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About Design Your Thinking
Design Your Thinking is a community and resource run by me, Karthik, to reinstill the creative spirit through storytelling and lifelong learning. You will find stories, how-to resources and a lot more to help you find your interests and use your "super powers" so you can take control of your life and career.
Who is Karthik?
How does he know we have "Super Powers"?
I'm a stereotype Leo, an August-born, who considers family first, loves performing arts, and enjoys sprinkling a bit of humor everywhere. I'm in the wrong side of my 30s, but on the right side of my life.
In the wake of the millennium, I graduated with an engineering degree in electronics and communication with no idea what either of those words meant to me and my life. Fresh out of college I chanced upon the need for something and jumped onto creating a piece of software with no clue how to do it.
I made some money, but I was looked upon as unemployed. "Being an entrepreneur" was not "a thing" in the early 2000s. Social pressure caught on, and I spent the next many years in the corporate only to quit after 15 years.
I've always had a lot of interests all through my life. I love learning too. Cricket, karate, basketball, badminton, tennis, bodybuilding, sketching, handmade crafts, photography, coding, public speaking and debate, reiki, yoga, SEO, content marketing, podcasting, affiliate marketing the list is as long as the Great Wall. In many of these I excelled at competitive levels.
Over time, I realized that we are naturally born to learn and create just about anything we want to. They are the "super powers" we are all born with.
In my writing, podcasts and videos, you'll see references to some of what makes me ME.
I love performing arts.
Back in school, I took part in theatre & enjoyed performing magic.
I'm a
fitness
nerd
I practice Martial arts, exercise and mental conditioning everyday.
How did it begin?
I Wasn't Fired. I didn't Hate my Job Either.
Neither does the story start with me wanting to be an entrepreneur or do a startup.
The core mission for Design Your Thinking started to evolve from my innate interests in, learning and creating. Like I described above, I call them our "super powers". I always nurtured this dream that one day, I'll run a school where children discover and hone these "super powers" from an early age.
As a dad of a 4 year old and someone who's naturally inclined towards art and design, I couldn't see fact-based education in engineering school as the right way to learn. I started to think along the lines of lifelong learning ever since.
Where's this going?
More Importantly, Why am I doing this?
The Design Your Thinking blog and podcast began with a sense of urgency. It's a longer story, but let me shrink it to fit inside a couple of sentences.
My wife Vijetha gave birth to our son Vivaan in December 2013. Just a few months before that, my father, a medical doctor and a teacher, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. With mixed emotions on one hand and a dream on the other, I had to make a choice. Design Your Thinking was born out of this choice I made in 2013, to follow my interests.
I describe this in a lot more detail in my manifesto, I recommend you read it right away (here's the pdf).
With people spending a lot of time with technology, social media and chasing careers, there is clearly a lot of distraction. My mission is to help turn your focus back on yourself and your interests. Just following your interests and being mindful of them can help you live a more healthier, happier and even wealthier life.
Let's Begin
Make a Choice. Set a Goal. Start.
There is no good time to start doing something good. I made my choice a few years back, set my goals and started to work towards them. What's yours?
Talking of choices, here are the words of Karen Dillon, about who I talk about in my manifesto. She reminisces a conversation with Professor Clayton Christensen..
“…and we started talking, and an hour and a half later I stood near my car with the keys in my hands for like 10 or 15 minutes…unable to like put my keys in the car and go because I was so moved about what we talked about. The gist of it was…was really assessing if you are making all the choices in your life that will lead you to have the life that you want. Or if that’s a bad decision…you are applying your resources and your energy to things that are not truly your strategy…will take you off-course.”
Take a moment to reflect on these words, and set a goal.
My goals for 2018.
Want to support me? Come, join the community!
- 1Build awareness around health and nutrition as I believe being starts with thinking, and thinking starts with health.
- 2Grow a passionate community of creatives who are reinventing themselves and chasing their dreams.
- 3Start and grow a YouTube channel to help tell stories of dream chasers like you.
Copyright 2018, Design Your Thinking