This is not the message you want to hear
But this is the message you need
Raw and Real Conversation
Perfection is the mask of procrastination.
When we are trying too much to make things perfect, we are running away from the action we need to take.
When we take the action we need to take, we might fail. It means we would have to try something different. So we stay stuck in perfection paralysis.
Or we get busy scrolling. “I haven’t had the time.”
We say too many yes-es. It takes away from the responsibility of the thing we want to be doing.
Or we create a life of complexity. Too much research. Too much mess in the room. Too many open tabs. So that procrastination takes on.
Or we organise meetings. Meetings to talk about things that could have been a half-sentence email. But we like looking busy. Because when we look busy, we take away from productive and empty time. When we take away from productive and empty time, we do not have to do the thing we want to be doing.
All of this gets harder if you are making good money. Because now the only reason you gotta take action is for your soul. The bank account is already nourishing itself.
You get all the success in the world first, thinking you will fill your soul later. Only to realise that as you kept chasing success, the soul is now empty.
But the thing about soul is it never withers away. What you have always wanted to do is something you will always see yourself walking towards.
You gotta listen. Not to prove it to anyone. Not to be able to afford that team or that car or that property in Central Delhi. Just for the sake of doing things.
In the movie Piku, Deepika Padukone has a line; “After a certain age, parents cannot stay alive by themselves alone. We gotta work to keep them alive.” I’d extrapolate that to our souls too. After a certain point, the soul is ready to wither. It is only the soul that can save itself from death while still having a functioning heart.
When your life is not set and it is struggling to keep itself alive, the soul is blooming at its finest. Then life goes on and the soul gets suppressed. But there is always some part of the soul that is crumbling, that needs to come alive, if we let it.
Sometimes we need rest to let it come alive. Sometimes we need to just listen to ourselves. Sometimes we need to stop listening to everyone else. Sometimes we need to go with the flow. Sometimes we just need to turn off the internet.
But the only cure is action.
2 Raw One-Liners:
“Good and true things are easy,” Kate Capshaw, wife of Steven Spielberg, to Taylor Swift
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” — The Great Gatsby
3 (for) Real cool pictures from my gallery
Found some on Substack, some in my screenshots. Feel free to let me know of the original post if you know them, I’ll tag them
Nishtha Gehija
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