Meet Kashish Kalita

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kashish Kalita a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kashish, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
I began doing self-care in the summer of 2022, as 6th grade was approaching. Fast forward one year, 7th grade is less than a month away, and I have achieved wonderful things that include improving my hygiene and mindset. Of course, the steps I took were simple and slow, but it doesn’t mean it was easy. It was challenging yet motivating at the same time. And of course, over the course of one year, I’ve learned that people can have various meanings for the term “self-care”. People’s ‘self-care’ can vary and differ from yours. For example, you might like to go out to socialize or go to a spa to relax. Someone else might just want to chill and look after themselves at home. The first step to crafting an effective and healthy routine is to be clear about what YOU need/want to do. What YOU need to take care of. Is it your body? Your skin? Maybe your habits. It could be anything… or everything! Take it slowly, though. There’s a special quote that goes– “Be patient with yourself. Nothing in nature blooms all year.”

Take the time to understand your needs, and patiently fulfill them in a healthy way. To me, my self-care is all about putting myself first. I am my number one priority. I love to clean, organize, and take of myself in all aspects hygienically, mentally, and physically. Below, I am sharing six very important things that I have implemented in my life (and you can too), leaving me feeling better, happier, and stronger.

  1. Rest Day. Rest Day is something I invented, that’s helped me so much when I first started middle school. My family and I had just moved, and so here I was going to school hoping to make friends in the new place. School gifted me with homework and projects and all sorts of essays, and while it did get stressful especially with juggling my several other responsibilities, Rest Day swooped me up and kept me floating above it all. Every Friday, I call it my “Rest Day” where basically, when I come home, I do absolutely NOTHING. Literally!! And guess what? IT FEELS GREAT. Doing nothing means I can do my skincare, I don’t need to exercise that day, I can sit in my canopy wearing my pjs and read a book or binge watch my favorite Netflix show. I can play games, or I can just take a nap! It’s crazy how this simple one day of being lazy, helped me in being MORE productive. Give rest to yourself, your body, and your mind. Trust me.
  1. When I look back at my skin during my years before skincare, I wouldn’t say it was bad… but it wasn’t so great either. I remember having incredibly dry skin with some dark spots on my chin and forehead. So, one day I decided to make a simple, and easy skincare routine that’ll moisturize my skin, cleaning away all the dark spots. Over the year, I’ve found out I do have sensitive skin, and I have added steps as well as removed some to keep my skin glowing and healthy. First, I cleanse, then apply toner, serum, moisturizer, and lastly sunscreen. It’s very important to me now that I also drink plenty of water and apply Vaseline to my lips and my eyelashes. I avoid applying makeup and mascara all the time, especially to school. Blush is a big no-no for me, as it encourages acne on my face. I make sure to cleanse 2x a day, and I use a polishing gel scrub 1-2 a week (most of the products are from Artistry). Sometimes, I drink aloe vera/celery juice (thanks to my Magic Mom) and apply masks, too. It’s improved my skin immensely, since then, the dark spots are gone, my skin is smoother, softer, healthier, and glows in the sunlight!

 

  1. Workout has changed my life for the better, and I started it in January’2023 because of it being a new year’s resolution. Every month, I make a hand-drawn calendar/workout tracker (yes, hand-written!) with a color theme (which is so much fun to make) and hang it up on my vision board. See… I was trending towards overweight kid during the age of 9-11, So I needed to lose weight in a healthy way and grow height, otherwise, my health wouldn’t be so healthy. I started it off on Jan. 19, 2023, with a waist and full-body workout at home. And guess what? I’ve lost 6 pounds. My body has gotten into such a wonderful shape, with abs (thank you planks), my stomach has gone inside more, but in addition, I have increased stamina, muscles, and energy. I also wear a Fitbit tracking how many steps I walk per day, always crossing 8,000 – 10,000 steps. Workout has left me with awesome benefits that have left me feeling confident and happy!

 

  1. I got my first journal in December 2022. And I love journaling so much. I do it every day! Without journaling and planning, my life literally feels incomplete because it’s a MAJOR part of my lifestyle. I always make a To-Do Priority list (something I taught in my workshop “Road to Productivity”. I plan on making an advanced workshop that will be announced on my ThinkShift website and FB page) and write all my plans. Plans for a trip, plans for the weekend, etc. I love feeling calm, collected, clean, and organized, and journaling fulfills all these proud feelings, energizing me positively. I also write about my thoughts, quotes, lessons I learned, and an “Epic Thought List” where I turn a negative thought into a positive one. (This helped me mentally so much).

