WHEN WE FOCUS ON THE 'INSIDE', THE 'OUTSIDE' JUST GLOWS
“A flower does not think of competing
with the flower next to it…
It just blooms.”
-
Unknown
I spent the entire day,
today, with B.Sc (IT) students of a Mumbai college. They are all set to walk
into their final year, in a few weeks from now. So, the college authorities are
aware of the fact that these young-ones would need to be groomed so that they
get good placement. I was there, today, to help them in their self-confidence
and communication skills.
At their age, I was
worse, as far as my self-confidence and communication skills were concerned.
So, if I could do something about my problem, they, certainly, can do something
about theirs… As I, always, say: “If I can, you, too, can.” But, after a pause,
I add this: “I said, ‘You can’… not ‘You will’!”
Yes, I, always,
hammer this truth into young-ones' skulls: “Till you do not make ‘I can’ into ‘I
will’, your problem will remain your problem.”
Guys like me go
there and share our ‘success’ stories before the young-ones… Those stories
inspire them… And, when the young-ones deeply admire us for our confidence and
communication skills, they do attract in them those qualities. The Law of Attraction
gets in motion the moment they start loving deeply what they see in their icons
and when they start desiring those qualities… “I became a teacher by deeply
admiring my own teacher,” I keep telling young-ones, “and by desiring to become
a teacher like my idol.”
Today, I reminded
the young students about the same ‘Secret’ – the same Law of Attraction – that would
bring about a change in them: “What you deeply like, you attract.”
In the end, I asked
them this: “B.Sc. (IT) was a choice or an accident?”
Though I knew what
the consensus would be, I wanted to hear it from them. Only a few said ‘Choice’…
while the majority said, ‘Accident’… Yes, majority wanted to get into Engineering,
Medicine etc. But, ‘marks’ did not support their dream… B.Sc (IT) was a reluctant
choice…
I continued: “So,
after two years, how do you see the situation? Those who got there as a choice,
may or may not like it, now… and those who got there by default, now, may or
may not like it, too... This is going to be your last year… So, if your heart
is not here in it, how on earth can you feel confident about yourself? Ideally,
in life, we all should do what we love… But, if our circumstances land us somewhere
else, then, we should learn to love what we do… If we do not do that, we would
just drag around… just survive… To live life with confidence – which I call ‘authenticity’
- we need to be passionate about the work we do… There is no option there… No
escape route, no excuse. You are young-adults, now… You are capable of
connecting the dots… you are capable of putting the pieces of your life-puzzle
together… Do what you love… Love what you do. Your confidence will simply come
from that… And, listen to this: With such self-confidence, you do not need
anyone to teach you how to communicate effectively.”
It is the ‘inside’ that
we all should focus on… The ‘outside’ just glows!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Shraddha Sachdev
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