What Are Your New Year Resolutions?

What are your new year resolutions? (Photo credit)

As is the tradition, this time of the year we look back and reminisce and also get all futuristic and start making resolutions. And when I got to thinking about my plans or resolutions for next year - I like to call them goals - I found myself wondering how irrelevant our usual goals are. Work out regularly, get better at time management, finish that MBA, lose weight and get back into shape, get more business, be a better person. Do we change as people? Do we really address things that really matter and make the world a better place to live in? Just some random thoughts that came to my mind - this new year, how about:

a little less take and a little more give

a little less outrage and a little more calm

a little less worry about the world and a little more be yourself

a little less judgement and a little more understanding

a little more empathy and a little less apathy

a little less screen time and a little more people time

I know this isn't a long laundry list of life altering resolutions but I think they will need some good amount of work to accomplish. A worthwhile goal for the new year.

So what are your resolutions? Although, it is perfectly fine if you think like Calvin too! :)

(Photo credit)

Dear 2015, a couple of things before you go...

Photo Credit

I have been pondering over what to write about for today's post. I think the optimism of the year gone by is giving way to the impending expectation from the coming year. I went back and read the post I wrote around this time last year. And that's not me anymore. I am nowhere near that optimism that I had last year. That was just a temporary bout of optimism and motivation that had hit me and I became a very different person. I liked being that person but she left a few months later. And I went back to being my impatient, paranoid, non-calm self! Don't get me wrong! I am not crazy - just a bit, maybe - but I just became my pragmatic self again. I know that life will just go on. And everyday is not going to be a party. That the time for romantic firsts is gone. And some things aren't meant to be in life. I went back to being my gauche self forever struggling for life to behave well the way it seems to for others. Yeah! I have gone back to yearning and hoping - again!

On the other hand, what thrills me is that I lived outside my comfort zone for an entire year and survived it! I have never been this dedicated and patient to any project in my life - building my online presence. The hard work and passion that I pour into my work gives me purpose and satisfaction in life. People let me down, I went through several bouts of self doubt, I felt inadequate and unsuccessful at times but I have lived through all of it and still dared to continue to be different. I stuck to my conviction that brick by brick there will be a palace someday and I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of building the foundation this year. And I know the journey ahead is going to be beautiful and I cannot wait to get started with the new year!

Thank you 2015 for bringing me all the happiness you did and I hope you've already told 2016 to bring along whatever you failed to! :)

9 valuable lessons I learnt in 2015

2015 has been a pretty adventurous year for me. I tried a lot of things - failed in some while I got some others right. So I thought instead of indulging in elaborate pontification on what works and what doesn't, here are quick 9 things I learnt this year:

1. Yes, being happy is in my hands
2. True friends will always be around
3. Tough times tell you who your true friends are
4. If people let you down, you were wrong in expecting that they won't
5. Twitter is a great place to make friends
6. Everyone wants to succeed but the paths can be different. So it's ok to be different.
7. First impressions are usually deceptive
8. You may be an influencer online, but the neighbour will still ask, "So, what do you do?"
9. Count your blessings and you'll find more than you expected to

Each one of these has a story behind it. But the important point is to take these lessons with me and hopefully make the next year better because of them.

Can you think of the top thing that you learnt this year? I am sure even if there is one big learning every year, we are becoming better people with passing time.

10 memorable clicks of 2015

Countdown to the new year (photo credit)

Since this has been the most social year (actually the only, so far) in 8 years, I have quite a few awesome moments captured in photos! This turned out to be much harder than I thought! I have been poring over the photos for hours and had to zero in on the ones I could include here. I had to leave out many due to time and space (and your attention span constraints!). Watch out, you just might get lucky next time! :)

ONE - New friends: My first set of friends in 8 years of living in Mumbai! My 4 am friends who I shamelessly use sometimes for social media advice ;) And I also realised that if you are with the right people, a woman can feel the safest among a group of guys! Thorough gentlemen, these!

The social media team for Social Media Week, Bangalore, February 2015

TWO - Social Media Week - has to be my favourite part of the year! I worked with the best team ever (see the pic above!). I wanted to include every memory of the event but I shall spare you. Rest assured, it was a memorable time meeting influencers, making new friends and more importantly, learning what goes behind social media campaigns for events.

Fun moments from Social Media Week and being featured among the top authors for the event

THREE - Coaching certification: An important milestone in my professional life, I am now a certified coach to help individuals with their personal and professional goals.

Mandatory group photo after we all got our coaching certificates from Erickson International in July 2015

FOUR - My first open workshop: A milestone to end the year with a bang! It was a simple and short workshop on blogging but managed to achieve all its goals and created the impact it intended. Looking forward to many more to come!

My first open workshop in December 2015

FIVE: Wagah border: One more destination struck off my list this year - Amritsar! And here's a picture from Wagah Border. The pride one feels for the nation can be felt only in that moment when you are sitting amidst history at the borders of the two countries.

Wagah Border, May 2015

This year was also the year of rubbing shoulders with a lot of celebrities and well known personalities

FIVE -  Sean Gardner: The Forbes No. 1 social media influencer and a very humble person. He took pictures with everyone who went to talk to him about his brilliant keynote speech!

With Sean in February 2015

SIX - Mandira Bedi: I have always been a fan of her fitness levels. I got into the wrong room during a blogging event and there she was hosting another event! This proves that it pays to be wrong sometimes! :)

With Mandira Bedi in November 2015

SEVEN - Purba Ray: How great is it to run into one of your favourite celebrity bloggers and have her recognise you? Yes, 2015 has been nice to me!

With 2 of the best bloggers I know, Ankita (Left) and Purba (Right)

EIGHT- My date with HR influencers: Some nice things in life happen by chance and this was one such event. I saw a conversation on Twitter and jumped in to see if I could join this esteemed group of HR influencers. And here I am! 

