4 Years of Blogging

The more you learn, the more you’re able to connect the dots, which not only widens your current perspective to a newer level but also makes you question everything you already know and simply revisit that. Something along those lines happened to me, in 2019, when this wave of thoughts – newer because of the learning and older that were now being perceived through a different lens – and I wondered how can I streamline these thoughts, and not only that, but
– how can I better understand these thoughts?
– how can I merge two different thought lines into one and figure out where it leads?
– how can I allow one thought to go deeper into layers I hadn’t explored before?

The answer to that, at the time, lay in front of me, in the form of a blog. While image-based, video-based, and audio-based creations were on the rise back then, for my form of expression, which I felt comfortable with and the depth which I needed to explore, text-based blogs were the answer. 

But it wasn’t so simple, because even if one is blogging, a lot of people come up with trending topics or the basics of a topic which people search for, so they get more views – thus, trying to make their information generic and accessible to many. I remember, at the time, I had to overcome this thought of views and reach, and simply focus on this outlet that allows me to explore more, without any boundaries or guidelines, allows me to delve deeper into a topic, and only focus on writing more and not limiting my writing to a certain point.

It meant that I had to walk on a path where I constantly learn and those learning avenues aren’t limited to one topic or one individual, conversations with people don’t stay limited to a singular topic and in all these areas, awareness had to be brought in, so I can pay attention to what I am listening to, what I am reading or watching, how two dots can connect, how the information of a topic can inspire the questions of another topic.

The blog, with a certain rule, that it had to be written every day, gave way to a multitude of growth opportunities, that eventually led to growing more, from the perspective and mindset lens, and the writing was never done with the idea that it only fits me, but every blog post should be readable for at least one more individual.

The journey thus began. And it’s as if I may have time-travelled, but 1470 blog posts later, I completed 4 years of blogging on March 11th 2023, thanks to a notification from WordPress and I wasn’t even keeping track. At that starting point, writing every day, and exploring a new idea seemed tumultuous, but you focus and you do, especially when you’re interested in doing it.

As I continue to write more, and while I have no special interest in such records, I would like to see a notification that ‘you’ve now completed 10 years of blogging’, and even if one more individual reads any of the blogs and finds value, then nothing like it.

My top 15 blog-posts of 2022

Writing a blog every day means at the end of the year, it comes down to 365 days and 365 blogs… And amongst all of those blogs, writing about life, mindset, self-improvement, point-of-view of looking at certain things, every now and then, a particular blog stands out from the rest. Through this post, I want to highlight a few of those

So, here are my top 15 blog-posts of 2022 –

1. Our Sources of Imitation (Part 1)

We are beings of imitation, the trait is rooted within us and we are born with it. Everything that we admire, we try to imitate. Right from when we see someone walking, as an infant, we imitate walking as well. When we see someone read or write something, we try to imitate that as well.

While these are instances from our childhood and are bigger but necessary forms of imitation, as we grow up, the inspiration of imitations becomes narrower…Read more here.

You are the Average of the Five People you spend time with (Part 2)

While we can be mesmerized by anyone, online or offline, and try to imitate any one of their traits or their life wholly, we may have also heard of the following quote quite a few times already in our lifetime, “You are the Average of the Five People you spend time with”. We read the quote, but did we ever understand what it meant? Read more here.

Choosing the Five People to spend time with (Part 3)

Going into the depth of this topic, it is we who choose the five people around us, whom we spend the most time with. But do we always choose? Most times, by subconscious design or by nature, the constant five or more people get attached to us, maybe altogether or maybe individually, and as more time is spent, gradually we tend to imitate those individuals more. Read more here.

2. Are you jealous of something/ someone? (Part 1)

It’s undeniably too good to be true to say you haven’t been jealous in life. Why is that so? Because from the time we are born, and as we grow, we are either compared to someone else’s life, in any of the categories possible (academics/ looks/ materialistic things/ quality of life etc) or brought down for not having what someone else has.

While the factor of jealousy increases over time and its roots grow from within, its sources are always exterior, early on in life. Read more here.

