{"id":3898,"date":"2021-01-03T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/?p=3898"},"modified":"2021-01-16T19:03:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T18:03:31","slug":"the-bright-side-of-my-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/the-bright-side-of-my-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Simple routines I adopted in 2020 to reduce anxiety and increase positivity \ud83e\uddd8\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffc\ud83d\ude07"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Before diving in 2021, I wanted to reflect on the past year. Like I said, 2020 was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/bye-2020-adapting-together-in-2021\/\" title=\"Thanks for adapting to 2020 &amp; Happy new year!\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">crazy, but we thrived<\/a>. Crisis presented a bunch of new opportunities. I want to share how being thoughtful about 4 habits I became contributors to my sanity and satisfaction of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. I won back my time, mind &amp; body.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"alignright size-thumbnail is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"gray pedestrian lane\" class=\"wp-image-3918\" width=\"113\" height=\"113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/d0bcd0b0d180d18cd18fd0bd-d0b1d0bbd0b0d0bd-marjanblan-yfy5dehd_ky-unsplash-edited-2048x2048.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 113px) 100vw, 113px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With everything around overwhelming us, time and headspace became more constrained than ever. I gradually made 5 simple changes to my day, starting with a digital detox. These include writing weekly priorities, replacing breakfast, checking messages less often, (less Netflix) more podcasts, and ending the day with an activity. All of which reduced anxiety and gave something to look forward to everyday. The headspace allowed leading and caring better \u2014 both at work and home. And without the time, none of the below would&#8217;ve been possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. I gave back through mentoring.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Having done some informal mentoring in 2019, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mentoring-club.com\/the-mentors\/prasad-gupte\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mentoring-club.com\/the-mentors\/prasad-gupte\">Mentoring Club<\/a>, and later, the Vodafone Institute&#8217;s female social entrepreneurship accelerator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.f-lane.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.f-lane.com\/\">F-Lane<\/a>, provided the platform and structure to mentor as a routine. The overall experience from 30 sessions was highly enriching and immensely contributed to sharpening my core leadership skills. For that, and the joy of giving back to community, I will certainly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/coaching-and-mentoring\/\" title=\"Feeling stuck with a challenge? Looking to set your next career step? Let\u2019s talk!\" class=\"highlight\">continue to mentor in 2021<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3919\" width=\"640\" height=\"303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte-300x142.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte-1024x485.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/mentoring-topics-prasad-gupte-768x364.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>I&#8217;m really happy I could give back<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. I learned &amp; practiced a lot.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>2020 started off with the most awesome <span class=\"highlight\">personal trip with work colleagues<\/span> \u2014 <em>yes, read that again<\/em>.  \u2014 to ski for the first time ever. What you see below is the result of 2 hours of training, 2 days of <em>(almost non-stop) <\/em>practice and endless encouragement from fantastic companions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/pw\/ACtC-3cKSr36WyAUESBZy-pYc2BtQRpmumpIY2-ih54aC9w6YH9e-fzZb2QyQgk14FjSi_7013wraswvQD41KfvM9i3Z83lmVzCZGCPCsbKClyOHBzuyTrzAZ5OuaF3rDf0HhtZ10z5mr-yKLKjcvCjxhEDuRA=w600-h338-no?authuser=0\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>That&#8217;s me on the 3rd day of skiing in my entire life. Thanks Geoff for capturing this.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That was of course before spending rest of the year indoors. I decided on  strengthening my discovery &amp; innovation skills, and completed 2 enlightening &amp; collaborative courses from Ideo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/3-insights-from-ideo-for-innovation-design\/\" title=\"I learned Ideo\u2019s secret to innovate &amp; design for human emotions \ud83d\udd2e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Insights for Innovation<\/a> and Human-centered service design, over 10 weeks. It enabled a big mindset shift and to see user feedback in a new light, allowing better experimentation to maximize learning.  I also self-studied the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/monetization-pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/monetization-pricing\">Monetisation &amp; Pricing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/product-strategy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/product-strategy\">Product Strategy<\/a> courses from Reforge, greatly useful for 2021 strategy &amp; planning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst the lock-down, I started learning to skateboard and play the piano \u2014 but these have spilled-over into 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. We improved the quality of our family time.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Family is extremely important to me. And 2020 presented an opportunity to spend more time together. But that also required planning things to manage kids at home, and to compensate for lockdown mood. We relied even more on our shared family calendar. We setup new routines for relaxing and bonding. Without it, my son might&#8217;ve not fallen in love with his bike &#8211; the way he did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, I wouldn&#8217;t want to go back to 2020, but I&#8217;m grateful for everything it gave me \u263a\ufe0f. Also remember, that one doesn&#8217;t end up with that kind of skiing \ud83d\udc46\ud83c\udffc without this kind of falling \ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffc, on the <em>kiddie slope<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/falling-on-kiddie-slope.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"277\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/falling-on-kiddie-slope.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3970\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Thanks to another amazing photographer, Vikte<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before diving in 2021, I wanted to reflect on the past year. Like I said, 2020 was crazy, but we thrived. Crisis presented a bunch of new opportunities. I want to share how being thoughtful about 4 habits I became contributors to my sanity and satisfaction of life. 1. I won back my time, mind &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/the-bright-side-of-my-2020\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">4 Simple routines I adopted in 2020 to reduce anxiety and increase positivity \ud83e\uddd8\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffc\ud83d\ude07<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1614,1613],"tags":[1583,1612,1581,908],"class_list":["post-3898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-managing-time","category-managing-yourself","tag-adapting","tag-mentoring","tag-reflection","tag-time-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1502691876148-a84978e59af8?ixid=MXwxNTk0ODd8MHwxfGFsbHx8fHx8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&fm=jpg&q=85&fit=crop&w=2560&h=1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3898"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3974,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3898\/revisions\/3974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}