In our quest to find out what we 'really' want to do, we often end up doing nothing in our current professional role. This not only makes us lazy, inefficient but also depressed at the end of each day. I spent the entire day doing nothing, except figuring things out - definitely not a very happy feeling. In my first job at Bajaj Auto, my boss was too busy to give me much work and inspite of constant nagging, he just wouldnt bother. This free time distracted my attention to other things and gradually I stopped pestering him. In the end, when I could not take it anymore, I just put in my papers. Though I told the GM, that I wish my boss would have taken some effort to give me more work than he did. I am sure he also couldnt care less about how the fresh graduates were trained as long as the KPI's were met. That was two years wasted right out of college. Not much work done, no real skills picked up except some knowledge about manufacturing. The constant search, though, helped me realize that I was okay with taking up challenges and big risks, instead of settling down for a secured life. These traits, I realized fall under the profession called Entrepreneurship. I took the plunge after a small sabbatical in the mountains, and set up a manufacturing unit with my family. Even though my experience helped me somewhat, but would have made a world of difference had I done some serious work at Bajaj Auto.
Its important to figure out where our true calling lies and said the big man as well
“If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
But not at the cost of being unproductive in our current 9-5 job. When we take up a job or a responsibility, its important to persevere and make good use of it. We not only end up gaining important skills from the hands on work, but who knows it might be an important piece of the puzzle we want to solve in the future.
In hindsight, all this made sense to me when I has talking to +Aurovrata Venet , He said "Ritesh, during my previous job I knew it is not what I want to do eventually in life, but I took up every challenge that came my way. The learning, skills and networking helped me to do what I am doing today, better."
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ReplyDeleteNice Ritesh. Wish you all the best on your path.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest challenge I found over the years, was the constant pressure from society to conform. Family, friends, acquaintances, it can come from different people at different time, and your worst enemy is sometimes yourself. The need to conform, to settle down with a decent job, decent earning, is sometimes overbearing. The pressure cumulates once you start to enjoy a certain lifestyle, an investment in a car, a flat, a family and soon you find the financial burden overpowering, the fear of not being able to find another job....
To fight these pressures and have a chance to overcome then, you have to equip yourself with 2 important things: the first is a set of skills, manual or intellectual on which you can always rely and fall back on at any time. Push your envelope of studies, get a masters or even better a PhD in a niche but promising field, or train your skills in a given company and work hard to become very good at what you do. This will not only give you a safety net (people with unique skills/intellectual abilities are always in short supply and high demand), but equally important it will be give you the self-confidence you need to overcome any challenges life can throw at you.
The second important target you need to reach is a deeper understanding of your own aspirations in life. This is not an easy task, and may take years to fully understand, however, all of us are powered by an inner, truer being from which we source our motivations and inspirations. That inner being aspires to certain spiritual experience in this life-time. If you are able to tap in that source, then you will never, ever loose the motivation that you require to overcome your obstacles. If your motivations are based on anything but this inner source of inspiration, and many of us do on such things as power, money, or other ego-based needs, then eventually the motivation will dry up.
Thanks Vrata :-) I will push myself harder. I hope we meet more often and I can learn a thing or two each time!
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