Revisiting 2013 – A Year of Re-discovering Myself

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I’m Harsh Agrawal

Blog Scientist & a passionate blogger. Love minimalist life & talk about things that matter. Adventure from heart & doer by action.

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Today is the 31st of December, and the last day of 2013.  I believe this is the best time for me to look back at 2013 and make a weblog of my most memorable days of the year.

Most of my life is documented online, thanks to digital apps like Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram which have captured most of my memories.

At the beginning of 2013, I decided to break down my introverted personality, and do things which I’m usually not comfortable doing such as traveling and socializing. Solo traveling was one of the things at the top of my list of goals, but alas I was not able to make solo traveling happen this year.  Apart from solo traveling, however, I did almost everything I’d planned, and I am now looking forward to making my remaining current goals happen in 2014.

Let’s quickly look at some of my most important highlights in 2013:

January 2013:

January was a month of traveling for me, and apart from spending New Year’s Eve with family, I started the year with a trip to Goa. It was four days of a complete break from work, and it was an amazing trip. (Except that I lost my brand new iPhone 5 in Goa!)   🙁

February 2013

In February I didn’t do much traveling, but I spent a lot of time at cafes in Hauz Khas Village, and I blogged from there. It was not a very productive move, but I did enjoy moving out of the house to work, and I found that the change of environment helped me to re-discover my creativity.

March 2013:

Holi in India

March was suppose to be a very special month, as I was scheduled to travel to Thailand with my childhood buddies for some skydiving, but unfortunately my friend lost his passport and we couldn’t make it happen.

One eventful day in March was Holi, when I spent time with my family and friends. I wanted to spent Holi this year with my friends in Delhi, but I realized that this festive time is for family, as by the end of the day you want the warmth of your family.  (For those who are unfamiliar with Holi, it is an ancient Hindu religious festival – a spring festival, sometimes referred to as the”festival of colors” or the “festival of love”.)

April 2013:

April was another good month for travel and adventure, as I made a small journey to Hrishikesh and did some river rafting. Two of my friends and I drove to Hrishikesh and spent three days at the peaceful valley of Himachal.  (And yes, there was another failed attempt to keep myself fit by joining a gym!  Sigh…)

May 2013:

Blogging seminar

May was a memorable month, as I went to Mohali for my first-ever blogging seminar. It was organized by the Indiblogger team, and I am grateful to Shankar Bakshi for inviting me to be the keynote speaker at the event.

On the very day of that event, I also learned that I had been mentioned in the national magazine “The Week”. From a professional perspective, this was good exposure to national press.

At the end of the month I also traveled to Goa to attend the Ford Ecosport launch.

Ford Ecosport Goa

June-July 2013:

bDay celeb

June was a month of celebration for me, as I turned 27 on the 22nd of June. For the first time I celebrated my birthday in grand style, and it was one memorable night for me.

July was one of the slowest months of the year, but I was busy working and taking my career to the next level.

I also traveled to Bangalore to attend the AMD event, and I met up with Sowmya and Vijit, a couple of my old friends.

At the end of July, my family came to visit me in Delhi, and I spent the last days of the month experiencing amazing places in Delhi like the Kingdom of Dreams with my family.

August 2013 – A month of unexpected pleasure

Top Indian Blog

August was a month of career uplift for me, as I received the Best Blog Award for ShoutMeLoud on August15th . (What a great day to get a national award!)

September 2013:

September was a hectic month for me, as I was busy hunting for my new house in Noida. That’s when I realized that the future of money is in real estate, though it is one tough market to get into.

I thought about creating a web property on real estate and putting a big chunk of my investments in the Noida real estate market, but thanks to good advice from my family, I didn’t rushed into the decision and ultimately saved myself from a disastrous investment. (At the time of the writing of this post, (Dec 31st, 2013), the NCR real estate market is at an all time low.

Along with all of this, I did a small road trip to my home in Rajasthan with my Grandfather. Visiting Rajasthan is always a blessing, as I get to visit with my relatives.

October 2013:

October was a month full of surprises, as I was busy making decisions about my career prospects. Initially I was planning to join one of my friend’s start-ups.  I did have the opportunity to work with him in Noida for 15 days, which was my second experience working with a start-up.  I later decided, however, that it would be difficult to adequately focus on my blogging career and another start-up at the same time, so I dropped the plan of working with another start-up.

On 18th October 2013, I did a workshop for Asia’s biggest hosting summit at Hyatt Gurgaon. It was an incredible experience, and I was unprepared for such a huge crowd. Here is the video from the Workshop.

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Later in the month, my friend Aradhana and I did a video shoot for Citibank.  It was first video shoot I had ever produced, and I think it came out very well.

The video is embedded below for your reference:

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Last but not least, I also fulfilled my dream of skydiving!

I was planning to go to Thailand for the jump, but unfortunately that plan was cancelled. I was  lucky enough to hear about a skydiving camp at Karnal Haryana, and I decided to go there alone and make one of my dreams happen.

The actual experience of jumping from 10,000 feet is much better than what we see in YouTube videos and movies. If you ever get a chance to skydive, don’t think twice!  It’s awesome!

Sky diving

November 2013

Kasaul

November is a special month for Indians, as it’s marked by Diwali (Festival of Colours). I started the month by going to my hometown , and spending the festive season with my family.

At the end of the month I traveled to Himachal again with my close friends, and that’s when I discovered a lot about myself. I realized many of my strengths and weaknesses, and understood how important it is for us to start traveling, and to see the unseen.

December 2013:

December is always an eventful month for me, because it marks the beginning of my blogging career (1st December). I did a small write-up of 5 years of my blogging journey, and you can read all about it here.

I spent the rest of the month going to new places and marking the end of the year on an eventful note.

