Apr 22, 2011

The Story of "Fire Extinguisher"

This is a story of a teenager; now in mid 20s and a completely different person who has been through couple of phases through his life. One phase during the teens and the next one, the current one in the early & mid 20s. These two phases have been a marque of complete disparity. All those people who know him would be extremely happy with the way he, his career, his life has shaped up now. They would definitely vote for the second phase of his life being outstanding and brilliant because he was a real rough and arrogant guy during his teens while today he has settled down and is much like every other lad in the town working morning to evening, 5 days a week, and enjoying the weekends. However, he was not like this always. He gave a damn to the life and lived it like a king. He was arrogant but witty; he was naughty but with an entire bucket full of fire in the belly; he was irregular to classes but bright enough to cover all the stuff within days; he was a joker but never a joke himself. He had a huge reservoir always full with ideas that would make him stand out of the crowd. Making tough stuff look easy was what he liked. He loved chilling out when others slogged their asses out. He did numerous things while in college that only few would do. He rode his 97cc bike like a MotoGP bike. People were scared to sit behind him and the kind of arrogance he had he never ever cared slowing down at least for that ride, not even for the one sitting behind him. It was just a “My Way or Highway” scenario. He sold T-shirts; he sold customized sweatshirts; he burnt CDs and sold them. He stuffed up the entire Car with around 1000 management novels, drove in to the campus, set the boot open and sold almost all of them like a roadside bookseller would do. He never felt “What would others think?”, “Would I look stupid while doing this?”. He did what he felt he should do.


Pages of life have been flipped and a new chapter has begun. He has changed. He has mellowed down. The fire in the belly doesn’t seem to be the same that was there earlier. The fire has started extinguishing. Today the same guy after half a dozen of years has moved ahead and got into a cozy desk job. Making money out of nothing which he once loved has now made its way to a salary account that gets credited every month. To be realistic he has not moved ahead; he has gone a couple of steps backward. He has entered into a comfort zone. All his closed ones like the current phase of his but deep within he knows he is not heading into the right direction. He has become mechanical. His life is now nothing but a routine. He has got lost in the crowd and is in search of mental satisfaction more than anything else. He needs to know soon that there is someone who is acting as a “Fire Extinguisher” and he also needs to know that ‘that someone’ is no one else but himself. He has been a bad “Fire Extinguisher” because he has forgotten that he is dousing off the fire that actually needs to be fuelled with more and more oil, fuel; whatever you wanna call or anything else that you wanna use.



Dear Readers, I know majority of you would find yourselves in the same position and would definitely relate the above story with yourselves. We all have got immense fire and talent to back it up but we do not use it to the optimum, in fact we dont use it. Don’t become a “Fire Extinguisher” to douse the inner fire that will take you nowhere. Let the fire spread not only within yourself but also among your friends and peers only to be successful and create something unique in our life. Remember, there's only 1 life and believe me it's short. Let's work towards creating a legacy that will be remembered and discussed forever.

Apr 13, 2011

What is it about our "SELF-IMAGE"?

For a few days now I have been reading a book which persuaded me to be back to blogging after a break of more than 18 months. 18 months!!!!! It’s long time that has gone unnoticed and flown away like the sand falling down from closed fists. It seems it took no more than 18 days for these 18 months to pass. Well, coming back to the point that I want to emphasize here; what is it about our self image? I seriously never gave a realistic thought to it, but now I sincerely understand and feel that our growth or for that matter our downfall is the outcome of how we perceive the self-image of ours.




Imagine you are playing a game of Cricket and it’s you who is going to decide your fate for that game. Before we even play the shot we visualize what’s going to happen. We visualize missing the shot and failing to tear it apart across the boundary line. We play the shot and end up missing it. Our mind thinks in advance and we complete the thought. But why do we think so negative? Maybe because we are intimidated of the opponent’s game, stature, pressure or maybe because of less confidence that we have on our own. I would go for the last reason. That’s the reason Sehwag has succeeded. His mind is so uncluttered. He gives a damn to who the bowler is. He has said it hundreds of times that it’s the ball that matters and not the bowler. He has immense confidence on himself because he has created a positive self-image of his own.




Why do we always compare ourselves with peers, friends, society? Why do we feel “I wish I could be as good as him/her”; Why? God has never been partial. If your friend, peer is better off in one specific skill or aspect why don’t we understand and derive confidence from the fact that we would definitely be better in some other skill, aspect. In fact, the very fact that s/he is better than us in one skill, aspect should motivate us to work even harder and improve ourselves to such a level where we could introspect and conclude that “Yes, I have improved compared to the last time, I have now become a much better person”. Instead, we end up cribbing. That’s because we don’t see ourselves as potent enough to better ourselves. We have created a very poor self-image of ourselves. We are just adding negativity to our inner being. With all these negativities (from every individual) coming together we are just viciously multiplying the negativity in world.




The solution to this I think is setting a benchmark where we would be competing with our self and not anyone else. Let’s stop cribbing and enjoying the life, let’s start to have a positive outlook towards the life, let’s build a healthy self-image,.




Have you ever noticed that when anyone gives a call or for that matter speaks with you in person and says “Hey, you were outstanding at doing it”. How do you feel? You start feeling “Wow!!!!” That adds up to your confidence levels and you start feeling healthier (inner being). So to all those people who would read this post I would request you to pick up your cell or walk down to one of your peers, friends, colleagues and appreciate him/her for that one thing that he/she is better at. Let’s at least help them build a healthy self-image. Sometime, someday later he/she might reciprocate something similar to you and this will help us create a virtuous (multiplying positively) cycle of “healthy self-images”.