Relationships, spirituality, personal narrative vision

Hello friend

Last weekend, I gathered courage once again and decided to try an online dating app again after failing at it for years.

I won’t go into details. I did actually in the first draft of this newsletter. Then I realized it doesn’t add any value to any of you (if you are still curious, ping me and I will share that draft :P).

Long story short- here is what happened:

We got matched, we had a 2-hour-long engaging chat, we argued, we continued the chat, we decided to connect over the phone, we had a heated exchange, and we got unmatched.

All this within a span of 12-14 hours! 😀

I won’t lie that by that time, I was seriously questioning my ability to date or even have a healthy relationship.

Coincidentally, I came across the following saved image on a healthy relationship in my digital archive.

I think it is a great reminder and summary of what a healthy relationship should look like.

More importantly, it also reminded me of the book I had read last week only which brings me to…

Book of the Week: The Big Leap

I once referred to the main concept of “The Upper Limit” problem from this book in this newsletter edition.​

But I re-read it again last week.

And this was the quote that stood out to me about relationships and spirituality.

The relationship is the place where our spirituality most visibly comes to light. The key to spiritual development through relationships is being open to learning from every moment of interaction.

Given the fact that I am actively working to deepen my spiritual practice of meditation and surrender with Vipassana, I have a feeling I’d need to practice and live it in relationships as well, sooner or later.

Idea of the Week: Personal Narrative Vision

The personal narrative vision is a writing exercise where you describe the vision of your life in a story format.

We once did a similar exercise in a leadership course in my post-graduate college. But it was a vision for 10-15 years down the line.

I think that is too long of a timeframe. And that too when you do it in your early 20s given the pace of change around us.

What I liked about PNV is that Tiago Forte recommends doing it for a year and does it at the time of the annual review.

I recently tried doing this for an even shorter time (the next 3-5 months till around December 2022). This is because I was feeling vague and uncertain about where I wanted to be in that short time as well. It helped me clarify and visualize things I want to do.

Here is a quick template I followed to write down my PNV (inspired by this article on annual review by Tiago):

Basics: where I live, what my home is like, what I have for breakfast, how I feel when I wake up.

Habits: when and how I exercise, meditate, cook, go to work, and wind down in the evening.

Work: what kinds of projects I’m committed to, the kinds of people I work with, what my experience of work is like, how I collaborate

Relationships: my family, my friends, my collaborators, and maybe a potential dating partner

Learning and growing: what kinds of experiences I am seeking out, the kinds of lessons I am learning, the wisdom I am gaining, the purpose I am living into.

If you want to see what a personal narrative vision looks like, you can check out the open PNV of Tiago which he has shared on his website.

Let me know how you find the exercise if you decide to do it!

That is all from me this week!

Until next time
Love
Vishal

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