There are 32 posts filed in Life Lessons (this is page 1 of 4).
Embrace the fluidity. Give up on the need for fixed outcomes. Surrender to the flow, and you will be carried to your true purpose and fulfilment.
It’s not lack of effort or goal, but an inner receptivity to whatever experiences and emotions we go through.
Paradoxically, it’s only when we surrender, that we find our inherent strength.
First 6 years of my career were a total failure. I was laid off just a couple of years after I started working. I started a business that never took off. I endured for 6 years trying different things from coding to web development, from graphic design to copywriting. I even tried my hand at selling IT services, with only modest success.
I thought 6 precious and formative years were lost. It is only after I started my corporate career again in 2004 that I started realizing the value of all that struggle.
At work, I could do many things and that was my super-power. I could write code, decipher code written by others, I could write about it, I could communicate well, I could sell my ideas, I could deliver trainings, I could learn rapidly. Because those years of struggle prepared me for it. The diversity of experiences gained in those tough years propelled me into trajectory of growth. I could take on cross-functional assignments and challenges, learn at the speed of change and never take anything for granted.
In the hindsight, those 6 years were the most fruitful years of my life.
It is only when we are lost and clueless that we are introduced to our real powers as human beings. It’s only when a spring is pressed that we know how much it can bounce back.
I read this beautiful couplet that resonated:
“भटकनों में अर्थ होता है,
टूटना कब व्यर्थ होता है
शक्ति की खोई हुई पहचान जगती है,
आदमी जब बेतरह असमर्थ होता है।”
Loosely translated, it says..
“There is a meaning in getting lost,
It is not in vain to have a broken-heart,
A new-found recognition of hidden strength emerges,
When one is totally trapped and helpless.”
Bob Riley said,
“Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the “hero” within us is revealed.”
My daughter started learning car driving.
The instructor takes the car to wide empty roads so that she can get the basics of gear, clutch, braking etc. right.
But when we actually drive the car, the road isn’t empty. There are so many variables that come into play – cross roads, traffic, U-turns, stop lights, slopes, unexpected bumps and so on.
That is where real learning happens. That is where your instinct sharpens, skills develop and adaptability grows. These unexpected variables forces us to think on our feet and choose best responses to dynamic situations in front of you. On the road, you learn as much about yourself as you learn about the outside world.
In that sense, the road is the ultimate teacher.
What is true for car driving is true for learning anything. We learn the basics in the comfort of a classroom but real learning happens when we execute what we learn, create something new, work with others and execute our skills in a competitive ecosystem.
Technology changes, careers evolve, markets are disrupted, product ideas fail, competition keeps you on the edge – all these (and many more) variables demand adaptability and resilience.
So, prepare well in the classroom to learn the basics, then hit the road. Create something meaningful and let those unexpected variables shape your journey of learning, and making a difference.
Dear Learner,
We live in a post-qualification world.
When you clear your school and choose a professional course, you would normally be lured by pedigree of the institution, track records of past students, carefully crafted advertisements with salary packages of the past students. These external factors are important to consider, no doubt.
But..
None of these will help you, even when you get in the professional course, if you do not have one thing – PASSION. That is what you have inside you.
Don’t undertake career based on what the career can offer to you. Flip the script and think about what areas of work are you truly passionate about. Where you can contribute meaningfully to solve problems that you truly care about. Love for the subject precedes everything else.
That love will propel you forward. It will differentiate you. It will keep you going even when the going will get tough (and it will). It will reflect in what and how you do. It will show up in the work and speak for itself.
Anita Roddick famously said, “To succeed you have to believe in something with such passion that it becomes a reality.”
I have seen a lot of people build their careers in areas that they are not passionate about. They work, often feeling stuck, and keep rolling because work pays the bills (or keeps them busy). World of work is full of such people.
But people who have been truly remarkable have all been passionate about whatever they did. Passion was the source of their energy.
Think Sachin Tendulkar. When once asked what kept him going in the world of competitive cricket, he expressed that he was in love with the sound that his bat created when the ball came perfectly on the center of the bat. That is passion which differentiated him from so many others who played national competitive cricket.
Your goals will change. Purpose will shift. Nature of work will change. But passion will keep you going.
As you stand at the crossroads with multiple opportunities, choose that which brings you the most alive.
Choose passion, and you will do great, I promise.
Best,
T.
P.S: This is not a “follow your passion” advice because finding what we are passionate about can take a lot of trial and error along with a fair bit of failure. This is about bringing your innate passion in whatever you choose to do.
Dear Learner,
Hello again!
Career is something YOU get to build. Through your intelligence. Through your ability to remember and apply things. Through sheer determination. By availing external assistance and coaching to accomplish things.
But character? The kind of human being you will become? That is not taught, it is built. Character is earned.
