Friday, December 31, 2021
It’s the last day of an insane yet beautiful year. It’s that time of the year when some people will get drunk, party all night and welcome the new year with a bang. While others will go to bed on time, wake up early on the first day of the new year and follow their normal routine. No matter whichever lot you belong to, as long as you are happy and content with it, everything is fine. Remember, my way of enjoyment may not match up with yours, yet, we both may enjoy. That’s the beauty of enjoyment. It has been an year of waves, both literally and metaphorically, with peaks followed by long troughs, again followed by peak and troughs. Waves come and go, but what they leave are lessons. Lessons on how to face the next wave. Sharing 21 lessons that I learned from the year 2021 -
We don’t live in an ideal world. Everybody makes mistakes. What’s important is to stay honest with whatever you do and keep improving, even by 1%, each day.
Empathy is the ticket to change the world. It serves as the foundational skill for many great things you aspire to achieve in life.
The easiest way to control anger and stop yelling at people is to look at the intent with which they do things. People do things in the best of their capabilities and nobody likes to spoil something deliberately. If the intent is good, move on with a smile :)
Humans are nothing but habit machines. Habits are the core principles behind all our actions. It is important to build good habits and equally important to break bad habits.
My definition of success and failure need not align with that of the outside world. My only competition is the person standing against me when in front of a mirror.
Fall in love - be it with a person, an animal or any thing. Love is an incredible force, a healer per se. The emotion is capable of pulling us out from the abyss of despair, single handedly.
We only have one life, why not multitask? Put a full stop on this game of labelling. You can be an accomplished engineer and a successful writer. You can be a soulful singer and a clever banker. Do not restrict your actions by putting labels on your social media bio.
Get up and explore. Life is too short to do the same boring stuff everyday for the rest of your life. You deserve more. You don’t have to figure out everything before starting a new thing. The picture gets clearer and better as you move ahead.
Fall in love with the process & see the results come.
Identify the toxic people in your life. They are the biggest hinderance to your growth and affects your mental health in ways you cannot even imagine. Your immediate circle plays a big role in shaping up your mind as well as life. There’s nothing wrong in outgrowing people.
Quitting social media might turn out to be your best decision. If you think social media is helping you or is turning out to be a constructive tool for you, the only person you are convincing is Mr. Nobody who lives in a metaverse, trust me on this.
Politics is shit. 2021 has given me ample proofs in support of this. Stay 10 feet away from people engaging in political discussions. I learned it the harder way but it is definitely a rabbit hole, almost impossible to escape.
Find happiness even in the smallest of things. It’s all in your subconscious mind. Every day has something special to celebrate about. Make some inside jokes, exchange them with loved ones and laugh your ass off!
Prioritise your health, or will it take another pandemic to make health as the utmost priority?
It is essential to self-reflect often. I need to be in control of my thoughts and make sure my actions align with my thought process. In case of discrepancies, self reflection brings my train of actions and thoughts on the same track by minor changes in habits.
Nobody has everything figured out. Even the guy from your work place who seems to be sorted is messed up in this game of life. We are all trying to make sense to ourselves with each passing day. On some days we do, and on other days we do not. Irrespective of it, we go to bed each day.
Learn to take control of your expenses before the money starts controlling your life. Everybody should read on managing personal finance for a better future.
Family holds a special place in your life. At the end of the day, you want to come back to happy faces, don’t you?
Learning should never stop. Learning may come in the form of newer and richer experiences or in the form of a curiosity, still unsatiated, to know a specific thing.
It is absolutely fine to commit mistakes. They are a proof that you are trying.
Bitcoin is inevitable.
I also wrote a twitter thread on Book Recommendations and Podcast recommendations from 2021. If you read any good book or listened to any podcast that left you in awe, feel free to leave a comment below 👇
Having read multiple books on self help and habits, it is advised to put your goals & habits that you want to build in public, if you are really serious about them. Hence, on the last day of 2021, by means of my widely read newsletter The Passion Pad, I put my long term goal of 2022 i.e. authoring atleast one book (fiction) and starting my own podcast, out in public domain. I don’t mind random people on the internet flooding my DM’s with questions like - “When is the book coming out?“. That’s the whole point of doing it I believe!
I had fun exploring a new topic every week and sending an email (with a lot of typos) related to it every Saturday. This is how one becomes wise, right? I am excited to carry forward this tradition to the next year with much more enthusiasm!
Thank you for your constant love and support this past year. Here's to another amazing year.
Cheers!