6. "Lessons for my future child": kindness, success, failures & love ft. Sony and Anoop

In this episode I am joined by two of my best friends from University.  None of us are ready to have kids yet, but despite this decided to explore the list that Sony has written, "Lessons to my future child". Anoop and I chip in with our honest take on the lessons, drawing from our own life experiences covering themes of kindness, success and failures, and love.

We deep dive into some of our "failures" and talk about what our definition of love might be.

Anoop and Sony both study medicine with me at Cambridge University. Sony studied psychology with me in her third year and hopes to perfect latté art in the near future. Anoop has aspirations to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introductions to my friends

5:00  Why did Sony write this?

8:35  Kindness

17:05 Success and failures

21:00 Times where we have failed

30:00 Recognising privilege

31:50 Change

32:50 Speak up

33:27 Love

37:00 Reaching out

39:00 Enjoyment

Resources mentioned

1. CS50 Havard course: https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-to-computer-science
2. Open access university physics degree, cause why not? http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/physics

Key lessons

1. Be kind and don't expect anything back
2. Be kind and be happy because they are happy, not because you are the one that has helped them.
3. Be kind and when someone is unkind, understand that they might not have had the same privileged upbringing that might motivate them be kind.
4. Celebrate the successes of others as if they were your own
5. Take pride in your failures, as well as your success. [write a failure CV]
6. When you succeed,  remember that whilst you worked hard you started with privilege denied to other people. Take pride in your achievements, but not arrogance. Be humble.
7. Change is important: nostalgia is comforting but change is stimulating and energising so accept it with an open mind.
8. Speak up when things don't sit right: you're never small enough to make a difference.
9. Love people not things.
10. Love without wanting to be loved back. Love people for who they are and not what they want them to be.
11. Reach out to people: appreciate people's work, their presence and give meaningful compliments.
12. Don't take life too seriously and take each day as it comes.
13. Listening: react and judge the words not source of the words because good advice can come from anywhere.
14. Experience the masterpieces that life has to offer but don't pretend to enjoy them just to fit in.
15. Life is a pie: diversify and have many different slices.