Like last year, I would continue the trend of sharing my learnings and experiences through this year-in-review article. Professionally, most of this year was spent on writing front-end code for Purepoint and learning how to integrate with a remote-first work environment. I also gave a talk on Freelancing and developed a website for Jewellery Client.

Career

Purepoint

I was working as a remote front-end developer with Purepoint, a software development company. It was my first remote-job, and I enjoyed working with a team of talented people.
While most of my work revolved around CSS and front-end, I learnt a lot of soft skills. One of the most significant skills I acquired from the job was how my overall communication and collaboration improved while working with a distributed team. (A distributed team is a team which work across time, at different locations and connected via the internet through series of applications and services) . You can read more about my experience here.

Conference Talk: "Freelance 101."

I addressed a talk on Freelancing at the Digital Marketing Conference held in Bengaluru. Even though most of the audience were bloggers and digital marketers, the content was curated in a way that could help planning to pursue freelance.
I had prepared a transcript for the talk, click here.
This was more of beginner-level talk, I would be covering more about expert-level topics on freelancing (for Intermediate and senior level professionals) through future posts.

iPad Sketching

Many people don't know this, but I started my career as a junior graphic designer in Mumbai. Most of our clients (at that time) involved corporates and ad-agencies.
I somehow managed to create work that put up a smile on my boss's face. But, deep down within, I wanted to express my art in much loud, expressive, ornamental and psychedelic way; which was usually not something that got approved. Reason being most of the collaterals were designed with the intention of being presented for consumer goods and not an art gallery.

Fast-forward 2018, I started laying my hands on creating artworks again. This time using iPad and Apple pencil to express my thoughts and emotions through a series of artworks done on Procreate (and other drawing apps).
The art that I am planning to put forward would be more or less my expression of my thoughts. If an artwork is directed by someone, the art-direction would be done by "someone" else and not me. Since I am creating these sketches as a personal space to stimulate my creativity, without an intention having these put up for sale (as of now); I leave the art direction to myself.

I would be sharing more sketches later in another post, but here are some of the ones that I had sketched over the past 2 months.

Physical, Mental and Spiritual Health

I started running often and ran more marathons than last year. My best score for a 21km run was 2hours and 30 minutes. I am planning to continue marathon-ing this year and keep improving my time-score. Running and boxing have helped me to become fit and also help to improve my focus and stamina. I would highly recommend anyone reading this article to take time to improve their physical health.

Our brain is a magical place where beautiful thoughts lie. It's also a place where most of our demons lie.

Unfortunately, we associate ourselves so much with our body (and its needs) and mind; that we very well forget the basic core essence of who we are. Spirituality is all about the process of being above your mind and body and realising that you are beyond your mind and body. It's all about transcending physicality. Spirituality is all about seeking. Spirituality is about finding the best experience this human life has to offer.

Suppose you cut an onion with a knife and use the same knife to slice a watermelon (without washing it). Chances are that the watermelon would have a taste of onion. The same thing happens to our mind. Our mind is like a knife that slices most of the experiences (good or bad) and some of it is always left in our mind as a residue. The process of cleansing your past and not worrying about the future makes our view towards present more enjoyable, immersive and factual.

This year has been a lot about seeking and finding my own self. I gratify the circumstances and the situations which facilitated my spiritual growth.

A friend of mine recommended a book, "The Power of Now", by Eckhart Tolle. I would recommend this book. (Read it without anyone's review or a prologue)

Books Read:

1. The power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
2. Remote - Office Not required, David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
3. User Experience Revolution, Paul Boag
4. The Art of Good Life, Rolf Dobelli
5. Design Systems (Review to be published soon)
6. My Gita, Devdutt Pattanaik
7. Smashing Magazine 5

The year 2018 brought in lots of learnings and spiritual insights. I thank everyone for enriching my journey, and I am much anticipating a mindful and eventful 2019.