Beyond Horizons...

  2020: The year we will never forget We  #learned . What a devastating year it has been! Losses that can't be articulated, understood and beyond measures. We went to war, only this time all being on the same side. For me, it started with losing sense of time and screen time shooting up by 400%. Thankfully being around family helped me get a grip back. April for me was timeless ;) (Surprisingly some people are still waiting for things to get back to normal to change temporary habits of late sleeping, midnight snacking and binge watching) We learned, things that seemed important are not that important. We learned, relationships that seemed important are not that important. We learned, agility of the plan is more important than details of the plan. We learned, workplace is not 'the place' we commute everyday to and from. We learned, we don't know lots of things.(Or do we know anything?....) We learned, to enjoy small things, deeply. We learned, to look at others different

  This year was something serious crazy. I remember flying out from US to India in January. Covid was then only a news 'something happening in China', not in anyone's wildest imagination it would've made to every corner of the world. Unfortunately it did.  All of us have seen trying times. People losing their loved ones, their jobs, living through uncertainties of all kinds. It tested everyone. In spite of all this saying bye to 2020 calls for grand celebration.  Celebrate, t hat you made through 2020. Celebrate where you are, with whomever you are with whatever you are. You did it. You can do it again.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 🤗 

No one really is without a fear. What differentiates people who seem fearless have chosen courage over their fears. Everyone is scared of something. Fear of failure, rejection, being laughed at, loneliness, being judged, or fear of losing something valuable. Rich, poor, strong, weak, powerful, intellectuals, good all have fears. Fear is always there. Fear runs deep, fight or flight radar of our ancestors kept them alive. While writing this I am scared of people laughing at my idea of non-existence of word 'fearless'. Making mistakes, failures are part of success. Start, Act. why be scared of failures? World is judging you right now with or without any actions. Why scare of judgements? When you move on fear moves with you. Ask questions even if you think its stupid. Get new fears. Nobody in this world knows what's going to happen next. One Year into a pandemic and we all are still predicting how virus will spread and what methods will work. We act anyway. #CourageOverFear I

Many people have told me that, "they wanted to write but they can't because they are not good at writing". I always wonder about people who decide their fate negatively beforehand. I mean even in your imagination of possible future how can you sabotage yourself?  So I ask them, How did you know that you are not good? Has anyone told you before? How many times have you written before deciding to call it quits?  Most of the time answer is either of two,  Not yet started.  Not many If you can think independently, you can write. Writing is nothing but putting your thoughts in words. Like any other life skill you have learned before, walking, cycle, swimming, coding, drawing, it gets better with practice. More you do it, better you get it.  Seth Godin has written blog on having good ideas. He writes, Secret #1 is the biggest one: More bad ideas. The more bad ideas the better. If you work really hard on coming up with bad ideas, sooner or later, some good ideas are going to sli

I am learning a lot about wellness these days. Nutrition, Exercise, Medicines, and health in general. Two observations about all that I have read till now, mostly written in last 2-10 years are, 1. Conformity to some ideal body of a human.  Like for males, its 6 pack, 8 pack body and other things. For females, hour glass figure and other things. Check images of humans in all health/fitness relates material you come across books, internet, or TV. They all look the same. Surprising part is rest who do not look like them also want to look like them.  How have we come to an age with ONE definition of healthy and fit human body? 2. Rise of supplements, medical tools claiming to improve health.  Weight, energy, nerves, sleep, thirst, happiness no matter what the cause there is a drug available to improve it. Now with medical condition, diseases there is a need for external aid in the form of medicines to cure and improve the state.  How we have come to choose drugs over nature to improve t

Meaning of Weasel Words as per dictionary is,  "Words that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading" Over the weekend, I came across two things that lead me to read and then write about weasel words. One, Some frustrated professional asking on how to spot genuine claims, genuine content in personal marketing that goes about everywhere blogs, LinkedIn. Second, a book I came across 'The 4 Hour Body' By Tim Ferris. This book is an epitome of personal marketing.  I admire Tim Ferris, his drive for following his interests is amazing. Though I found this book way too fabricated. Right from all the clickbait taglines on what will you learn in less than 30 minutes. One of the line says, 'How to sleep for 2 hours and still feel rested' He has produced evidence for ALL his claims. There are numbers, cases, examples of other humans. But here are few things to note and search/ponder over before you blindly accept anything from this book(or for that matter any other healt

