Learnings

Systems That Outlast Your Worst Days

How I finally built habits that didn't collapse every time life got messy. I spent years designing habits for a perfect version of myself. You know the one: wakes up at sunrise fully refreshed, follows a meticulous routine, drinks exactly eight glasses of water, and has a perfect streak on every habit app. That person doesn't exist—at least, not in my world. My actual mornings are usually blurry-eyed and underslept. I regularly lose socks, misplace notebooks, and get sidetracked by notifications. The systems I crafted fell apart …

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The Quiet Strength Nobody Talks About

On Day 2 of my period, I cancel a Zoom call, reheat the same cup of coffee for the third time, and stare at the ceiling fan like it owes me rent. Meanwhile, my maid walks in, sweeping and cooking like it’s any other day. I don’t even know when she gets her period—she never lets on. I lie there, curled up with a hot water bag, and think: how is she this steady while I’m a puddle of hormones and heat packs? Women in offices don’t miss a beat either. Sharp kurtas, back-to-back meetings, probably managing cramps beneath the table while giving …

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I Don’t Want to Be the Version of Me That Gets Applause

People liked her. She was agreeable. Reliable. Great in a group photo and even better at conflict avoidance. If someone needed emotional CPR, she’d do it with a smile and a spreadsheet. People said she had boundaries. What they didn’t know was that she’d just stopped asking for anything. That version of me could defuse a room in ten words or less. She knew how to tuck her needs under the rug, flatten every reaction, and leave a conversation looking like it never scratched her. Clean. Contained. Pleasant. But pleasant is a trap. It’s how …

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Should I Stay or Should I Go? Why the Hardest Decisions Don’t Fit Neatly on a Mood Board

I. The Exit Myth We love an exit. Especially a well-timed, sharply worded one. The kind that gets a standing ovation in a boardroom or a viral quote block on Instagram. “Know your worth,” it says. “Walk away from what doesn’t serve you.” We cheer. We repost. We crave the empowerment of decisive departures. But real life isn’t an airport departure board. Sometimes, the only way to tell if you’re making the right decision is by living through the wrong one. I’ve left jobs that looked great on paper. Walked out of relationships where love …

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The Small Life, Fully Lived

There’s a voice that never shuts up in my head. It doesn’t yell—it whispers. Constantly. It critiques the way I sit, the way I speak, the way I live. It judges my detours, mocks my slowness, compares me to everyone who's ever sprinted ahead while I chose to walk. And it gets especially loud when I’m alone. But something strange happens when I go off-grid—especially in the mountains. The voice quiets. Not because it’s gone, but because the landscape is louder. Everything out there—the hush of wind through pines, the crunch of gravel …

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What a Frozen Tent Taught Me About Staying

I didn’t expect a winter trek to become a mirror. But it did. Somewhere between the wind slicing through my gloves and the nights where sleep simply refused to show up, something quietly shifted. It wasn’t an epiphany. It was the slow-burning kind of knowing that creeps in when your distractions freeze along with your toes. On the first night, while everyone else tucked themselves into borrowed warmth, I stared at the tent ceiling wondering what kind of fool signs up for this kind of discomfort. But there was no running. Just the scratch of …

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Work-Life Balance Is a Myth. Build a Rhythm Instead.

We don’t need better schedules. We need better systems. Work-life balance sounds reasonable—like a goal any responsible adult should aim for. A neat line down the middle, separating the “work” you do for a paycheck from the “life” you live for meaning. It’s tidy. Logical. Easy to say on a webinar panel. But in practice? It’s fiction. Your life doesn’t divide neatly into blocks. A sick child doesn’t care about your strategy meeting. Your deadlines don’t pause because your body needs rest. You can set your Slack to “Do Not Disturb,” but …

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Losing Is Not an Art. It’s a Fight Club Nobody Signs Up For.

I thought I had become good at losing.Keys. Mugs. Tiffin boxes. Emails I meant to reply to. Friendships I thought were solid until they weren’t. A version of my life that existed only in my head but still left behind a ghost when it dissolved. The little losses added up until it started to feel like muscle memory—like I was supposed to take it all with a quiet smile and an overused quote about letting go. People seemed to admire the calm. “You’re so strong,” they’d say. Which really just meant: “You’re not making us uncomfortable with your …

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