Category: Opinion

Everything I write is my honest opinion based on my personal experience.

  • is holding you back.

    When you stop insisting on being right, you open the door to more open conversations.

    It means you are ready to let go of your biases and are open to opposing views.

    Keeping an open mind creates a scope for new perspectives.

    For instance, even if you don’t like orthodox opinions, being open to listening to them can help you understand different behavioral patterns and thought processes.

    Your approach can be more inclusive when dealing with people from diverse backgrounds and inclinations.

    You also develop humility – a valuable trait in personal and professional relationships.

    It’s easy to declare your personal bias and shoot down any opposing views with critiques and logical arguments.

    But by doing so, you miss the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of and learning from different viewpoints.

    This will eventually help you either to be firm with your beliefs or alter them for good because you found something else more apt.

    Wisdom is not about believing in something and standing by it no matter what.

    It’s accepting that different views exist and for a good reason.

    And doing so makes you precious.

  • so manage your schedule accordingly.

    There is a thing called creator’s block which means no matter how hard you try; you can’t come up with a creative idea.

    But we are not discussing creator’s block today.

    Ever felt that there are times during the day when you experience a constant inflow of creative ideas without making an effort?

    You’re sitting in silence thinking about random stuff and you’re thinking of so many cool ways to do stuff that you wonder what a creative genius you are!

    For some, this happens early in the morning and others are blessed with super charged creative minds late at night.

    If your work rewards being creative, then you must not let this time go to waste.

    Utilize it for creative work like writing, drawing, brainstorming ideas etc.

    Reactive work like checking and responding to emails or phone calls do not need that much creativity so you can come back to those at some other time.

    But try not to waste this time binge-watching Netflix or doomscrolling reels – it’s wasted potential!

    This way, you can really tap into those creative juices and create great stuff.

    What would you prefer to do in these sessions?

  • Let’s explore our love for solitude.

    When you prefer solitude over hanging out with people, you are perceived as lonely.

    However, nothing can be far from truth because loneliness is not a choice – it’s a feeling of disconnection from others.

    It may be caused by trauma, mental health issues, chronic stress, emotional detachment, or social isolation. It’s temporary and can be fixed.

    Solitude, on the other hand, is a deliberate choice and can be deeply fulfilling.

    It helps you understand yourself better by reflecting on your thoughts and feelings.

    By forming a strong connection with yourself, you experience lasting personal growth.

    Reconnecting with your past interests irrespective of whether they make you money, helps you reconnect with your true self.

    You learn to take life less seriously and as a result, most issues seem petty, and you tend not to overthink those.

    You get better at dealing with life’s challenges and staying grounded.

    Ironically, loneliness can be more intense in crowded cities than in remote areas.

    Many creative people choose the latter to find peace and inspiration. The key is to feel empowered and self-reliant rather than constantly seeking outward validation.

    If you love solitude and avoid social gatherings, know that it’s not only normal but healthier.

    Spend your time the way you want to, not the way you’re supposed to.

    How do you like to spend your free time?

    P.S. I’ve also made a video on this. You can watch it here if you like.

  • – easier said than done.

    Seeking people’s validation on various aspects of your life is something often frowned upon but only when discussing the concept, because everybody does so to some extent.

    Introverts are generally less prone because of their need for lack of exposure.

    But…

    It’s not practical to teach someone who has built a mansion with their hard-earned money for the purpose of impressing their peers.

    Moreover, it’s not just a choice, it’s a value system one builds their life upon.

    How can you let go of something you’ve always believed in?

    Your childhood dreams revolve around getting an “awe” from random people.

    You want to show your parents that you’re better than that studious kid they wanted you to take inspiration from.

    And you want to prove to your ex what a big mistake it was dumping you.

    There’s too much baggage to simply forget about all this and start not caring about anyone’s opinion.

    But what makes doing so the most difficult is the hard truth that if you’ve nobody to impress, you have nothing else to work for.

    You might consider renunciation of all material things and be the modern Buddha.

    Wait, it actually makes sense.

    Because Buddha did so to find the purpose of life, and this is exactly what you’re missing – a purpose that relates more to your fulfilment regardless of how the world sees you.

    You’re looking at doing a bit of reverse engineering on your psyche and figure out what really gives you that sense of fulfilment.

    Is it the praise you get from your friends for humming a popular song occasionally

    or is it to pursue your childhood dream of being a professional singer?

    Is it the pat on the back you get from your boss for being articulate in your emails to clients

    or is it finishing that draft of a fiction novel you started writing during college?

    Is it always owning the latest iPhone or is it living phone-free on weekends so you can own your me time?

