PUTTING A SPRING BACK IN OUR STEPS
“Past
three weeks have put a spring back in my step.”
Captain
Tom Moore
I
was invited to conduct an online session on ‘Self-confidence and Communication
Skills’ for students of first-year Architecture at a premier institute. The
session was held this morning.
I, always, tell
the young ones my own story: how I went about developing my own self-confidence
and communication skills. It is easy to tell my own story – because, it’s true
to me. The events were real… My killing inferiority-complex – what we today
call as ‘social anxiety’ – was a real thing to me when I was these students’
age… I suffered from a crushing feeling of worthlessness, which showed up on my
body and mind both… Despite my ‘good-boy’ image, I endlessly felt undeserving
and worthless… It had affected my academic performance… I wasn’t clear about
what I had to pursue in life… My dream box was empty… Enthusiasm and motivation,
which are, always, linked to our dreams, obviously, had forsaken me. And, the
worst part was this: I did not know what was going on inside me… I thought I
was alone in this… And, it was a very lonely world to live in!
So, like these
young aspirants are now walking into their first year of Architecture college,
when I, too, walked into the first year of degree college (Commerce), I did not
know, that my transformation – from being worthless to being worthwhile – was
about to begin. As I have narrated a hundred times before, it was here in my F.Y.B.Com
classroom – literally hiding myself in a crowd of over hundred boys – I was
watching, awe-struck, my own teacher – Prof. B.S. Raman – and nudging myself to
dream of becoming like him – a fine teacher and a writer.
What I, also,
did not know was, that the ‘The Law of Attraction’ was set in motion… ‘What you
deeply like, you attract’. This one factor – the burning desire to become like
my teacher – was the most potent seed I was sowing in my heart to become a
self-confident individual… Yes, to replace worthlessness with worthwhileness.
This major factor, also, pumped in me the courage, determination, patience, perseverance and
means to overcome two of my crippling handicaps: my poor English (My medium was
vernacular) and my terrible stage fear. It was the proverbial battle of two
foxes inside me… ‘I can’ and ‘I can’t’. Eventually, the fox who I fed the most
– my burning dream – triumphed.…
That’s how it is
for everyone… for you, me, these aspiring architects and all.
Today, I told
these things, among many other things, to our young ones. I, also, showed to them, at
the end of the session, this video:
Months
ago, when
my friend, Reshma, who lives in London, shared with me the story of Captain Tom
Moore, it was the initial period of the Pandemic… There was fear everywhere…
The sky looked dark and the future looked uncertain. And this gentleman,
nearing his hundredth birthday – who had
outlived the darkest times during the WWII - was now set on a simple mission: of
taking 100 rounds around his garden and raise 1,000 pounds for his country’s
National Health Service (NHS). Hold your breath: He ended up raising around 33 (39?) - million
pounds… He ended up living up to 100 years… And, he – like a true hero -
succumbed to the deadly virus, just three days ago!
I wanted my
young ones to go home with these questions: Was it not self-confidence? And, was
it not stemming from one’s sense of purpose? Was it not being positive, proactive
and worthwhile?
And this
question: What stops us from putting ‘a spring back in our steps’?
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic’s.: BBC News
Videos: 1. DeccaRecorsMusic 2. BBC News
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