What can one be truly jealous of? (Part 2)

As you grow mentally, you realize the realities of insecurities (a source of jealousy) and emotions attached to those insecurities, and by working upon them, you can get rid of many of these, but that doesn’t mean that jealousy is all bad.

While its feeling is bad in most circumstances, if moulded properly, and while this may surprise the reader, jealousy can be used by you for good as well. Read more here.

3. Impressions Fade Away, Values Stay

There’s always an underlying thought in our mind of how other people – whether the close ones or strangers – are judging us or how much are they rightly or wrongly understanding us?

This is where the concept of first impressions comes in… People focus on how they dress and how they speak, they work on their presentations, they work on their style, they study the other individual/s, with the ultimate objective of impressing them.

Irrespective of the type of relationship being spoken about… It is approached with the concept of that first impression, but ultimately, those impressions fade away. Read more here.

4. Should you have an opinion?

Every other topic is trending, and usually, whenever you enter that conversation, you’ll see people of different age groups, different ethnicities, etc sharing their opinions on these particular topics. Some will agree, some will shower their support, and some will debate/ argue/ troll and whatnot.

Moreover, when you carefully observe these scenarios, you’ll notice that most times, individuals don’t even have the entire information on a particular topic and yet share their opinions on it – those opinions root from their associative opinions on different topics, or from peer pressure, or just simply to fit in. Read more here.

5. The one thing that is not said about diets

When you look back at hundreds of years, and with everything that the industrial revolution changed, the bottom baseline remains the same – you need to understand the ingredients that you’re putting in your body.

With that being the holy truth of the industry, there are a few things that people who follow diets don’t realize or aren’t told in the first place… Read more here.

6. Hacking vs Optimising

If you have scrolled through any of the social platforms, you’d have come across the term, “hacks” or “hacking” with special respect to the mind or the body, or going deeper, the mood/ the emotions.

“5 Hacks to Change your Mood immediately”
“10 Hacks to Improve Your Life”
“3 Hacks to Start Becoming Happy Today”
and so on, the never-ending list. Read more here.

7. The What, Why, and How of Judgments

No one wants to take the stand or start asking questions, understanding the fundamentals of these “rules” and “norms”. If someone is externally doing better, then we’ll start comparing them with ourselves… If someone is doing something different from us, then we’ll start judging them… If something is doing better at something that we desire, then we’ll become jealous of them.

All of this eventually originates from the lens through which we see the world… Read more here.

8. What can you do to mentally relax?

When do you get the break? When are you able to mentally relax? Is a physical vacation, being on a beach or the mountains, a solution to that? While the answer to the first two questions is solvable or rather, practicable with the solution at hand, the answer to the third question is a definite no.

Irrespective of whether that voice in your head is a supportive one or not, and whether your perspective is healthy or not, the chatter continues at its pace.

But, there are a few things that can be done to limit its supply, to direct the flow, to have the ability to mentally relax for a while… Read more here.

9. The cost of a third choice

You have two choices, A or B.

You must make a decision and choose one.

So now you weigh the pros and cons, or the advantages and disadvantages, or however else you’d like to compare the two choices.

But, now you’re in a conundrum. You cannot decide. You like A. You like B. It all seems difficult now.

In order to lessen the confusion, you think, “How about a third choice?” Read more here.

10. The urge to show-off

You have probably met someone who constantly shows off their materialistic wealth, don’t you? This individual would, even without a discussion on that topic, start sharing about what they have, what they own, what is their overall or a particular item’s financial worth, basically anything that has been accumulated on their own or because of their family wealth. Read more here.

11. Our thoughts root from 5 categories

All our thoughts root from somewhere. There’s an origin to everything, and that applies to our thoughts as well.

Right from the moment we are born, we are collecting information (now we may not remember everything is not of concern). These origins break down into 5 categories. Read more here.

12. The mindful execution of bad habits

The blend of mindful execution and bad habits immediately strikes us as something in two opposing directions because we have heard those terms in very different scenarios and here we are mixing the two.

