#Grateful : Volume I

It’s a skill I used to be exceptionally good at back in college, but something I have somehow lost touch with and stopped practicing.  It’s a shame really, because it’s one of the few habits I think, looking back, which actually kept me sane and happy.

I went through a period of thinking that being grateful was for the weak.  If you are too grateful, you stop “achieving” things in life.  Whatever that means (trust me, I had no clue).  Anyway, I did try that for a while, turns out it’s a load of garbage.  I also thought oh hey, I think I need to be mean to be “successful” (read: Steve Jobs).  Turns out everyone now agrees that’s not true either.

That was about the time, 2 years ago, I stopped reading all of these things and just started thinking for myself, experimenting with ways of being on my own.  (Turns out, that’s totally a thing too– stop reading, do it yourself, write about your learnings).

Fast forward two years and here we are.  Sort of back to square 1.  Hopefully slightly older and wiser, with small twists to an otherwise solid habit.

All right.  On to the list.  5 things.  Just jumping right into it, things I am grateful for:

• Friends that don’t get offended when I don’t call back on time, or respond to emails after millions of years, or visiting/hanging out after god knows when, and know that it’s one of the things I’m working on, and accept me for that. And we just pick up right where we left off. It’s beautiful.
• Friends and family that understand when I am flakey.  I don’t try to be on purpose, but I overcommit like nobody’s business because I sincerely wish I could be everywhere doing everything.  I’m working on it, again, but they know that it’s a thing, and they deal with it in stride.  My family especially, I think.  But other people too.  I am grateful that they understand and don’t take it personally.
• The people I work with at NextDrop: They are brilliant, quirky, and amazing individuals who I learn from on a daily basis.  We seriously make magic happen, and have been doing so for a while.  I am so blown away by what we’ve been able to accomplish.  I don’t get to tell them that enough.  I’m trying to start.
• The things I get to do at work: I get to work with brilliant people solving some of the most interesting problems facing humanity, AND PEOPLE PAY FOR ME TO COME TALK ABOUT IT.  Who gets tickets to Stockholm, San Francisco, New York, Delhi, Mumbai PAID FOR?! Yeah. Jesus I need to be grateful for these things.
• The people I get to meet through work: It’s amazing how many people are so generous with their time and love to just lend a helping hand/give advice when we need it.  I get to meet the most brilliant people, and most importantly, have actual conversations with them: From Paul Polman to Naveen Tewari to Desh Deshpande to Chamath Palihapitiya to lesser known but equally brilliant people that continue to blow my mind.  Whenever I talk to them, I feel like I see the world in a completely different way, like a kid in a candy store, who just learned of the awesomeness which is Laffy Taffy (SO GOOD BTW).

I think I’m going to try to make it a weekly thing.  Friday 5 things list.