Very few things build (and reveal) true character of a person than adversity and failure. Falling short of a certain threshold (they call it cutoffs in academics) brings along temporary suffering and self-doubt, but also a great deal of realization. That suffering is not without a meaning.
Thanks to falling short, you are wiser. You know what works for you, and what doesn’t. You know how things work. It nudges you to try harder and work smarter. Failures sharpen us. It is through these experiences that we truly build a character. Failures make us resilient.
Failure teaches us lessons that intelligence alone cannot offer.
Be grateful for the setbacks. They are not diversions along the path, they are the path.
Onward and upward,
Tanmay
There’s a Japanese legend that says,
“If you feel like you’re losing everything, remember, trees lose their leaves every year, yet they still stand tall and wait for better days to come.”
That resonated.
Dear *Student,
Congratulations on completing your 12th class exams, as well as a few competitive ones. I am proud about you making it this far with grit and determination. I know it has not been easy for you.
Your journey till now was a straight line – year after year, syllabus after syllabus and exam after exam – much like walking a straight path that many others have walked on before.
But now starts a phase that is more like finding your way out of the jungle where no trails exists. You have to carve out your unique path with combination of skills that can help you make a positive difference in the world.
Waiting for results, applying to various colleges, figuring out your path can feel overwhelming, but this is your opportunity to create a different path for yourselves through choices, turns, experiments, and discoveries about the world around you and about your own selves. This path you now create can possibly inspire others too.
Building a rewarding and fulfilling career is less like a destination and more like a journey. As you navigate your next best step, here are a few things you should keep in mind:
1) You cannot create a novel path for yourself if you simply follow what others have done. Be curious and follow what energizes you, not just what looks good on paper.
2) Skills > Degrees. Degrees are door openers, but skills are what keeps them open. “What skills?”, you may ask. The skills that you build at the intersection of what you truly love AND what helps others meaningfully. You can be highly qualified, but without skills and real ability to solve problems, qualifications are simply a piece of paper. “What kind of skills?” you may ask again. It has to be a combination of technical skills, functional skills (understanding the domain) and soft skills.
3) Escape the comparison trap. The world loves comparison, and ranking you on a scale. You are YOU – with your unique strengths, interests, and path. Comparison, they say, is the enemy of creativity. It is a way to keep you in the same track as others. Have courage to break free from the compliant path, and then you stand a chance to do something unique.
4) Learn what they don’t teach you in school but plays a HUGE role in your life, career and relationships. These would be things like communication, digital literacy (AI, tech tools, cyber security), public speaking, storytelling, collaborating with others, time management, investing, personal finance and curiosity. Most importantly, learn how to learn on your own through books, online forums and physical comunities. These are just a few that comes to mind.
You won’t know where exactly you are going, and that’s okay. You just have to take the next right step, and keep going. That’s what wayfinding is all about.
With love and belief in you,
Tanmay
P.S.: The *Student here refers to my daughter, my nephew and their friends, who may find this useful 🙂
The way you speak about the world says more about you than the world itself. When you constantly see negativity, chaos, or betrayal – ask WHY. Because our perspectives are shaped by our inner state. A kind heart sees kindness and a hopeful soul sees opportunities. If you are constantly bitter, it reflects inner wounds.
Words you use to describe the world are a mirror. It pays to think about what your words are revealing about you.
I played cricket after a really long time through participation in my neighborhood’s premier league. The opponent teams had players far younger than me with prowess to throw high-speed deliveries. The first couple of matches were really hard. I could barely guard the wicket for a ball or two before getting bowled out.
Third match was a turn-around. Before the match, I affirmed myself with the following:
You get bowled out, not by an opponent’s speed of bowling, but by your internal anxiety to perform. Let it go, calm down, watch the ball carefully and play it according to it’s merit. Defend good deliveries (read tough times) and wait for the loose ones (read opportunities) to take your chances. Let go of your need to show your performance and score runs. Focus instead on each ball, it’s trajectory, pitching and length before doing justice to it. Score can just be an outcome of your ability to enjoy the game.
In that match, I hit five boundaries and everyone around was amazed. The big lesson for me is: It’s always about conquering ourselves first before we can conquer anything in the outer world.
Seneca rightly said,
“A rational soul is stronger than any kind of fortune – from its own share, it guides its affairs here or there, and is itself the cause of a happy or miserable life.”
Ability to stitch yourself together when situations tear you apart is a life skill that no one teaches. We have to do it ourselves. Strengthening the soul is the work of our life.
We are in semi-finals as I write this. Outcome will not matter knowing that I crossed a few inner boundaries!
In our need to belong, we sometimes rely too much on what others think of us. When we seek too much validation in external stuff – titles, pay packages, status, other people etc. – we stray away from who we truly are. We step away from that which is uniquely ours.
Epictetus prompts us to have an inner scorecard that we abide to. Do what truly brings us alive, be who we truly are and constantly seek clarity on these aspects while conducting ourselves.