In a phase of working upon yourself and working upon your growth, and only approaching this topic from that lens, where do the bad habits come into the picture? Read more here.

13. Feel the Negative, Appreciate the Positive

When you’re a hardcore fan of a food item and you have eaten it thousands of times, that one time when you try out one that’s not made properly, you not only criticize that particular experience, but you also start appreciating the other good times when you have had it and enjoyed it. Read more here.

14. Awareness is not equal to Learning or Unlearning (Part 1)

On that path, there is a lot that has to be learned, when you acquire this knowledge for the first time, and start to utilize it for yourself. There is also a lot that has to be unlearned.

Here’s the twist. Just being aware of something doesn’t equate to learning or unlearning anything. Two paths, whilst parallel to each other, are different paths, where you must walk on one to walk on the other. Read more here.

Step Three is the Actual Execution (Part 2)

While becoming aware of something (usually for the first time) is step one of the process towards change/ towards becoming a new you, towards improving yourself, and while the process of learning or unlearning entails step two, the actual execution of step two in practical terms becomes step three of the process. Read more here.

15. Why Me?

There are various moments in our life when we ask the question – Why Me? and most times that question doesn’t pop up in a positive context, but rather in a negative context.

Why Me?
Why is this happening to me?
Why do I have to face this?

On the opposite end of that perspective lies several other perspectives. Read more here.

My top 10 blogs of 2021

Writing a blog every day means at the end of the year, it comes down to 365 days and 365 blogs… And amongst all of those blogs, writing about life, mindset, self-improvement, point-of-view of looking at certain things, every now and then, a particular blog stands out from the rest. Through this post, I want to highlight a few of those

So, here are my top 10 blogs of 2021 –

1. The Hypocrisy of Free Content

With the internet at its current stage and with all of us having smartphones in our hands, at every moment of time, there is a ton of content available to us, just about everywhere.

But, our hypocrisy with free content is, we want free, but we don’t value free.

Read here.

2. Filling the Silence (Part 1) and Embracing the Silence (Part 2)

Part 1: In order to escape the mind, we fill the silence with – talking (more than usual) – music (contextual), and/or consuming content in general – activities that you don’t want to do (or anything else that one might do to fill their silence) Why do we do it though?

Read Part 1 here.

Part 2: Having spoken about escaping silence and running away from it… What can one do to embrace that silence? That golden silence is going to unlock so many things in your life, that you didn’t want to face but now you want to… How do you embrace it now?

Read Part 2 here.

3. The Accountability Exercise

Humans blame. We all do. For the tiniest of things. Everything that doesn’t turn out the way we fantasized about, the blame of that goes to someone, another individual, a group of individuals, a corporation, a government, a country, religion, or something else.

Read it here.

4. Are you buying it for yourself?

How often do you buy something? How often do you post about it on social media? Oh, you aren’t active there? How often do you tell your friends about what you bought?

We have this feeling that we really want something, then we buy it, then we’ll share it everywhere, and more often than not, the happiness of telling everyone about it takes over the happiness of having that thing.

Read it in detail here.

5. The intersection of your and others’ time

In the midst of that time management, there comes a time or many, when your time is intersected with others and their time with yours. Two scenarios, either you want their time or they want your time.

But, understanding this intersection is crucial. Because each person’s time is important.

Check it out here.

6. Your best thinking happens when you’re not thinking

How often are you on a deadline or think of this, you have scheduled a slot in your day when you will ideate on that project or that new idea or the next thing you wanted to write about, but just during those moments, you have hit the block and you feel like your brain has stopped working?

Read here.

7. 5 Questions to ask yourself at the end of the day

Every day brings with it its own set of thoughts, emotions, opportunities, ideas, problems, and much more. Every day can be the same and every day can be different, depending upon your approach.

How can you then know how did your day go? How can you evaluate each day?

Read more here.

8. Creating a system around your day

When you think deeper on it, usually the routine involves one particular habit, followed by another, and another. That chain of habits, which might include waking up and then working out, having your breakfast, getting on with your work, with a break in the middle, having a cup of tea in the evening, and so on, are linked to one another.

