On a raiy day

When I decided to write this post today afternoon, it was out of sheer will to stay in touch with writing as a hobby; as this is something I feel brings me closer to where my inner GPS keeps pointing me. I have realized that regular blogging will provide me a major part of the solace I need to pursue with patience the ultimate purpose of my life.



I write to write. I express to express. I speak because that is what makes me come alive. These are the little pleasures and joys in my life, truly authentic, truly simple.



To quote Howard Thurman, "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."



In an attempt to do what makes me come alive, I have decided to write regularly; and while it may sound weired in the beginning, I am confident of my abilities to reach a stage of refined, cohesive writing which will make the time spent on reading the piece worthy enough.

Oprah Winfrey once said, that while the world looks for validation of your background through resumes, posts, titles and positions you may have held throughout your life, the one thing that will help you get up and knock back in the face  of adversity is who you really are.

I have come to realize that at the end of the day what matters is the core within you and that is the single most important thing that determines where you will arrive at the end of your journey; it has the power to determine whether you will realize your hitherto lofty goals be it about yourself, your life, your career, your relationships, your dreams, your contribution to the world or anything for that matter.

I would like to close with this epic thought by Robin Sharma: "HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE BETTER OFF BECAUSE OF I LIVED?"

Can I make a difference? Will I?

Today and Tomorrow?

It is one of those days when you find yourself thankful for staying in touch with a friend who can dare to be brutally honest with you, about you and that too, bang in your face! Yes, it is true that I am indeed grateful about it. So, rather than chiding him for not giving as much of a respect to the job I have or the space I am in as I possibly have, I actually responded to his rather disconcerting remarks with a "thanks so much". And I am here to jot down the reasons why I did what I did.

First things first - In this age of eternal niceties (albeit only on the face) he was kind and somewhat daring [enough] to offer his side of an honest interpretation of what he thinks I do for a living and where those skills will or will not take me in the next few years as far as my career and my personality goes. Looks like it is turning out to be a rather bland post but I will continue jotting down my thoughts nevertheless; because I have been planning to make writing a regular habit for way too long and if there is this one thing that has prompted me a first chance to put that planning into practice, it's a no-brainer that I embrace it with widely open arms(but fingers on the keyboard,ofcourse)!

Not digressing from the original point I intended to make when starting this post, let's delve deeper into how I found our conversation today worthy of all this - at least a short piece of writing. It prompted me to write. I was challenged into thinking if my current job is what I intended to do with my life, or is it at least something that offers me a gateway into what I intend to do in life? Is it helping me get any closer, which-so-ever way? I was forced into seriously considering my 2 year plan, if not a five year plan, especially as far as my career is concerned; or wait! is it really a career I have already dedicated my 6 months to? I realized that at the end of the next set of 6 months it will be a year into this role I received an offer from a campus that's considered to be among the most prestigious institutes in the country and among the creams in the world; And here I find myself comparing numbers and justifying differences. No mean task by any standards, considering the impact my work has on the existence of the firm in its current capacity. The question here is not about how good the role is, it's not about the team or the firm I am in. And as they say, It's not about them/these things, it's about me!!! It's about whether I consider it worthy enough to be giving my years and decades to, it's weather this is something for the personality that I am, or the personality I want to be, or at least the personality I aspired to be when I was sitting in the Business Communication classes at ISB admiring every bit of how Kanishka and Girish managed to chart for themselves a career they dreamed of starting from literally nothing in that space; or that time management session taken by Revathi who is an epitome of a self-made person in every sense of the term; having moved from a software development role to starting her own venture in the soft skills training space and her ambition to pursue a PhD in the field after nearly ten years of working experience; whether it's about a beloved professor's passion to promote a course on happiness and show the world that a path to inner peace and happiness is possible even in a highly action packed stress machine like ISB or Robin Sharma who inspires me every time I hear or read him - and not just because of the words he speaks/writes or the way he delivers them, but by the mere fact that he chose the career he is living today by a deliberate and intentional decision to leave the comfort of a well paying job to do something he always aspired to do. Each of the instances sighted here reminds me of the assignments I took as part of the Creativity & Leadership course(or Happiness course) under professor Raj - writing about my life's goals, about the things that motivate me, the things that I truly want to be doing or invest myself in. I distinctly remember a piece from one such assignment essay where we had to visualize ourselves 5 to 10 years down the line.

In that essay...I was at the Global Bank(fictitious) office in NYC, and ended up meeting my ex-manager by pure dint of chance when I was conducting one of the many soft skills sessions that Global Bank(fictitious) and several other wall street biggies had signed me up for. I was enjoying every bit of the session because, alas, that's what I had always aspired to do and to have my ex-manager come and congratulate me about the session and my achievement was nothing short of an icing on the cake. A couple of sessions later I was headed to the rehearsals of that Broadway show I was slated to perform at in the following week. I returned from the rehearsals accompanying my spouse who offered to pick me up while heading home from work where a friendly family dinner and chat were the order of the day...

That was how I had imagined an ideal day in my life. If I come to really think about it, today, I am definitely living parts of my definition of an ideal day, though certainly not in its entirety. Call it a tryst with destiny or a spate of chance I did join the firm of my dreams I had dreamed of joining; I went to NYC and met and probably took my ex-manager(s) by surprise because of where I had arrived in a mere one year's timeline.There were days when my spouse also came to accompany me while returning from work while in NYC...but there's more of my ideal day that I wish to bring to  practice in reality - the core of it.

The question is, will I dare to do that?