The Covid pandemic in the year just gone by was a huge 'black swan' event that most of the people didn’t see coming. In these 15 months, vulnerabilities were exposed in every sphere of human existence. Some have perished, unfortunately; some have survived, and some have thrived.
At the end of 2019, I decided to stop being an employee after 38 years of an uninterrupted professional career. I didn’t expect the following year to be a watershed year for me personally when the world around me was turning upside down. So here is my little 2020 story.
For the first time in my life, in March 2020, I got into the habit of exercising and yoga and made it a part of my daily routine. I haven’t fallen sick since then. No cough, no cold, no fever, no headache, so no medicine. All my vital parameters are within a normal range. Keeping my fingers crossed! Need to keep at it.
In May 2020 I completed a tough one-year program on coaching from Fielding Graduate University, California (the world’s largest in terms of the number of research dissertations on coaching) and graduated virtually, after 192 hours of ICF accredited coach specific training. I also completed certification programs in three important psychometric assessments and one of them ended with a 3-hour test! During 2020, I also completed over 100 hours of coaching clients in USA, Singapore, and India. After that, I passed another grueling 3-hour exam and earned the Associate Coach Certificate badge of the International Coach Federation, the world’s largest. Happy to be a lifelong learner!
At a deeper level, I am making effort to acknowledge my strengths and areas of improvement, trying to be mindful, and perceive the uniqueness of others with unconditional positive regard. Regular yoga is perhaps helping me. It’s more than a marathon, and I am game!
A born non-vegetarian, something continued to stir up deep inside me. To the utter dismay of my family and friends, I stopped having meat and chicken several months back and stopped having fish & seafood a few months back. I am feeling no sense of loss contending with the sudden reduction of options in the menu card!
I am giving a makeover to my social media presence, have founded a business consulting firm ‘Eu Matter Consulting’, launched its website, doing some meaningful coaching and management consulting work, and looking forward to more learnings in 2021.
Moving forward, you will see me sharing my modest professional knowledge on various subjects with you through my posts regularly. Hope you will find them useful.Feel free to reach out to me for any further query: https://eumatterconsulting.com/contact-us/
Wish me well in my journey, where the destination is perhaps the journey itself.
Best wishes Aniruddha
Dear Joydeep My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your best wishes.
Dear AG
Lovely inner reflection ! I always admired you as a human being, a friend, a colleague and a professional leader. You have demonstrated the Self-awareness which is required for a human being and a leader very well with conscious efforts. As leader one of the traits is ability to transit across various functions and sectors and you have demonstrated this very well in your career. A keen learner and this is reflected above in the story . Way to go !!
Keep going and Keep growing -Ramki
Dear Ramki My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words. Learning, unlearning, and re-learning make my life interesting. The continuous quest for becoming a better version of myself makes my journey worth traveling.
Wish me well.
Great to see you get into coaching and helping many others with your experience and insight. A job well suited for the calm, patient, pleasant and wise Ani dada.
I'm in the phase of carrier where I see a steep learning curve ahead of me. Your learning story is inspiring.
Bengali dada quitting fish and sea food - that's impressive. All the best to stay true to the path.
Dear Aravindan My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words. Learning, unlearning, and re-learning make my life interesting. The continuous quest for becoming a better version of myself makes my journey worth traveling.
Wish me well.
A story definitely "not little" when it comes to inspiration. Looking forward to more such stories in 2021 and beyond where every change is for the better.
Dear Binu My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words. Learning, unlearning, and re-learning make my life interesting. The continuous quest for becoming a better version of myself makes my journey worth traveling.
Wish me well.
Hi Aniruddha. Nice to read your story. You are multiplying your Intellectual or Invisible capital. It will do you a lot of good. Congratulations.
Regards
TV
https://youtu.be/PWqPcnQguek
Dear TVR My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
You are a guru. So these words coming from you mean a lot to me. Thank you.
Learning, unlearning, and re-learning make my life interesting. The continuous quest for becoming a better version of myself makes my journey worth traveling.
Wish me well.
Dear Aniruddha - you have demonstrated that one can transform and learn at any stage of one's career and habits and attitudes accumulated over decades of conditioning can be shed and a new world view developed. amazing journey of transformation and inspiring. keep going and wishing you the very best
Dear Santosh My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your heart-warming words.
Your own quest has been awe-inspiring. I salute you for that!
“My Little 2020 story” is quite thought provoking. How a shift from being an employee to self reliance works so well, and how Yoga can buffer the sudden jolts that life throws, at different levels, be it physical health, mental or emotional states.
What’s more surprising is the shift to Vegetarianism for no tangible health reason or any compulsion, a very rare trait among the traditionally habituated Bengalis, kudos to the strong conviction!!
Getting into serious academics once again through the thick of a pandemic, and securing certifications form one of the best institutions, is nothing less than “heroic!!”
Wishing you all success in your professional endeavours.
Dear Dr. Pradyumna My apology for the delayed response. I have been struggling with the IT platform for this. Now I know how to 'reply'. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words. Learning, unlearning, and re-learning make my life interesting. The continuous quest for becoming a better version of myself makes my journey worth traveling.
You have been just a wonderful human being, so humble, so helpful, so kind. There is a lot to learn from you. I have huge respect for you because of your solid human values. My best regards always.
Best wishes Aniruddha. Great Initiative!
Thanks Shahid
Mr.Ganguly
It was really very motivating to go through your post. Sorry for this delayed response . Strangely enough my journey through this pandemic have also been very humbling and a great learning experience in many ways and helped me to evolve as a better and stronger human being.
All the best to you and would eagerly wait for more updates from your end.
Regards
Sunando Dasgupta
Thank you Sunando! We go back a long way. Happy to know that you too had your own uplifting personal journey during the pandemic. Let us keep in touch.
Ani Da,
Your last couple of years are so well captured in words, which come straight from your heart.
Glad to know that you have reset your course in your journey, also bringing in a healthy lifestyle with proven practices like Yoga.
I wish you well in your new sojourns which suits your personality so well and may you find that happiness in your pursuits.
PS: I have to now look for a fish eating partner. 😊
Love
Arvind.
Thanks Arvind for your heartwarming words.