But we are all humans, not robots.

Read it in detail here.

9. What the optimum scenario should be like?

As the process begins, you never know what’s going to happen, how much is in your control, and how much you’d have to adapt. That means, in reality, the outcome could go from the best possible scenario to the worst possible scenario.

Read here.

10. DYOR, the new acronym we should headline

“I saw this person buy ‘x,’ so I bought it too.”
“I heard from person D that ‘y’ is the next big thing to look out for”
“Topic ‘Z’ keeps trending from time to time, so maybe it’s what I should get into”

In order to “save time”, people nowadays jump the line and just follow/ do what someone else is doing.

Check it out here.

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An honest review of how the blog has helped me over 1000 blog posts

Two years ago, I was in quite a different space than now. Today, I’m obsessed with self-improvement, curious about life and looking at it from a lens of spirituality, neuroscience, psychology, physiology, philosophy; the importance of traits such as empathy, kindness, courage, determination and so many more, and yet back then I didn’t know any of it, nor had even heard of it.

14th March 2019, I had posted my first blog post. I knew I wanted to post every day, but I didn’t know that one day I’d be writing my 1000th blog post too.

Now when I look back at those posts, especially from the perspective of today, I can see a massive difference in not only how I used to write, but also how I used to think, the depth of what I knew about a subject, and the limitations around it too.

Back then, when I was starting to learn these new topics and started walking on this path (still learning), I had a plethora of thoughts around this space, and just writing about all of it gave me this platform to explore more and look at things I never thought of exploring for even a minute.

The more I wrote, the deeper I could explore a particular topic, micro, and macro. The more questions that arose in my mind, the more curious I got, and the more answers I sought. The more information I received, I understood there’s no limitation or an end to these topics, just that the more you explore and understand, the freer and better life you’re able to live.

How did the blog help me then?
– First and foremost, simply instilling the habit of writing a blog helped me build other habits and maintain them, day after day. Executing one habit was the confidence builder to go through with the other habits too, especially in the initial days.

– There were low days, or even days when I just didn’t feel to write anything, but the determination to maintain the schedule and to keep it going gave me the push to write. Not just that though, this simple exercise helped me with the push towards other areas of my life as well, and maybe without that initial push elsewhere (in my case, writing the blog), it could’ve affected my entire approach too.

– To write every day, means to have a ton of ideas and knowledge of what you want to write about. For me, it meant to constantly be present, be aware of what’s going on within me, around me, around the world, observing everything, which ultimately made me think more, understand more, and with writing as a medium, helped me grow as an individual and expand my perspective.

– They say, reading/ learning is stage one of acquiring information. Writing about it is stage two when you’re able to go deeper into the process. When you write your thoughts, you’re able to truly understand what you know and how much do you know. Well, writing definitely did that, because it made me realize my limitations and helped me expand my boundaries.

– Most people who write aren’t looking for validation towards what they’ve written or how good it is, but to create an impact with those words and those learnings. A few times, I’ve had the fortune of receiving information from the other end about the same, how what I’ve written and shared made an impact on what the other person was going through, or simply what they wanted to read at that moment. (I’ve first-hand experienced that and am glad to be a part of that process with others as well)

– The concept of compounding. We may have learnt about the concept financially, but its use case is seen in every area of life. The more you put in something, the more outputs it will provide (multiplying in the future). In the simple scenario of writing a thousand blog posts, while the process of ideating grows difficult with every stage of information you uncover, the compounding takes place in the form of looking at myself, looking at humans all around, looking at human behavior, looking at the world, and how much of it is real, how much can be changed, and how many are just playing robots and the role each individual plays in it.

Sure, a thousand blog posts may not be a big thing. Sure, blogging could’ve become outdated. Sure, who reads anymore (maybe)? But, as a start, as a medium, and as an outlet, this blog has played an extraordinary role for me, throughout this process of growth and change and evolving, and hopefully, that process continues as I write more and share more of my perspective and learnings into the world.

Thank you for reading it!

What am I talking about on the blog?