With HR influencers from Twitter

NINE - Sairee Chahal of Sheroes: Her frail physique is just the opposite of the determination she carries in it! I have been following Sairee on Twitter for sometime now and really looked forward to meeting this inspiring woman! Thank you, 2015!

With Sairee, Shweta Pathak And Rakshita in Decmber 2015

TEN - Old friends: Here's to old friends I caught up with during my visit to Delhi in October this year. Friends who know you since ages are the best ones to appreciate the awesome people we have grown up to become! Thank you for your time, Tony and Supriya! (And Tina, who we missed taking a picture with!)

Old friends are like stepping into your pajamas after a hard day! 

I truly believe that you'll find your life a lot more blessed than you think only when you sit down to count your blessings. This seemingly uneventful year turned out to be a pretty awesome one as I went through old blog posts, pictures, chats etc. I am so looking forward to the other countdown posts. Do stick around and read the others too. And also, leave comments! :)

(Pardon me for not tagging individuals in this post. That would have been one heck of a job!)

11 reasons why 2015 was awesome for me

Countdown 2016 (Photo credit)

Starting today, I am doing a countdown to the new year with a new post everyday - just a fun way to make the end of the year more fun! So, for today I thought of 11 reasons why this year was awesome for me.

1. I made my first set of friends in Mumbai during Social Media Week earlier this year
2. I got into the routine of regular workouts and it feels great
3. My training blog has 80 posts and I took up a 30 day blogging challenge on this one
4. I became friends with a visually challenged person and learnt to appreciate life through her eyes
5. I got to train in Srinagar, which was a pretty unique experience
6. I was featured among female entrepreneurs on We Are The City
7. I met blogging stalwarts like Purba Ray, Arnab Ray, social media geniuses like Jeff Bullas and Sean Gardner
8. Lost my blogging mojo and found it back, thanks to @blogchatter on Twitter
9. Got myself certified as a coach
10. I discovered co-working spaces and have a so-called office I can go to and work from
11. I should reach 1800 followers on Twitter by the end of 2015 from a paltry number of a few hundred at the beginning

Actually, there are more awesome things like sitting through the creative writing class by Natasha Badhwar and the master class by Jeff Bullas. So, it was a great year in many ways.

Can you think of reasons why this year was brilliant for you?

The wonderful year that was!

A beautiful start to the new year!

Why is the time around new year so hard? Is it the pressure of another year gone by? Is it the hype of the year yet to come? Is it the compulsion to make new beginnings? Is it the regret of not having achieved goals set for the year? Is it the fear of hope and disappointment playing out in my life yet another year?

I have always struggled with new years. Try as much as I do, I haven’t been able to look at January as just another month that comes after December. Just like June comes after July. I have dreaded the beginning of new years and written them off as another bad ones in the first 2 months. On analysis I realized why. I have expected each year to bring about an unprecedented transformation in my life fulfilling all my pending goals. In one annual sweeping shot! Wrong ideal to presume, right? 

Also, the hype created around the new year is actually hard to miss. You are compelled to flow with the spirit and make resolutions. You can’t go on with your work when any one you look at wants to know what are your plans for 31st. You just can’t pretend that it’s no big deal. (And I hate the hype about any festival/occasion)

But this year, it’s not been as hard as it has been all these years. It used to be much harder. In hindsight, I realize that the trepidation was due to all the ambitious expectations I mentioned before. Do I still expect all those things and still fear failure? Yes. But it isn’t as bad. I tried to figure this out as well and the findings are quite encouraging.  

I think we all grow up and learn to cope with things. I think I have learnt to manage the whole expectations bit. After the shitty year it’s been with two major life goals going for a heart-breaking toss, I have accepted that some things take time. And happen only if they are meant to be. My anxiety doesn’t help. And I guess once we go through enough shit in life, we just develop serenity and patience after a point. 

And age is not just a number. I am a lot calmer than I used to be even a few years ago. This year, particularly, I discovered a new me! Someone more confident, more sure, more in control of my thoughts (not situations, yet) with a never before devil-may-care attitude. I took up projects and patiently saw them through. I met people online, made friends with them and just followed my instincts about it. I stumbled upon this person inside me who looked afresh at me and discovered I am person in my own right. No strings attached. 

And all this surprised me because I had written off the rest of my life as a predictable, humdrum one. I thought I had crossed all important milestones the ones awaited would arrive in their own time. But life has wondrous ways of surprising us. We change from decade to decade and I guess I just happened to change as a person and found that it’s not “that’s it” in my life, yet! There’s a lot of adventure left to explore, a lot more to come. 

The most important lesson I learnt this year is to appreciate what I have. I wasted all these years pining for what I did not have/get. At least not yet. I have realised that everyone has their own share of what each one gets. Some people will kill for what I have. And I have just been looking at others and hoping to get what’s on their plate without looking at the bounty I have been blessed with. Again, happiness is just a matter of perspective I guess. And what’s amazing to me is finding this state of bliss and happiness despite all the goals I have been waiting for still being out of reach.  

Bring it on, new year! I am prepared. Good, bad - all in a day’s work. It’s foolish to start with resolutions. Goals are more like my thing. I set up goals last year - to read more books and blog more often - and it worked for me. I have goals for next year - realistic ones - and I can aim at achieving them. I am no longer scared of the future like I used to be. I always worried about looking back and regretting that I did not live life right. But I think I have lived long enough to know that if you do your present right, you won’t regret the future. And even if all’s not well in the present, it will get better in the future.

How has your year been? Take time out and ponder over the blessings you got this year. I am sure you can dig out some light amidst the evident darkness. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. 

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