Entrepreneur, Author, Content Creator with 9M+ followers across platforms. I share this newsletter every Friday around personal growth, books, quotes, pictures - it is the most personal version of me online.
What is your excuse?
warikoo Wanderings
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WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?
Got an email from Anshuman on Feb 19th.
"I stay in a Tier 3 city. Have graduated in Commerce and currently working in my father's business. We are clocking 8 Crores revenue and employ 150 people.
But I do not feel happy or fulfilled.
I feel I have a networking disadvantage being in a Tier 3 city as no mentors and advisors are available here.
Do you feel that I need to change something or try out new things in order to find what would really make me happy?"
I replied
"What do you think is missing?"
"If I try to sum it up, the thing that's missing is Clarity of Purpose."
"What do you think it could be? What are the options?"
"Writing. Content Creation."
"What is stopping you?"
"I do not have any prior educational background/experience in both things. There are no mentors available locally in both fields. Self-learning demands full-time work and focus and most of my time gets consumed in my business (8-10 hours a day)."
"Brilliant. You have excuses. What do you need from me then?"
Excuses are wonderful.
They make us feel that something or someone else is controlling us and until that is fixed, we will not be able to move forward.
We make excuses, as if it is a replacement for doing the actual thing.
"Why was this not done on time?"
"Oh, because something came up last minute."
"Why are you still in this toxic job?"
"Oh, because I do not get time to search for a new one."
"Why are you this way?"
"Oh, it is because of my childhood experiences."
We almost always have the right excuse, to excuse us from doing what needs to be done.
But here is the truth about excuses.
They DO NOT move us forward.
Instead, they make us feel helpless, make us feel we need to wait, make us feel good about the fact that we have an excuse to explain our actions.
All of which are emotions in vain.
Here is an alternate.
Sit with yourself and think deeply about your current state.
Ask yourself, what is it that I am doing wrong, that I KNOW I am doing wrong.
And find out what you need to do to fix it.
It will not be an answer that you will like.
Because that answer will be hard, difficult, will scare you, will force you out of your comfort zone.
But it is the answer you need.
It is the answer that will no longer need any excuses for you to live with!
BOOK I AM READING THIS WEEK
This week I am reading Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
An incredible book by Robert Cialdini (I had read his earlier book Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion sometime back) and this is a follow up to the book.
This book centers around how do you persuade people and what are the psychological techniques that can help. Game changer, if you are struggling to persuade people, whether personal or professional life.
My book DO EPIC SHIT touched sales of 1,20,000+ which is incredible. If you haven't read it till now, you can consider ordering it here :)
QUOTES TO SHARE
Spend more time appreciating others than you spend on waiting for others to appreciate you.
(Share on Twitter)
Nobody can affect you (positively and negatively) more than your parents.
(Share on Twitter)
If the climb is tough, but needs to be done, then ignore the mountain in front of you.
Take the smallest possible step forward to get you started.
(Share on Twitter)
RESPONSES TO LAST WEEK'S QUESTION
Last week I asked you:
How often do you use a pen/pencil for writing?
- Daily
- Once every 2-3 days
- Once every week
- Don't usually write.
Here are the responses:
Observations:
- As we start working, writing goes down from daily, to 2-3 days.
- Around 10% of people do not usually write anymore. Wow!
- Students below the age of 18 are still writing actively. So are people above 40, but then I reckon they write because they grew up writing.
- Which means, the 40-year-olds, 20 years from now, will not be writing as much as the 40-year-olds today!
Unsolicited advice?
Please write. Writing is the slowest form of expression.
When you write, you train yourself to pace your thoughts and select the most powerful one from all the thoughts that co-exist in that moment.
PICTURE OF THE WEEK
We had an offline convocation for our course "How to YouTube", for the 30 creators of the founding batch. This picture is from the evening, of my team along with Eeshitwa (a graduating student of the batch).
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Which of these do you use the most?
- YouTube
- Netflix/Amazon Prime/Sony Liv
- Spotify
Click here to let me know your answer (anonymously)
CONTENT I SHARED THIS WEEK
Podcast:
Title of episode: 25 Immensely powerful life hacks
Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, JioSaavn, Gaana or YouTube.
YouTube:
Title of video: Retire with 4 Crores!
You can watch it here.
Instagram:
Title of video: 3 books for your 20s
You can watch it here.
Twitter:
Title of thread: 25 Immensely powerful life hacks
You can read it here.
You can, of course, always write to me by simply replying to this newsletter.
I love reading all your emails, even though I may not be able to reply to them all.
Yes! I READ ALL MY EMAILS. ALL OF THEM.
(Starbucks mein free wifi ki kasam)
You can share this newsletter on WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn or view it on the web.
warikoo Wanderings
by Ankur Warikoo
Entrepreneur, Author, Content Creator with 9M+ followers across platforms. I share this newsletter every Friday around personal growth, books, quotes, pictures - it is the most personal version of me online.
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