If you ever scroll through this blog, you’d find that the topics range from mindset and self-improvement and life (majorly those), to film reviews and lessons, and marketing tips (every now and then) and maybe a few of my personal life posts as well.

Sure, most people stick around to just one topic, but when you’re equally passionate about multiple things, then you have to just play around.

Moreover, writing every day gives me the leeway to touch upon hundreds of ideas and topics, rather than choosing one bigger idea and surrounding everything around that.

The blog definitely acts as an outlet for a lot of observations and questions that keep surfacing in my mind, and it also allows me to play around with the depth of certain topics. The more I write, the more ideas surface, and it just broadens my horizon to think more and then share that through this blog.

So, what am I talking about on this blog?
Everything that I live and think about, maybe an idea has come up but I’d still let it sit for a while until I can make my thoughts clearer about that particular topic. Anyhow, whatever I write about comes from a deep sense of curiosity, and moreover, from within. Fortunately, I’ve never had to hunt around for a topic, which for me, keeps the process more natural for me, and allows me to think about these topics on my time when they surface in my mind.

All in all, I’d love to look back at these posts after a period of time and wonder how I’d think and how my process of sharing an idea was, I definitely love checking back on a few of the previous posts, that gives me a clearer picture of whatever was on my mind and thus, giving me a clearer perspective.

The essence of a blog post

How long does a blog post need to be? Is there a predefined limit that we need to meet? Minimum words criteria?

The essence of a blog post lies in the meaning being conveyed behind the words.

One can stretch it for as long as possible to meet any kind of SEO purposes, or keep it extremely short and crisp directly implying the point.

For anyone who’s writing, the purpose is for the reader to understand what’s written, with or without context. Keeping their attention for that limited period of time. Ensuring there’s something to take away from that reading.

The post could be a one-liner or a five page read, as long as certain boxes are checked from the writer’s point of view.

Blog No. 500

This is blog no. 500

It’s the big number!

To be honest with you, I had never thought in my life that I’d be writing a blog.

That too on a daily basis.

For it to reach the milestone of 500 is just a feat in itself.

For someone who was never good at writing and for being told that all my life to now writing confidently and comfortably makes me happy with the path I’ve walked on.

This blog has allowed me to open up myself, to take a deep dive into my learning and my thought process and gave me a path to share my thoughts, my observations and my takeaways on a global level.

Global, because sometimes these blog posts have reached places which I haven’t even heard of, so I’m just glad I’m able to provide value on that scale.

I’m grateful for anyone and everyone who takes their time in reading this blog and if it has helped you in any way.

Of course, 500 is just a number and the blog goes on, providing the same amount of value and more on a daily basis and maybe one day I’ll be writing my 5000th blog post.

See you at the next blog post!

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I have a daily podcast too, Mindset Marketing Movies – an RTH24 podcast – daily digestible episodes on mindset, marketing and movies.

You can listen to it at –
Spotify|| Apple Podcasts || Breaker|| JioSaavn || PocketCasts || Google Podcasts

One Year of Blogging! #365Blogs

I have been writing blogs on a daily basis for a year now and this is blog no. 365!

Do you know what it means?

Today, I complete One Year of Blogging, having never missed a day!

Whilst writing, I’ve come across some really interesting ideas/ thoughts which I’m sure, if not for blogging, couldn’t have been penned down the way it happened now.

Which brings me to the highlight of today’s blog post, because providing value on a daily basis is the base of why I do what I do.

If, after one year of every day blogging, I had to sum up my learning from it, it’d be the following –

1. Daily blogging has widened my thought process in a way, that I’m able to concentrate on my thoughts better than before and write more freely on a topic that I think is important to talk about.
2. Talking about writing freely, one of the most important learning was my writing process. To be honest, I wasn’t good at the writing stuff, the grammar, the vocabulary, the punctuation, the sentence formation – there’s a lot to think about when it comes to writing.
   However, writing on a daily basis has opened it up for me and now, I’m more confident about it than ever before.
3. All of this has also allowed my creative channels to open up – try to think more creatively while writing, how can a certain topic be said in a different manner so it brings more value than, if said directly.
4. Also, having kept a scheduled time to post before, and without failing to post on a daily basis, it has also allowed me to develop a creative discipline within me which doesn’t have the space for “creative blocks” or “mental blocks”, because at the end of the day, I know what I have to share and I cannot back out of it.
5. Lastly, it brings so much value to the people, the way they respond after reading something – it’s extremely joyful to know that your writing has made a difference to someone’s life.