    Once you realize the core elements that offer you true fulfilment

    and deal with your insecurities of not being able to prove to the world what you’re worth,

    you can start building a life whose sole point is aligning with your needs and values.

    And the deeper you go the less you feel the need for validation.

    It’s like deaddiction from the high you get in cheers and addiction to appreciating what means the most to you.

    And just like getting sober, it’s a slow process but worth it.

  • because otherwise, they own you.

    There some things you just can’t own.

    You may have exclusive possessions of these, but you can’t really be their master.

    (Don’t be offended by the implied slavery, I’m talking about things.)

    Let me explain with an example.

    Imagine you bought the most expensive car you dream of buying.

    After the initial phase of trying out what it can offer wears off, you must get back to your routine car because nobody takes a Lambo to work.

    Now either of two things will happen:

    • You won’t drive it as much because it doesn’t really fit into your life. It’s a luxury car and you’ll only take it out on occasion.
      Ironically, the more expensive it is, the less it will be used but you still have to spend time and money on its maintenance and cleaning.

    • You make time to drive it regularly because hey, it’s your dream car! So, you used to have 50 things on your daily schedule and now, you have 51.

    Either way, the car owns you and I won’t even explain how.

    Just know that you paid money for the car to buy your services of cleaning, servicing, and taking it out for a drive.

    And what do you get in return? Some strangers are impressed every now and then – none of whom actually cares about you.

    They’d be just as impressed or even more, if your dog drove that car instead of you.

    My point is – you own only those things that serve you and not the other way around.

    They are supposed to offer you more free time to focus on things that matter, like driving your newly bought car.

    Now go clean it!

  • Actually, it’s great for everybody.

    FYI, when I say I’ll do something tomorrow on a Saturday, it means I’ll do it on Monday. I suck at remembering which day, date, or time it is. Actually, I am terrible with names and numbers in any form.

    Now, on to today’s edition…

    Introverts are super reactive to noise and by noise, I mean anything that seems pointless.

    It could be small talk, exchanging greetings or a pretentious speech from a politician about how much they care for the people.

    Absence of noise makes it easy to organize your thoughts and ideas because there is nothing cluttering your mind.

    And a decluttered mind often reflects in everything around you – your organized desk, cupboard, furniture, and your desktop – they all follow a pattern of looking clean.

    In fact, it works both ways. When you look at clean and organized surroundings, your mind automatically feels relieved and light.

    Empty spaces are so calming and relaxing.

    They also reduce decision fatigue by not making you decide which piece of furniture to settle your ass on when all you have is a bean bag.

    Decision fatigue is the way you feel tired after making a certain number of decisions in a day (also the reason some big shots wear same color hoodies every day).

    The absence of a spare chair also means nobody in the house can sit near you and bother you while you want to live in solitude, lost in imagination.

    So, basically, anything you don’t really need is a burden on you, and you should get rid of them.

    Because eventually you’d realize that possession of something owns you rather than the other way around.

    No need to believe my words, learn from a little exercise:

    Next time you sell something you’re hoping to replace – your furniture, some gadget, or a fancy showpiece, wait for a month before buying a new one.

    If you feel that not having it means less work cleaning, maintaining, and keeping on possessing it, you can consider not buying a new one at all.

    If it makes you feel less cluttered, proactively get rid of everything unnecessary that you haven’t really used for a year – old books, clothes, accessories and so on.

    Some items could be hard to let go of because of the memories associated with them. Consider giving them away to someone you know, who would use them more often than you do.

    It’s like giving your pet away for adoption when you’re moving abroad. You can revisit whenever you want.

    If you happen to embrace minimalism, I’d love to know how it’s going.

    I am slowly getting used to the idea myself and learning to let go.

  • and how to let go of the ones that aren’t.

    Even if you live for a hundred years each, that’s like a blip compared to the whole timeline of this planet, whose whole timeline is a blip if we look at the universe.

    The point is – your existence doesn’t matter as much as you give it credit for.

    And yet, you keep on hoarding stuff that can last several lifetimes, like your old books, an empty box of your TV that stopped working a decade ago, corroded screws that you don’t remember where you got them from – you get the idea!

    You often hold on to things for the sake of the memories attached to them.

    You can’t go back in time and relive those, but you so desperately want to that you keep holding on to things that remind you of them.

    This is fine because nostalgia is mostly a happy place to revisit. It rejuvenates your childish silliness and gives you a refill of genuine happiness that you don’t feel any longer among people of your age – even the ones you have known since childhood.

