5 lessons life has taught me....yet
I always say this, that we are all WIP. Work in Progress. It would be foolish to think that you have done it all or know it all just because you are the CEO of your company or because you are making a lot of money or you own more houses than your neighbour. Every day you learn something that you did not know yesterday. Some lessons are learnt in a day. Others take years. Some may take a lifetime.
I’m grateful to be waking up everyday and be given an opportunity to get closer to my goals. There is no success or happiness mantra , but I do want to share with you what I have learnt from life in about 4 decades of it.
Your Physical and Mental health is priority. Always.
In my early 20’s , I slept very little, lived and thrived on unhealthy meals and just moved from one day to another. I had no goal and I didn't think anything was wrong with it. I had a job and was making money, nothing else mattered. Until, I hurt my back severely while playing with friends. I was in my 20s. How could I hurt my back! Turns out, I was as unfit as unfit could be. I had never moved a muscle! The pain on the back and the immobility it caused frustrated me no end! That was perhaps a turning point in my life. Post which, I slowly started taking care of me. Call me selfish, but this has so many benefits. Physical and mental well being makes me feel good, helps me focus, keeps me happy, helps me help others, lets me be a real life superhero to my daughter and so much more..
You can not take care of others unless you take care of yourself. This is as important in your 20s as your 40s.
We all have difficulties. ALL
I read this quote in Tolstoy’s book Anna Karenina. “ All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” At first, I didn't understand it much. Over the years , this quote has lived with me and I have learnt to live by it. Everyone has difficulties because that is how life is designed. There will be goods and bads and uglies. It would be foolish to think that you are the only one suffering. Or that your suffering is bigger than everyone else’s. Don’t go by what you see on everyone’s social page. Just like everyone has difficulties, everyone also uses a filter. Be kind to yourself and to others. In the end, that's all that matters.
You are the average of 5 people you spend most time with
This isn’t me saying it. Jim Rohn , the famous motivational speaker and also someone I deeply admire, said this. This is not to say that who you are does not matter. But who you surround yourself with is equally important. If you want to be an entrepreneur, and you surround yourself with people who believe in 9-5 jobs, likely that their thoughts, actions and words have a deep impact on you. And therefore influence the results or outcomes in your lives. There are people in your life who will propel you, some will pull you down. Question is, who do you choose to surround yourself with? Unlikely that you will have a lot of positivity and self love if you are surrounded by regular cribbers. Check out this video, its description of the 5 people rule is simple and to the point.
Don’t keep track of what you get or what you give
We are living in times where more than 350,000 have died struggling to get air in their lungs. Affected by a virus that has caught the world by surprise. Life is unpredictable. Help others as much as you can. In any way you can. You don’t need money to do it, just an intention. And when you help, don’t keep track of favours you do. That would negate the effect of helping. It's like you are expecting them to help you back. Then you feel let down if they don’t! Similarly, don’t hold grudges. Have you seen children playing with each other? One moment they are fighting, next moment they are hugging. Few hours later, they won’t remember why they fought. So what happens to us as we grow up? Keep a track of your life goals or your happiness barometer. That's the only accounting worth maintaining.
Multitasking is a myth
When I was in college and also started out as a Management Trainee, ‘multi tasking’ was a keyword on the resume. Whether we were or not, we would put that on our resumes. We were taught to believe that multitasking is good. Research in Neuroscience says that we don’t do multiple tasks equally well, together. We just switch from one task to another. Every time we move from one task to another or switch, the brain goes through a start stop -start stop process. So it takes time to warm up to every task before beginning to deliver on it. So, you are actually losing out on time every time your brain is ‘stopping’ to adjust to the new task. Which is the exact opposite of what multi tasking should help you do.
Focus on one task at a time, give it your all. This will ensure productivity and efficiency.
Take out time to reflect on your life lessons and when you have more time, share it. Read biographies and autobiographies. Reflect and learn from others too. What's important, is that we keep learning.