What is Life Résumé?

This is the beginning of a new year and I’m sure a lot of you have been thinking about new year resolutions. I mean, isn’t that what most people talk about in the first few weeks of every year? So, like everyone else, even I have been wondering what resolutions I should take up for this year. I have also been wondering what experiences I should aim to have in this year, what new things I should learn and what old things I should go back and work on. As a species, human beings have always wanted to learn new skills and hone their old ones. Which brings me to what this blog is all about (Don’t worry, I don’t plan on making this a preachy blog).

The Idea Here

Today, we live in a world where we give a lot of importance to building a professional résumé. I mean how many of us have been constantly asked about submitting our résumé for one thing or another? Wikipedia defines a résumé as ‘a document used by a person to present their backgrounds and skills’ while Oxford dictionary defines it as ‘a summary’.

So, here’s a thought: A lot of us try to live a very deliberate life, a life that is full of goodness and growth, a life spent in building good habits and doing great work, a life in pursuit of beautiful experiences and self-exploration. Well, the emphasis here is on the word ‘try’. Some of us succeed while some of us learn. All of these successes, learnings, opportunities, growth are a part of what I call our Life Résumé. And whether you like it or not, whether you want it or not, you are always working on building one.

Think of the person you admire the most and consider to be your role model. That person has his own Life Résumé. Now think of the person you believe is not so much of a success. That person, believe me, also has a Life Résumé. Every thing that has life in it has its Life Résumé. I know what you are thinking. Shalvika, really!? But think about it. Let’s take an example of the first living creature that ever fascinated me: an ant. Here are a few things that Google says ants do in their lives:

1. An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight
2. Queen ants can live for many years and have millions of babies
3. When ants fight, it is usually to the death!
4. Ant colonies also have soldier ants that protect the queen, defend the colony, gather or kill food, and attack enemy colonies in search for food and nesting space.
5. If they defeat another ant colony, they take away eggs of the defeated ant colony. When the eggs hatch, the new ants become the “slave” ants for the colony.

What would you say this is if not an ant’s Life Résumé ! I mean who would’ve thought that an ant would have such an awesome Life Résumé? And it is not just ants. All of the creatures that surround you, that live and breathe have their own, unique, tailored- for- them Life Résumé. Let us take an example of your pet dog. Here is how his Life Résumé would look like:

1. Barked at the postman. Lesson learnt: If I bark long enough, he runs away
2. Got really scared of my master’s toy truck that seemed to be coming at me. Lesson learnt: The truck only follows a straight path
3. Woohoo! Here comes the tennis ball. I have found my life’s purpose. I must protect the tennis ball under all circumstances! Must protect it!
4. I can see my master’s foot. I can see my master’s foot. Must touch butt to foot! Must touch butt to foot!

And believe me, this can go on. So, if a tiny creature like an ant can have such an extraordinary Life Résumé (I mean who would have thought that an ant could do such awesome stuff?), if your pet dog can have so many things to learn in just a couple of hours (Well, yeah, not all of them truly ever learn. But you know what I mean!), just think about how insane your Life Résumé already is! I mean, we humans have chosen such complex lives that include relationships, jobs, schools, colleges, hobbies, volunteer programs, financial planning and the list would go on.

So, the invitation here is to join me on this exploration. Your Life Résumé can comprise of anything you want. Through this blog, I want to explore different ways to build one’s Life Résumé. I aim to do that through a combination of various experiences in your life and how you can document those to help you build a wonderful repository of your life. This repository can be your go-to place to look back upon your journey through life and can help you explore new things you want while also shedding a completely new light on your personality and your self-brand.

What to Expect from this blog

Through the course of this blog, we are going to explore the various potential things that we could add to this thing called our Life Résumé. These are some of the things that I have tried and some things that I want to try. Journals, podcasts, books, documentaries, habits and blogs are just some of the things that I would be talking about in this blog.

This is something that is new to me as well and I am excited to put in my efforts to explore the various facets of this thought called Life Résumé. And I am really hoping that through this blog I am able to connect with a lot of like-minded people who join me on this voyage.

Aspects of a Life Résumé

Working on a Life Résumé encompasses various aspects. Like any good experience or story, your Life Résumé has a lot of different aspects and each aspect may be present in your life at different degrees. Through the course of this blog, we are going to explore the various aspects of your Life Résumé and also are going to discuss how you can alter the course of your Life Résumé and change it to what you truly want it to be!

Here is a collection of all the different aspects and where you can read more about them:

Ingredients

Like any savoury dish that you cook, your Life Résumé also has a ton of ingredients. It is very essential to have an understanding of all the ingredients of your Life Résumé so that you can take deliberate efforts and choose the course of your Life Résumé.

To know more about the various ingredients that make up your kickass Life Résumé, here are the articles about them: Part I and Part II.

Habits

The dictionary defines habits as ‘ a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.’ Habits are at the core of any person’s achievements and successes. What your habits are truly defines how well or not so well you will do in your life. The essence of this is truly summed up in one of my favorite quotes ever:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

To read a little more about the set of habits that can truly transform the nature of your Life Résumé, please click here.

Take- Away

Another very important aspect of a truly spectacular Life Résumé is learning from others. Life is too short to struggle to learn your lessons about everything by yourself all the time. In the words of one of the greatest political leaders of our times:

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new.

Barack Obama

And so, to help you all in this quest for self-improvement and knowledge, I am compiling a list of take- aways that I have had from reading books, listening to podcasts, watching TED Talks, movies, documentaries and all those other resources that just help you become a better version of yourself.

To learn more about the Take- Away Series, you can find all the articles here.

So welcome to this website and to this voyage of exploration! I hope together we share this wonderful roller-coaster of life and work on building our very own and very kickass Life Résumé! We are going to have a super awesome time! Until then, keep learning, keep growing!

Subscribe!

Image Credit:
Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash