Hello and good morning everyone, today is Saturday, June 22nd, 2024. My previous podcast episode was recorded way back on May 11th, 2024. Obviously, I'm feeling the gap, the break in the continuity and also the fluency in speaking out what I want to speak out. But at the same time, I know and you know that I have a system in place.
I already think my thoughts and feel my feelings and put them on paper or maybe I would say a document and then publish as articles in Medium.com. Then I make it a point to pull those articles systematically. These are older articles in my repertoire and read them aloud which serves as my solo podcast episode. So I was traveling, vacationing, doing the duties of a grandmother and also opening up for new way to experience new experiences.
Like I watched a magic show, a live magic show. What else, nothing comes to me apart from the live magic show right now. And then testing out submission star residents, you know, thanks to my children, thanks to my friends, thanks to my relatives. I visited a lot of temples in South India and I also had the privilege of visiting in Maharashtra, Shirdi Temple and also Threyambakei Shwar.
I also had the privilege of going to a geometric center, you know, the old age home, seeing people, talking to people, spending some quality time with my sibling, my sister and then also with my co-sisters, my brothers-in-law. It was a very different experience because now I'm an evolved 60 plus year old Alita, evolving or maybe evolved with experiences in two different countries. Until 37, I was in India and from 37 to right now, 63, I'm now in America. So two different countries, two different cultures, growing up as an adult, as a mother, as a mother-in-law, as a career woman, transition to self-employment and slowly retiring because I do have some parts of my self-employment continuing.
You know, that's where I am. So I showed up as an evolving kind of evolved woman in India this time, having a very different experience as a person transitioning from self-employment to I would say, can I say old age or can I say elder years and transitioning as a grandma to two different grandchildren, right, from two boys. So much for me to learn and show up in this world, right? Well, today's topic, that's about three minutes and 41 seconds of talking and warming up in order to catch up with the gap that I had from May 11 to June 21.
Thank you so much for accepting me as I am. The title for today's podcast episode is Are You 20 or 60 and Feeling Crappy? Why these five simple tips to live a happy and meaningful life? Subtitling Investing in Self-development Works After my day one prompt was published within a few hours, I was excited like a baby to read the comments from the challenger Anne Benkertraman and the amazing writers Nandbi Sleeks and Tannan and Angelin, whose work I shared and or mentioned at Controgation.
We may be different, we may be in different time zones and while I'm fast asleep, someone else is reading and clapping and commenting. This is truly divine and amazing, right? In other words, someone is giving his, her valuable time and attention, which is the most expensive currency these days. This is something I put it in quote.
When you read my article, you will understand because when I'm saying something, you're listening to my voice and processing in your mind. But when you read my article, I would have capitalized some, I would have italicized some, I would have also put it in a quote. So this was that quote. Coming to the topic of day two writing challenge, share your thoughts on turning 20, comma 30, comma 40, comma 50.
I'm smiling to myself saying, Lalita, yesterday you were nervous and doubtful about having enough content and making it to 500 words and you eventually were able to articulate your best and your best and, um, shown out one article. Today's prompt being a sexagenarian, 60 years, 60s, you have lots to say and I don't go overboard and don't go overboard. Okay. Then I've quoted another article.
I never knew whom I was writing for until I wrote this piece. Please check that article, check that episode also. Okay. Let's strengthen our recalling events and experiences muscle.
Am I able to recall these events and experiences? By the way, disclaimer, I'm so much in the present moment person that I rarely sit and recall events, whether good or bad. Okay. I rarely do that.
I'm always in the present and trying to do some simple things, simple action steps. And, uh, I believe in that. And that's really made, makes me keep in peace with myself, feel prosperous and also feel healthy, clinically healthy too. Okay.
So let's strengthen our recalling events and experiences muscle. When I turned 20 as a girl who had lost my father after 12 years, I was very serious, no nonsense and more mature for my age. I had to make the tough decision of letting go of a possible PhD all expense paid offer to accept an offer as admin in a nationalized bank in India. I'm also very fortunate for having understanding and compassionate professors who allowed me to complete my final year of master's in chemistry as a topper while I was doing my job in the bank.
Having made a personal choice to switch from the scientific to the banking industry, I was very career oriented and wanted to weave in the commitment and discipline from the academic world to my career domain. I did that by clearing banking related exams and getting promoted to the rank of an officer. Turning to my 30s taught me lessons from living in a joint family. Going through the rollercoaster ride of experiencing a still-birthed and birthing two wonderful boys and moving to two different cities.
I had to let go of my attachment to being individualistic. At 40, it appeared that I was at the peak of a mountain after the trekking experience of accepting and serving in a rural area as a bank manager. Staying away from my family, we can visit her to my under five-year-old boys migrating to the United States, accompanying my husband who got a lucrative job offer, me becoming jobless due to dependent on visa, exploring volunteering, learning and switching from banking to immigration law, getting my work from it to work in a law firm and making it through to the managerial position in Cartwright America. I had to let go of a lucrative banking managerial position in India.
At 50, I lost my mother and when I scanned through the years from 41 to 50, I realized that I had become an expert in letting go of what got me to the position or place or experience that I cherished the most. You know what? I became a letting go expert. One cannot be at the peak for a long time and you have to allow other mountaineers to experience that.
These mountaineers could be your family members, such as your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, anyone. For me, it was a career peak, but for my hubby, it was his career peak and the assurance peak within bracket being assured that in a foreign country, his kids are brought up well. For my children, it was getting the proper education and nourishment peak, a big, big, big proponent of nourishment and sleeping well. Within two years of being in Cartwright America, I experienced a spin-off, an acquisition and a layoff.
You can ask more, right? That's it. I was forced into a valley of self-employment and self-development. I had to let go once again let go of my attachment to a seemingly assured, regular paycheck mentality.
While in the valley from 50 to 60, I did my best to embrace and enjoy my trials and regulations as a self-employed professional while seriously pursuing self-development. I was learning to overcome the shame, fear of marketing and money conversations and run a decently low-key profile business. With divine grace, I was able to give my helping and encouraging hand to my husband's trek to this career peak, facing layoffs and job hunting. Both my boys are happily married and experiencing their trek in their corrects, moving to different cities, countries and job hunting.
I'm thankful to God that now at 6th, now I wrote this in 2023, actually 63, I'm a mother-in-law and a grandmother to two wonderful grandchildren. I'm also thankful for my parents, siblings, in-laws and friends and being there for each other in both good and bad times. Sometimes physically, sometimes, um, what to say, remotely. I'm very thankful to my past employers, colleagues, service providers and clients.
Based on my experience, here are five quick tips to live a happy and meaningful life. Be ready to let go of what you cherished the most, trusting that the best is yet to come. Instead of saying, I sacrificed, try to bring an analogy as I did with mountaineering. Please be okay to be in the peak for some time and valley for some time happily.
In life, be a consistent and bold test taker and learn the lessons from the test. Just as we prepare for winter, while we enjoy summer, embrace and enjoy your twenties. While preparing for your thirties, embrace and enjoy your forties, your forties, while sorry, embrace and enjoy your thirties while preparing for a fortty, so on. Be bold to lovingly live as a single person, as a couple, with your spouse, as a nuclear family member, with your spouse and kids, and as a joint family member with your parents and in-laws.
Thank you all for reading and sharing your tips. Shout out to amazing writers, Shani Crawford, Jono, Virchan. And Susie Curly for sharing their thoughts and insights. And I've quoted their articles here as the title, search PT is the enemy of integrity, clarifying career goals for nurses, trying to understand medium parades.
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You're already completing the end of the six months, half year of 2024. You have a fantastic day, fantastic year ahead. Bye bye.