On Writing A Book & Learning to Love My Inner Skeptic

The Career Catapult hits the shelves on March 20th, 2017!!
(See more here, and pre-order on Amazon.)

Writing a book is exhausting - not just the actual effort of putting words on paper, but the mental tussle as I wrote each word. Quelling the inner skeptic has always been a tough job for me. "Is this new? Does this story really need to be told? Is it helpful?"

Guess what? I love my inner skeptic. Especially when it harped on the "keep it helpful" part of it's rhetoric. The book is a working document - it's something that is set up to help the reader (or listener) take concrete actions to build habits that are meant to strengthen career possibilities.

Dig Deep
Illustration by Srushti Hebbar

The best way to engage with a slightly exhausting inner skeptic? Acknowledge that voice, invite it out to speak at the beginning of a writing session, note down what it's saying, and make sure to answer it. In my case, I captured it on a post-it that remained stuck on my computer all those months - "New, Needs to be told, Helpful".

Towards the tail-end of the process, as I tried to finish the book before starting on my new job, I know I'd have loved to slow down and push the writing further. But when the luxury of leaning back had disappeared, the simple triple exhortation helped me get the essentials down on the page. Thanks, little voice!!

Apart from my inner skeptic, here are the people who helped me get there!

Dedicated to 

My father, whose vision and work ethic is, and always will be, a key motivator 

My mother, whose steel backbone and determination is part of my core 

Sree, Durga and Krishna who surround me every day with sheer joy 

Jalal uncle, who taught me the special magic of the shooting sport 

TP and Lekha who have been like an added set of parents to me 

My siblings, who taught me to keep my chin up, always 

And a special thanks to the global community of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), Ray and Steph, who supported my research efforts immensely