here is the truth:

We all change. We just don’t realize it.
But it’s the realisation of the conscious change that sets us apart.

When people say you’ve changed, they never think about how you’ve changed.
It’s about how they couldn’t.

You are a CA today.
You do not have to be a CA forever!

You are an engineer today.
You do not have to be an engineer forever!

You are a journalist today.
You do not have to be a journalist forever!

Do not define your future by who you are presently.

90% of what happened to me in my 20s was because of luck.

I am that guy who was at the right place at the right time and lucked out.
And as much as I am grateful for that, I wish I knew better.

Today I know, 20s should be used to discover yourself, as against stabilizing yourself.
Meet as many people as you can.
Do as many jobs as you can.
Explore as many streams as you can.

Find out what you are good at and what makes you happy.

And then spend your 30s doing that.

1. No notifications except calls.
   You can set a work mode, so only the notifications you have permitted will come through. 
2. No unread banners on any app.
   They can be a lot more distracting than we care to admit.
3. Time limits for all social media apps with passwords.
   This should be set by a family member and not you.

In case you REALLY need to check something out, they can open it for you and that won’t turn into you scrolling through the app for hours. 

In toxic cultures, you’re rewarded for staying busy.
In healthy cultures, you’re rewarded for being productive.

The best thing you can do to improve your health – Cut out refined sugar and soda.

The best thing you can do to improve your wealth – Stop buying things you don’t need.

The best thing you can do to improve your sleep – Stop staring at the phone right up until bed.

The best thing you can do to improve your relationships – Be someone you’d want to be around.

The best thing you can do to improve your mind – Meditate.

Each of these requires one to alter their life, their mindset, and their habits. 

Not easy. But necessary!

A movie that you fell completely in love with the first time you watched it?

It was The Dark Knight for me!

The script, the music, the characters — everything was on point and it blew my mind away!

I loved it so much that I watched it again. And again. And again!

By the time I was watching it for the 6th or 7th time, I started noticing its flaws.

I had spent so much time with it, that I couldn’t help but notice its slips.

Yet, it remains my all-time favourite movie.

I chose to ignore the slips because what I experienced when I saw the movie was way too wonderful an experience!

What else works like movies?

People!

The more time you spend with people, the more flaws you see!

Instead, why not shift the focus on how you feel when you are with them?

Every time when we think,  “I wish I would have done that differently”, we are thinking about something we can’t change.

What’s done has been done.
No amount of thinking will change that.

No amount of regret will change that.

What we can change is what we do next.

So, here are better questions to ask.

“What stopped me from doing whatever it is that I should have done?”

“Do those things still exist in my life?”

“What was it that I did not know back then?”

“Do I know it now?”

Everyone makes mistakes. But not everyone learns from those mistakes.
There exists something between success and failure called reflection!Regret will only keep you in the past. Reflection will bring you out of it.