Serendipity that life throws always amazes me.  Early this week kid wanted to read me a book, Flea and Diva . I happily agreed. I came across a new word which I immediately fell in love with.  Flâneur - Someone(Somecat from a book) who wanders to see what there is to see. Great flâneur has seen everything, but still looks for more, because there is always more to discover.   Little did I know that same word will come across in a book that I picked up reading, Antifragile . This is not it.  It is second occurrence of this week. Before Antifragile I was reading Trevor Noah's biography Born a Crime . In one of the chapters in a book, he was telling a story and wanted to highlight some accent. I was thinking while reading that piece how difficult it is to convey accent, tone in writing. A day later I came across an article in HBR quoting exact same thing.  It's always a relief to find a thing you are looking for. But my god, joy of discovering something new is simply incomparable.

"It Always Seems Impossible Until it's done" ~ Nelson Mandela It is pretty obvious that I like this quote. I use it everywhere, all the time. I remember this quote at least once a day. I use this quote almost in any situation I am in, when I am down, frustrated, excited, sad, happy, failed, succeeded. This quote keeps me going.  I use it because I know it is true. I have seen it working.  In 2018 I decided to tweet at least once here.  I did it. In 2015, I decided to run a half marathon, I had never run before. I ran Mumbai half Marathon.  July 2020 - I decided to be an entrepreneur. I started. I am in the making. 4th November, 2020 I decided to write everyday on this blog, I did it. This is my 100th post.  I could. That is what I wanted to know, that it is possible. It is possible if you really want it to be.  If you are still skeptical about doing anything, do trust and just start. It is possible. "It Always Seems Impossible Until it's done" ~ Nelson Mande

I should have known this. India has more than 20 recognized and many more unrecognized languages. One language have many dialects and same words can mean different things. 'Tu'(You in English) in Marathi is known for closeness of relation, is considered offensive, disrespectful in Hindi.  How could have things be not different for English as well? Though I still get amazed when I learn peculiarities of languages. English they teach in India has British influence, which also reflects in spoken language. When I first came to US(2011), we went out for coffee. US TV, movies, Starbucks had hyped the coffee of this country for me. I was waiting to taste coffee here and in my mind I had already imagined it would be close to the 'Drink of Gods'. 2011 my reference to best coffee was Nescafe Gold made in whole milk and little sugar. Here is how the conversation went, So lady on the counter asks me, "what will it be?"  I say, "Coffee"  She asks, "Cream?&qu

Time after September 2018 was tough. I had lost my dad, and I just couldn't believe it. I guess this happens when you lose someone all of a sudden, or maybe it happens when you lose someone, it starts as a denial to accept death.  Days were kind of fazed, being in US away from home made it even more difficult. I used to go to a nearby gym in the morning. In normal times I would have gone to that place cheerfully, would have tried to know people there, make new friendships. But those weren't normal times. I went to gym because I liked getting tired, exhausted, I thought somehow the pain will just go away through all that sweat. I wasn't interested in people around me.  However I ended up being friends with three people I met there. Yohana, Judy and Lindsay. These people went beyond normal hi/hello and tried to connect with me. They asked me questions, they waited for me, they kept my spot, they told me what their plans are for holidays, they asked mine, they were interested

Who wants to be scared? Nobody .  Who is not scared? Nobody .  Everyone has something to be scared of. Superrich, politicians, celebrities, colleagues, your boss, next door neighbor, friends, family, your dog, cat, and you. Everyone is scared of something all the time. Fear of losing image, power, money, control, position, status, people, and things. Fear of past, present, and future(which is not even arrived yet).  You don't do things, you are scared.  You do things, you are scared.   Fear doesn't go away. So why do things when not doing also results being scared ? Difference in two is that, when you do things, you discover new kinds of fears. Fears you had before you started doing things are gone, changed or reduced. You learn a thing or two and also gain a little bit of + confidence .  Courage 1 : Fear 0 Not doing things makes us to hold onto same fears. Sometimes the fear even grows bigger, than it started.  Courage -1 : Fear 1 Off course it is not linear. Every time you g

