Top 5 articles of 2018

The year 2018 was an interesting year, the 2-part story that I have written about Sharda Bapat became really viral and it has become the most read story, ever on MyZenPath. I received many mails regarding that as well.

Naturally, both these articles feature in the top-5 articles based on the readership last year. Here is the list with excerpts from the articles –

1. Walking her own path ~ Sharda Bapat

Sharda Bapat
Walking her own path

If I hadn’t met Dr. Sharda Bapat myself, I wouldn’t have believed that this person could be real. I know many medical doctors who actively pursued other interests and they became really good at it. But I don’t know a single person who started his/her journey to become a doctor after 35. Sharda Bapat’s journey is almost incredible – she (re)took her 12th standard examination at the age of 36 as she wanted to be a medical doctor, and she eventually became one. But there is lot more to her than being a doctor. She is indeed a renaissance soul personified.  Read more… (Nov 2018)

2. Playing her own tune ~ Sharda Bapat

Sharda Bapat
Playing her own tune

All her learning, expertise and interests have culminated in her current work. Rather, she has built her work around who she is and what she stands for. Given her proficiency in understanding, analyzing data and her medical knowledge, she is helping an organization to build healthcare solutions with machine learning. She is also a part of initiative The Poona Citizen Doctor Forum (PCDF) that strives to build trust among citizens/patients and doctors, and they also promote ethical rational medical practice. Read more… (Nov 2018)

3. Personality Inventories

16 PF – Source Traits & Surface Traits
16 PF – Source Traits & Surface Traits

This one continues to be one of the most read articles on MyZenPath.  A personality inventory is a  questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual’s character or psychological makeup. It helps to reveal the respondent’s personality traits. There are several types of personality inventories – some of them are generic personality inventories and some more specific in terms of what they intend to assess – autonomy, locus of control and so on! Read more… (Jan 2017)

4. How to choose your career?

Building Career for Ikigai
Building Career for Ikigai

This is my take on ‘How to choose your career’. I am going to keep it simple and practical. Here is what I’d recommend youngsters when they are choosing their career after 10th or 12th standard. Come to think about it, it is not only about your career – in many ways, it defines your lifestyle and shapes your personality as well. 
Ikigai is a fairly popular Japanese concept by now – it means ‘a reason for existence (or being)’. That’s same as Raison d’être in French. According to Japanese culture, everyone has an ikigai. Read more… (May 2017)

5. Personality – stable or fluid?

Personality - stable or fluid?
Personality – stable or fluid?

Adam Grant published an interesting podcast ‘Is Your Personality More Flexible Than You Think?’ recently on 21st March 2018. In this podcast, he discusses with Susan Cain famous for her wonderful work on introverts and related book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Here is a nice excerpt from that podcast –

If you’re not aware that your traits are flexible, they can become shackles. Personalities should be more of an anchor, it gives you freedom to pursue more possibilities without drifting too far away from your place. Read more… (March 2018)

Personal Favourites

Two of my personal favourites from 2018 are Thai Cave Rescue insights (July 2018) and What would you rather do with your gift? (April 2018). I resonated with the first one since I saw this incidence exemplifying many of the things I have writing here about purpose and meaning. The second one in fact discusses dark patterns, defensive architecture and wonders if this is what we would like to do with our skills & expertise.

What are your favourites from the last year? What are your reasons for liking them? I’d love to hear from you. Wishing all the readers of MyZenPath a happy and meaningful 2019.


About the featured image:

The featured image for this article is a free wallpaper from QuoteFancy and it features a quote by Oprah Winfrey and photo credited to Jan Erik Waider. I am using it here with gratitude.

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