Discovering the all-new Me 2.0

Happy New Year 2017!

It's that time of the year, when many of us are looking forward to a great year ahead. Contemplating about the year gone by, analysing our successes, the challenges we overcame, situations that we could not conquer, our good and bad decisions, etc. While some of us are still trying to beat the hangover from the New Year’s Eve party, and a few others have started to work on our new year resolutions. Personally, I do not indulge in making New Year resolutions, since my experience with them has not been great. But I believe that the start of a brand new year gives me an opportunity to work on becoming a better person than who I was, last year.

As a Son

This year, I would like to give my parents the gift of my time. Although we live in the same city, I feel I could have spent more quality time with my parents in the last few years. In 2017, I would want to spend more time with my parents, not just watching television reality shows together, but talking to them, taking them out shopping, to the movies, etc. I think, as children, even though we buy them expensive gifts from time to time, they continue to yearn for our attention, some quality time with us. And I would like to make it up to them during this year. Light up a few smiles on their faces.  

As a Husband

As my wife gets busier with her performance career, I'm sure she will need more of my support in terms of being there to manage things on the home front while she is jet-setting from one city to another, enthralling audiences with her artistic endeavours. While I don't enjoy the solitude during her absence from home, I think the least I can do to support her in her pursuits is to ensure that I go through those days (and nights) without whining or complaining much. And I will do my best to achieve that, this year. Well, in addition to being her content designer, her event planner, her account-keeper, her listening-pod and whatever else that she needs me to be.

As a Dad

Ever since our son filled up our lives, life has been such a fulfilling experience as parents. My pursuit of being the best Dad I can ever be has fuelled my life-goals as much as anything else has. As a father, every day is riddled with new challenges, new and difficult situations are thrown at me. Deep inside me, I want to improve my responses to situations involving my son, especially where I need to control my emotions and respond only once I have had the opportunity to analyse the situation. I'm sure it's not easy for him either, dealing with his Dad, who doesn't hide his affection for his "baby", but also someone who won't hesitate to act strict when it came to matters involving discipline and behaviour. Look forward to being a better Dad to my son in 2017, while he continues to become a better boy himself.  

At my workplace

Having completed 15 years in my IT career recently, it's a great time to reflect on what I've achieved in this short stint in the IT industry. While the journey has been very satisfying, especially the first half and a bit more, with a lot of good learning and growth opportunities, it's time to consolidate and grow in the limited opportunities that come your way at this stage of your career. While personally, you're looking to settle down in one place and not chasing opportunities wildly, I am sure this is bound to have an impact on your career growth and we need to accept this and be at peace with it. In 2017, I would like to come to peace with this reality, and try to derive professional satisfaction by contributing to the improvement of processes in my team and by adding value to my organisation.

As a friend

Although there is a feeling that we are so much more connected with our friends via the social media tools, I sometimes wonder if that is really true. Although we may be a part of several groups on WhatsApp, be it school-friends, college-friends, office-group, cousins-group, etc. most of them have just become platforms to share jokes, videos, fake-news, birthday & other festival wishes and other forwarded content. While some of the content shared on these groups may be useful at times, the groups have miserably failed to achieve the objective of truly connecting people, and we have ourselves to blame. As someone rightly said, "Technology and systems are only as good as their users". In 2017, I would like to try and connect with at least a few friends, and not just on WhatsApp or Facebook, but maybe try to call and speak with them, try to find out what they're up to. Maybe meet up with a few of them personally, if possible. I hope that my friends, who are reading this, will also think likewise, and help me achieve this objective. A little less time on WhatsApp and Facebook this year, for me!

As a responsible citizen

Being a regular blood donor, even though I did not meet my goal of donating blood 4 times every year in 2016 (only did it twice), 2017 has started on a good note with my first donation happening in the first week of the year. I would definitely like to meet that goal of 4 times this year. The whole experience of donating blood is an extremely satisfying one, especially when you know that this act of yours is capable of saving someone's life. I hope that I am able to inspire at least a few of my friends to follow suit this year.

A number of improvements have happened in our country related to digitisation and e-governance in the last couple of years. As responsible citizens who are computer-literate, I think we should try and help spread the knowledge to someone who is hesitant in using technology. Who better to start with, than your loved ones; your parents, uncles and aunts, if they're one of them.

I hope the New Year brings out the best in all of us, while challenging us to perform better than we did in past years. As we head into the New Year, all I have is hope, some wishes and aspirations that we make this world a better place.