FOMO - Fear of Missing out How many decisions you have taken out of FOMO? How many your day to day actions are driven by FOMO? Have you purchased a car because your friend or colleague has one?  Do you go to malls, eat out every other night, drink because you see others are doing it? Was your last purchase driven by post from old friend on Instagram or Facebook? Do you go to movies because all your friends are going? Do you go to a particular movie because your friends like it? How ironic, fear driving our actions and decisions instead of a courage? And if you observe most of our FOMO things are harming us personally in short term as well as long term. Eating junk food, drinking, smoking, shopping, spending money on things we don't want or we want only to show off. All works AGAINST you, poor health, less money, feeling sad, inferior or jealous.  Take decisions which are in YOUR favor . Spend money on things you want, invest, if you don't know how to, learn. Exercise, read, wr

Everyone needs an encouragement in life. Encouragement to start, to go on, to take risks, to be kind, to share, to ask, and to be.  For me, it was my Dad . He was my forever cheerleader. Everything I did was superlative for him. He would go on admiring me to a great length. He would tell my stories, my doings to everyone he meets. I am sure he would have praised my pouring water in a glass to be a grand skill to people. I would always be embarrassed to meet his friends, colleagues for I knew they would have heard great stories about me and meeting in person might fade away the glamour ;)  He had always supported me unconditionally. Every decision, every action. I could discuss anything and everything with him. You need someone in your life with whom you can discuss your dreams, thoughts, fears, worries, happiness and sorrow with an open mind. For me it was my dad.  I miss him. Sorely. Its been two years he is gone, but not a day goes by without me missing him. Pain really doesn't g

People are pioneer to any significant outcomes, changes we see in life. #PeoplePower Trust them and they will amaze you with results. Give them a freedom and they will show thousand ways to do one thing. Give them a direction and they will take you to the destination. Show them how they matter and they will move mountains for you. Invest in them with time, relation, conversations and they bring you happiness. Give them challenges and they will bring the changes. Give and you will receive more. People is all that matters. #PeoplePower

I miss flying, travelling in general. One of the reason being not able to see new things. Flying is especially an eye pleasing experience. Different weathers, different places, different structures change the 'seeing' experience. Airports itself are so different from one another these days, its a treat to see different designs and structures.  Patterns and structures created by nature are wonderous. Desert of Sahara, Amazon river, Grand Canyon, Islands, Mountains etc. Some of the wonders of nature make you wonder whether nature has its own design specialists.  Nature works unpredictably, in all directions, all shapes, curvy, imbalanced, asymmetrical.  Most manmade structures follow fixed shapes like round, squares, rectangle, triangle. Obviously so because humans had to build those shapes. We see in most iconic structures of our times Pyramids, Taj-Mahal, Burj Khalifa building etc. While we went with conservative designs for long, many modern structures are designed to reflect

There are two articles published in Medium with a gap of just a month. How about it?   You  are the averag e of the  five   people   you   spend  the  time   with .  You are NOT the average of the five people you spend time with.  While you go through it and decide whether or not we are like those five people we spend time with or not. What definitely is in our control is the company we choose to spend time with. I love connecting with people and real conversations. Here is how I choose, whom I surround myself with. People who care for me. They express there care for my wellbeing, in words and in their actions. People who are happy when I am happy. People with whom I want to celebrate when I achieve my goals. People who are sad on my setbacks, my failures, my tough times.  People who stand by me in tough times, not so happy times.  People who encourage me, to take risks, responsibilities, decisions. Who encourage me even after a failure. People who discuss my doubts as if their own dou

I felt bad when we couldn't celebrate my nephews birthday outside in April 2020. He had just finished writing his 10th class exam. Whole of his year went pretty intense and we were looking forward for celebration, an outstation trip. Everything was put off due to pandemic.  Then came May, few more celebrations couldn't happen. June, then August, September....here we are at last calendar month of 2020. Pretty much everyone missed their birthday parties, anniversaries, or any other big life event celebrations. Some people even had to delay, put off their weddings. How difficult that would be!  In a weird way, it does not feel bad as much now that it happened with everyone else in the world.  Stay strong people. We will get through this. We will celebrate. Together.  

