Anisha Expresses

Small Habits that Shape Lives!

February 4, 2026
There is never enough time to think about anything in the fast-paced world we all live in. Everybody is chasing something. Money, fame, peace of mind and happiness are among the desires of certain people. But how can we create a world where our desires are fulfilled?

Even in the modern world, developing modest positive habits in our daily lives always contributes to living a disciplined, contented, and happy life.

The best approach is to gradually develop little but consistent positive habits. Here, consistency is crucial. Long-term, unattainable ambitions should never take precedence over short-term, reasonable, and achievable ones. For instance, a chain smoker could achieve the goal of giving up the habit by gradually but steadily cutting back on the number of cigarettes they smoke. However, quitting all at once can be challenging at times. In order for good habits to be durable, they should be developed gradually.

Human psychology also plays a crucial part in building positive habits, which says that habits are built through repetition and familiarity rather than willpower. It is said that if you follow something daily for 21 days, it becomes a habit. The same psyche can be used for building positive habits. Do not eat sugar for 21 days, and it will be completely out of your diet. Because they are less likely to fail, familiar habits are easier for the brain to inculcate. It inevitably turns into a person’s identity.

These are some categorised habits that, in my opinion, can influence people’s lives.
- Mental Habits
  - Think things through before acting, especially in stressful or conflict situations.
  - Say “thank you” more often than “sorry”
  - Always focus on what is in your control and let go what of the things that are not
  - Consider every issue as a challenging circumstance rather than just a problem
  - Start your day with small but productive tasks like making your bed or stretching for some time
  - Write in your journal one positive and one negative event from the day, along with advice on how to prevent it
  - Be curious and inquisitive than judgemental
  - Do every small task with dedication and strive for perfection
A happy life and balanced mental health can be attained by incorporating all of the practices mentioned above into everyday routines. These little practices can help you break the stressful lifestyle we lead today, or, to put it another way, relieve part of your burden.
- Physical Habits
  - Drinking a lot of water
  - Getting sunlight for at least 10 minutes
  - Taking a stroll after every meal
  - Keep your body moving as much as possible
  - Take the stairs whenever possible
  - Reduced phone use and reel scrolling
  - Phone at eye level
  - Spending some time in meditation
  - Exercise everyday
  - Stop screens at least an hour before you sleep
  - Regular wake-up and sleep schedules
  - Prepare for the next day before you sleep
Maintaining these routines consistently can help you develop a balanced health regimen, which in turn keeps your happy hormones rising.
- Emotional & Social Habits
  - Talk about your feelings at all times, whether they are positive, negative, overwhelmed, lonely, etc.
  - Speak to yourself like a friend
  - Let small victories count
  - Be gracious and accept days that are imperfect or less productive
  - Smile and extend a warm greeting to everyone
  - Listen to comprehend, not to respond
  - Always be appreciative towards others
  - Be the first one to call a friend or make a plan
  - Apologize right away
  - End conversations positively with a “Take care”
In essence, your social and emotional behaviours make you a decent person on the outside, but they also mould your personality on the inside, making it easy for you to be liked.
- Learning & Growth Habits
  - Read an article or essay or newsletter daily
  - Learn one new thing per day
  - When in doubt, ask questions
  - Track one personal habit like sleep time or water intake
  - Practice gratitude
  - Never stop improvising
  - Invest at least 20 minutes in skill building
  - Have one meaningful conversation daily
  - Do one thing you don’t feel like doing
  - Keep promises to yourself
  - Keep loving yourself and be less harsh on yourself
These seemingly insignificant habits have the power to mould your life so that you feel content with everything you do and are inspired to continue learning, developing, and becoming a better person.

Let’s now examine a different point of view. When attempting to modify their habits and mould their lives, people frequently make these mistakes. They always attempt to make all the changes at once. Knowing that “slow and steady wins the race” is crucial. When it comes to changing behaviours, this sentence is essential. Attempting to modify everything at once will result in failure, not because you were not committed enough, but rather because habit formation and modification are processes that may require time.

A house cannot be constructed over two days; the procedure is time-consuming, and a strong foundation is necessary to prevent the house from collapsing under unfavourable circumstances. Therefore, in order to prevent your house of habits from collapsing, always make gradual adjustments, one at a time.

Motivation is crucial in this situation. Without motivation, nothing will change. You can use a variety of tools to measure and develop habits, but without motivation, they are only systems. To create the home of habits you want, stay motivated and know your objective.

As previously stated, this method takes time and might not show effects right away. To achieve the final aim, one must be persistent and patient.
Growth Isn’t Always Loud: Why the Quiet Seasons of Life Matter Most

January 6, 2026
‘Growth’ is a loud, showy term. Google defines growth as “the process of increasing in size,” which can be either quantitative or qualitative. However, growth is always regarded as a visible and observable change. Although we frequently associate growth with wealth, achievement, and conveniences, growth can also occur within. Although it may not be obvious, internal growth is the most significant development for humanity.

