Srishti Kumari

Tag: consistency

  • Show Up

    Because You Need To

    Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

    Sometimes, you only need to show up. Yes, that’s it. Just show up. Show up, because you owe that to yourself. No matter when your day starts and when it ends, show up for that one thing, for at least that one hour you need to.

    Many times, we don’t need inspiration or motivation, but momentum – the one thing that makes you sit and do your work, and get it done without thinking much about your relevance in this universe. Yep, it’s true!

    And I have started quietly loving this version of mine (very recent though), and my loved ones, where they have such clarity of their goals that whatever happens throughout the day, including the emotional ups and downs, they show up. They just show up when they are required to without any fuss.

    You want to read more? Read a few pages, or just a single page every day from any book you want to read and explore. Just one page every day. I’m pretty sure you have that much time.

    You want to write more? Do you feel like you have nothing to write when you sit in front of your laptop? Fine. Start with how your day has been so far. Just start it. Scribble the story, and finish your rough draft. Now you have a draft ready to edit and publish later.

    I know, you have 100s of ideas, headlines, storylines, and content pieces saved in your Google Docs, in your Notes, in your LinkedIn and Instagram saves, and in your Medium and Substack reading list. Oh, and the one in your private WhatsApp chat (with yourself)!

    My dear writing friend, I know you have all of these, and you still wait for inspiration. You need action. Just start scribbling that one blog piece, and the story will come to you. Show up for the sake of your sanity. Please!

    Has health gone downhill? Want to be fitter and more confident? Then show up. Move your body. Outdoor walk, indoor walk, walk on treadmill, deep breathing exercises, basic beginner-level cardio & strength training, dance workout – do anything in the world you can do.

    Just do it. Do it at least for half an hour 4 times a week. It won’t give you a celebrity-like figure, but it will break your inertia, your initial resistance, your lifelong wait for motivation, and you will finally feel the process happening through you.

    When a few pages read every day brings you to page no 300 in a 400-page book, or when even 30 minutes of everyday walk builds your discipline and mental strength to keep going on in this journey ahead within a month, then you actively start to focus on the momentum, not motivation.

    Yes, motivation is important. But choosing to do the things that move the needle, that’s a game-changer. And I can say this from my experience that sometimes doing less is more – just make sure that you show up for the things that get you into the flow you need to be in.

    Inspirational content is superb to watch, but small changes made every day, out of clarity and intention, can inspire like a dozen motivational talks can never.

    I hope you got my point.

    Note: This piece was originally written for my LinkedIn post, but it exceeded the character limit, as you can see, so I edited and shortened my LinkedIn post a bit, and this is the original version.

    I hope you found it useful.

  • Getting Ready Helps Me

    And I am definitely happy for this change

    Photo by nikhil uttam on Unsplash

    Since the arrival of spring this new year, I have started doing one thing, and it is helping me a lot internally in showing up every day. And that thing is “getting ready for the day”. Nothing fancy or fashionista type. Just getting ready.

    So, what I have started doing is as soon as I wake up, within 2-3 hours, depending on the exercise duration and assistance in house cleaning and cooking, I get ready.

    I bathe, do my haircare and skincare, put on my clean and colourful clothes according to my mood, wear a few pieces of jewellery, and apply my favourite shade of nude lipstick and a small bindi on my forehead. It goes well with my Indian/ethnic attire, which I am frequently wearing these days.

    After getting properly ready for the day ahead, I usually express my gratitude to the universe for having my back and always helping and loving me unconditionally.

    This morning thing of getting ready intentionally and thanking the universe for all the blessings in my life kind of just shifts the whole body language and energy inside me. My mind gets the message that now I am ready for the day, and I will sit and work in my study for a good few hours. It helps in carrying on on the days when I feel I can’t do much. Even reading a few pages of a book on such days counts as something done. Getting ready helps me in achieving those small things with a relatively better state of mind.

    I have started getting ready for myself. For my work. For my growth. For the future me. I show up for my future self. It helps me in taking small steps every day in the right direction.

    I didn’t know that getting ready intentionally, and thanking generally, when done intentionally, can be really effective. For me, it is working quite well. Especially in terms of energy that I feel inside. It is definitely a lot healthier and more positive as compared to the days when I used to wake up late and start reading or watching podcasts in my pyjamas. The effect on mood is real.

    And I am happy that I started this at the right time. Spring, I think, is the best time for us as well to gain momentum and really change the things we need to change. It works.

    What about you? Have you started doing anything that has changed your approach towards your day and work in particular? I would love to know any such stories. Please share them in the comments below.

    Happy living.

    Take care.

  • Tenacity

    An Old Reminder

    Image by Abhinav Anand

    Tenacity – A new word, an old reminder.

    “Tenacity is a quality that we could all do with; that is, the ability to continue to do something for longer than might be expected. In other words, don’t give up easily. Finish that project. Complete that task. Finish that race even if you are coming in last. Stick with your ambitions; work towards them. Hold on to life, to that steep mountain slope. There’s always something you can do.”

    The above paragraph is from the book “How to Live Your Life” by Ruskin Bond.

    A few days back, I picked up this beautiful, cute little book to re-read. The first time I read it was a few years back. I picked it up and started reading this beautiful piece by one of India’s most-loved authors, which opens with a letter from the author himself.

    The colourful pages, beautiful fonts, amazing illustrations, and creative designs make the reading far more joyful and immersive.