11  March 2020, Who declared Covid-19 as pandemic, and the world we know changed it. It changed for never to return it to normal we knew before. Yes, everything will be normal, but new normal. Nine months into a pandemic apart from Corona, whole of the world is now struggling with constant anxiety and sleepless nights . It happened to me as well. Two months before no matter how tired I was physically, I couldn't sleep. Mind just kept wandering, irrational fears kept surfacing...All this while I was getting proper exercise, right food and meditation. It was frustrating. Switching on TV and mobile was so tempting. I avoided it. After some time sleep schedule got back to normal.  To all my friends, who are still struggling to get their sleep schedule in order, my only suggestion is NOT to give in for screens. Sometimes even after doing all things right, results may not be as you desire. That does not mean you stop doing right things. Enough sleep, Quality Sleep, is more important for

Relationships last when two people strive together , to become better . Relationship last when two people stand with each other, for each other in good times and bad. Love is not enough, you also need Respect .  Respect for each other Respect for each others choices,  Respect for each others beliefs,  Respect for each others friends & family,  Respect for each others strengths & weaknesses,  Respect for each others likes & dislikes,  Respect for each others dreams,  Respect for each others differences,  Respect for each others space Respect for each other I am glad, I am fortunate & forever blessed to have found love and respect in my life partner.  Celebrating 10 years wedding anniversary, it has been a journey of endless joy and happiness.  To Manju, forever star of my life story. Thank you for being you. Thank you for making it all so effortless.  

Have you ever seen, met person who is pursuing MBA or recently finished one? Evident characteristic of most MBAs is confidence. They are beaming with it and ready to take over a corporate job which is meticulously designed 'NOT to FAIL' Before anyone who has done MBA, decides to get offended. Let me share, I am holder of the degree. I am glad I pursued it and enjoyed good outcomes.  Yes, I believe corporate jobs are safety net for assured success rather protect you from failure. Even most risky moves, projects taken by companies guarantee 'non-failure'. Some projects, moves, products may not succeed but it does not lead these companies to fail. Confident MBAs at all levels in these companies ensure non failure. Leaders all around the world move with confidence. What they lack and never taught about is using guts.  Guts is taking a chance to be proven wrong. To fail willingly.  At no school guts is discussed. Value of failure, taking a risk when there is no guaranteed ou

When I say Indians I mean people from a country in Asia. Saying Thank you and meaning it, is something I have seen evident in western world. I have met many people who have said Thank You on different occasions. It is so heart warming. It is different. It is different from what I am used to hear back home.  Being two years in US, kid has picked up many things best I say from this culture too. She is a polite kid. She says thank you to me if she loves some dish I prepare or read a book to her. It was shocking when I first heard. I am used to now, both hearing it and saying it a lot. If my mom hears me saying thank you for a meal, she would kick me out(off course after finishing the meal) and lecture me to no end about my saying so.  Saying Thank you in India is almost frowned upon. It is a part of culture. Here are few reasons Indians don't say Thank you, It is no big deal. Like no biggie. I got you some groceries, helped your kid study or help you raise a kid, gave you a ride, or g

I am one restless millennial. 2020 has something to do with it, but mostly its me.  It mostly comes from million things I want to do in next one hour. Other times it is because of some irrational fear that my mind creates which makes me anxious. I will not say I have got it under control fully because it is not possible to do away with fears and ambitions. I am doing better. I have found system that works for me.  Writing Writing has helped me throughout. When you write, you get clarity. Whenever I feel I am anxious, I write down thoughts that led me there. It might be actions I am planning or imaginary situation I am dwelling upon. Once I write it down, I close the book. I revisit that after hours/days when I am calm. If it is a goal/action, I question whether it is relevant, important, needs my attention, when etc. details help mellow down the severity of action. If it is fear, whether its probable, chances of its happening and more importantly what's it in my control to do about