Inner growth always takes place in silence; it could be a time of introspection, self-awareness, habit modification, natural transformation, mental healing, or anything similar. All of these factors have to do with people’s mental well-being and tranquillity; the progress that results from this is real but not especially noticeable. Both loud and quiet growth are undoubtedly possible and necessary in order to achieve short-term and long-term goals of life.

It’s a common belief that taking a few steps back before making a huge leap is preferable. In terms of internal development, it is entirely accurate. Only when there is an inside awareness that something has to change can internal progress occur. The dark phase, which comes before the self-realization phase, is a time when one may feel lost, uninspired, stuck, or even invisible. If approached correctly, this phase may result in a solution, and attaining it is an accomplishment within itself. Internal growth occurs when investigating the solution. Growth is occurring, but it is not noticeable to the outside world, it is quiet, and the accomplishments are not measurable but significant.

At one point in my life, I made the decision to leave my career and raise my child at home. It didn’t take long to realise how crucial it was to make this decision, but it took some time to really do it. I was afraid to decide to leave my job because I had been financially independent for a long time, but I saw that I was spending very little time with my child, which would never return. At last, I made the choice. The phase has been quiet ever since, and nobody is aware of what I am doing. Nonetheless, I am well aware that raising my child at home has only made me happier. It brings me great joy to raise him, attempt to teach him some positive habits, and see him develop. I’ve been internally healed by it. After that, I realised that I could dedicate some time to writing, which has been my passion since I was in school. I’ve resumed writing, and I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve learnt the value of putting your own pleasure and well-being first at this quiet time in my life. Despite the difficult, uncomfortable, and self-doubting journey, I have become a stronger woman than I was before. Understanding that I needed to take a break from work because I couldn’t concentrate, getting ready, and seizing opportunities are all examples of quiet growth for me.

Growth does not always mean productivity; it also means preparation, preparation for the difficult phases of life. Having said that, if internal or quiet growth occurs successfully, it also might lead to loud growth, because the measure of success might differ from person to person. The quiet phase frequently teaches the value of a few things, such as emotional resilience, which improves one’s capacity to recover from stressful situations, self-trust, which boosts confidence in oneself, clarity of values, which aids in developing a belief system for oneself, and, lastly, letting go of external validation, which is the most crucial stage in the process of internal development.

There might be questions around how this quiet phase can be embraced gracefully. It can be done in multiple ways :
- Journal every step you make in this phase
- Let go of the need to be constantly achieving something
- Always trust your inner timelines
- Try to find beauty in slowness and solitude
- Spend time in doing what you love the most
- Always share your experiences with one of your closed ones
Have faith in the process, believe that there is a positive side to it. Growth does not always have to be loud but it definitely must be real. Define real growth for yourself and work towards it in a structured manner. Your path might be quiet, honor it, respect the difficult phases that come with it. Finally, would like to end this with a quote, “ Nothing blooms all year, yet everything grows in time”.
3 mistakes I made with my corporate job

October 31, 2025
Entering the corporate world can feel like stepping into a completely different universe—one governed by unspoken rules, constant deadlines, and complex relationships. When I began my corporate career, I believed that hard work and technical/soft skills alone would guarantee success. However, experience soon taught me that surviving in a corporate environment requires much more than that. Through trial and error, I made several mistakes that challenged my assumptions, tested my resilience, and ultimately shaped my professional growth. In this write-up, I will reflect on three key mistakes I made during my corporate journey—mistakes that taught me valuable lessons about communication, adaptability, and self-awareness.
1. Focusing only on hard work and not visibility
When I first started working in corporate as a fresher, I believed that my work would speak for itself. I was wrong. Speaking out loud about the work you have made to stabilise a project, establish a process, or make something successful is sometimes essential. You can’t succeed in the corporate world with only hard work. To be noticed you must demonstrate the effort and hard work you have put in. This is not to say that you have to do nothing except show off. Because you would become an expert at bragging if you did that. In addition to making sure you are truly competent at what you do, you should talk about it after receiving praise or success in meetings, etc. This will highlight your efforts and foster a sense of trust and belonging among your peers and seniors.

Striving for visibility and fighting for it are two very different things. It is necessary to strive for visibility, but fighting for it quickly turns into a habit. Knowing why you want to be visible is crucial. It should never be for the sake of your name, but rather for the efforts you have made.
1. Avoiding delegation after becoming a leader
I also took on the roles of manager and team leader in my career. After you reach a certain position where team mentoring, work monitoring, and performance evaluation are critical for future development, I discovered that delegation is crucial. As a leader, you occasionally run out of time to do tasks that can be simply assigned to a team member. Making your team work on a task you are accountable for is not what delegation implies. It entails assigning portions of your task that the team can complete in a way that makes information gathering easier for the team leader and gives team members a glimpse of what the work will look like in the future.

