teshmbaabu

It’s my birthday today! And I’m going to share 23 things I have realised looking back at the last/first 23 years of my life, hoping you will derive meaningful insights from them.

Mostly, the 23 uncategorized things will be in relation to the things I value most; my family, my businesses and my happiness (staying #HighOnLife)

Ok before I launch into the list, 1 update! We will be launching Cloud 9 Experiences in a few days time, one of the most exciting and promising concepts that we have been able to bring to life after more than one year of working it out. We realise that you become happier not by accumulating more things but by creating richer experiences. And that is precisely what we have in store for you, so stay tuned!

Okay, here we go:

1. I’m not the centre of the universe. The world doesn’t care about you. It’s normal to be intensely aware of everything that’s going on in your own life, but you need to pay as much attention to what’s happening around you, and how things affect other people in the world as you do to your own life.
2. Keep the main thing the main thing; focus! Because success has less to do with hard work and more to do with massive focus on your few best opportunities.
3. One of the differences between undergrad and the post-graduate life is who writes the syllabi. During undergrad, it is your professor. After school, it is you!
4. Your body & mind are your most valuable assets. Invaluable treasures—always appreciate, nurture, and protect them.
5. When you are young, your greatest asset is not your talent, not your ideas, not your experience, but your time. Time grants you the opportunity to take big risks and make big mistakes.
6. A year from now, you will wish you had started saving/investing today. Talk less. Do more.
7. Communication is the real work of leadership. Emotional intelligence is so incredibly underrated in adulthood.
8. Everything that occurs teaches and prepares you for the next stage of life. I used to want to plan my life and have things happen “this way and that and by this time and that” but now I’ve learnt to take things one at a time and step by step. Nothing is lost.
9. Your value does not have to be recognized by someone else in order for it to be valid. No one actually knows what the hell they’re doing. Pace yourself, everyone else is just working off of their current best guess.
10. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and dedicate yourself to something that is bigger than yourself.
11. Have the discipline to clean out all the energy-draining people in your life. You really do rise or fall to the level of your associations.
12. Opportunities do not float on the sky like clouds, they are connected to people. Cultivate friendships. Connect!
13. There will be fears and there will be dreams. Don’t let the fears stop you from accomplishing your dreams by taking steps one by one to make your dreams come true. And your dreams will cost you a lot. Don’t quit.
14. There is an under-appreciated profoundness in clichés. Don’t stress over the small stuff, it won’t matter a year from now, YOLO! (you only live once)
15. At the same time, do not gamble with your life. It is not a lottery ticket. Take your life seriously!
16. Nothing in your life has to change for you to be happier except your thoughts. The secret to happiness is the acceptance of yourself.
17. Work on prospering in an AND world, not an OR world. You could succeed and others could success too. Most of the times, it is possible to have a win/win situation.
18. The sum of the little things matters much more than the big things. We dream so big because we don’t yet realise that those “one big things” are actually comprised of hundreds and thousands of daily small things/decisions that must be silently and unceremoniously done and maintained over long periods of time.
19. Adore your parents. They are people too. We often don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone: that includes your health, your family and friends, your job, the money you have or think you will have tomorrow.
20. I have been ‘single’ for the last/first 22 years of my life. I just realised that love is more than a feeling; it’s a choice. And being single is not a disease.
21. Not everyone is going to understand your vision. And that is completely okay. You don’t need everyone to agree with you or even like you. It’s human nature to want to belong, to be liked, respected and valued, but not at the expense of your integrity and happiness.
22. You don’t always get what you want. No matter how carefully you plan and how hard you work, sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want them to… and that’s okay.
23. Above all, always trust in the ‘slow’ work of God. Have faith!

Bonus: Be a student of life.  Indulge in it and absorb all the knowledge you can, while you can.  You may have to loose some things to gain some things, and you may have to learn some things the hard way.  That’s okay.  All experiences are necessary.

The purpose of your life is to live it in full, to partake in it to the utmost, to reach out with an open mind and an honest heart for the newest and richest experience being offered.

That is all for now! I hope you enjoyed reading!

Stay #HighOnLife!