5 Things I learnt in 2021..

For starters, 2021 saw best ever performance of my professional career (yet!) - unprecedented growth in customers, revenue, bottom line. Winning/getting nominated for awards. Launched some big initiatives - 5G, Handsets, 12month contracts and starting some new revenue streams (Energy, Broadband etc).

On a personal note too had a fantastic run. Some highlights being - been the lightest (and perhaps the fittest) I have been in the last 15 years, my squash rankings at the highest they have ever been, scaled the 3 highest peaks in the UK with my mates, spent more time with the girls at home (WFH helped).

All in all a fantastic year despite the covid backdrop. While there are many things that came together, I think the following 5 stand out for me:

1. People - “Probably the most underrated and underinvested topic”

I am blessed to have some incredible people around me as my friends and colleagues who are my source of inspiration and positivity.

At work, I have some amazing colleagues who kept it casual and yet are high performing. We all feed off the positive energy, passion and inspiration from each other.

And its the same with friends. We often don’t realise to what extent our thoughts and energies get influenced by our social circle and yet how often do we really think about or invest in these relationships.

The other important element is things we can learn from each other. Everyone is good at something (and not so good in some others). I now choose to only look at positives that i can learn from - someone has great planning skills, some at discipline, some other as a source of inspiration for not giving up etc etc.

2. Focus - “What you will DO and more importantly what you will NOT”

We all want to achieve a lot. Be it our personal or professional life. In reality, there are always so many constraints and it boils down to making choices. In my case, I could up until now, would (try to) “focus” on many things together and in the end not achieve any to my satisfaction.

In 2021, I experimented with focussing/doing just one thing at a time. For example, for first half of 2021 for my personal goal I had to choose between losing weight, playing squash, running and picking up a new hobby. At the time, losing weight was the most important goal so I decided to focus just on this aspect. Only once I met my weight target, I picked up squash.

At the work front too , I applied the same principle - looking at the constraints of budget, time, skills, & tech bandwidth prioritised using “what’s the one thing you want to do” in a day/week/month/quarter etc gave much clarity of what to swing behind and what to leave on the table.

3. Mentality - “Thinking of solutions" vs "thinking of problems”

This is perhaps the big game changer for me. It’s easy and tempting to point out what’s not right or how something is flawed or why others are not committed to the cause as passionately as you are, but unfortunately none of this helps. Focussing on what can be done with what we have is a powerful mindset. Using the same philosophy we launched 12month contracts (on prepaid stack) or launched handset contacts with minimum tech integration (without compromising on CX).

4. Planning - “Well begun is half done”

Of course, to achieve anything one needs to have a plan. But the important point that I’ve learnt is to break the plan down into bite size chunks and make it part of your daily rigour and daily routine. And the other important thing is front loading of the plan. The energy and enthusiasm in any new initiative is the highest at the start. I use it to get a head start and then the initial success gives me the balance motivation to go on to complete.

5. You vs You - “My personal favourite”

If you look around there are so many incredibly inspirational things people do - from running ultra-marathons to creating wonderful businesses to creating positive impact on society. It’s tempting to make their goal your own. But one needs to do what works for them. All the inspiration i draw from people around, I channelise in working towards a better version of myself. It’s my race (I set my own targets) and the only person I have to beat is myself. it’s like running a marathon. While you are run alongside other runners, you are chasing your individual target.

That’s it folks. As with all good things, 2021 has gotten over as well. Warmed by lovely memories and driven by the success of 2021, can’t wait to #raisethebar in 2022. Wishing you all a fantastic new year ????