parents

I might sound controversial with this post but I felt like sharing it. Our Indian society still keeps us under constant watch and the views of our family members. It has more negatives than positives. 

​We end up becoming a check list or TODO list of our parents. I have seen friends ending up becoming good sons and horrible fathers/ husbands. Some live a miserable life because of parental watchdogs.

We are thankful to our parents for giving us a life. We are thankful to them for paying for our education and making us adults. But does this mean we have to live on their defined path of life? What to eat or wear? Who to talk to? Who to marry? What to study? Where to work? 

It sometimes becomes like you are living your life, but the brain is theirs. What happens to your individualism? The misses and hits in your life by trying and failing? Are we living for our parents or ourselves? 

In the end, things come down to society and then parents will get into moral policing, which is like mental torture. 

How many young people have died of their dreams because of their conservative or helicopter parents? 

We have one life and it should be our duty to be most focused on personal dreams rather than making our parents and family proud and killing slowly every day. Our happiness should be of utter importance to us.  If it means taking the decision to leave them for work or study, marry someone of their likeness or experimenting in a career. It should all be acceptable to yourself. 

Our parental guilt trap is the real thing. But what is more important than that is being honest with ourselves, living every second of life in our own decisions and actions.  

waste

How much time do we waste analysing what is not working right? How many hours go about cribbing things around? How many times do we get angry over past occurrences? How many times do we have to grumble over how things should or could have been in life? 

Our life has limited time. We could die any moment. What options do we have? To make the best of it or keep crying about the misses? 

journey

We fail to understand the importance of a journey. We all run after results. We become blind, we don’t enjoy the moment. Nothing was built on the flip of a second. Everything takes time. 

We are a society of fast fashion, quick commerce and casual hookups. As a result, norms have become all now. We don’t want to invest ourselves or our emotions deeply. We take things for granted.

The joy of reaping rewards is things of the past now. We want everything on a platter and we have no patience.  

failure

​How many inventions would have ceased if innovators were scared of failure? From light bulbs to AC current to airplanes. We have history to say it all. 

The same goes for entrepreneurship. The risk appetite and going against all odds defines success. The path is filled with failures, rejection and pain. But that is the joy of building something. 

Most companies or research fail when top heads give up. 

There is no such thing as failure. It is only experience that makes us better at sailing on the life journey. 

nothing

There are some days when you feel like doing nothing. When I say nothing, it means disconnecting from the world, drowning deep in thoughts and lying in bed. We feel we have wasted our day, but in a true sense, we need this dosage of nothingness. These days help us with restarts. 

I have been spending days like these over all these years. It sounds scary because we are conditioned that way. The world around us wants us to be productive and run on a treadmill for the same. 

Life is a marathon and not a sprint. Things take time and we should better spend time on our selfcare.

lifeless

Our life is living in now, this moment. The permanence is meaningless. What do we have with us after all? We could die any moment. We can lose our wealth in no time. Our loved ones can leave us. 

How we are living now defines our mental well-being and prosperity. What will a billionaire do with their wealth if they are constantly under threat of losing it? 

What is the point of having a college sweetheart if constantly, instead of living with her relationship, tends to guard her. As a result, unwanted fights. 

We have made all the advancements in life, but still our consciousness torments us, gives us every reason to worry and panic. How can we be so lifeless? 

Acceptance

We are comfortable in our memories as long as it is satisfying. As a result, we forget the reality that is this present. Many go mad because they never left the past. As a result reality made them crazy. The acceptance is not not easy.

Our life is limited. We have to let go our past for living in now. We cannot mourn for life about someone or some incident in life. With time, everything heals.

Not accepting reality and making peace with past is sign of weakness.

Checklist

Living a life on a checklist gives a robotic living vibe. Seeing deep down, we realize it has a positive. You can offload repeat activities to it and save the brain from triggering it.

Benjamin Franklin was a master at it. He had a checklist with vice and virtues. He would follow it religiously and measure it regularly. It was his report card.

In the past few years, I had a checklist for myself. I had my various health-related activities tracked. It was a good indicator of my eating, reading and exercising.

This CNN article talks about the same.https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/01/health/13-virtues-wisdom-project/index.html

Grind

Running a startup requires a different mental framework. You have limited resources to make the best out of it. One of the most important virtues that goes a long way is the founder’s belief in the journey. Media glamourizes entrepreneurship without mentioning the grind and time it takes to become successful.

In this painful journey, we need more and more believers as a customer, team members, and stakeholders. You have to be honest, open, and vulnerable with them all. Most people like openness and transparency.

Building a business is a grind you live every second. There is no guarantee of success but the journey and connections.

The early team is a key. Every member is equally responsible for the successes and failures. We all are working together for a common goal. As a founder, your values will transfer to them all. Keep culture above all. Be transparent, open, and honest. Teach them all by doing. Lead it from the front instead of ordering.