My first blog came out on April 14th, 2016 which was a humble attempt to create a footprint and I choose the topic of coaching. Today as I write my 100th blog, I look back. This “Blogchain” is an attempt to link and connect my past blogs.
A couple of days back while we were hearing Robert Green’s podcast, my wife asked me “What do you mean by knowing who you are?” I struggled inside to express, but finally told her my understanding of ” Who I am”. I told that I am a collision of contrarian and conformist archetypes. While I do conform to values I truly believe in, I also take a contrarian view on certain notions which I truly believe is going to shape my destiny. A simple example was three years back there was a voice dictating inside my head that you are into speaking and writing is something that you have never done. I did struggle with this from April’16 till Dec’16. I conformed to that notion that ” Yes you have not done it“. Then it was through a decision to become vulnerable that I decided to take a contrarian path with the mental make up that “if you haven’t done it so far, this is the time to go that far“. So going the distance from Blog 1 to Blog no 100 was truly an experience worth sharing and I would like to thank all the people who have encouraged me on this path. My blogging has been triggered by encounters and experiences shaped by mother, dad – father talks, daughters, wife, friends, school mates, college mates, new concepts, conversations, travel, meetings learnings, Inputs shared via Whatsapp, technology, wonders, women power, kid learnings and many more people who come into lives and you are not the same anymore. This blog is a tribute to all those people. To answer “who I am” in the context of blogging, I had to “unchain” myself inside to create this chain of Blogs for the last 3 years.
As a leader, it was important to ask this question ” Do you see through people or Do you see people through“. That was thanks to Simon Sinek who remains a major inspiration for me through his work. From Dec 12th, in the last 3 years, I had the opportunity to meet so many people while traveling. My blogging journey was shaped by my interactions with different people. I had met entrepreneurs, speakers, writers, artists in the last 3 years and they all had a great influence on me. This was a very moving experience. In one such meeting, I learned that if we have to work with the new generation of millennials and Linkers we have to empathize more.
Films had a big impact on my blogging journey. Last week I saw Lucifer. During the movie, I noticed some nice dialogues. Inspired by “Dear Zindagi” and Seth Godin I believe that ” If you think you are being risky, you are doing the safest thing you can”. I also did a word spin when we were demonetized and that made me realize that If it doesn’t challenge it does not change you. Also, it encouraged me to blog every week and I kept telling myself ” Do one thing that scares you every day. We don’t see things as they are we see things as we are.” That was a great experience when that incident opened my eyes.
What keeps me going is hearing from my readers about their experiences after reading my blog. It was inspiring to hear from my friend when she mentioned that every time she goes to a hospital and sees a Doctor who does not make eye contact she remembered my blog.
Another important learning from blogging was to look at frequency and consistency. That was only possible when I had to burn this line into my nervous system that ” Done is better than perfect”. So many times I struggled to wait for the right script, the right word, the right headlines.
I made a lot of friends on the way. It was a great opportunity to meet some Dads and Sons. There were a lot of conversations I had a chance to hear, which made me observe and introspect. It was nice to reflect on some of the titles of the blogs like Avocado Anxiety, Glassage, Confetti moments, Flat tire, Saturday Shuffle, 5 starts please, moot point, educational rockstars, etc. It was an aha moment when I saw my grandmother reading my blog. Each of these was inspired by a present moment occupation on a particular theme or notion I was hooked through a video, book or a conversation. It was also great to connect with my mother, in-laws, school friends, engineering college friends, community friends, and close relatives.
For these 100 blogs, first I would like to thank Ian for inspiring me to pick up my pen. Then I would like to thank my wife for inspiring me. Thanks to Kavita for giving me feedback and constantly commenting and encouraging. Thanks a lot to all the readers of this blog who have encouraged and supported me. We all have our quotas of setbacks and I too had my due. There was also the roar of nature and touch of recovery.
