This is my last post on lesson learned from my dad which are his gift to me. I am my father’s Gift.  I say this with #humilty.

I dedicated each day this month to recount some of the lessons I’ve learned from my dad.

While I’ve been reflecting on lessons learned I can’t help but also reflect on what I’ve accomplished through the last decade.  Someone once said #grief will either break you or make you. I realised how painful and powerful grief can be, and I embraced my grief.

If my father was writing about me he would say I’ve come a long way.

As the famous song goes he’s the power behind my wings.

My Dad was my emotional why for my London marathon in 2018. I got a tattoo on father’s day. I experimented and discovered coaching. I completed the ILM 7 accreditation to coach  and mentor senior professionals.

I discovered I could write so I  wrote blogs to make sense of my pain and this became a book.

I lost my fear of failure through grief and learnt to pivot to find my new purpose. When I was a child my dad introduced me to our first German shepherd dog called Asha. Most of my adult like this was a memory sat in my  psyche hardly referred to but when lockdown came my German Shepherd pup Oscar, and I found each other, as if to complete the circle of life, or join the dots. What my dad started continues.

To live on purpose we need a strong emotional why. For me my path is clear, in all that I do and wish to become I want to make my dad even more proud of me. I want to be the daughter he so deserves.

Today is exactly ten years to the day of my father’s death. He remains in my heart. His absence is chiselled in my soul but I’ve grown around it to keep doing my dharma.

Thanks to everyone who has followed my reflections here I genuinely appreciate you. Thank you for your comments and likes. I also want to thank those who shared their feelings about my dad, and theirs too. It’s funny but when we bare our soul and show our vulnerability indirectly,  others find the power to share their truth.

Thank you.

Sine die. My dad and I used to say this a lot as the story never ends and as the great T.S. Elliot said ” We shall not cease from exploration. And the end off all our journey will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the first time”.

#lessonslearned
#mydad
#lifepurpose
#leadershiplessons

Now, before I go further it might help if I set the scene on the man himself.

My Dad came to England age 38 from India to study medicine and he was an economic migrant. He came because he had a wife, a mother and four children in India to support.

My Dad was a businessman through out his life with probably two brief stints of paid employment which he didn’t enjoy.

When I qualified as a Solicitor he wanted so much for me to have my own law practice. I went for the easy option but I see his point now.

My dad always reminded me to take risks,  to be bold, and to stretch outside my comfort zone. That was his modus operandi,  fear never held him back.

When we bought our current home it was in my opinion outside our budget but in my dad’s view it wasn’t. He would say to build equity you must borrow,  and if you borrow you’ll will work hard to pay it back quickly, and be more focused. He was right.

When my mother walked out my dad was only 51. He ran his businesses, raised five children and still had time to help set up the first ever Hindu Temple in the UK,  in our great city of Leeds. I forgot to add he also had time for our first German shepherd dog, Asha. Where he got the energy and power from I don’t know but he always had absolute belief in himself.

After he retired age 85, he and I visited a few care homes in Leicester. Why ? Because he wanted us to buy a care home. I smile as I write this. We visited around 10 such homes on the pretence I was looking for a home for my dad, little did they know, we, the formidable father and daughter,  were actually on a fact finding mission. The care home project did not materialise in his life but he’s sown a seed and I have that dream in my heart to accomplish.

I could relay many stories from his life but his lesson to me to be bold, take risks and stretch the boundaries now make total sense.

After I lost my dad I lost my fear and I began to take risks whereas before I was too cautious and what I considered to be unreasonable risks were shrouded by my fears of what if I fail.

To conclude, my dad would say life is too short to live in the mediocre lane. Be bold, take reasonable risks and stretch the boundaries from impossible to possible.

Thank you for reading this post. If it resonates please like it, and repost it with your thoughts. Together we can raise our awareness and grow.

© DMP