Thank You, Mark Manson

For more than a year, I was struggling with the idea of giving my LinkedIn profile a proper direction. I have been this “all over the place’’ kind of a person when it came to posting on LinkedIn.?

And I realized it was time for me to grow up.?

But why was it important? Why couldn’t I write anything I wanted to on LinkedIn? The trolls would have a better answer for this and it goes something like - LINKEDIN IS NOT FACEBOOK.

Over and out.

However, it was not the trolls who shaped my newsletter journey but a man named Mark Manson. Didn’t ring a bell? Try, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**K…

I bet now it did because he is the author of this amazing book.

So, while I was devouring this book in reality, internally I was dealing with a struggle of my own. I was totally devastated at not being able to make the mark I wanted to make on LinkedIn. For days, I had been trying to crack the code to get one top community voice badge. Just one. But to my shame and embarrassment, I had none. Even when I posted at a feverish rate, asked my followers, family members, and friends to like the posts, and did everything possible in an ethical way to be a part of that community - I couldn’t.?

And I felt like a failure.?

I think I “needed” to feel like a failure to be able to comprehend that book even more. I felt like that book asked one pertinent question to me - why do I consider myself a failure for not getting a top community voice badge?

?And my answer was - because everyone’s getting it and I have none. The moment I kind of heard my own self, I realized how shallow I sounded.

I asked once again - why is it important for me to get one?

Oh dear, I was not about to like what was to hit me but I had to confront myself. The answer to my last why was - it is important for me to get that badge so that I show it off, so that I can add one more feather to my cap, so that I can put up a status in WhatsApp, and post that screenshot on FB, and write a decorated post beating my own drum on LinkedIn sharing my experience of how I got the badge. This entire agenda had BORING, SHALLOW, SUPERFICIAL, MATERIALISTIC, AND WANNABE written all over it.?

The question that still remained was - what after that?

After that initial high of basking in the Top Community Badge’s glory, what was waiting for me?

A never-ending cycle of trying and trying again to get some sort of validation.

This revelation sort of led me to question my values and beliefs, the standards against which I was judging myself, and most importantly where my internal compass was pointing to.

I had to be kind to myself. I had to keep my passion for writing alive in a way that it is an useful contribution to LinkedIn and is not associated with getting validation and likes. So, I kept contributing to the collaborative articles and I dissociated myself from the competition of getting a badge. It was not what my internal compass pointed towards to anymore.

Amidst this entire scenario, one thing led to other, and voila! I got the idea for my newsletter.

I arrived at this idea by answering another fundamental question to myself - what is something I deeply cared about?

Training? Change Management? Human Capital Consulting? Sure. I love my job.

But what is something I deeply cared about even more than these topics?

The answer was CRYSTAL clear to me. It’s well-being. No points for guessing !!!

I hold my well-being sacrosanct. Like everyone else, I had my own struggles in life and I learned to prioritize my well-being the hard way. And I’d really like to share what I have been through, what I am still going through, and what I have learnt in this journey.

I am perfectly okay with exposing my vulnerabilities in this newsletter to be honest. The very purpose of this newsletter is not to be preachy, or be a self proclaimed wellness guru. I just hope that I be the thing that someone needs to hear, that this newsletter touches someone and propels someone in the right direction. I hope to give strength, hope, and love to those who need it. And also, I love to write so, that's a win-win for me too.?

If you have read this far, you can’t possibly imagine how much it means to me. Thank you from the deepest core of my heart.?

Yours sincerely, The Well-Being Reporter.

**Update - I did finally receive my first community Top voice badge and am very happy. I am even happier because I worked on myself and worked to get the badge for all the right reasons. I did all those things which I really wanted to do like posting it on social media but I did not feel SHALLOW, SUPERFICIAL, MATERIALISTIC, AND WANNABE anymore. And this is because, while I was working towards getting this badge, I was also working on my internal self and regulating it in the right direction!