Introducing myself | Sans my professional life

The identity of a person could be defined through innumerable variables. By what they think, their life and work experience what they aspire to be or by what they have accomplished, or the pain that they have felt. The list can go on. I find talking about self, sans a professional lens quite challenging. Hence decided to give it a shot.

I wish I could say that I had it all figured while I lived my last 30 years. However, I have figured out a large chunk of things that I don’t enjoy or want to do much of and while consciously trying to do more of things that put me into a state of flow. There are years where I have lost myself and then moments that have left me transformed or pivoted my life completely. I think your 20’s should be about misadventures, messing up, and rebuilding. I am glad to say that I have had more than my share of mess-ups.

I would call myself a realist, so I am happy to undertake certain steps that make me materially comfortable in life. Unfortunately, the problem with a definition based life is that it buckets and limits you. I try to live my life basis basic fundamentals instead which sometimes are confusing for an outsider but in the long run, make life fairly simple to live by.

The beauty of life is that actually there is no purpose. This thought can either make you fearless and liberated to do whatever you want to or completely pull you down making you suffer from the vicious cycle of existential angst. It’s about how you look at it.

They say that life is to be lived by a structure and manner but the older you grow the more you realize that its just organized chaos.

For me, life is this game where I collect maximum points by being exposed to the maximum range of emotions, experiences, highs, and lows. “Life is always more interesting at the edge” is a line that really resonates with me(But not as a death wish, rather as pushing in order to explore what else is possible). It’s when I am in unique situations is when I learn the most about myself and what is life if not exploring what lies in our biomechanical spacesuit of a body that we all reside in.

I have realized that major life goals are not what I live for. They are simply a byproduct of a well-lived life. However, I do get a lot of happiness from the process of feeling like I am achieving or working towards my potential and becoming a better, wiser, and more aware version of myself.

Why you might ask do I want to get better? Its because I want to experience more through different life lenses and that is most enjoyable if I am becoming ever-evolving and transforming into a stronger being.

My favorite activity of myself is to look back every year and laugh at how narrow my perspective or experiences in life were. It’s this process that gives me immense satisfaction.

Show me a tree and I will climb it. I love letting loose and looking at life as a string of interesting experiences. I am happy after my body has moved in any form of exercise. It puts me in a state of flow and focus. I love long runs, long walks, pushing my body to the limit in any form of exercise while listening to some instrumental blues guitar. My life long dream has been to learn a form of fighting.

I am an eternal optimist, ruthless to eliminate things that hold me back and driven by a sense of purpose to live my life to the fullest and experience the most disconnected of things. I love the process of doing things that make no sense and try to fuse very different ideas and find a way to make something work(The sense that comes out of it is mostly retrospective). Maybe this is why I am happiest in ecosystems that thrive in innovation, collaboration, and speed.

I love to be the center of attention in a party, love to spend long days with my friends and family, connect and help and build with half the world and then I love my yoga by the ocean for weeks at an end spent in isolation or go to remote areas for my Vipassana. As someone extremely close to me says. Three variables in life — Wealth, love, and Flexibility. I hold each of them extremely close to me.

I love my single malt or splurging on a month-long exploratory backpacking trip to a new country or on things that help me become more efficient or productive but at the same time, I try never to possess more than what I truly need to achieve my goals in life. I avoid flab or anything that slows me down like the plague. I believe in investing and saving for a better tomorrow or a rainy day. I am always learning to better manage my finances and I am not ashamed of the concept of money or the power that it holds to eliminate the smaller troubles in life. I love the concept and respect the importance of creating multi-generational wealth but I will not allow these things to hold me back from a better today. I just aim to figure out ways to build them on the way.

I identify and embrace the love and support that my loved ones can give me and I work hard to ensure that I always have them around me. A life without love, affection, and support of your partner, family, and community is not a life lived, well according to me.

We are going to be living 100-year lives and the conventional time frames are fast becoming redundant. Pain, happiness, failure, and success will come and go even more in our long term lives. While burnouts become more common, opportunities to rebuild will also come aplenty. What stays is your health, the tribe that you build along the way, and the impact that you create.

If you remember nothing about the above. Remember this. You can remember me as the guy who is having a hell of a time, trying crazy fun things and looks at life through an abundance mindset where I truly feel that success and happiness can truly be a variable in everyone’s life and I am always willing to sit and brainstorm ways to create the same for the both of us(Yes you, dear reader).

The more you travel the more you realize that life is not a zero-sum game. If you have a mindset to build you can never be short of resources, the world has plenty. (Yes I also can accept that this comes from a certain amount of privilege and I always try to find ways to equalize it)

To know more about my professional journey. Well, you can always just check out my Linkedin :)