Don't get married, get a puppy first
Don't get married, get a puppy first
5 Lessons my puppy taught me, The art of being alone, Last few pages of Classmate notebook ā¤ļø and many more...
Hi šĀ PradoĀ here
3 Things I thought worth sharing with yāall
1. 5 lessons my puppy taught me ā¤ļø
Exactly a month ago, I got a labrador puppy and we named him Harry.
He also featured in one of my videos. My life has changed since he joined the family.
In this weekās newsletter, I want to share things I learned from harry š
Lesson 1:- Family
When the lockdown hit the last march, I was working remotely from my hometown. I spent way less time with my family than I expected. With lockdowns and pandemic around there was not much to talk about with each other. It was a simple loop of Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat.
But after I got harry, my family spent more time together in the last month than we did in the last year.
Even though I had to push meetings away, drop few projects, stop making YT videos (getting back at it). I never missed taking harry upstairs and everyone spending time together. Mom liked us around, dad liked playing with him, cousins were always playing and this little circle made me happy. I could never tell them that I got work to do and I have to take him with me.
Yāall know how much I love the Tail End blog by WaitButWhy
Where he shares that by the time we are done with school (18) weāve spent around 93% of in-person time with our parents.
Whatās the point of doing anything, if you canāt spend time with your family
Lesson 2:- Not Alone
Well, Iām not alone anymore. I canāt wake up at any time I want. I canāt be flexible with my schedule like I used to. Harry needs to be fed at least 5 times with regular bathroom intervals. If I miss any, heāll go full āI-WONāT-LET-YOU-WORKā mode.
I realised I have a dependant now. I got to take the responsibility. I canāt say no to few things anymore. I canāt be procrastinating.
Lifeās changed. I got a little glimpse of how life will look after getting married.
Lesson 3:- NO MO CO FO
No More Continous Focus.
Itās extremely hard to focus for a period of time. When you are alone, you are able to know whatās coming in future and you are certain that you wonāt be disturbed for a while. You can get into the Deep work mode and get things done. A video used to take me 7 hours to create and 7 more to edit. But now Iām unable to put in those 7 hours continuously as harry got needs. I can sometimes push my lunch or dinner but I canāt push harryās food timing.
This newsletter was supposed to go out at 6 and Iām three hours late.
This does not mean I donāt have time to focus at all.
He sleeps around 10-14 hours a day. Iām learning to understand his sleep cycle and finding gaps of around 20-30mins which brings me to the Pomodoro technique.
It never seemed to work for me when I had a clock running on my laptop but now that I know that heāll be up at 7.30 PM again. I need to get the work done between 7 - 7.25 PM
Spreading time equally. When youāll be married, You wonāt be able to spend most of your day with yourself. You need to understand and learn how to spread your time right.
Lesson 4:- Sacrifices.
Sacrifices are real. Not just mine but my familyās too. When a new person joins the family they usually come with sacrifices. When I got work to do, I ask my brother to chill with him for a while. When I canāt give him food, mom leaves everything and gives him food.
But these sacrifices also creates more love between the family.
The feeling of we are āIN THIS TOGETHERā is amazing.
The sacrifices will be 10x when youāll get married and when youāll children to take care of.
Money can solve everything except love.
Lesson 5:- Responsibilities.
My mom was my age when she had me and she was also handling a 4-year-old daughter. When I compare myself with her, I canāt even handle a two-month-old puppy.
Waking up with barking and cleaning piss & shits. Feeding him 5 times a day and making sure you give him enough attention the entire day. Especially with kids around. Itās time-consuming. Unable to focus on a thing for more than 30mins.
I used to work on my own schedule and now I have to make it work on two different schedules. Mine & Harryās š
Responsibilities piled up. You canāt run away from them. You canāt wake up one day late and keep your dependant hungry :)
My mindset completely changed when I know there is someone whoās completely dependant on me.
The same goes for marriage life. You are not a one-man show anymore. You are a team now. More responsibilities are upon your shoulder.
Most of us are not ready to get married yet. The experience of suddenly gaining more responsibility is daunting.
Conclusion:- Get a puppy before you get married. See if you can handle the responsibilities. See if you can share your schedule with one more being. Itās definitely not impossible but itās not easy too.
Getting a puppy will be one of my lifeās best decision. Iām getting trained to understand how I will handle my spouse after marriage and how will I keep myself together when my kids will be born.
My entire family was against this decision but now it made a not just a better human but also a family man. Questioning my position and learning from my mistakes will help me be a better husband, a father, a grandfather and a storyteller.
This journey is just getting started ā¤ļø
I was supposed to write about money & personal finance but I couldnāt as the research was not complete. I will be writing about it next week. Make sure you subscribe to not miss it š
2)Ā Few Interesting Things:
The art of being alone (Blog)
IN THIS TOGETHER
Picture of the week:- RIP Michael Collins (He was the pilot that did the first moon landing š )
Question of the week:Ā So far, in the gallery, are you the art, the artist or the visitor?
(Retweet this question)
Quick hack of the week:- Before you get on a Zoom call with a personā¦ get to know about them online. Google them. Look at the first few links. Unless lots of people writing about them, the SEO wonāt be heavy on them.
It can help you understand the person better and even better youāll have an idea what interesting questions to ask them ā¤ļø
(If you know of any hacks, send me a mail atĀ pradologue@gmail.com)
Meme of the week:- This is getting out of hands now :))))
3.Ā Quote of the week
Check out some previous newsletter:
END GOAL (Read)
5 Different ways to look at time (Read)
Get more of these right in your mail every weekš
Good old memories
If you liked this newsletter, consider buying me a book (UPI is accepted)
In This Together,
Prado
WebsiteĀ |Ā TwitterĀ |Ā InstagramĀ |Ā Buy me a BookĀ |Ā StoryCardsĀ |Ā Youtube
Liking & commenting on this newsletter will help it get discovered by more people ā¤ļø