32.88% done: a “ranty” review of 2022 so far
Intellectual Banter: Episode #4
If you’re new or missed the last edition, catch up here. Also, yolo! Thank you for giving me your time. I appreciate it.
In case you’re a first-time reader, how about joining the tribe? I share thoughts on living well in the modern age, lessons learnt from writing online and occasional “therapeutic” rants.
Yolo folks!
Welcome to the 3 new members of this banter-ish tribe. Up to 96, bebeh.
Sometimes I wonder if I should behave “normally” here in your inbox or online in general. Then I think - why, though? It’s boring! Might as well wear a tie and neatly comb my hair while I’m at it. No thank you.
Nothing new has been up, so time to look back instead
Speaking of behavior, this is going to be long(er) and rantier than usual. Bear with me.
I’d planned on doing a regular monthly review on whatever TF I’d been up to - I need some accountability myself, you know? Not for doing the work itself, but reflecting on said work. It’s a whole thing about monkeys and donkeys - we’ll get to it in a bit.
As this is my inaugural “Ranty Review” (patent pending), it covers the past four months. That makes it special. Doesn’t matter, all value is ascribed anyway. So who cares? (me)
Anyhow, 2022 is 32.88% done and I haven’t reflected for shit!
Also, It’s hard to rant, cover a lot of stuff within a word limit and still make sense. Something has to give. So, hopefully this still makes sense by the time I’m done, lol.
32.88% done already! WTF?!
So, I decided to quit my job and write online. How’s that been going, you ask?
Here are some broad themes from the past four months. Because thematic stuff is “cool”:
Superman consistency: I’ve surprised myself, huh. Consistency is high, like the “network uptime” quoted by web-hosting platforms - 99.9%!
Maybe it’s the environment I’ve set up for myself - told you, it works. I sit down at least once every day to write. Or stare at the screen. It’s about building my writing muscle (along with some actual muscle. I miss the gym).
Or that I’ve actually been enjoying writing, so coming back is easy.
I look forward to it rather than turning 50 shades of blue come Monday. By the way, I’ve written every single day. Yes, that includes weekends, whiskey induced hangovers and also a week of having Covid.
I’m a bit nuts - you were warned though 🥜
Buds of promise: People actually reading MY shit. Wow! Still not over it, maybe never will be. Thank you!
Also, there’s been some ad hoc inbound writing opportunities and some puny $ made outside of my salary for the first time in my existence. It’s time to put fertilizer on this now.
Work / Life?!: The lines are blurrier than ever.
It’s worse than when work-from-home began in 2020 and we were all doing Zoom calls at 10PM on a Friday night, staring at our own disgruntled and tired faces (only me?).
Also, I’ve been experimenting with “working in bursts”. I went hard in January and March during two writing courses I’d enrolled for. February was spent chilling, including time at the beach (Goa!). April has been fun and busy in other ways (have you even been reading, eh?).
I thought I’d write a lot more this month. I didn’t. Rather, I couldn’t. And that’s alright - adaptability is a crucial life skill. Can’t have what you want all the time.
My donkey mind isn’t used to “relaxing”. It starts tripping up - “why aren’t you working? WHY!?”. Calm down already.
It’s something to be aware of for now. Be “strategic” about it and other big, fancy words. We’ll see how that goes.
Monkeys and Glitter: From my limited experience, there seem to be two things that can potentially derail the crap out of this new lifestyle.
Coming in first place… is me! Dealing with my monkey mind and getting out of my own way is the single biggest factor to managing all this. Holy crap, how are we even functioning as a species? We’re a convoluted mess of emotions and reactions 🐵
And yes, I have more animal / mind analogies lined up. They’re fun - moooo? Doesn’t work.
I’ve experienced irrational confidence, the depths of despair and everything in between during this short time frame. There’s a dark corner of the mind that’s silently waiting to jump up and grab you by the… neck. Yeah, let’s say neck.
It’s part of the journey though. I journal through it - helps me process and harness my emotions. Sometimes I eat pizza. It’s alright. Hopefully.
In second place is the ability to focus - there are countless, glittering possibilities to pursue online.
Writing, you say? Tweets, threads, short essays, full-form blog posts, email newsletters, sales pages… Twitter, you say? LinkedIn, Medium, Quora, Reddit, your own website… Also, visuals! Damn, do they look fun to do. Time to buy an iPad and photo editing software…
Uhh, hold on a minute.
