Top 3 lessons I learned in 2022

“I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.”

— Dwayne Johnson

The year 2022 was one of the most interesting years for me so far, it was much of a rollercoaster ride- it had a rough start. I had shoulder surgery on December 18th, 2021, and the path to recovery was 6 months long with aggressive physical therapy. I can still feel the pain of PT as I write this blog piece. Due to unavoidable circumstances at home, none of my family members could accompany me for the treatment, I had to go through the procedure with a couple of friends(lucky to have such a bunch by my side).

The first three months of the year were pretty slow w.r.t to work as I had to put in loads of effort on recovery. By April I got my hand mobility back up to 70 % and then started my struggles with mental health. Luckily, I moved back to Bangalore for work and a change in the atmosphere made me feel a lot better.

Even though the starting 4–5 months of the year were rough, gradually I started discovering a lot of things that helped me reach a state of FLOW and utmost peace. Walking while listening to podcasts is one of the things that enabled me to find bliss within and ideate at the same time. Along with walking, I also discovered my inclination towards writing on topics like Productivity, Health, and Business. Writing not only helps me declutter my mind but also is a way to express the most candid ideas which I have through all the research and reading, and even if a single person can benefit from that it will be a big-time accomplishment for me.

May to October went mostly in setting up my apartment in Bangalore (which is lovely by the way :P ), a bit of writing on Medium & LinkedIn, walking every day for a minimum of 45 minutes, and most importantly waking up at 6 a.m. every day along with my day job. To all my friends who are reading this — you would have come across many self-help gurus preaching the benefits of waking up early morning, this has a lot of truth in it! I have personally experienced this; if you can own 2–3 hours of your morning; you can very well own your entire life.

November was the month of maximum breakthroughs in the entire year with a new routine of practicing yoga each morning for an hour, which turned out to be a cherry on the cake of my good habits :D. I’ve had a stiff neck and frozen shoulder as a side effect of the shoulder procedure. Guess what? Just a month of yoga made all the side effects disappear.

To summarize for you, my top 3 takeaways from 2022 are-

• No challenge in life is going to stay forever, it's always going to be a cycle of good and bad, and you need to be prepared.
• Physical activity is extremely important be it in any form.
• A conscious choice of a healthy life is going to pay you in the longer term. Choose to eat healthily, stay with people who enrich your life, and chose the work which adds meaning to your life.

The last 15 days of December are remaining, and I intend to rejuvenate during this time as 2023 awaits a lot of effort on my goals and well-being. I hope everyone who reads this finds joy and encouragement in how no obstacle is permanent and that every challenge you face is going to make you a better version of yourself.

If you think this blog piece can help anyone you know, feel free to share it with them. Till then — Happy Living! xoxo