Good morning everyone. Today is Friday, September 24th, 2021. And here ago, I think it was September 26th or 27th. I published my first episode, a podcast episode.
It was the obviously pandemic time. I turned 60, you know, on September 23rd. And I said, you know what? I am going to do something different.
And I'm going to try recording one episode for the podcast. And I titled my podcast as Morning, Lalitha's Morning Music, simple, right? And then I said, I'm going to focus on completion versus perfection. If you listen to my first episode, I have not listened, you know, I just listened before publishing one year back.
I have not gone back and listened to my own episodes. That's for you guys. Okay. And thank you for putting up with me.
So it was completion versus perfection, my first episode. So today, after an year, I'm just thinking, you know, I said, what are the 60 ways I benefited by starting this podcast? I asked myself this question. A part of me said, oh my God, 60 ways, Lalitha, how are you going to find this, right?
How are you going to find out or how are you going to unearth 60 ways and put it for your audience? I was pressured. Then a part of me said, Lalitha, you don't have to do all the 60 benefits or maybe you don't have to identify all the 60 benefits and put it in one episode. Wow.
Then a part of me said, why don't you make six episodes, 10 each, so that, so that you can make first of all, you're giving yourself permission to do bite-size actionable steps. Okay. And when you give yourself permission to do bite-size actionable steps, you are saying that, you know what, I can do it. And this thing of I can do it and meaning that I can do it and I will do it.
If all these are synchronized, you know, your thoughts, your feelings and your action, if they're synchronized, that is called authenticity, authenticity of being authentic to your own words, your own commitment to yourself. I said, yes, I can do it 10. I can identify 10. So what I did was you all know my acronyms SMD start my day.
So I said, I put it in my start my day, two, a couple of days back, I said write down 60 benefits, write down first 10 benefits. So I started writing it down. I just started writing it, started, took my pen, simple, took my pen. I have a notebook which goes with me everywhere.
Wherever I go, I take that notebook and in that notebook, I started writing down. I got 10 benefits, boom, I got another 10. I've stopped with 20 and I said, Lalitha, you're writing benefits on your notebook. When are you going to communicate your first 10 to your audience?
There you go. Now I've shown up, I've shown myself up in front of my mirror and that's my podcast station. And so first of all, I want to thank all my listeners in whichever platform you're listening, either it is Anchor or Google or I, what's it called? Radio podcast or Spotify or iTunes, wherever, whichever platform or from your browser.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening. And sometimes some people have shared their insights, some have not. I'm very respectful of all the people, regardless of whether you share your insights comments or not. Even if you said, you know what, it's boring after two minutes, I don't want to hear this.
Everybody, I'm very, very thankful to all of you. That's why I have one beautiful affirmation to myself. I'm thankful to no one unknown, seen unseen, heard, unheard, felt, unfelt. Try this.
You know, then you get miracles from various places popping up for you to make your day a fantastic day. Let's come to the episode first. So as I was chatting with one of my audience, she said, Lalitha, was it your birthday yesterday because I had put in my status about how I celebrated my birthday yesterday. So I said, yes, it was yesterday.
Now she's one of my other listeners and she also shares her insights. And also more than insights, she shares with me how it has impacted her. And this is so huge, you know, one of the gifts that we can ever give to ourselves and to others is to share something that is valuable to the best of our knowledge and hear or listen or read or watch the input from the other person inside. And then telling, you know, Lalitha, I implemented it and I got this value.
What a huge, what a feeling of huge, what to say fulfillment. That you cannot put a dollar value to it. You cannot put a dollar value. You cannot put a material value to it.
And that's exactly what I got. So thank you, my dear, lovely listener. And today I'm going to start off this podcast reading what it meant for you. Here you go.
Many, many happy returns of the day, Lalitha. It was wonderful and energizing to see your photo with high discuss. I was thinking about how much impact you have had on me and sure others do. I feel I have come a long way the past two years and your podcasts and small chats and curagement had a very significant role.
Thank you so much for it. The biggest aspect I learned from you was commitment, commitment. Always admire your positive energy. The world needs people like you to spread the positivity.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I pray and wish for a long healthy life for your, for you, filled with positivity, happiness and podcast. Oh my God.
So this is giving me a kick. That means Lalitha, you need to do more episodes. You cannot stay in your comfort zone. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you to this listener and to all the listeners out there. So now as I mentioned my intention to at the beginning of this episode was to identify 60 benefits that I got by starting this podcast. Now why am I sharing this?
It could be a benefit for me personally, but I also found that it benefited my audience. Why and how because they shared their insights. Now in this episode, I'm going to share 10 benefits, 10 benefits. Number one, discipline to show up to record an episode, regardless of any tangible outcome.
