In the Growth Session yesterday, we talked about growth. How do you know you’re growing, how do you set goals, what does growth even look like — all those things.

Got me thinking.

For as long as I remember, I have always wanted to + work towards getting better. Perpetual levelling up. It started off as wanting to remain top of class in school. Somehow, the motivation changed to wanting to be better than anyone I knew. Still not personal. All my school reports would have a remark – self-motivated. That was barely the case. I had simply been wanting to be like the best person around me.

Then, in 8th grade, they introduced these workshops called: SALT. Skills and Attitude for Life Transformation. Sounds like a run-of-the-mill corporate training, for 14 year-olds. Each week, we covered different things. Forgiveness, goals, gratitude, etc, etc.

In one of these, we talked about personal growth. How do you become a better you?

We had a sheet of paper with 5 questions. The premise was, If you had become your best-self, how would you answer these questions?

Questions like:

• How do you spend your free time?
• Top 5 books you read
• 5 things you never ever do
• 5 words that people would use to describe you
• I forget the fifth one

They gave us a week to think hard. And fill this up. Name our sheets [Name] + “2.0”

Mine was called Viny 2.0. We came to class, talked about our 2.0 sheets, why we have put everything there, pinned it up in the rooms and went back home. The instructor also told us that the way to become that best self was to start acting like I have become my best self already. And practice those habits. And that we should do this every six months.

They had taken our sheets away. So, I came back home and re-wrote it. A Viny 3.0. And started practicing it. I told world as well. I am Viny 3.0 now. It was a big joke in the family, as all my experiments and personal commitments are. But I think I made it to around Viny 7.0 before I outgrew this practice.

However, that one simple sheet of questions put me in the habit of imagining better for myself and working towards it. I’m sure I have never had problems dreaming the biggest dreams. But this was good to make me intentionally work for it.

Other than that, here’s something SG showed us + my Dada Ji used to say:

“कुछ लिख के सो, कुछ पढ़ के सो,

तू जिस जगह जागा सवेरे,

उस जगह से कुछ बढ़ के सो”

– भवानी प्रसाद मिश्र

That’s all <3