Today I complete a year of working at my current company. As every corporate employee would relate, I’m receiving ‘work anniversary’ messages along with the usual spam of Diwali forwards. I’m sick of it to the extend that it made me come write here finally, an activity I keep postponing. Completing a year at one workplace is an achievement for me because since my graduation I’ve struggled with what I want to do (because I feel like I want to do so many things & sticking to one thing makes me feel so boxed in) and even though I’m a lawyer, I’ve worked across industries and developed enough skills to fit into multiple roles if need be. To be honest, and I’m not trying to boost, but I’ve been feeling a bit overqualified, underpaid and boxxed in here, but the thought of leaving this company scares me to the extend that I had convinced myself that we would think about it once I hit the one year mark. Here I am. And honestly, I don’t know. This whirlwind of thoughts got me thinking about commitments I had and followed through this year. Whatever happens with my career, might happen but staying for a year helped me build the confidence of committing to a workplace, team and role enough to see through the challenges. As they say, after the honeymoon period, the real test starts. It did, and here we are. Another commitment I had strongly made was to be consistent at my workouts. Post covid, I had been trying to get back to the usual workout routine I had, but it took three years, that I can finally say I’m consistent. The key to consistency is to allow yourself fail as many times you have to, swallow the pill of shame and be prepared to repeat the process.
I also finished my protein powder I had bought. I felt so proud of even consistently drinking it without excuses. Finally, can say that my protein requirements are getting fulfilled. I have had walked roughly 10,000 steps daily, wrote in my journal and read almost everyday. Whenever I gave myself break for doing it, I restarted my routine without any hesitation. Today it dawned on me, when you let yourself lean into life taking its natural course, prioritize things which are deeply in tune with yourself, the commitments are easier to follow. It is only when you keep saying ‘yes’ would you realise that what ‘no’s you have to tell.
I have also discovered the great pleasures of right company and coffees to unpack life’s heavy emotions. I did not / could not travel to far off places this year, but surely took small trips to cities to catch up with my friends which made my life’s goal clear. My life’s goal is to create things. Creating can be anything and everything under the sun. When I see life with the lenses of creating instead of consuming, it makes me feel lighter. Create memories. Create playlists. Create paintings. Create blogs. Create photographs. Create poetry. Create ‘emails’ also, perhaps. Create communities. Create to curate.
I have also realised that your enjoyment, for the labour you do to commit to something is directly proportional to have been emotionally attuned with the result. For instance, whenever I made myself workout to lose weight and look good, I lost interest in working out. I hadn’t sat myself with how emotionally wrecked it made me feel - to be that fat or have lost the attention of society which I received. Also I kept lying to myself that I should be body positive make believe supporter. But when I thought about the quality of my life and where all my time and attention is going, it made pretty much sense to put on my workout attire and spend an hour there. What else do I do after work? every. fucking. day. Commitment towards something is easier when your goal is what you make of it each day rather someday, in the future. So I’d suggest you to make a ten year plan followed by a ten day plan. Review your ten day plan along with ten year plan to see if you’re feeling 10/10 also.
I recently went to Ahmedabad for a small trip to visit a friend. I admit, I’m quite impressed with the city. The culture of art, music and architecture is so amazing that I could see myself living there. I visited Arthshilla which is a library with a collection extremely amazing books on art and culture. I sat there for two hours and the vibes were soothing. Next up, I went to Kaffa Coffee and ordered some nice lichi cold brew and my friend ordered the cascara tonic. I also bought some juicy roast for my pour over which is apparently not on their menu. Kaffa even has their tagline as ‘official drink of the dry taste’ and its true uss coffee ke nashe ho gaye the. Finally, ignoring all the possible touristy places I could go to and yapping & napping away my time there, we went to Blockheads which is a Japanese style inspired record store/ vinyl playing coffee bar. They had great records and we listed up twenty more recommendations for them, hopefully they stock up next time I visit hehe.
I’m excited for the last two months of my life considering there’s so much to look forward to. All my NRI friends would visit, there is marriage to attend, and so many gigs already booked for. Thinking of creating a separate blog for all the gigs I’ve attended. Should I? Um. Till then, adding a few song suggestions till I commit to writing on my substack, big ouch.
thank you for this!!