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Like last year, I have shared “20 life lessons that I learned in 2020”, I am continuing the tradition to share some life lessons that I gained this year. 2021 is a fascinating year personally and professionally.
Here are my 21 learning from 2021:
Articulation:
Learn to articulate your thoughts. Learn to articulate your thoughts in speech. Learn to articulate your thoughts in writing. It helps way too much both personally and professionally. I read this tweet at the start of the year and was blown by this idea.
Negotiation is powerful:
I switched two organizations this year. Negotiation has the power to take you to leverage your salary for the same amount of work. If you have X task to do in 100 rupees, but when you negotiate with your expectation, skills, and demands in the market - you can unapologetically ask for 120 or even 150. Same work and get - 20 or 50 rupees extra.
For years, I felt bad talking about the money things for freelance works that I usually do. It is QUITE PROFESSIONAL to keep money in the equations. The negotiation also helped me to shed work that pay below my expectations.
Read this to understand how negotiation works for you.
Let it go:
Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. Keep your intentions pure and let it go if things don't work out. Don't emotionally drain yourself to things that are not in your control.
Failure
It’s part of the game. Keep trying. Keep failing and enjoy the journey of experience. Learn from failure and try to avoid repeating. Last year, we ventured into the business of apparel and after a few months, we come to the conclusion that things are not working - we initially failed online and then, offline too. Though it gives us immense learning we accepted the failure.
Avoiding mistakes is a better investment decision than doing risky investments. Focus on not screwing up.
I roughly have this idea in my mind but the book “Psychology of money" made it very obvious to me. He gave the example of Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet that they remain consistent compounders because they focus on not screwing up.
“The ability to stick around for a long time, without wiping out or being forced to give up, is what makes the biggest difference. This should be the cornerstone of your strategy” - Morgan Housel, Psychology of Money.
Always play long-term games whether if it's a career, investment, or relationship:
Always think in long term before making any decision. Prioritize things accordingly: be it a career, investment, or relationship.
Career: learn things that can help you for a long-time. understand what works and what doesn’t. outcast what doesn’t work.
Investment: making quick bucks in trades is lower in returns than investing in something for the long term. Compounding works for you, so keep adding to it. Think of things that give you consistent happiness, not instant gratification.
One change and addition of habit and keep it repeating for a long time.
Use the money to buy freedom, not trap. Keep your expenses basic and low. Luxury is a trap.
Luxury is avoidable. You can stay out of the status game that some people play. Don’t let anything ruin your control over money and time.
Another great idea that I learned from Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money - “Money’s greatest intrinsic value—and thus can’t be overstated—is its ability to give you control over your time.”
To my understanding, if you live in an urban Indian tier-2 and 3 cities, your basic expenses for the month will not go beyond 25-30k - if you’re unmarried. Most of them go into - rent, food, groceries, and travel. Other than these can be scaled - from being essential to luxury.
Be an essentialist. neither minimalist nor maximalist.
I have a habit. I write down things that I need to buy. I keep it handy for days or even months. Meanwhile, I keep asking myself this question:
Do I need this?
Why do I need this?
Does it serve any purpose?
I keep adding and removing things and one fine day, I buy it online or offline even if it’s not at a discounted price. This is life-changing. I know what I need and what I don’t. I segregate it before I buy and avoid collecting unnecessary kinds of stuff.
Minimalism is scarcity. I don’t even fall under that category.
Keeping yourself calm in every situation is powerful.
It takes immense power to control your emotion and take reasonable and rational decisions. Quick actions are rarely needed. In very rare scenarios, there is an urgent need to rush or blink thinking. Otherwise, pause for a while to understand the gravity of the situation or the worst that can happen. Do not overreact anyways.
Good posture. Good working set-up.
I realized that I spend around 7-12 hours of every day sitting around my laptop, at my desk using the same chair and table. Posture is the main reason for shoulder and back pains. I invested some amount on a laptop stand, cushions for my chair, lamp, and keyboard/mouse pad. I made a DIY book/notebook holder keep it at my desk to hold the books and notebooks vertically. I am also planning to change my chair as well. Have a good setup so that you can focus more on work and learning.
Few tips:
Keep your system at your eye level.
Use the lamp to work late at night for focussed or deep work.
Remove things that you don’t actively use from your desk.
Stretch and take minor breaks from work too.
Keep a writing pad to scribe anything. To-dos, quick notes, scribes, or random thoughts.
Time-blocking and to-do lists. Using Google calendar.
This year I started using Google calendar for time blocking. This write-up is written on a time blocking the assigned task.
I started with Google Calendar to actively create a time-blocking weekly calendar for assigning a given task for a given period. It keeps things running, not delaying.
For many years, I have continued the habit of writing a to-do list before starting my work. It helped me a lot to complete my task. I bind my to-dos to the time-blocking calendar.
Self-care is not a crime. Look good. Smell good.
This year, I explored more into perfume/attars and skin-care products. Started using it regularly while leaving home. Smells have some kind of power to keep you calm, charming, or ambient.
