A Fond Thank You: A Reminiscence of 2016 and Gratitude to my Friends at LinkedIn

?t's that time of the year. New year wishes to float around and increased activity in Social media with good messages floating around. All good! I wanted to reminiscently recollect some of the good things that happened in 2016 as I look forward to 2017. One of the first things that come to my mind is the quote from Cyril Cusack.

"If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am. Cyril Cusack

We all form resolutions throughout the lifetime. We make resolutions when we are in a good mood or reach a milestone or at moments of strenuous distress. Emily Bront?, in Wuthering Heights, quoted that “ Don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear”.The fruitful resolutions are one that we follow with passion and conviction. I made a few in the past for name sake (such as losing weight - which I badly falter every year, 2016 included). I've made some good ones, such as writing and improving my communication skills. I feel I have done a pretty decent job of it. That's where the title comes into play.

To link some of the thoughts, I felt that a Keynote Slideshare will do a better justice than a bunch of words.

What did I really enjoy the most in 2016?

Some of the joyful initiatives and sense of accomplishments include

1. Great year on a familial, personal and professional front. Good recognition in social media. A Good chance to contribute on my thoughts to the wider forum.
2. Good career shift to contribute better to humankind by supporting the better buildup of a healthier world. Surrounding self in an environment where motivation levels are pretty good.
3. Got a chance to contribute to the quizzing circle actively. Had a very lucky run at the Regional Round of the leading corporate quiz in India, with a good pecuniary bene?t for a podium ?nish 
4. Started on academics in parallel via distance, and going through a grueling 3-hour exams to find out that I still had some amount of handwriting skills and an ability to continue what I used to do during my engineering days, writing a lot of points to the extent of writing close to 40+ pages per exam.

However, the biggest satiating fact is the real recognition coming in from social media where my followers' count grew FROM 1800 to 154000+ followers in 8 months!

Hence, I would like to share my gratitude to LinkedIn, friends and followers with this!

Biggest Thank you to LinkedIn and all my followers, supporters, comments, suggestions and recognition it has been a really motivating aspect for me in 2016!

Couple of nice recognitions include

• Most readership views 

• Most Likes and Forwards

But wait, who will thank a social media portal of repute, to begin with? Am I insane to write such an article? What has it done to me so far? "You are not God's gift to mankind" - someone mentioned to me once. whilst it was too raw to digest by some means, If you really come to terms with it, it is absolutely right. Like the saying, "99% of life's outcome is a direct result of how you react to it". As long as you do things with the right intent and motive in a positive manner, the outcomes will be positive. 

Well, I had my own share of hits and misses. The world is indeed like a bird sanctuary or a zoo, given that humans are social animals. It's always the survival of the most adaptive ones like Charles Darwin quoted famously. Eventually, no one is God's gift to Mankind. How one uses the time they live in this world for betterment of their lives, their near and dear ones and the world surrounding them makes them a memorable one. While there are some atheists who could ask the validity of the question making it tautologically infeasible, there are plenty of brilliant lives who graced the world before us by stewarding the world to a better state than what they faced. Plenty of examples exists, be it science, medicine, technology, humanity - evidences are aplenty. May be we need to ignore climate change and non-renewable energy in this list.    

As you can see in the attached cartoon by Hugh, nobody has any reason to care for anyone else in the world, other than those who matter the most to them. In a social media world, this equation changes a bit. I do feel that an outlet like LinkedIn gives an avenue to care. I've had an opportunity to read a lot of brilliant writers such as @Karthik Rajan, Abhilash Gaur, Ramya Venugopal to name a few. CARING and SHARING is what drives the world. For this CARE and SHARE, I fondly thank you! Please keep it coming!

If you have read so far, I wish you a very happy, successful, prosperous, peaceful and joyful 2017!

 I hope you enjoyed reading through this curated collection of links, a personal perspective and inputs on this topic. Feel free to like, share or comment on what you think!

Credits: Header and most of the images are designed using CANVA. All other linked quotes and images available on the Public Internet. All Links correspond to public URLs available and credit goes to respective authors and linked directly in the article. Quotes are freely available on the Internet for reference. Respective trademarks owned by corresponding firms. Opinions highlighted are from a personal experience standpoint and in no way reflect the views of my current or past employers or clients.

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