And finally, I traveled to Goa to enjoy the last days of the year 2013.

A few words and some of  my quotes from 2013:

2013 was a great year of education and experiences for me. I spent a great deal of time reading as much as I could and learning new things. I read from many and varied authors and watched countless hours of videos on YouTube to educate myself in matters of interest to me. Most of the videos I watched on YouTube were related to motivation and human psychology, and I not only enjoyed them but I found them to be very informative.

Along with the good things that emerged from the year 2013, I also made some really bad-decisions, but I learned a lot from my mistakes and poor judgement. I didn’t let those mistakes become hurdles, but instead tried to improve myself toward an ultimate goal of becoming a better version of myself with every passing day.

Special thanks to the friends in my life who always made me feel at home in this unknown city.

Following are some of the quotes/words written by me this year:

  • Being remarkable is the equivalent of being the best….
  • The first-world problem is not because there are silly people making stupid mistakes. The problem is the people who laugh at them instead of helping them to grow.
  • I believe perfection is over-rated. We all are perfect and imperfect in one way or another. Though we try to be perfect in all 360 degrees of ourselves, it is better to be perfect in some ways, good in many, and even not so good in certain cases!!
  • Strive for perfection, but don’t make it a bad addiction!
  • You may not become another Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but you can certainly become a better version of you with every day. Be good and then become better!!
  • Read, write and share: If you can’t do all three of these, start with the first and you will see a difference in you with every passing day.
  • I give love not just to get love… I give love ’cause I know what it is like to be loved.
  • “Not being nice” and “being bad” are two completely different things.
  • There is a solution to almost every problem. All you need to do is acknowledge the problem!!
  • If you know the secret, it’s not a secret anymore .
  • Your parents have done their deed by giving birth to you…. Now it’s your choice to make your life any way you like.  Choose wisely.
  • No, you are not a perfection at this point. But if you never take the first step towards perfection, you will never be able to reach it.  This is the time – believe in yourself and take the first step with confidence.
  • It’s always better to be no one,  instead of being just some one.
  • Take a deep moment to think about how you want your life to be.  Don’t let anything stop you from achieving your dreams, ’cause your dreams are all yours.
  • Don’t let anyone ever hurt your self-respect. It’s good to be nice but it’s better to be right.
  • After a point, we usually shut ourselves down for a time because we fear uncertainty. The moment we prepare and walk into the way of those uncertainties, we will be conquering our own fears.
  • The biggest crime a man can commit unto himself is to allow himself a false sense of achievement, ……
  • Degrees are just validation of our talent and skills…
  • I don’t live by rules…and neither will I…..
    I make my own path and follow it….
    I live to live, and to see what is unseen….
    I may not be perfect, and I can’t be..
    ‘Cause perfection has different meanings in everybody’s mind…
    I will not please anyone until I want to…
    I will not wait for anyone until I want to…..
    If I cross your path ….make it memorable..’cause I will never stay… I will give you a reason to smile and walk away…’cause there are many faces which need a reason to smile..
    I learned to move on…I learned to forgive and forget…
    It was not easy and it will not be easy for anyone..
    ‘cayse you have never walked in my shoes…Life is too small to complain…So live it or leave it…!!
  • Intentions do not matter…
    It’s always the action that shouts louder…
  • The only mantra to success: When you see something new, don’t expect it to be a copy of something that we already know. Expect it to be something new…something fresh…and something we have never seen before…. !!
  • If you want to create a unique identity for yourself, you have to think unique..You have to be something that everyone else is not… Is it hard?? I don’t think so!!
  • I would prefer to be no one…than to be someone that I’m not..!!
  • Pretending is like living in two parallel words.. Your heart says “no” and your mind says “yes”.. Stop pretending and start living….
  • Blogging in a way is documenting your thoughts.
  • If your heart is too weak to accept “NO”, then you should never ask a question…..
  • You can earn credibility by not losing it.
  • The role of a warrior is not to kill people..His role is to bring peace for the country..
  • It doesn’t matter what you look like…It’s how you act that matters…

And Happy New Year to You!

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new year, and I already have my personal wish list and my new year’s resolutions ready. I deeply believe that if we dream enough, all our dreams will come true. I wish you all the love, luck and happiness for 2014. Do remember, whatever actions you take from now on will not only define your 2014, but all the years of the near future.

Happy New Year 🙂

15 comments on “Revisiting 2013 – A Year of Re-discovering Myself

  1. Same to u sir .. I want to learn some Blogging tips from you . kindly help me how can id do that…Waiting for positive response from your side.

  2. Hi Harsh,

    There is a unique thing about you, you just don’t keep things to yourself, you share and share it all to the whole world, and that’s awesome.

    You have inspired and guided a lot of Indian bloggers. Keep doing that. 🙂

    Wish you and your family a very happy new year

    Best,
    Devinder Maheshwari

  3. Hope you have lot of travelling and adventurous action in 2014 as well 🙂
    Also wondering, What skill set(or position) you are taking in a startup?

  4. Yeah Harsh happy to see what you did all the year including your achievements and planning the same here for 2014

  5. Wow.. it felt amazing to read your story..!!
    You’re the champ..
    You showed the other side of your personal & exciting lyf.. i thought blogging might be very boring.. LOL.. My bad..!!
    Good luck for the future bro.!

  6. Seriously, the best motivation any fresher blogger can get is from you.
    Really you are an inspiration of many

  7. Harsh Sir, I am a big big big fan of you.
    2 month ago I made a blog on blogger. But I am very poor in english. Hence I wrote only 11 posts. Sir can you give me some suggestion ? please… I am waiting for your reply……

  8. Hey harsh,

    I think you are enjoying your life to the fullest, I also want to enjoy like you, could you suggest some tips to me?

    Thanks
    Cheers!!

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