Welcome to the 21st Year of the 21st Century – Cheers!

Welcome to the 21st Year of the 21st Century. Wishing  more strength and positivity for all who lost their loved one’s last year due to the Covid-19 Pandemic!

I have been silent for the last couple of years on blog writing and I thought resuming it would be fun. However, hope that this will not be the only post this year :).  The last few years have been a tremendous journey for me in terms of learning and identifying my inner self. I think, it’s a never-ending process for all of us! I am grateful to everyone around me who has challenged or showered me with their awesomeness, so I can have a balanced track forward. The year 2020, which I considered a STUNNING year in the beginning for many reasons, ended up being quite a transformative journey for me and I decided to share my thoughts and perceptions of 2020 which got twisted around 360 degrees as follows:

1: Nonvegetarian is the way to go: – It was a clear sky in morning and I sat with a confused mind thinking about the several religions we have, I pondered over the mottos of most common religions toward animals and humans relationships. I have always loved animals and felt deeply about them and that day I found myself guilty of what I have eaten up till now knowingly or unknowingly. I have believed that I will be strong and healthy  to include non-veg food in my lifestyle, and while enjoying its taste, but that is not 100% true. A question I asked myself, how can I eat the same being as me? This made me go vegetarian initially and later vegan. I think the future will be Vegan where man-made cycle will be cracked at some extent for good, however, our food must match our mindset, and I respect people enjoying all types of nourishment. I have tried leaving nonvegetarian foods from my diet multiple times in the name of God/Religion on many occasions, which turned out to be always a failure. I never could have imagined that just one question would make me go Vegan. I am constantly amazed by the number of Vegetarian food options out there, however, Smoothies for breakfast are delicious to me!

2: Books are Boring – I have read the first book of the year (excluding educational books) on how the brain works and how to utilize it at maximum. I was the type of person who never stimulated by books while the irony is that I wrote a book. Earlier, I have found that having real experiences with live people or places and with the resources on the internet already gives us more opportunities to learn, then why should I be reading books anymore? However, when I could not easily get information on my doubts/questions by discussing with people or from the internet this year, I found books to be my best friends. That reminds me of the “Beautiful Horns” child story – often what we ignore the most we end up realizing useful the most!

3: It’s all about being honest and hardworking – In recent years, I have received both positive and negative feedback from many. This always makes me wonder about negative feedback, especially if I work hard being honest? Unfortunately, the negative feedback I got was very vague and I could not find out the depth of it. So, without more detail and, by doing the same thing repeatedly, I have recognized that there is more to it than being honest and hard-working. In this fast-paced world, we are required to be more critical, logical, and calculative in all aspects of our lives both emotionally and intellectually, especially under stressful situations. Life, Family, and Work – the overall balance is the key and that has been eye-opening for me this year.

4: Technology is Everything – I was a strong believer that technology is everything the way it has added unexpected and surprising experiences in my life’s journey. However, as time has passed by, I have found myself biased and obsessed with that same idea and started feeling something is missing! Technologies will always be there and keep evolving due to human brains which needs to be taken care. This is only possible if we give more power to connect with Humanity and Diversity over anything.

5: Being single leads to failure – Yes, you read it right, I often tear up on this, thinking that I might not be able to handle further responsibilities if I would not get married. Due to the perception of not having the experiences to handle many things at the same time, I would possibly be perceive as an unmatured woman. I felt that I must give back to the world in this way and if I do not do that, I am just missing out on the experiences that could possibly collapse me at some point in my life, or I would be considered a selfish person. On top of that being judged by many because of it, I have learned whether Single/Married – IT DOES NOT MATTER until we are in a rhythm with our own mind, soul, and body. A clear mind is confident, and not based on marital status. My confidence was built up further when I came across a Microsoft Job opening where it was written as follows at the bottom:

6: Travelling is a waste of time – Honestly, why? being an introvert, I did travel more than I thought I would. The truth is I did not want to miss the chance of clicking my photo in the far-flung places and my friends believed that I loved traveling. This however is just a half-truth, I visited places because meeting people and learn from them what I have been seeing in videos/chat/articles over the years was fascinating to me. During the travel opportunities, I still was not truly seeing or experiencing the destination which deep inside I thought was a waste of time. This year, however, did the opposite to going somewhere, meeting people, and learning – I went outside only to travel and sightseeing, this not only gave me peace of mind but also understanding more about myself with a real-time different side of learning. Therefore, marked to keep on traveling even if it is just a place next door to me!

7: Bosses are bad – We have often read and hear leaders and managers’ conversations emphasizing only their uncooperative ways. However, it’s rarely known that Leadership applies to everyone and not only managers, so the comparison is really built on a false assumption. Leadership is a life skill that anyone can have. Ever since my childhood, I have been often afraid of teachers, and the same attitude continued towards the Bosses. So, in the past, while working on the different assignments, there were incidents where I kept feeling that even if I am putting out 100% effort, the Boss is somehow not acknowledging the way I expect. Is this due to miscommunications or other factors I am unaware of? But as time has passed, I have acknowledged that unlike how I felt with teachers, if there is a challenging situation with a Boss, being thankful should be the way to approach this. Pausing-reflecting-understanding both sides of the hidden factors could help to settle things in the right place. This is an opportunity to cultivate ourselves if channeled positively, things happen for learning. then I got to be that reason! I strongly believe that customers are always right, Bosses too.

8: Do what you love – I often explore many new things to do, that I generally like, however gradually I have realized those things that I have been ignoring due to the belief that it is not my cup of tea, then I am missing out on many important areas I should know. I never gave myself a chance to experience those things I was uncomfortable with. I now understand that more wisdom comes from the places we keep procrastinating about or fear more, that’s where the major learning happens.

9: Success is Happiness – From time to time, I asked myself, what is success? And I answered – Being Happy! However, I think feeling happy is necessary but it’s not a success, otherwise, we would have often heard that every successful person is always happy. I think Success is more about having lots of questions/queries/doubts and keep walking with that and continue resolving it. This year I have learned the power of having questions even if it’s about having self-doubt. All insecurities, fear, and questions – Those are the key to success – embrace them!

Thank you for your time on reading, Wish you a lot of curiosity and success in the coming years ?