    Ruskin Bond has shared nuggets of wisdom in this book. It truly feels like a letter from your grandpa on how to live your life. It has the warmth, love, practical advice, and inspiration to dream big and live your life fully as long as you are alive here.

    Among all those beautiful pages filled with tips, lessons, and advice, this one particularly resonated with me the most this time. It happens. As they say, we read a book for the first time every time we read it again. This time, it felt like I was reading this particular page for the first time. I read it slowly. I paused. I re-read it multiple times. I thought about it. And then I knew it was meant to come across. I needed this. I needed this reminder.

    Tenacity. Just a little more push. A little more showing up. A little more faith in your journey to keep going towards your dreams, your truth, every day.

    I enjoyed rereading this amazing piece this time, and I know I will reread it again someday for sure. Till then, I am holding onto tenacity. I am holding on to life, beautifully.

    What is that one book you read or reread recently that talked to you like mine did? Share your stories, please.

    Happy reading. Happy living.

    Take care.

  • I Actually Forgot

    That, it’s happening!

    Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash

    Sometimes life surprises you not by sending you a gift, but by reminding you of a gift you once prayed for. You got it, and it has become so natural that you almost forgot it.

    While scrolling on my phone, I saw a YouTube short. The theme was around heavy thigh girlies and their everyday dresses, clothing, and lifestyle choices centred around the theme.

    You know what, after a few seconds, I remembered how my PCOD and unusual weight gain had made me a heavy, fatty thigh girl, and how, for the first time in my life, I felt my inner thighs rubbing against each other. And this was not a very happy feeling for me. This change was something very unusual that I faced in my late twenties, around two years ago.

    And I remember the days when I wanted to get rid of the experience of my inner thighs rubbing against each other. I had PCOD, weight gain, tiredness, and a lot of unusual fatigue. And being a no-gym, no regular exercise girl made the change a bit more difficult on a personal level.

    But I started doing one thing. I incorporated walking. Simple walk. Evening walks on my terrace — anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, and I continued this religiously for several months. For several months, I used to wear my lower and a t-shirt, put on my shoes, and head on to my terrace with the smartwatch on my wrist.

    No pressure. No specific goals. Just a decision to move my body. Preferably to walk, because I find it very easy, simple, and doable on most days.

    And now, after the more or less regular walks, continuously for more than one and a half years, my slim-fit high waist jeans that once stuck around my thighs and I had left any hope of wearing that again, fitted me beautifully just like before.

    I was surprised, and shocked at the same time! I kid you not when I am saying this. I wasn’t expecting this change at all. I had given up on my favourite jeans.

    Results like these compel you to stick to your seemingly very simple habits every day. And it has made me more aware of the benefits of simple habits like this in our everyday lives.

    Starting small, keeping it simple, making it fit in our schedule very easily, showing up with a lot of love and care we deserve from ourselves, and enjoying the process along the way. This mindset shift brings the desired transformation.

    Getting properly in my old high-waisted jeans and not feeling the inner thighs rubbing at every step are only two visible changes. Walking has also made me positive, optimistic, creative, and reflective in beautiful ways.

    Walking kept me alive. It keeps me alive.

    Try walking. You will naturally start to feel the physical, mental, emotional, and your creative health and well-being only getting better and better without any noise, pressure, strict diets, gym workouts, and calorie counts.

    Happy living.

    Happy walking.

  • The Gift of Being Unseen

    Or, thoda kam seen

    Photo by Swello on Unsplash

    You know, yesterday, I was going through my LinkedIn, and I read a post that really made me think and see things a bit differently. This post came in my feed because I am following someone who writes and publishes regularly on LinkedIn on various topics, in various tones, and I love her writing as a reader.

    Yesterday, she had commented on this post – the post I am talking about, and that’s how I got to see the post on my feed.

    And the gist of the post was, what I got at least is, you know, we crib about not getting enough likes, weak online presence, and shallow engagements online, and then we try to change our content strategy to fix everything. But what if, instead of taking this online dip negatively, we start enjoying the algorithm changes (if you believe that’s the case for the dip anyway).

    Let’s say you are posting on LinkedIn regularly and still seeing the numbers not going upward. Fine. Now, while you are cribbing about it and thinking of stopping posting, what if you take this as an opportunity to experiment? Right now, you can tweak, modify, audit, edit, try new forms, and sizes of content aligned with your brand. You can, for a few days, just take it lightly and have fun with it – see, the experiment will make you free from control, and it will eventually allow you to be more creative, flexible, and better with your work.

    I can understand that your clients’ account is your job, but experimenting with and trying the second method will only strengthen the understanding and expectations for both parties.

    Each changing point, each feedback is a data point. And data points change. The willingness to try, the curiosity to understand the gaps in storytelling, combined with the courage to take the risk, can bring the good, better, and maybe best in the long term.

    And if it’s your personal account, and you are trying to build an online presence, visibility, and a credible and premium personal brand online, then please go ahead and take risks. Numbers will go up and down. Even people with 4 lakhs and 5 lakhs followers sometimes lose lakhs of followers in a month. That’s totally fine.

    Your clarity, your creativity, your depth, your thought process, your ideas, your story, your history, your vision, your work process, your unique ways to keep going and taking pause whenever you need – in short, it’s you and your values that are going to attract those 100 true fans and the superb community you deserve. And when they show up, each like, dislike, impression, views, dips, everything will make sense to you.

    Till then, just focus on finding your voice – your unique, original, incredible, powerful voice and narratives you have to share with everyone. The rest will be taken care of.

    Happy experimenting. Happy exploring.