    I mean what else do you expect from them; they’re busy raising kids older than how old they were in those memories.

    Reliving that childhood would be silly. But what’s wrong with being silly?

    Probably nothing, but you know society and its lack of creativity and tolerance for silliness.

    And you must comply with societal norms regardless of how they don’t seem so normal anymore, do they?

    But I am digressing. My point is – there is nothing wrong with holding on to things that represent your happy memories.

    It’d be a great idea to rummage through all that old stuff once a year – throw away the stuff that doesn’t hold such value (because minimalism) and think about why the rest of the stuff makes you feel so happy.

    It can be therapeutic.

    We Indians do something similar once a year because we have this ritual of cleaning the house thoroughly right before the festival of Diwali (like Christmas except instead of receiving gifts, we expect hard cash from the Goddess of wealth to buy whatever we want).

    It’s fascinating – Google it!

    I wanted to end this on the benefit of not owning stuff, but you know how powerful nostalgia can be. We’ll talk about minimalism tomorrow.

  • as a valuable personality trait.

    Seeing real gems through all that noise is super hard; not everyone can do so.

    But those who can are mostly introverted and they have this peculiar quality of avoiding exposure at all costs.

    Changing the norms takes real courage, intent, and commitment.

    Introverted leaders have that but making the world see the value of introverts is not on the top of their priorities.

    • They’re busy focusing on the project at hand.

    • They also need time for self-reflection and revisiting their inner world.

    • Whatever time is left, they utilize it to prepare for getting out there in the noisy world.

    And until the world sees a BANG, they won’t suddenly acknowledge introverts as invaluable pillars of innovation and progress.

    It is happening but not at the pace people like us want it to.

    Moreover, before the world can accept it, introverts themselves struggle at embracing their introversion.

    We still see many pretending to be loud while draining their small social batteries.

    Only by being authentic can introverts expect to be acknowledged, accepted, and make the world change their norms to accommodate their preferences.

    Like:

    • Respect for their solitude

    • Work environment tailored to their needs

    • Let them be instead of forcing them to deal with the noisy ones

    • Not subject them to pointless mundane conversations.

    What else would you like the world to do differently?

  • and you always want them by your side.

    The famous, powerful, and happy looking people often get all the attention when you look at the world to pick just a few.

    But when it comes to finding a loyal, dependable, and truly supportive one, introverts take the lead. Let me explain (or watch me).

    For starters, they don’t act to please anybody so their reactions and responses are genuine – might not boost your morale all the time but if you want to look into a mirror, they are your guys.

    An introvert would seldom sugarcoat anything just to make it sound good.

    Ironically, this is also why some don’t like their company.

    Speaking of which, introverts are often misunderstood and overlooked because of their quiet demeanor and disinterest in being the chosen one.

    But their honesty is refreshing regardless.

    Their raw and genuine perspective often comes from having faced their own darkness and emerging stronger.

    They are not only comfortable with their darkness, but they also know how to manage it better than anyone else.

    Despite their sometimes-cynical view of people, they have a deep compassion for individuals, even when it’s not easy.

    In life’s toughest moments, you want them by your side.

    Do you have someone who fits this description?

  • Every introvert is asked this more than once.

    Sometimes, this question makes you worry that being alone might seem lonely.

    But spending time alone is essential for introverts.

    Solitude plays a crucial role in your personal growth and happiness.

    Susan Cain, author of “Quiet,” says:

    “Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured… Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.”

    Embrace your introverted nature without fear of judgment.

    Solitude and loneliness are not the same.

    Solitude is a choice and can be fulfilling, while loneliness is feeling disconnected.

    Blaise Pascal once said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

    This shows the importance of reflecting on our thoughts and feelings.

    For introverts, alone time is essential for building a relationship with yourself.

    It helps you form a stronger self-connection and promotes personal growth.

    Alone time lets you rediscover activities and hobbies you enjoyed in childhood but abandoned due to societal pressures.

    Robin Williams talked about the importance of staying playful.

    His childlike energy and humor brought joy to millions and helped him stay grounded.

    Staying connected to your playful side can boost your happiness and well-being.

    Loneliness can be more intense in crowded cities.

    Georgia O’Keeffe, the pioneering American modernist artist from the early 1900s, felt lonelier in New York City than in remote New Mexico.

    She found peace and strength in solitude, which inspired her greatest works.

    Her experience shows that being content alone can provide empowerment and self-reliance.

    Embrace solitude to develop a deeper relationship with yourself.

    Rediscover your true interests and find strength in your own company.

    The next time you have alone time, see it as an opportunity for growth and self-discovery.