Learnt Forever, I Shall Forget Never…!!

God gives us so many opportunities to learn something new every day. I’m glad to have got a very good opportunity in the form of internship at Microsoft, that too away from Bangalore, to learn lots and lots. Some lessons very deep, some I already knew but never applied, some totally new and some out of the blue! I’m listing down all that I could come up with in the past one and a half month.

-> Just go out of your way to explore!

This was the first time I was staying away from family and home for such a long period of time. Initially was really excited. I clearly refused my parents from coming along with me till Hyderabad. Everything went so smooth for two weeks in this new place. Soon after that I started facing many challenges regarding health, food, climate, self-confidence, loneliness and so on… Didn’t know I was so resistant to change. Things went worse, I went crazy! All I wanted to do was to go back home!! But now I thank God for not letting that happen. Slowly some things changed… Situations were almost the same as before. But it was my mindset, my attitude, my perception that changed. I became stronger and much more confident of facing anything that came my way. Started loving myself more! And now, I’m no more hesitant of exploring any other place… Things do fall into place after a while, believe it or not.

-> Make mistakes when you can still afford to!

The best part was that, this was still my internship, couldn’t get fired or something in any way! So could make as many mistakes as I wished because failures are the best teachers. It’s never too late to make mistakes and learn, but of course, the cost you need to pay for it increases with time. So be very quick! I’ve got this all new confidence in me to jump into the corporate pool and learn to swim with the experts because I anyway have a life jacket. This is not just the case with me. Each and every person gets such a chance in life. All you need to do is recognize it!

-> Strengthen your strengths even more and weaken your weaknesses!

I learnt this, the technical way during my project, but can be applied everywhere in life. I knew my programming skills and concepts were very good but wasn’t strong in few operating system concepts. Coincidentally the project required a lot of programming to do which helped me go deeper into C++ and easily learnt new languages like C#, XML and ASP.net. And there came a day when I had to implement few things which I was weak at. Ended up learning them also, and after all, wasn’t as tough as I’d assumed. So it is indeed easy to strengthen your strengths and reduce your weaknesses once you’ve recognized them.

-> Sharpen your axe more often than you think is necessary!

It so happened that we had only one programming language in the syllabus of 3^rd year, that also with very less number of programs. (Needless to mention the reason for it being out beautiful education system!) Hence I didn’t get a chance to put my skills into practice. During my project it took a very long time for me get back into the groove. I learnt that I need to keep practicing something I’m good at, something that’s my passion.

There were many more small realizations and lessons which are etched in my brain now and forever. This duration of just one a half month has brought a lot of changes in me. This will be a memorable time for me in my future for sure.

This post cannot end without taking the names of people who were in one or the other way responsible for the circumstances, realizations and for me writing this article. I thank my parents the most, then my mentor Adarshji, my best friend Sandhya, my sweet little cousin Meghashree and a sister-like room-mate Madhuri akka.

Do pour in your valuable comments :)

There’s more…….Lots more in YOU!!!

It’s been a really long time since I blogged. Somewhere I felt I do not have much time to actually sit down and create a blog. That’s where I was wrong. It’s a general mindset that any human can do only a certain amount of work in a day. Once a person reaches a saturation feeling that enough is done for the day, complacency sets in! (I’m sure many of you can relate to this).

When this happens to me, I just recall a statement said by one of my leaders. It goes something like this -- “Looking back into your past creates complacency while looking forward into your dreams creates URGENCY”. Damn! Then I suddenly realize “I’ve achieved almost nothing compared to what I really want to and have to”. This is when I can push myself harder and harder and harder…! Just question yourself every second “Is this all I can do?” and the true answer you get from your inner voice is, “NO! You can do MORE”.

They say that time expands for those people who know how to squeeze every single second of their life pushing themselves closer to their dreams. Yes! EVERY SINGLE SECOND!! By the end of the day just introspect and ask yourself if you have harnessed your true potential. There’s definitely a lot ‘hidden’ in us. The only question is, “Are we ready to play the toughest ‘hide and seek’?!” Just GO ahead, BREAK all the mental barriers, FORGET the couch at home and FACE the heat of the sun!

Trust me my dear friends, there’s always more to what we are doing and there’s always better way of doing what we are doing. While writing this also I know that I can write more and in a better way!! Hence I would love to improve. So please keep the comments flowing in.

Too lazy?! Read on...

Good morning friends...!!

At whatever time you are reading this, I still wish you 'good morning', because it's time we WAKE UP!! Some of us are into deep sleep not realising what life is and what it has for us. I know this is not something entirely new. But probably another alarm ring which I hope you do not “snooze” and go back into sleep.

Laziness is the current trend I can say. Few of us have real big dreams in life but what’s the point of dreaming if we have no plans of achieving them?! The only thing that stops few people is laziness. Sounds weird, but true. I can say this because I was also one among them. Nature doesn’t design humans for laziness. I took some time, but I have finally realized it.

Just walk into a classroom and you’ll find half the class dozing. (Not that the other half is listening, but never mind!) Recently when I was involved in some team work to discover our individual strengths and weaknesses, 80% of my team-mates mentioned their weakness as “laziness”. Not so surprising! By the way, the other 10% were too lazy to even list down their weaknesses!! I guess I’ve proved my point that atleast 90% of today’s youth is LAZY.

There are few others who say they do not have any goals or dreams in life. Just ask them to imagine an angel appearing in front of them and promising to grant all their wishes. Would they stay quiet? Obviously not. Now these are the dreams which one should live to achieve. People who appear to be lazy are the ones who lack specific goals that motivate and challenge them.

There are 3 kinds of people:

->Those who have never given a thought to their dreams.

->Those who have dreams but they’re either too lazy to achieve them or they have no idea how to go about them.

->Those who have specific dreams, know how to achieve them and they go on!

Now isn’t it obvious that it’s the third category of people who succeed in life?! And whichever category we belong to, we can always shift to the 3^rd. For instance, I was in the first, went to second and now in the third!!

Well, I really hope this blog of mine helped you. But it definitely helped me reinforce few things. So all of you, let’s wake up and walk towards our dreams!!

Do leave in your comments.

My first blog

Here goes my first ever blog. I always thought I am pretty bad at expressing my thoughts in writing. But you always never know what you are good at unless you start doing it, and there's always scope for improvement. This thought made me create this blog. Now that I've started, there is no stopping me. So look forward to really good blogs of mine. I will make sure I come up with interesting stuff.
Always open to comments...