Blogging is fun and no matter how many trends or platforms change and evolve, text as a medium of communication will never change and something like blogging is here to stay!

Thank you to everyone who take the time out to read these blogs, either on a regular basis, or even a particular one, once in a blue moon, when it seems imteresting to them. I’m ever grateful to all of you.

Keep reading, keep enjoying!

Your feedback is always valuable.

Cannot wait for blog no. 3600 in 10 years!

Short Blog Posts.

After writing blog posts for almost a year now, on a daily basis, I have realised that there is no definitive length to writing a blog post.

A blog post isn’t always defined by writing 1000 words or more about a certain topic.

It is more about explaining the topic in the best way possible, no matter how lesser or more words you write to do so.

You could explain something in a line or you could take 10 pages to write, they are still blog posts. You don’t have to unnecessarily use words and verbs and adjectives to extend the length of your blog just so it seems more readable.

I’d consider this to be a short blog post, but the funny part is I’ve written much smaller ones too, over time.

Whatever makes you content with your writing on that particular topic.

Top 5 Tips if you’re starting a new Blog!

Whether it’s creating images for Instagram, or creating bite-sized informational tweets, or creating TikTok videos, the wave revolves from one platform to another, but the trend of blogging has been there forever.

Whether you’re an influencer, or a reviewer, or a content writer, a thought contributor or a thought leader, blogging has been the base for everyone. It gives you the platform to express yourself, your perspective – in detail.

When it comes to blogging, there are a lot of things to take care of, before sharing your content with your audience, however, here are top 5 tips for blogging aspirants that you can begin with –

• Pick a niche topic, what you feel comfortable about writing, where your passion lies, where your strength is.
• It allows you to write freely; otherwise, you’d end up spending your time researching your content.
• It gives you the freedom to write more, because since it’s your strength, it’s always on your mind, and thus, the topics keep coming to you.

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• Often, when starting a blog, too many people worry about which site to use for their blog, the type of plug-ins to use, the font, the colours, the appearance.
• Initially, let the focus be on the content – try to make it as definite and appealing as possible. As the audience, one should make it a point to read the entire thing.
• Once this is figured out and you think you have that settled, then you can bring in the technicalities one-by-one and start focusing on those.

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• There are two most important points when it comes to creating content and writing a blog, one is being authentic, and the other one is discussed in the next point.
• You must be genuine with your content – it’s your voice – your words – your perspective.
• Don’t do it just because you have to. Make it a point to invest time, make it better, improve yourself, and ensure that it’s you who is writing the blog.

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• The one point which people don’t pay attention to when it comes to writing a blog. Maintain a Routine.
• Set a deadline for your blogs – how many will you write in a month – which days – what time will it be published and promote it accordingly. Let the audience know that you’ll, at any cost, post the blog by that time.
• It shows discipline that you’re serious about your blog and you want to spread this content with the people out there, and you’re aren’t doing it whenever you feel like doing it.

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• Be a little shameless when it comes to publishing your blog and increasing its views – initially.
• Share it with your friends, promote it on social media, share every blog that you write.
• Network with other bloggers, help them out, share their posts, drop a valuable comment and hopefully, they’ll do the same with yours too.

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The process of blog writing is a beautiful one; but also an intensive one – you’ve to spend time on it, take care of it, and when people read it and appreciate it, you’ll surely feel good about that you made a difference with your opinion.

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Zazz Media, a modern communications agency, that I’ve been running since 2015, builds personal and corporate brands on social media. Our mission is to change people’s perception towards brands and their content on these platforms.

If we can be of any help, do reach out at zazzmediaindia@gmail.com