It just took 6 weeks to lose my ✏️ memory

But it's like any other muscle, and I will build it again...

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Wow. I finally mustered the courage to open a new file on Google docs and start firing. I tried the same a few weeks back but just couldn’t get my act together. And after some time, I gave up on publishing the piece and extended my writing holiday for some more time.

As for the holiday, it was the best trip we’ve taken together since our wedding in 2012. We spent 7 days in Norway, of which our 2-day stay in Balestrand was the most memorable of our time in that beautiful country. 

It's a village surrounded by snow-capped mountains on 3 sides and a beautiful ocean in the front. The weather was absolute bliss with temperatures at 10 degrees throughout the day and much cooler at night. The sun would set at midnight and it felt weird to call it a day till the sun was down. The body just wanted more of the place, the food, and the weather. 

We also traveled to Finland for a Biohacking Convention in Helsinki. My repeated failed attempts at taking a 15-minute dip in an 8-degree cold water tub were the most hilarious. Usha took her first-ever Finnish Sauna at Loyly followed by a dip in the ocean. She enjoyed it a lot. I will dare her to repeat this brave attempt in November someday. Let’s see if she comes through then ;) 

The trip was full of fun, laughter, banter, walks, cruises, treks, beers, and loads of dance moves. The last one was forced upon me and I hesitatingly, but lovingly, gave into my wife's wishes to teach me some moves as that would make for some hilarious content for her IG, and it did. You can check it out here, and here. Pls, don’t unfollow me ;) 

After returning from Europe, I made another trip to India for a 5-day Investment Workshop. It was conducted at Flame University, Pune, and had marquee names as speakers e.g. Nilesh Shah from Kotak AMC, Navneet Munot from HDFC AMC, Ramdeo Agrawal from Motilal Oswal, Ridham Desai from Morgan Stanley, Bhaskar Bhatt from Titan, Ramesh Damani from Avenue Supermarkets and so many more. 

Many of them have been my heroes in my Investment journey and I had only read about them or watched their interviews on Youtube. But this time, I got to spend 5 days with them, shooting questions after questions during breaks and post the day’s training. They were gracious in their demeanor, always patient with us, and generous in answering all our questions. We felt like kids in a candy store with the freedom to pick anything that our eyes could see.

In short, the last 6 weeks have been refreshing at the same time enlightening in so many ways. I have returned to Dubai this time with a clear sense of what needs to be done to 100X my Investment portfolio in years to come. And I am stoked about it !!! 

But in these 6 weeks of holiday time with no writing, it seems that my writing muscles felt really ignored and have been throwing tantrums since I returned. Even now, I only have a faint idea about what I’ll be writing about but I’m trusting my gut that I’ll get to a good place soon. Now I can relate to the statement made by Michael Phelps “And in the sport of swimming, if you miss one day it takes you two days to get back to where you were”.

This whole episode got me thinking about our memory muscles –  i.e., our hard-earned abilities – which seem to be a mesh of our insights, experiences, routines, and habits. These all come together to create a skill or expertise that we can deploy to great use in our lives. 

It’s like driving - there was a day when I couldn’t drive without both hands on the steering wheel and eyes laser-focused on the road ahead. But today, I could be having my pizza while sipping my coke, enjoying Nikola Cruz’s House Music, and still driving comfortably on a busy highway.

The years of exercising these driving memory muscles have got us to a place where driving can be done effortlessly. And the same applies to all our skills being put to use, for some purpose or another.

Our memory muscles are malleable. They can be molded enough into developing the right skills for the right purposes. It only needs time and repetition - both of which will test our character to its limits since both are to be endured to keep these skills alive. 

Time on the writing table is to be endured, while I confront the sludge of emotions like procrastination, laziness, discomfort, and unease.

Repetition of the skill is to be endured, while I confront my impostor syndrome and the fear of finding nothing at the end of the ride.

I know that this is a temporary phase and I need to get over it soon. I need to confront it before it turns me into pulp. And that’s exactly what I’m doing with penning my thoughts down here. I may not be articulate with my piece, but I know my memory muscles are being summoned to come to my aid. I can feel that my fingers have started typing faster, the thoughts have started flowing in, and my mind is getting its act together.

Feels good to have 900+ words here.

The next one will be even bigger and better. For now, enjoy my dance moves, and don’t miss reading the comments from my trolls ;)

I will be back with recommendations for the week from the next post onwards.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend ahead !!

Manish