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The Other Side of ‘Success’ & How Ugly It Can Make Your Life

Renuka Gavrani
6 min readNov 25, 2023

I have always wished to become successful for many reasons. Today, I am one. But this isn’t how I pictured it.

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I wanted to become successful ASAP since I was a kid. I was a victim of the ‘hustle culture’ that made me believe if I didn’t achieve success, I have wasted one precious life. And if I don’t achieve success earlier than my peers, my success is not worth celebrating. It’s old news then.

So I worked hard every day since college. I was always jumping from one place to another if not in reality then mentality — always questioning ‘What more can I do?’

However, things started to shift somewhere during 2022 when I first heard about ‘slow living’ and the idea of living gently but intentionally.

In a nutshell, this new concept (contrary to the hustle culture) made me understand that I don’t have to skip my life and wait for that one ‘final’ day when I will have everything I wished for. It made me understand the value of everyday life and how we can be ambitious as well as enjoy our lives every day.

Then, I started saying ‘NO’ more often to projects that didn’t work for me and people who didn’t align with my values even if that meant being left with less.

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Renuka Gavrani
Renuka Gavrani

Written by Renuka Gavrani

I talk about slow & Intentional living - taking you closer to a happy life. I am a published author of the book 'The Art of Being Alone': https://a.co/d/531JIFq

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