Take a Pause with Varun Duggirala Megha Rao on Being Present, Making Your Own Identity & Creating A Legacy
Do you feel the need to overshare on social media out of the fear of being forgotten? Perhaps it would be helpful for you to learn about NOMO - the Necessity of Missing Out!
In this episode, poet, performer and artist Megha Rao takes some time out of her digital detox for an insightful chat with Varun. She talks about the importance of being mindful & present while searching for internal validation, instead of chasing external validation. Megha shares how she protects herself from burnout, and builds a healthy mindset towards competition.
Megha’s work has been featured on platforms such as Penguin Random House India, Firstpost and The Open Road Review. She’s been a part of the Spoken Fest and Thought Catalog. Her podcast “Poems to Calm Down to” trended at #1 on Spotify podcasts in India.
Time Stamps
(00:00 - 1:52) Introduction
(2:05 - 3:06) Megha Rao’s digital detox
(3:07- 4:40) How to live in the present?
(4:41 - 8:04) Present thinking vs positive thinking
(8:05 - 9:24) Activities that spark creative ideas
(9.25 - 13:04) Importance of taking a pause in Megha Rao’s creative journey
(13.05 - 18:00) How Megha Rao figured her voice as a creator?
(18:24 - 18:54) Gaining wisdom
(21:05 - 22:47) How Megha broke out as a poet
(22:58 - 25:45) Not getting influenced by external voices
(25:46 - 31:02) The different drivers for writing, podcasting, and stage performances
(31:03 - 33:55) Avoiding burnouts & dealing with FOMO
(34:05 - 36:08) Dealing with competition
(36:09 - 41:20) Dealing with the fear of judgement
(41:21 - 43:14) How to hook people to your craft?
(43:15 - 48:16) Who motivates Megha?
(48:17 - 50:59) Who creates a legacy? Art v/s the artist
(51:00 - 52:25) Megha Rao’s process
Book list
1. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - By Jenny Odell.
2. Deep Work - Cal Newport
You can Order Varun’s book “Everything is out of syllabus: An instruction manual for life & work “ at https://amzn.to/335QKow
Follow Varun across social media platforms @VarunDuggi
https://www.instagram.com/varunduggi/
https://www.youtube.com/c/VarunDuggi
https://twitter.com/varunduggi
And for a weekly download of mind musings and recommendations subscribe to his newsletter “Unschooled with Varun Duggirlala” at https://varunduggi.substack.com
About the show
“Take a pause with Varun Duggirala” ( previously “The Varun Duggi show”) is a thrice a week podcast that’s meant to enable its listeners to take a pause amidst the chaos of their daily lives to learn tools, embrace ideas and soak in concepts that will help them find motivation, build the right mindset and perform at their best. Varun also occasionally taps into the minds of truly interesting people to give listeners a learn from and use in their work, life and everything in-between.
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