Covid has put shackles on my feet, a fear to step out which means battling traffic, noise, pollution, unplanned delays. When you step you give control to the outside world.
WFH gave me my cocoon or bubble as per popular COVID lingo. My routine was set - wake up, walk, work, walk, eat, read, sleep. Repeat. Scanty conversations in between over food.. Weekend binge on movies, drinks mixed with philosophical discussions & a long run on Sunday to wear out the guilt of Saturday night. The only other additional activity of course was the newspaper which helped me do some armchair traveling and get curated news on interesting things happening around the globe - thanks to Mint Lounge & Sunday Hindu whose ‘Easy like Sunday Quiz’ had become an addiction.
WFO changed that today - Missed walk, did Yoga,read newspaper on my way to office, had microwaved lunch, did not know anybody except our Admin so only spoke to her - imagine going to office and coming back like that. But ours is a plug n play office - choose your desk, work, get out. You have 200 seats to choose from. I guess this is the GIG culture which accommodates good talent in cities they reside & from HR’s perspective provides flexibility to employees.
Being Curious has its pluses:
Recently I heard a motivational speaker Saahil Mehta https://www.saahilmehta.com/ , most of them speak the same but have their own framework - I like frameworks. Although I have decided to junk them all and have my own. Having taken my e-mail id I received an email which spoke about mindset from which I found these lines in his email. “The "Iceman", Wim Hof, is known for being able to withstand extremely cold temperatures. He currently holds 26 world records, such as for remaining in ice for 1 hour and 52 minutes, and running up Mount Everest in a pair of shorts. “ I read about him and found him interesting (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ )
Reading ‘The Pause’, weekly email from one of my favorite podcast On Being I found these lines. Our On Being guest this week is Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist with a lifelong love of the ocean, and of people. She is co-creator and former co-host of the How to Save a Planet podcast, and works across a number of channels at putting forward possibilities for what it means to love the earth, love ourselves as inhabitants of the earth, and love the ocean
On my way back from office I was listening to Seen & Unseen podcast https://seenunseen.in/ in which Amit was talking to Amitava Kuma - Author and recently turned artist - For the 20 mnts of podcast I heard (these are long talks upto 4 hrs where you are chatting to understand like your chats with your granny where she recounts her lifes & time not like fireside chat where you have rapid fire list of questions which are objective and to the point) it gave a glimpse of how the author started observing life and why he chose writing in other words what purpose writing served in his life. What is astonishing to me is how a boy who grew up in Patna is now taking creative lessons in writing for people in the US / UK and is a celebrated author.
As I closed my day and briefly reflected on these examples of 3 very different individuals in fact 4 if I add Saahil also in the list. I believe they are all successful because they were very focused on what they wanted, they may have stumbled on to it unknowingly like Amitava Kumar mentioned that he started writing because it did something which he could not define but he worked on it, converted that into a process and made a success out of it. To some extent what Saahil mentions about mindset is true.
You succeed when you focus and it’s never too late to try. Iceman Wim Hof is 63 & I am only 53. So, I still have hope to put my act together ;0
Postscript: https://seenunseen.in/ & https://onbeing.org/. Listen to podcasts here.
Day 1 - 200 words / day challenge. 686 words.
29 days to go.
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