 

  1. I LOVE PRACTICING GRATITUDE IN MY JOURNAL (*wink wink*). It’s so simple. I pick 3 things I’m grateful for in my Personal Life, Work Life, and about myself. This is called the 3 x 3 gratitude method, and I picked it up from the book “The 6 Phase Meditation” by Vishen Lakhiani (recommended by my Dashing Dad). I do it every day, or at least am trying to do it every day, and it instantly boosts my happiness, because I’m focusing on what I have, rather than what I don’t have.

 

  1. Self-reflection. I admit, I get a little loose on this sometimes, but the value and importance of this is still there. Just like how I began self-care in 2022, at the same time I arranged my own “Self-Development Path!” excel sheet. I had gotten this idea from my wonderful mentor Ms. Neetu Rishi, who has helped me in character development and is a significant part of who I am today. Her insightful books “I AM UNSTOPPABLE” + “A Different Monday” inspired me to take this action, leading me to create 2 Google sheets for self-reflection; one for 2022, and one for 2023. In both sheets, I created columns of the date, family time, mistakes I learned from, something new I tried today, lessons I learned, inspiration, my success stories, my goals, etc. and overall, how my day was and how I learned from it. How I used that day, that bright new opportunity to grow and live life. Through the power of self-reflection, I’ve just become more aware of my actions as well as others, and I’ve become more grateful for what I did that day, what I got to experience, what I got to learn, and more.

Overall, those are my 6 most important things I do for self-care and I’m currently working on adding one more:

These changes have become a part of my lifestyle, applied, and strengthened over time, assisting me to grow in a variety of ways, from the way I look to the way I handle stress and show compassion to others, as well as love myself.

And remember, it is not the one step that will change your life. It is the one step repeated over and over again that’ll change your life. It is two, three, four, maybe 10 steps repeated that will change your life. Consistency is the key. You get to decide whether those steps will be changing your life for the worse, or for the better.

It’s either one day, or day one.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a multi-career person, which means that I do a number of tasks that involves all my careers, including my main passions: acting, writing/authorship, and inspiring others, as well as my side-professions: modeling, dancing, public speaking. And of course, my full-time “job”: Living life as a kid! (it comes very easily y’know). As I have grown older, I have identified my strengths, areas for improvement, interests, and more. Because I do all these things, I get a lot of opportunities. It was not easy for me to arrive where I am now. I had to learn to step outside of my comfort zone and explore. I had to learn to manage my time to finish my work and attend school. I had to adjust to new methods of doing things and meeting new people in a variety of settings, whether it was traveling to someplace or performing in a studio. Whether it was performing in front of a small crowd, or a huge audience. That’s just a little bit of what it’s like today. Keywords: little bit. So, let’s start from the beginning!

I’ve been working hard since the age of 8, so it’s been 4 years and my success is increasing along with the recognition. You MUST make sacrifices to succeed, and that’s what I did. You also must be patient with your results. Exciting things do occur, like my acting auditions. Because each audition is unique and varied, it’s so much fun to participate in them. Auditions, classes, workshops, planning, goal setting, vision board, everything is individually important to reach to my goal. I do an Indian classical Kathak dance, where I level up to learn more about the dance and its history, as well as do countless performances! I love doing these performances with my group because we have an awesome bond and friendship with each other. My recent performances include MTG (Mind The Gap). You can watch them on my YouTube channel “KashishK” where I upload all my success and family vlogs!

In addition, I got a lot of gain from my books that I published and I’m very proud of it! With 3 kids’ books done, I’m excited to release my 4th book coming Summer 2024, and the workshops I’ll be hosting. After giving two TEDx talks (2021 & 2022), I hosted a one-day TEDx workshop, explaining how you can prepare to deliver a TEDx talk. I also hosted a successful 5-day workshop named “Road to Productivity” in collaboration with TheSuccessDoor whose CEO/Founder is Ms. Neetu Rishi. It was a huge success and I plan to launch an advanced version of it soon. Me and my parents always make sure to update my ThinkShift website (www.thethinkshift.com) and FaceBook page (@thethinkshift). ThinkShift is my company I launched in 2022, with many activities planned. ThinkShift’s mission is to guide people to pursue their passions and thrive in their choice of career, whether it’s acting, art, writing, or anything else.

I have also given 2 TEDx talks, which are available on Youtube. (You can just search my name; Kashish Kalita TEDx)

But the MOST exciting out of all of this, for now, is IMTA. IMTA is a prestigious international convention. It stands for: “International Modeling & Talent Association.” There are two events (LA + NY) held each year, where actors, models, singers, songwriters, and dancers come together to individually showcase their talent in front of hundreds, thousands of scouting agencies. It’s a five-day event where you go through many competitions and the agencies judge, score, and decide whether you’ll get a callback from them. I participated and went to the New York IMTA 2023 event!

