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warikoo Wanderings

Who do you think you are?

Published over 1 year ago • 5 min read

warikoo Wanderings

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WHO ARE YOU?
Ever wondered about this question deeply? Who are you?
It is not a stupid question, nor a trivial question either.
I would argue it is the most important question of our lives.
Who are we?

Think about it.
We have never seen ourselves (only our reflection, through mirrors).
We have never heard ourselves (only our recordings and our inner voice).
We cannot (more often than not) control our thoughts, so it's not like we are the master of our minds.
We feel all these emotions that we do not want to feel, and tend to react to them as if they rule over us.

Who are we?
Are we our body? What is unique about that?
Our face, our fingerprints?
But if our face gets burned, do we stop becoming us?
If we sadly lose our fingers, do we stop becoming us?
No, right?
So we are not our body.

And yet we spend endless time worrying about it.
We apply make up, exercise, take botox shots, spend a lifetime depressed because we want to look stronger, thinner, taller.
Or we want to fix our nose, our hair, our smile, our skin color.

Are we our emotions?
Ummm. Let's say you are angry right now. Does that emotion define you?
No, it doesn't. It is temporary.
And you experience so many emotions within a single day.
Does that mean you are have multiple identities during the day?
No, right?
So we are not our emotions.

And yet we are a slave to them.
Our emotions drive us, control us, manipulate us, stress us, entertain us, kill us!

Are we our beliefs?
But our beliefs keep changing.
I remember a time when I was CONVINCED that people who smoke and drink and party every week are bad people!
That was the judgmental me. And I am not proud of that person.
But that was my belief back then. It isn't now.
So have I changed?
Yes.
Has my existence changed?
No, right?
So we are not our beliefs.

And similarly, we are not our name, we are not our caste, we are not our success, we are not our failures.

Then who are we?
The book 'Solve for Happy' that I just finished, gave a wonderful answer.

We are an observer, of our life!
That is simply who we are.
We are not the one living our life, we are not the one experiencing our life either.
We are simply witnessing all events unfold.

And if you were to think of this for a bit, it will be a liberating feeling.
It means, nothing can touch you.
If tomorrow you lose the money you have, your life will be perhaps difficult and poor, but YOU will merely witness that.
If tomorrow you were to break up with your bf/gf/partner, your life will be sad and lonely (or perhaps happy!), but YOU will merely witness that.

You are not the one who experiences.
You are the one who sees.

But until you get to this intense realization, you will continue to live life with the most definitive definition of yourself.
YOUR EGO!

Not ego, in the sense of arrogance.
Ego, in the sense of your belief of who you are, who you should be, how you should act, who you should spend time with, how do you want to be treated.
All of these stem from our ego.
Our naïve assumption that we are we.

So - who do you think you are? :)

BOOK I AM READING THIS WEEK

Finished reading Solve For Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy
If you are a nerd, you will love this approach towards happiness. The author Mo Gawdat is a self-admitted nerd and that appealed to my nerdy side.

Started and finished Dare to Lead by Brene Brown.
Brene is one of my favorite authors and I love her approach towards leadership - especially since she actively speaks about vulnerability as a key component of it.
The book is a simple yet powerful read. Highly recommended for managers.

Started reading India's Most Fearless 2: More Military Stories of Unimaginable Courage and Sacrifice
Unbelievably courageous stories of men and women of the Indian defenses, who on a daily basis risk their lives (and often sacrifice it as well) for our safety. This was recommended by Aditya Kondawar (thanks) alongwith my next read.
Liking this so far. If you love reading stories of courage and valor, this one is certainly for you!

Do Epic Shit is FINALLY in audio (yay!).
I had an awesome time recording it in my voice and it is exclusively on Audible.
If you are into audio books - consider listening to this one :)
adbl.co/doepicshit

If you prefer printed books then pick up the book in English (Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle) Hindi, Marathi and Tamil.
200,000+ copies sold.
5 more languages coming up! (Including Portuguese)

QUOTES TO SHARE

Stop trying to impress people with your epic life, and start living it.
​(Share on Twitter)​

If you want to be professionally successful, start making your boss’s life easier.
​(Share on Twitter)​​​

It's ok to want to be happy, instead of rich.
​(Share on Twitter)​​​

RESPONSES TO LAST WEEK'S QUESTION

Last week I asked you:

If you are working, what do you prefer? If you are not working, what would you prefer?

  1. In office 5/6 days a week
  2. In office 4 days a week, rest WFH
  3. In office 3 days/week, rest WFH
  4. In office 2 days/week, rest WFH
  5. In office only 1 day/week, rest WFH
  6. Fully WFH

Here are the responses:

Observations:

  • The younger people are, the more they seem to want to spend at least 'some' time at office.
  • Notice how the desire to work full from home increases as people get more experienced.
  • Clearly, the majority across age groups prefers 1/2/3 days at work - which I think is a really good balance.
  • I am surprised there are still ~10% odd people who wish to come to office everyday!
  • I would imagine a better indicator of the results would be the function people have. For ex: Tech might not feel the need to go to office ever, whiles sales/marketing might feel the need to, almost daily.

My response?
If I were going to office right now, I too would prefer between 2/3 days of office everyday and the rest as WFH. Allows you to interact with your team members and still have 2/3 days where you work at your own pace - undisturbed!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK

This week's heritage walk was to the Safdarjung Tomb, in Delhi. One of the lesser of the grand monuments built during the Mughal era, in Delhi, but stunning nonetheless. I love the symmetrical nature of the architecture.

I also love clicking reflections in water!

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

If you are sad, what do you prefer?

  1. To be left alone
  2. Have someone to cheer me up/to talk to

​Click here to let me know your answer (anonymously)​​​​

CONTENT I SHARED THIS WEEK

Podcast:
Title of episode: Life comes a full circle
Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, JioSaavn, Gaana or YouTube.

YouTube:
13 hacks to save money
You can watch it here.

Instagram:
Our parents will go away, one day
You can watch it here.

Twitter:
It's ok
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.
​​(Lunch mein rajma chawal khaane ki kasam! Slurp!)

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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