Dive Deep! Know thyself!

Hey there folks! It's been ages since I've written anything.....Actually scratch that! It's been ages since I found time to write anything, and here I am today, sitting in front of my computer screen working on what I call the "Konnect" or Knowledge Connect. I know it sounds stupid, and if you want to stop reading, I'm giving you a fair chance to walk away. Actually, you have reached here, so you might as well suffer through this entire blog.

It's quite ironic, seeing that I may not possess any knowledge relevant to what you are probably hoping to read; who knows, you might be here because you thought I was writing about reaching the summit of Everest! Sorry to disappoint you if that's what brought you here. I'm here to Konnect with you with a much more generic concept; a concept that has been prevalent for quite some time now - Unlocking your inner potential

You would now say that we have read several articles on the same topic written by every Tom, Dick and Harry who calls himself or every Mary, Jane and Susie who calls herself a writer; I don't mean to imply that I am one or mean to insult any other writer, but this topic has been around for a while. Unlocking your inner potential doesn't necessarily mean achieving something unearthly, unrealistic or pulling off a Tony Stark (for any Marvel fans out here). Unlocking your potential might be as little as just realizing your passion towards anything or even understanding that you do not have to take "The Path".

People of our generation are blessed to be in a world of diversity, be it in terms of entertainment, opinions, or even education and career. This diversity is both, a blessing and a curse as it provides various opportunities for people who are focussed or confuses the people like me who are wanderers. My point being, these options provide us with careers and show us the path. However, not everyone knows what they want to do and would easily get mislead into doing something that they might not want to be doing. There are again two ways to look at this; either follow the path and excel in what you are doing even if you don't like it, or drop what you are doing and make your own path. Look out for opportunities which excite you and bring out the passion in you. Know yourself, understand what makes you tick, what drives you! That would be the first step in unleashing your inner potential. It all starts with that spark inside you. You will know when you start doing things not just for the sake of doing it, but because you really want to do it and you enjoy being involved in it.

You may possess qualities which you may not recognize. but is evident to others. You might be fortunate enough to meet someone who enlightens you with the knowledge of you possessing such a quality or you might stumble upon it yourself. From here on it's all upto you; how you deal with it, whether you choose to recognize it or ignore it. The qualities mentioned influences you in a great way. You can see it in your personality. All these factors are intangible, thereby making it very difficult to quantify, due to which it becomes difficult for you to build on.

Courage plays a crucial role in the quest to unlock your potential. The potential that you possess may or may not be something that you like, but unless you have experienced it yourself, you will not know. So, take that step. Embrace it. Give it a chance to grow and you will grow with it.

And to make it clear, the spark that you possess may not even be something that is conventional, unlike poetry, music, drawing, etc. It might be something like the ability to read someone's body language, understand someone's emotions by observation, analyzing trends & patterns, etc. The spark need not be something huge and phenomenal, it can be as small as an ability to communicate effectively. It depends on how you use this spark and your confidence in yourself.

Step outside the box, break free of the stereotypes, create your own identity, accept failure, dare to leap, show the middle finger to those who stymie you and most importantly, believe in yourself because you are the one shaping your destiny.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Hope you found this interesting, if not this is not the post for you! Share this around if you liked it! Till next time, have a good week!

A Late Beginning!

It is said that beginnings are always hard; I am no different in thinking the same. However, it's the approach that brings contrast to the multitude of such situations. Beginnings have a few best friends; fear, lack of commitment, distractions, and nervousness; like our best friends, they stick together till the end. Each of these friends has a role to play in all forms of beginnings, but the type of beginnings being made throws light on the extent to which these impact its execution. 

For example, let's take the most basic beginning which I can relate to as of this point - Starting a career. 

The thing about careers is that it comes with a preconceived notion that there are no tailor-made careers out there. That approach brings the fear factor into the equation. 'What if I'm not good at it?' or 'What if I cannot survive in the workplace?' are a few questions that are raised in the minds of those who venture out to work after 15 years of education. But most people fail to realize is that careers can be tailor-made. These 15 years are what gives perspective and purpose to individuals, which is the initiation of the self-molding phase, where you can either adapt and choose a career you would be good at or pick one for now and realize your true calling down the line. For those who are hoping for the latter, you will turn out to be the best tailors, because you are shaping your career every step of the way forward, keeping in mind what you are strong at and what you hope to achieve from it. Either way, making the beginning there takes courage and grit, which once made, fades away with time. People, even after such repetitive occurrences, fail to realize that fear is only temporary and that shouldn't come in the way of making a beginning.

Non-commitment is a person's own evil way of intimating that there are other "easier" alternatives out there, When, for example, you set your alarm at 5 am with the intention of going for a jog and workout, and your devious mind coaxes you to stay in bed. I quote this example because this is something that I am facing every morning for the last 4 years. I immediately think that I'll reduce weight by dieting and go back to sleep! Ha! I can almost hear myself laughing. To overcome this and make a healthy beginning, you need to be committed and headstrong. Making a commitment to anything is tougher than it looks, people who are in a relationship can sure understand me better here. Beginnings require immense focus and commitment towards the accomplishment of goals set for the beginning. I can sure say that my commitment has paid off; I wake up at 5 am and run out the door now! (P.S: I lied). A few beginnings require you to grit your teeth and just charge towards your goals and objectives. You will automatically commit towards your goals if you are passionate.

Nervousness is a common side-effect of starting something new which comes due to the anticipation of the unknown future. Your anticipation may become the cause of failure if taken improperly. A right mindset is essential to ensure that the outcome of anything initiated by you is entirely in your hand. Nervousness can be best avoided if the outcome is disregarded entirely, even though if it goes against your principle of staying positive. Human beings think in mysterious ways and no one can unravel the working of a human mind. So just go with the flow!

  

New Beginnings are always interrupted by distractions. Suppose you decide to start a new company and you have done your ground work for it and are ready with almost all the details. Boom! You get a dream job offer with a 7 - 8 digit pay package. There is your distraction. Beginnings are cut short quite frequently because individuals do not prioritize and cut out distractions. On a lighter note, Scenario: You just got committed and you are out on a date with your beautiful girlfriend; a pretty girl walks past and you glance at her. Your girlfriend notices this distraction. Boom! You are single again. New beginnings are delicate and require a lot of care and attention, a nurturing environment is necessary to sustain the effort and ensure a fruitful outcome.

I can relate to all this quite easily. I fear my writing being perceived wrongly, lack of commitment to writing due to my day job, distractions in the form of entertainment and ill-advice and nervousness about the feedback to my first blog. A late beginning is better than never beginning. So write to me and ease my anxiety; let me know if you liked it and please let me know if you hated it as well so that I can improve my writing. Hope you found this interesting, if not find another blog to read! Share this post around if you liked it. Next week expect the unexpected! Have a good week!