By delegating, a leader fosters team members’ growth in addition to their own. This does not imply that a leader may delegate every task that comes their way. Calling oneself a manager or team lead is meaningless if the leader does not understand what can and cannot be assigned to the team. However, it is crucial that the leader assigns or delegates responsibilities in a way that does not encourage bias or favouritism among the team members. Favouritism-driven delegation gone wrong can lead to a nasty competitive atmosphere among team members, which in turn impacts teamwork. Delegation must be done equally to all team members with complete transparency.
1. Being emotional about work & colleagues
Being a highly sensitive and EQ-oriented individual, I was constantly emotionally invested in my profession and the relationships I formed there. “Colleagues are not friends,” someone told me, but I never bought into it. Some of my professional relationships had a very negative effect on my feelings, but not all of them showed that the statement was true. Since we are all fish in the same pond and are here to accomplish the same goal, it is not natural to develop unconditional emotional attachments in a corporate setting. Building solid, long-lasting relationships at work becomes challenging as a result.

This had an impact on my job as well because I was deeply driven by emotions. I put a lot of effort into everything, and I used to become upset if my lead or peers didn’t notice me. However, I was only able to get over this emotion after gaining some professional experience and realising that you don’t always have to give it your 100%. Sometimes it’s better to focus on improving your professional skills rather than getting recognition. Additionally, as I got older, I developed the ability to manage my emotions at work and have a totally pragmatic perspective.

All of the mentioned mistakes were made, but I was able to fix them gradually. Every professional that works in a corporate environment may have unique experiences and viewpoints regarding this. But ultimately, as I fell into the sea, I was able to swim!
“Popular is mediocre?”

October 22, 2025

Recently, I was watching this interview on YouTube; it was Paresh Rawal who was the guest with a news reporter who hosts these guests in the newsroom and has candid and one-on-one interviews with them. Paresh Rawal mentioned, with the context of drama or theatre, that there is a belief that “popular is mediocre”. He intended to convey that the general public, or the audience that theatre performers perform for, has a tendency to think that everything that gains popularity is mediocre rather than extraordinary. This must be entirely true in its meaning, coming from a seasoned stage performer. However, that isn’t always the case.

A play, or any performing art for that matter, requires a great deal of work. In order to put on a fantastic show, everyone participating must put out equal effort. On the other hand, becoming popular is one of the goals of every performing art event, but it is not the only one. Any popular play needs to be very authentic; the actors must be appealing and talented, and the play’s subject matter must be extremely relatable to the audience. These are some of the things that, in my opinion, contribute to the popularity of any play or drama. It goes without saying that, in my view, popular is unquestionably not mediocre given all of the mentioned considerations and the collective efforts made to highlight the finest of the above.

I made the decision to learn more about the origins of this proverb in order to diverge a bit more from this concept. Given Paresh Rawal’s theatrical career, he may have implied that the audience’s perception of the play determines its own mediocrity. For instance, the audience determines whether or not the play will be considered popular. What the audience finds appealing about a performance determines its level of popularity. Therefore, the play’s or any art form’s popularity stems from its average quality for the audience. Promotion through word-of-mouth only occurs when the audience can relate to the play or its subject, which must be ordinary or routine for the audience to grasp it.

This saying made me wonder if we all live in a mediocre world but think we are exceptional, or if the opposite is true. Well, I don’t think there is an answer to it. However, it is definitely rooted in how people view themselves or anything else in the surroundings. I have no intention of reaching an ultimate conclusion. But I would definitely emphasise that whatever we do in life should be done with the goal of producing something spectacular; it doesn’t matter how it is perceived.
Want to be amongst the top 1% of efficient working mothers?

October 13, 2025
Do these 3 things :-
1. Stop feeling guilty – You should no longer feel bad about leaving your child at home, at nursery, or with a maid while you’re at work. In the end, you are the mother, and you are working to provide a better life for your child. There wouldn’t be any room for guilt if you had the goal clear in your mind. Additionally, just disregard anyone who tries to foster that guilt in you.
2. Take time for yourself – Spend some time with yourself by taking occasional walks, napping, driving, eating your favourite meal, watching a movie, reading a book, or doing anything else that suits you. Because it will make it easier for you to concentrate on both your career and your child. While taking that time is challenging, it is not impossible.
3. Establish systems and routines – Make a chart for all of your tasks, whether they are work-related or related to the household. This will help you live a more organised and productive life with a child. Excel sheets are designed for planners, but there are a lot of other options. Your daily routine is stabilised by systems.
We often think that we have to be cut from a different cloth in order to become top 1% of efficient working mothers, when in reality once you let go the guilt, love yourself in a way that the world loves you and work it out with planners and schedules, it wins us 99% of the battle.