I’m so happy and grateful to have gone there, and experience it all, and am truly grateful to my parents and mother agent Shubhra Goyal (from I Catch Management) for bringing me here, encouraging me, supporting me, and making me practice a TON! It was worth it. I enjoyed every moment of it. It was glamourous, fun, exciting, nerve-wracking and I’m proud to say I won 11 awards, receiving 20+ callbacks, leading me to sign with some already! My awards (preteen category) include the:

  • “Female Talent of the Year 2023” award (1st place)
  • Female Most Sought After Talent (1st runner-up)
  • Dancing (1st runner-up)
  • Cold Read + TV Beauty (1st place)
  • and Six additional runner-up awards

I am so happy, and a heartfelt thank you goes out to the incredible team at NY IMTA for organizing this remarkable event and being able to participate among such talented individuals from all over the world.

But I want everyone to know, I am not perfect. I struggle too, and sometimes I want to walk away; I feel low too, but I don’t give up and that’s what’s most important – I believe in myself. You should have faith in yourself. I am still a human being, I’m still a kid. What makes me stand out is that I keep attempting to unleash my creativity out of me at a young age, but you can still do that as well if you are willing to. There’s no definite age when you start your journey to your big accomplishments! Just remember to take action. If you haven’t found the chance yet, create the chance. Take charge!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Before I answer, this question is quite a unique one. I’ve never been asked this question before, so I had to give it some thought and time. Hopefully, my answers are still relevant to this one and inspire those who are reading.

Firstly, I chose three qualities that I could think of that have helped me in several ways. The first one is Imagination. Imagination can be applied anywhere, anything, and anytime in life. The things I want to do, practice to do, and succeed in doing, mostly require my imagination. My dream about being an actress, about being an author, or a positive influencer, is imagination. I imagine and visualize myself be this occupation and work hard toward it. Acting requires imagination, to explore unique ways to portray emotions and characters, deliver dialogue, and stand out in auditions. Writing requires imagination, to explore different plots, craft custom characters, and write effective dialogue. Dancing requires imagination to choreograph just like how editing requires imagination to stylishly animate videos. You need the imagination to dream big. Unleashing your creativity is one of the biggest steps to do first.

My 2nd crucial quality is compassion. Compassion is not sympathy. This belief is entirely incorrect. Sympathy is feeling sorry, sympathy is “poor you.” On the other hand, compassion is “may you be well.” There’s a difference. I was reading this book and it says: “Compassion is the act of moving from judgment to caring, from isolation to connection, from difference to understanding.” I couldn’t agree more. Compassion is a personality trait that helps me to connect, communicate, and understand people on a deeper level. When you are practicing compassion, you are not reflecting on all the negative things and woes of the world, instead, you are feeling peace while connecting to humanity. Sometimes, even the Earth itself. And science has proven that compassion can reverse aging, boost happiness, and positively impacts your heart resonance.

My 3rd quality is leadership. Leadership took me places unimaginable, all because I took the time to be in touch with people and guide them patiently. Leadership is about guiding people, not being rudely bossy towards them. Being a leader means you share an inspiring vision, and then take the time to motivate and guide people to move forward to it. To be a leader, you build trust with others (and never break it), lead with optimism, communicate, create good bonds and relationships, coach/mentor, appreciate the hard work, and more. There are countless more points of being a leader to people, in which I recommend an awesome book called “Soup” by Jon Gordon. One of my favorite authors. And always remember the Tim Ferris quote: “A leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Now speaking of leadership, communication is a big SKILL in it. So here are my top 3 skills that have assisted me in my journey.

Yes, the first skill I have for you is communication. Communication is so important to make well-forged bonds and relationships. Do you know the number one reason for many problems between people? Miscommunication. Misunderstandings. Imagine how one big problem between people could’ve been easily avoided by just talking to each other. Assumptions aren’t always good. Before you communicate, you must have trust. And communicating is not only words. It’s only developing the skill through practicing your active listening, learning about how voice tones can affect the person or how you feel, controlling pitch, being respectful, being polite, having confidence, body language, empathy, and so much more. It’s the little things that can matter too, like how friendly or cold you’re being. And it’s always okay to be vulnerable.

Secondly, have patience. This is another skill. Patience doesn’t come as naturally to some than others. Patience is not just about waiting; it is about being calm and optimistic while waiting. Sure, you don’t need to be all rainbows and sunshine but at least have a growth mindset and positive attitude. You can always develop patience by just having self-control, observing the last times you were impatient and why. Journal about it and do a hobby to bring peace to your mind.  Always expect the unexpected realistically, and act on the issues. Remember, you don’t need to rush through it. You may slow down, do things at your own pace, and take deep breaths when you start to feel frustrated. I feel like meditation is a good exercise for practicing patience and encourage everyone to try so. And here’s a nice quote for you… “Just be patient with yourself. Nothing in nature blooms all year.” -unknown.