98% of people feel stuck, not because they are out of solutions, but because they don't have clarity.  It is true with every situation, every question with everyone around the world. While reading about it, asking about it definitely helps. Most straightforward and simple way of figuring out is actually doing it. I am not suggesting that everything that needs to be figured out has to be figured out by doing it 100%. Though starting to do it consistently brings clarity required to take further action. For example in 2018, I decided that I will learn to write and to draw. I started both the activities almost at the same time. After pursuing drawing with water colors for 10 days, I found out. I like drawing but not so much as to pursue it as hobby. Yet. On the other hand I really liked writing. I started doing it more, what, where and how etc.  And here we are. 20th article of this month on personal blog and More than 25 articles on Thrivearc.   Just start doing it, you don't have

Challenges are ways to change.  They say people take 21 days to create new habit. Once you do something repeatedly over 21 days it tends to stick if you wanted to.  People generally take goals of weight loss of 10 KG, Writing a book, making a billion, starting a business etc. All seems overwhelming. They are if you wanted them to be. Good thing is they seem overwhelming to EVERYONE, even to people who do it often, who've have it before. If they have done it, you will be doing it too.  How they do it? Dream Big. Act Small.  Keep your dreams big, goals as they are. Though try actions which are small, doable and repeatable. Losing 10 Kg over 6 month time seems large, but exercise 30 minutes a day is a small change. Small change repeated everyday is going to lead to big change of losing weight.  I have found 30 Day challenge is another way of introducing small changes in your life. I don't use added sugar. This has been a practice over 7 years. It started with husband and me taking

All my academic learning was continuous till MBA. After 10 years or so into corporate career, I started to have those feelings whether now is the time I should go for another education cycle with PhD.  PhD is pretty intense degree, needs all your attention. Gives you an opportunity for deep learning. You get to be known as expert in the field(well most do).  However it turned out that all these were the same reasons I didn't wanted to pursue it.  Deep learning of one subject, one topic. Research get approved by defending it, that means one's ability to know and convenience about all that they know about their research topic. While deep learning is fulfilling, making that alone as your focus  of your professional life(for rest of the life) needs a rigor, one of a kind. I didn't think I have that I could sustain that kind of rigor on one subject. Being expert is full time responsibility for all these doctors for rest of their lives. Considering pace of change that happens aro

I come across so many people who complain that it is too late for them to start. It always puzzles me who gives these people deadline of sorts? Who shares it perfectly scheduled events? If there are any I would like to meet them. I know I will not meet them. Because they don't exist. 'Late' is fictitious timeline we impose on ourselves.  It is never too late to start reading. Its ok if you haven't got time till now. Pick anything you like, comics, fiction, travelogue, mysteries, psychology, money management, cooking.  It is never too late to start exercising. Even if it is for 5 minutes. Anytime of the day. Any exercise of your choice. Walk, run, crunches, push-ups, pull ups.  It is never too late to start eating healthy. Start stocking up fruits, nuts, healthy snacks.  It is never too late to catch up with people you care about. Call them, ask them how are they doing? what excites them? what makes them sad?  It is never too late to start learning new skill, hobby. Joy

I recently finished reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. Its a fantastic read. Yuval has done a mammoth task of summarizing 70,000 years of history in 400 pages. While reading a book(or even by living in this era) you realize how fast our world has changed and continues to change. One thing is startling fact, which we all fail to realize is that brain is not keeping up that pace. It is still same from ancient times whose main objective was to survive. It also uses the same techniques on perceived danger situation, fight or flight.  The brain that is constantly on look out of danger, sensing who/what could hurt/harm us. It is obviously evolved and dangers are now shifted from physical harm to emotional.  Don't try that, you don't know how to and you could fail. People will laugh at you. Don't ask, you could look like an idiot. Don't quit your job. You will lose your social standing.  Don't share your true feelings. You will be vulnerable, People could take advantage