The 8 commandments of being independent

Short, sweet, subtle.

Raw and Real Conversation

Happy Independence Day weekend my friend!!!

I was about to write a deep post like usual, but then I thought today is the weekend most people won’t have anything planned. So let’s keep it light yet something super meaningful.

I keep thinking about freedom to do what you want all of the time, so I came up with a few short pointers about what freedom actually means.

Here are 8 commandments of being independent (8, because we are entering the 8th decade of independence)?

1. To do what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do. Discipline is the greatest form of independence.

   

2. When you work, you work with focus. Distractions = giving up your freedom.

3. To go for a walk outdoors (preferably nature — park, beach if you have access, a water body, for example my hometown Kota has this wonderful Riverfront, Kota Barrage and Kishor Sagar Talab) every day. You do not understand what it does to you, unless you experience it yourself.

4. To forgive people without ever hoping for an apology for them. Yes, please stay careful in the future, but holding on to someone else’s wrongdoings is doing nothing right to you.

5. To have the courage to spend time with yourself, alone. Again, every single day. If you always need people or devices or music, you are never free.

6. To obviously never be extremely elated by joy or exhausted by pain. Life is a cycle, and people’s opinions and life situations do not hold the power to send you into extreme emotions.

7. To deal with your daddy issues, which basically means: Doing things just to prove it to your Dad, and then realising it is an issue. So you deal with it. You’d be surprised to know we do so many things just to listen “I am proud of you” from our fathers ONCE IN OUR LIFETIME, but we may never be able to listen to it. Often for no other reason that they have their own Daddy issues they aren’t even aware of. The freedom from the generational trauma begins with you.

8. Lastly, to always be a little underemployed. What this means is, you take on less work than you can. This way, when something exciting comes up, you have the time, but most importantly, the energy to do it. That, my friend, is the greatest degree of freedom.

2 Raw One-Liners:

• Only you have more money than ever you realise that the biggest form of richness is a mind that can sit with focus. And a mind that can chill without worrying about work.

• Nothing bigger than the joy of not knowing what is going on in the “latest OTT show”.

3 (for) Real good articles/notes I found on the internet you must read this weekend:

1. I’m begging you, never write with AI: Bret Stephens, NY Times (Note from me, I am requesting you, please please read this article. Someone shared a picture form of it too somewhere on the internet, and now it forever lives with me:

   

2. Seth’s Riffs: Seth Godin (I’m planning to create an archive of all of mine also, into an ebook. Mostly to make sure people stay away from phone. Dear God, but first, I need energy.)

3. 10 years in Delhi: Yours truly (only because today is the day of the Red Fort in Delhi) :)

Have a great weekend and freedom from your own bondages, y’all!

Nishtha Gehija

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