Highlights Of My 2024
Reflecting on the year of stillness, change, unlearning, relearning, growth, and curiosity. This year has pushed me to explore new directions, embrace uncertainties, and keep an open mind to accept whatever comes. And I am grateful for it!
I wrote, re-wrote, abandoned, and picked up the task of writing about my highlights of the year again, as has been my tradition for the past few years(2023, 2022, 2021).
Bouncing back from heartbreak, deciding to take a career break, picking up a hobby that I have postponed for years, focusing on my physical health intentionally, developing a skill in an area that I had kept bookmarked for almost a decade, learning a new language, traveling to all 5 places top of my list with my favorite people, and most importantly spending time with my closest friends — being there for each other, celebrating small and big wins together, pulling each other up, and just enjoying each other’s existence.
2024 has been an exciting rollercoaster with its ups and downs — and I have grown a little more self-aware, accepting, and patient! ❤
Somehow it doesn’t feel right to write it in the format of “here are all the things I did and experiences I had”. So I am going to shake it up a little. Let’s see what comes up!
This year has been the most different for me than most of the previous years. Everything felt like a reset in almost all areas of my life. I unlearnt, and relearnt. I lost many things and found several others. I paused, reflected on some big topics, questioned the way life was going, thought about how I wanted it to be like going forward, and took some small steps to steer myself in a new direction.
Like every year, I of course did several things this year, had many new experiences, and connected with many people — but this year it was somehow more intentional, rather than a default auto-pilot mode. Or perhaps, I was simply more aware and present and had enough space to allow myself to be more aware and connected than I previously was.
So, here are some of my reflections and learnings I picked up along the way this year:
- Trusting my body, instincts, intuition, and feelings has been one of the biggest learnings I had this year. It is insane how we stay so much in our heads and forget that we also exist below our necks — there is a whole lot of useful information that is just waiting for us to pay attention to it. Coaching not only taught me this, but it also strengthened my trust in my “gut instinct”. I no longer make decisions based on only an analytical mindset but always ask myself how I feel about something before going for it.
- Moving out of the scarcity mindset and moving into the abundance mindset — it’s easier said than done, and I am still working on it. Growing up in a middle-class Indian family, and the highly competitive environment in India has pushed me and many like me into adopting the scarcity mindset. It has affected every single area of my life for decades — from small day to day behaviours to big life choices — and not in a good way. 2024 has been a beginning to change that and I am curious to see how this mindset shift impacts my life going forward.
- Cultivating self-belief and trusting that no matter what happens, I can handle it has allowed me to let go of the control I was forcing on life and timelines for the things in life. It has made me calmer and less anxious, more open to explore and experiment, and in general patient with myself and life. I can’t believe I lived under so much self-enforced stress and pressure for so long before getting to this point.
- The image of life as a Greek temple has stuck with me since 2020 when my therapist was trying to help me with my chronic anxiety — most of which was coming from my equating my identity as a tech professional. The idea that life is supported by many pillars, that your work is just a part of your identity and the reality at the time that I only ever invested in one of the pillars truly helped me understand why I felt so stressed every time the career pillar was threatened ever so slightly — my temple(identity, life, the idea of me) was at risk to collapse entirely if this one pillar falls. Since then I have invested in strengthening many other pillars, even building a few new ones, to the point that this year I completely let go of my career pillar. I not only survived, but even enjoyed exploring all the other parts of life, building new identities, and realizing that the strength of the other pillars in my life was enough to support the temple! I don’t feel threatened anymore.
- Understanding that no choice is right or wrong — it is what you make of it. Every experience is a valid life experience and living it as it comes without being so harsh on yourself for taking a right rather than a left makes all the difference. Life is a series of choices and any path is a valid path, so stressing too much about most of the choices in life is an exercise in futility — no one can guarantee how it will turn out to be. Doing what feels right and staying true to myself is the only way for me to go about making choices and taking decisions, going forward — while having enough self-trust (see point 3) to be able to face consequences irrespective of whether the choice turns out to be a disaster or a lottery.
- Quality over quantity, “Depth” over “Scale”— impact of the work I did(1/1 Coaching a few individuals vs a software product with millions of users), the relationships I built(few close friends vs mindless networking), skills I learned (1 year of consistent dancing vs sampling 10 different “hobbies”), connections I deepened(1/1 coffee walks vs zoom calls/group dinners), communities I built(10 people group of daily walkers vs 100s people group with no clear accountability) — one is not necessarily better than the other, but I found it more fulfilling for myself this year to do it this way. Converting FOMO(fear of missing out) to JOMO(joys of missing out).
- Gratitude for the privilege that often goes unacknowledged — good health, a secure life, a supportive family, time to relax and rest, the ability to learn and grow, and the possibility to travel, explore, and have new experiences. The realization that things can change at any time makes me appreciate them even more, and pushes me to be more intentional and present.
It has been a very interesting year for me, in so many ways and I am ending this year with so much appreciation, acceptance, and fulfillment. I can only hope for the next year to provide me the chance to build on this new foundation that I set for myself and my life. Strengthening all the pillars, and perhaps building a few more, living more intentionally and authentically.
Onwards and upwards! 🚀
I am a Certified Leadership Coach who is passionate about closing the gender gap in senior leadership roles within the tech industry. I support women in tech to make the transition into senior roles and overcome the challenges that come with it. If you are curious about working with me or want to connect with me, please feel free to send a request on LinkedIn.