I found out that I started liking trousers and pants more than jeans while going it. I like how it even suits me.
I started using moisturizer for the very first time. Taking care of yourself is part of Imaan too.
Eliminating negativity. make space for yourself:
It might sound easy but eliminating negativity is turning off to things that don’t make you feel better. The only way to avoid and eliminate it is through making space for yourself. Fill it with your purposes, your standards, and your priorities in life.
Repeat. Re-visit. Revise.
Repeat: Prayers are repetitive. 5-times a day. Every Friday once a week. Building good habits needs repeating it over and over again. It is also an act of showing up and being consistent. Repeating things helps us to configure habits for the longest time. You repeat doing brush. you repeat waking up early and it remains to you.
Re-visit: At the end of the month, I re-visit my Journal, to-dos, and notes to know what I have accomplished and what I don’t. Keeping an audit on my milestone and areas needs more attention. Last year, I even wrote a long “Year-in-review 2020” in notion to give a summary of things I have done.
Revise: At the starting of the year, I was learning Spring boot and Security for the nth time. Even after so many times, I feel like a newbie. The missing link is: revise. I don’t go through what I did in the last session. I keep on moving while giving it more depth. My focus was to complete the course, not to absorb it. Revising things makes a more proper memory record in your mind and helps you learn better.
Concept Diary:
Other than many journals and diaries, I added one more diary to write the concept. Think about it. A separate diary to collect the productivity hacks. To go thru it, use it directly in your life and work.
I wrote concepts like Pomodoro, Sprints, Pareto Principle, Eisenhower matrix, and many more such ideas. I use all of them somewhere in my daily work and life.Love things that you enjoy. Enjoy things that you love:
I absolutely love writing. I enjoy it thoroughly. I enjoy the passion to write. sometimes, it doesn’t even matter if the topic is something to write about. Other than writing, I love biking. I like roaming around the streets and thinking. taking random pictures of people, and places.
It feels satisfying and makes you full of life. I randomly started gardening this year. I did some DIY as well. I was fascinated by my city. I explore random places, cafes, food stalls, and buildings of Jaipur.
Respect people around you:
I did this exercise a few months back. You should do it too.
Note down the names of all the people you regularly interact with. family, friends, colleagues, or neighbors.
Think about the good qualities of the person or why you respect or admire that person.
Write down the good qualities of that person. Minimum 2. it can be as many as possible.
Repeat for everyone.
This exercise helped me to respect and admire people around me. It helped me choose the positives over the negatives and build a better relationship with them.
Meditation and Reflection:
Invest the first 15 minutes of the day in meditation and the last 15 minutes of your day in reflections.
Meditate i.e. do nothing. just breath silently. let thoughts crave but keep them coming and vanishing. first 15 minutes in doing nothing.
Reflection. In the last 15 minutes of the day, reflect on the things you did. what you liked or observed. jot them down if you like.
Accept who you’re. Accept where you are from. Accept your religious, cultural, and ethnic identity. Understand what’s your limit, your principles, and your habits. Understand yourself more and more. Understand your patterns. Your habits. Your moods. Things that make you happy and things that can trigger you anger and sadness.
Have a mentor. be someone’s mentor.
One of the mistakes that I did at the early start of my career is to navigate on my own. It was a huge mistake and in conclusion, I have bonded to a single project and organization for straight three years. having a mentor who’s elder or more experienced than you in the fields of career, technology, better status, investment, or relationship. Recognize your mentors. take help from them. consult your stuff with them.
On the other side, be someone’s helping hand. Help them in building their careers, counsel and guide them. Deliver your investment learning to those who started investing.
Stay humble. Stay on the ground. Don’t let money or ego ruin you.
One of the key learning of 2021 is to stick your foot in the ground. Don’t let wealth ruin your mental peace, your time, and your relationship. wealth works vice-versa.
Be humble as said by Kendrick Lamar, it makes you warm. build you as a person and increase the charm inside you.
Bonus Lessons:
Building a community or part of the community:
One of the learnings of 2021 is to become part of the community you’re interested in. Join their channels, WhatsApp group. Engage and participate in their activity.
For example: If you’re an avid book reader. Join some book club. If you’re very keen, start your community of niche book reader community.
This year, I made two WhatsApp groups: one on Equity Market and another one is the exchanging good opinions and editorials. Both of them are equally active.
Stay Curious.
When the internet became cheap, I was fascinated with the idea of how we can quickly satisfy our curiosity with the help of fast mobile internet.
What to know: Currency of Germany? - Search and get the answer.
Wanted to know: How blockchain works? - Search on youtube and see the video with illustrations.
Wanted to know: How oAuth2.0 works? - Brilliant article available on the internet.
The idea is to stay curious. Curious about things you are keen to know and gain deep or shallow knowledge.
This year: from the smallest to the silliest to the biggest curiosity of mine is been satisfied through the Internet. Relax! nobody is checking your search history. keep searching.
That’s it from my side. I hope you’ll like this article.
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