Its the first day of a brand new year - its not about a day or time but just the fact that it creates an opportunity to end a period of time and start afresh. Time for a clean slate.
To say 2017 has been an eventful year would be the understatement of the year. Life has changed in immeasurable ways - the biggest of them being the birth of our son Reyaan. While he has brought so much happiness in our lives, he also keeps us very busy. My biggest fascination is imaging how life forms from cellular form to an active highly personalized individual. At such seven months, I can feel his personality from his likes to dislikes. I love him!
While I can and should post more about Reyaan, I want to focus on the new year. I really want to shift my career focus. I had hoped to do that by end of the year - to gain more clarity but it has got even more hazy by now. In fact, INSEAD was supposed to be the beacon for my career - but it currently seems to be turning out to be the opposite. I still believe in its value but the expectation is more on the long-term horizon; but also more importantly, it is up to me in terms of how I leverage the experience and network.
I am really out of my comfort zone right now - something I pushed myself into intentionally after Pfizer. While I would relish the 'now' me to be in that previous Pfizer position as I could now make a real difference with the current mindset and skillset. But that is what life is - you have to push and try to be at the right place at the right time. All I can do is give my best but cannot control the outcome directly.
So for 2018, I want to continue to explore new opportunities and find one where I can best leverage my past experience as well as continue to learn and grow. If I have to live by one motto this year, it has to be - stop consuming, start producing. Let that be my beacon for the year. Whether it is personal life - be it cooking, be it loving, be it being empathetic, be it being compassionate - or professional - be it drafting slides, be it analyzing data, be it being confident enough to say what's on my mind - and expressing it concisely. More specifically, I really need to make a drastic step change in how I communicate. I need to stop worrying about what others think and just express myself. Be a part of different conversations, reach out to old and new friends, meet them, talk to them about any topic. Just be smart and learn from others what you want to learn - replay those discussions in your mind - learn from them and grow as a person.
The person writing the post on January 2019, has to be a more confident, stable personally and professionally, loving person to anyone in my circle; with his own charisma. There are steps to achieve that and I might express those in detail later but here is a first start:
- Communication: This has to be the cornerstone goal for 2018. This will be developed through achieving mini-goals such as eye-contact, taller presence, smarter fashion sense, firmer handshake, eloquent expressions, completing sentences firmly, thinking of the 'so-what' all the time; saying 'your mind' and many others.
- Reading and writing: This is a way to grow in multiple ways including communication - but I have to start reading books for sure. I need to stop reading random articles on the web especially quora / instagram etc. I need to keep a book to read whenever I am free or just write. Having a journal would be a starter as well. I need to read for atleast 5 mins as well as write for atleast 5 mins every day - irrespective of how busy I am. Even if you read a page before crashing to sleep, but open a book and read.
- Meditation: I have to do this much more frequently. Full stop.
- Fitness: Today started amazingly well with an hour of exercise with Bhaiya. I want to continue that. Just doing stretching / core exercises for 20 minutes as HIIT will pay huge dividends.
That is it. This is something you have done before - so you can definitely do it. Personally and professionally, life is much more busy now but there is still enough time in the day to pursue these activities. Stay positive, create positive vibes around yourself, and you will be surprised by the inner happiness you will gain as well as create in the people around you. It is a hard time for everyone in the family but you have to stay positive. Be happy and others will follow suit. Be giving - and you will get that love back many times over. Be hopeful!
To say 2017 has been an eventful year would be the understatement of the year. Life has changed in immeasurable ways - the biggest of them being the birth of our son Reyaan. While he has brought so much happiness in our lives, he also keeps us very busy. My biggest fascination is imaging how life forms from cellular form to an active highly personalized individual. At such seven months, I can feel his personality from his likes to dislikes. I love him!
While I can and should post more about Reyaan, I want to focus on the new year. I really want to shift my career focus. I had hoped to do that by end of the year - to gain more clarity but it has got even more hazy by now. In fact, INSEAD was supposed to be the beacon for my career - but it currently seems to be turning out to be the opposite. I still believe in its value but the expectation is more on the long-term horizon; but also more importantly, it is up to me in terms of how I leverage the experience and network.
I am really out of my comfort zone right now - something I pushed myself into intentionally after Pfizer. While I would relish the 'now' me to be in that previous Pfizer position as I could now make a real difference with the current mindset and skillset. But that is what life is - you have to push and try to be at the right place at the right time. All I can do is give my best but cannot control the outcome directly.
So for 2018, I want to continue to explore new opportunities and find one where I can best leverage my past experience as well as continue to learn and grow. If I have to live by one motto this year, it has to be - stop consuming, start producing. Let that be my beacon for the year. Whether it is personal life - be it cooking, be it loving, be it being empathetic, be it being compassionate - or professional - be it drafting slides, be it analyzing data, be it being confident enough to say what's on my mind - and expressing it concisely. More specifically, I really need to make a drastic step change in how I communicate. I need to stop worrying about what others think and just express myself. Be a part of different conversations, reach out to old and new friends, meet them, talk to them about any topic. Just be smart and learn from others what you want to learn - replay those discussions in your mind - learn from them and grow as a person.
The person writing the post on January 2019, has to be a more confident, stable personally and professionally, loving person to anyone in my circle; with his own charisma. There are steps to achieve that and I might express those in detail later but here is a first start:
- Communication: This has to be the cornerstone goal for 2018. This will be developed through achieving mini-goals such as eye-contact, taller presence, smarter fashion sense, firmer handshake, eloquent expressions, completing sentences firmly, thinking of the 'so-what' all the time; saying 'your mind' and many others.
- Reading and writing: This is a way to grow in multiple ways including communication - but I have to start reading books for sure. I need to stop reading random articles on the web especially quora / instagram etc. I need to keep a book to read whenever I am free or just write. Having a journal would be a starter as well. I need to read for atleast 5 mins as well as write for atleast 5 mins every day - irrespective of how busy I am. Even if you read a page before crashing to sleep, but open a book and read.
- Meditation: I have to do this much more frequently. Full stop.
- Fitness: Today started amazingly well with an hour of exercise with Bhaiya. I want to continue that. Just doing stretching / core exercises for 20 minutes as HIIT will pay huge dividends.
That is it. This is something you have done before - so you can definitely do it. Personally and professionally, life is much more busy now but there is still enough time in the day to pursue these activities. Stay positive, create positive vibes around yourself, and you will be surprised by the inner happiness you will gain as well as create in the people around you. It is a hard time for everyone in the family but you have to stay positive. Be happy and others will follow suit. Be giving - and you will get that love back many times over. Be hopeful!