I don't get paid for any of these, making any of these episodes. I don't get paid for time. I don't get paid for any of these, but I get, I get, I get an invaluable feeling of gratitude and fulfillment that I cannot put a price tag. Number two, ability to express my thoughts and feelings in an audio format and giving it a voice.
See, sometimes we may have those nuggets of wisdom floating inside our body. And then we might be thinking, oh my God, who can I go share with? People are busy, right? So I was able to express my thoughts and feelings in an audio format and give it a voice because of starting this podcast.
Number three, taking my audience, listeners, with me to saying affirmations aloud. One of my proven beneficial morning ritual. Yes, for me, affirmations, I've been doing for years. I think I started off somewhere in 2002, 2003.
That was when my company downsides and I said, no, I'm going to create my story. It's my affirmation, what I'm going to tell myself, right? So I was little shy to share this morning ritual with people, but this podcast gave me the opportunity and I know some of my listeners are also doing it. Number four, becoming more patient with myself.
When I don't get ideas for content or when I don't get the mood or when I don't feel inspired. So as I said, I'm not a very, I would say I'm not goal-oriented. I just set only short-term goals. That's all I would even call it goals as I'm talking to you.
The right word is short-term commitment to myself. So I sometimes I would say I won't do the podcast, but then the inner, the higher self, all the inferences, does not come or synchronize with me to give me the content for the episode. But guess what? Some listeners, somebody tells me, like, the nudgeal, just haven't you done the podcast?
Or maybe I got this nugget from your episode, blah, blah, blah, so that motivates me to move. But I had to be patient with myself. That's what I meant. That's number four, right?
Number five, ability to listen, ability to listen to my listeners' comments, insights, and process them, remember and process them. Because that needs some time affluence, not you cannot be rushed on that. I will read them, I will listen to them, and then I will go away from that complete scenario. And while I'm cooking or while I'm doing something else, that listener's insight comes into my mind.
Then I sit and process them. And if I have time, I would respond to them personally. Number six, I guess. Okay, if I'm going wrong with my numbering, please bear with me.
But then I have taken, I put 10. So definitely, if the sequence is wrong, please bear with me. Becoming more observant on how I learn new things, what motivates me and what irritates me. Let me tell you, for example, I'm off course, I'm 61.
So sometimes, using my cell phone, if I have to do certain things, I'm in my eyes are not that as sharp as it used to be. So there are certain things irritate me to do it in the cell phone, but there are certain things I want to do it in cell phone. Right? I want to learn.
There are certain things I was doing in my laptop. Some I would do in my notebook. So that's what I meant by this. Next, create new ways to use podcast platform, which is right now I'm using anchor platform, app, anchor app.
Learn about audiences preferences, because they have got beautiful statistics where you can see which like how many episodes people, which episodes people have listened to for longer time, for how many episodes they've listened to, the age group, which age group. Interestingly, I thought because I'm 61, my podcast will be more or less than 2x55 plus 16. No, can you believe it? I have 621 to 3160% of them listening.
I think 28 to 35 or something. Very interesting. I never knew if I had not done these podcast episodes, I would never have known that this age group is interested in the wisdom that I want to share. Next, find and use different ways such as hand written, typing in laptop, and then using the mobile device, mobile cell phone device, notepad to create written script.
Sometimes I would feel boring or I would feel irritated to do this to write a script before I speak it out in my audio format, in my laptop, because I'd be slow in typing, I'd never learn typing, I would just use one single finger to do it. Sometimes my notepad and my cell phone will help me. That's what I meant by saying this. I was able to tell myself, hey, Lelita, if your cell phone is not ready available, go to the laptop.
If you're feeling bored, I was using all the three ways, writing with my pen, using my laptop and typing, and also cell phone. Improve my writing and copywriting skills. Yes, there's a big story I think. Probably I can record one episode.
I was a science student, so I was not good at language English, especially no. So I would get very low marks in English, but then there was one essay that I wrote and for which I got A plus. That's what motivated me as I became older. I said, Lelita, just because you did not get great scores in your English subject.
You had that one teacher who gave you A plus, so you just borrow that power from that one teacher and start writing anyway. So this podcast allowed me to do that. And now I've been writing articles for Medium also. The last, I think the 10 point is, inspire and help others to give themselves permission, keyword, give yourself permission, to try something new, even if it is just sharing one post or one small quote in your status, in your Facebook or something, whatever, whatever it is, and create an online presence for you.
With that said, I want to end this. Have a great Friday. Have a great weekend. And my best wishes and prayers for global wellbeing, global peace and global health.
Peace, peace of mind and great global health. Thank you. Bye. Bye.