Lack of focus and commitment is a guaranteed way to keep running in maddening circles. Always in motion, never getting anywhere.
So I’m reflecting on narrowing my focus - pinhole narrow.
It’s physically uncomfortable. The monkey in my head would rather distract itself than think about it - that’s how I know it’s worth doing.
Now for some half-baked thoughts on handling the zoo in my head. Half-baked because the zoo isn’t silent yet.
Platform monogamy: Twitter till the end of this year at least. I’m very tempted to start on LinkedIn, but it’s merely a shiny object at the moment. Soon though.
I’ve built momentum on Twitter and I love using the platform. It’s the path of minimum resistance. Also, I’ve been avoiding writing threads - so it’s time to jump right in. Not to mention that interesting things are afoot on this side of the internet! $44bn, anyone?
I loved building the first cut of my website (have you seen it, by the way?). But it’s going to sit at the back of the donkey cart for now. I’ll target to publish 1-2 essays per month.
Email love: I’m in love with email again. That’s new.
Primarily because I’ve been enjoying writing this weekly newsletter (for now). It’s an interesting experiment and acts as a baseline for my writing habit. I’ve been spouting random crap in your inboxes for three weeks already!
It’ll continue. And, before you say anything - you signed up for this.
Gimme some money: It’s time to explore freelance work.
The plan was to start easy. Writing and publishing has become relatively comfortable. So it’s time to put myself out there again. Rattle the cage and rile up the “animals” again.
Ghostwriting on Twitter or longer form content writing? We’ll see.
Will you answer a question?
I started tweeting some months back without much of a clue about anything.
The first task was to start writing and not spend the next decade planning it out. Now that I’ve started writing all over the internet, it’s time to focus - pinhole, remember?
So the next experiment is to focus my content on writing itself. Raise your hands if you love meta stuff! Now put them down, you look weird.
I’ll still talk about personal development as I enjoy thinking of rhetorical crap. But it’ll become secondary and I’ll link it to how that helps me rant write better. I’m writing all day long anyways. Nearly every conversation I have now is linked to writing. And I’m even designing my new life through writing.
So, it seems fitting. It’s the most actionable way for me to share what I’m learning and provide value to you. But my mental “animal” gymnastics isn’t done yet.
That’s where you come in -
What do you think about this shift in content strategy from personal development to online writing?
Even a one word reply (“fuck no!”) is priceless. Fine, that was two words, but you get the point.
I’d print it, stick it to my monitor and stare at it daily during my scheduled over-thinking sessions.
Un-chuckle worthy quote
“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” - John Dewey
The shuttling between chuckle and “un” versions continues. Don’t worry too much about it. I know I don’t (LIES!!!).
But yeah, the point is to reflect regularly on your execution.
People keep talking about “taking action”. I’ve been an execution robot the past 9 years working in finance. After a point, I felt like a mindless donkey, doing donkey work.
It’s better to be a smart(er) donkey instead.
Do I even need to say?
This was me testing a new format - what do you think?
Too long?
Too ranty?
A bit deranged?
“OMFG, just shut up already! What’s wrong with you? That was really long and crazy... But I still enjoyed it, huh?” (the correct answer)
Experimenting with formats is fun - keeps the wry in writing at bay (let it be, you). Also steers clear of my dear friend, perfectionism. He’s a jackass.
Obviously, I’ll see how it goes - writing long rants that are still comprehendible isn’t the easiest. You’d think I just had 10 espressos and went nuts writing this in one go without edits (I wish).
Instead, I procrastinated the shit out of this till the last day. Also, I was busy (seriously, just read the last two editions).
Then I sat down, did a brain dump and then tried to make it sane-ish. Sometimes I put too much on myself - “no one cares, Aditya!”
Anyhow, that’s it for today.
What's your 32.88% of the year look like? I’d love to hear about it.
Till next time,
Adi
PS: this was tame by my standards. Measured. But it helped me reflect a bit on my time, and hopefully helps you in some way. Let’s try again on 28th May.
As always, suggestions are welcome. I love banter (duh), so hit that reply button, comment on the website or book a call if you want to chat! I’d love to hear from you - go on, do it (you know you want to…)
Keep going Adi!
Kudos on consistency!