Thirdly, an awesome skill that very few people know how to do is adding value to people. When you add value to someone, you are simply making them learn something positive that can be implemented in their life. When you are adding value to someone, you are inspiring them (just like a leader). For example, I am adding value right now in my answers, some value at some level. By the time you are reading this, I could be doing something completely different like sleeping, eating, etc. But you don’t know that do you? This interview will be up and, on the internet, forever! People can read it anytime and be inspired by ME regardless of what I am doing at that exact moment. I am adding value. It is a tough thing to understand at first, but that’s okay. To understand I’d probably need a whole chapter for it!

Now that I have written about my top 3 skills and qualities, let me talk about my knowledge. This was a tricky one for my teen self to write, but hopefully, it makes sense. I’ve got my whole life to explore the areas of knowledge. My first one is performing arts (acting). I got into the acting industry at the early age of 8-9 years old. I’ve always had an interest in the entertainment industry, and acting is my passion. I’ve learned so much and I currently still am, to handle rejection, how auditions go, cold-reading, improv, comedy, drama, etc. What makes good shows and what things you should or shouldn’t do as an actress.

My 2nd area is Literature (writing). I absolutely love reading and writing as well. From my 1st ever book I released in 2019 to the 4th one I’m currently working on, I have improved and learned SO much! Like character voice, character crafting, dialogue, villains, plot building, story structure, and plenty more. Everything I’ve already learned, and the things I am still/will be learning is added to my Author playbook. (Thanks, Dad, for this cool idea!)

My 3rd area of knowledge is volleyball (sports). I began volleyball around the beginning of 2022. Now, I am really excited to tryouts for my school team! I watched this great anime Haikyuu and immediately fell in love with volleyball. I’m lucky that my grandpa and dad are volleyball champs, and they could play as well as help me. I self-taught myself the entire half of my v-ball journey, then begged my mom to sign me up for camps and leagues. I learned a lot there too, like ball control, platform contact, passing, basic rules, rotations, etc. It’s fun, and such an awesome athletic hobby for me! Now I have a volleyball net in my backyard and love practicing my serves and playing there with my dad.

Overall, these are my top three qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge that have helped me a ton in my journey. I hope my advice positively impacts everyone who’s reading as much as the tips helped me in growing. Best wishes!!

 

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

I’ve grown the most mentally and physically, along with my acting career. In this interview/QnA, I’ve heavily talked about self-care and my advice for a growth mindset. But I want to take a moment to talk about “glow-ups” since I was fooled by this term as well. In this generation, I’ve found that many girls (and likely boys as well) tend to take the summer as a period of glowing up. They think they need to dress all trendy and look like 20–30-year-old women and men with developed bodies, facial features, and habits. We’ve been shown this through media, shows, and some real-life examples. Slowly, our brains registered that we need to achieve this way of looking. AKA, the beauty standard. Whereas that’s not the case. Beauty standards are literally made to hate yourself. Why am I saying this? Because I’m seeing this too often… and I fell victim to this trap too. I used to think I needed to be skinny with a perfectly small waist and have perfectly clear, glass skin with zero imperfections. I just had to look perfect. And voila, insecurities. Voila, anxiety.  Of course, I don’t have these problems anymore now, maybe occasionally I might feel a little insecure but that’s just human. The point is, I overcame these challenges OVER TIME. Over the course of, like, 3 years. And SO CAN YOU. If I did it, you can do it. It is so, so tough at first, but you’ve got this. If you apply the right things properly, you will succeed in time.

When I began to focus on MYSELF, take care of myself, read books, talk, and share with my parents, start to do things I love, explore, imagine, pursue passions, exercise, listen to powerful music & podcasts/books, FUELING MY BODY WITH GOOD FOOD … is when I started to feel happy. Feeling energized, powerful, capable. You can feel this too. That is if you choose to. If you dare to, if you have that will. Just remember to be patient, and work hard towards your goals. Love yourself in the process of self-care. It is like how my mentor Ms. Neetu Rishi stated, “Develop the best friendship with yourself.”

I’d like to end this with my pieces of advice that are also my quotes…:

“Maturity comes from pain. Wisdom comes from experience. Step out of your comfort zone. It is scarier to stand still than to move” – Kashish K

Best wishes to all who are reading this. Best wishes to you, and your journey. I’ll see you on the top one day. 😊

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