gut

Regardless of whether you are a working professional, are a student or a sportsman, you’re ultimately doing it all for one thing – Glory. That winning feeling or the sense of accomplishment is so addictive, you never want to let go. But life has its own ways – throwing surprises at you all the time. Some of these are pleasant, some not so.

Let’s face it – getting your share of victory takes a good amount of work. And most of us are in for it, at least as long as it looks all easy peasy. The moment things start getting tough, we tend to back off; our inner defences are activated and our default survival mechanism kicks in, telling us not to do it because it’s apparently a threat.
This could apply to any situation that forces you to get out of your comfort zone – to each their own.

Yes, this so-called ‘survival mechanism’ is for real and research says it has been a part of the human instinct ever since our earliest ancestors walked the face of this planet. The fact that it’s still part of our instincts is a bit unfortunate for two reasons:

1. This is the 21st century for God’s sake. Back in the Stone Age, when man didn’t have a permanent home and wandered from one place to another, his survival instincts kept him wary of any approaching predators so that he could protect himself from any imminent threat.

Human life has come a long way since and we are not nomads anymore.

Life’s obstacles are not hungry grizzly bears running at you like it’s lunch time.

2. A bunch of meteorites isn’t about to hit the planet anytime soon.

So take a moment to calm down and free your mind of all the chaos.

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Because a lemur is insisting? Yeah right.

Sportsmen also crave their fix of glory. How often do you see an ambitious batsman trying to hit the ball for a six, only to get out caught? Or a footballer trying to dribble past four defenders, only to be brought down by a well-timed tackle?

Of course, the hunt for glory doesn’t always end in failure. And we deserve to seek the best for ourselves, even if it involves a slight degree of risk.

So don’t judge how things may end, and try taking the leap of faith.
The uncertainty involved gives you a rush of adrenaline. You might succeed or at most fail, but that’s as bad as it gets and you still live another day having learned from the experience.

Many of us look at successful people and feel a sense of awe. They have an aura of greatness to them. What many of us fail to realise though, is that none of them have been overnight successes. Your path to glory has to entail consistent effort.

This TED talk tells you how to NOT achieve your dreams.

Nationalism alert!

Indians around the world are making it big these days – and while that gives me immense pride to be a compatriot, I have also derived a huge amount of inspiration from them. Be it Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Indra Nooyi or someone else – they have all had to work their way to the top with a lot of effort and patience. So let’s pledge to never give up on our hunt for glory, for it could be just around the corner when all hope seems lost.

So..

Each one of us is on their own journey. They say, the soul is eternal and keeps transcending from one realm to the next. Our time as humans on earth is one of those realms.Make the most of this time to dream, do and achieve. Stop being so afraid of falling short, and even if you do, be sure you know that everyone does at some point.

True glory comes not from never falling, but rising every time you fall.

“And why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

Well, couldn’t have skipped that. Batman flicks have taught me so much.

Aptitude (noun) – a natural ability to do something

Aptitude Test – a test designed to determine a person’s ability in a particular skill or field of knowledge.

Gut (noun) – *informal* used in reference to a feeling or reaction based on an instinctive emotional response rather than considered thought.

Be it as students or as professionals, we’re subjected to a number of aptitude tests throughout our lives (or at least as long as we work for someone/intend to do so).

In simple words, an aptitude test tells you if you are eligible for/capable of pursuing a career in any particular field.

I’ve had my trysts with a few, and the first one was particularly testing. There were two reasons for this:

I didn’t agree with the result.
I couldn’t get myself to agree with the result.

Or you could say, I just didn’t want to. I had other plans you know.. Or I thought I did.

(Just to give you a quick background, it happened one fine day in school during my SSC and lasted 8 painful hours)

A week or so after the test, it was judgment day. It was my turn to meet the counselor.

Here’s how it all unfolded, and more..

During my counseling session –

You Are An IT Guy, They Said:

Would you believe that? A future Production Engineer was told he was meant to be an IT guy. Say that to me now, and it’s like hurling an abuse at me.

My first reaction: “No, thanks.”

“Trust me, you’re a software engineer.”

You ARE AN IT GUY, They Said:
They must have said that about 10 times, following which, I nodded my head so that I could walk out ASAP. I can recall how I was told that being good at Math meant I would make an excellent programmer. It took me a while to let the whole episode sink in.

After the session –

Convincing Myself:

Some disbelief and brainwashing later, I managed to convince myself that I was meant to spend my life coding. Consequently, I chose Computer Science in junior college and the rest is history.

Trust me, it really is. Everything I stuffed into my brain back then is history.

In Junior College –

They Laughed At Me:

Visual Basic, followed by C++ and those endless microprocessor codes – I could hear them all laugh at me hysterically for every attempt I made towards answering any questions.

PS – Even getting a part of those things right was a challenge in itself.

Misunderstandings:

I vividly remember an episode wherein my professor declared that I was a great listener and therefore, a great student. Little did she know that my silence in class was testimony to the fact that much of the CS lingo was Hebrew to me.

Pretension Aplenty:

Those were the days when most of us were heavy on pretension. Sure, we knew nothing. But we were vocational science students, the so-called elites. Needless to say, we were exuding swag at all times.

Comedy Classes:

We were lucky enough to also have a tutor in one of our college professors. He did his best to turn us into coders, but he always knew most of us were just hopeless. He was kind enough to never mention that to us directly though.

More than the CS, it was his sense of humour that kept us hooked. I can recall all of the laughter and none of the CS.

After Junior College –

My gut always said I needed to do something else. So I tried my hand at Engineering. Went along pretty well – but then, I stumbled upon something that influenced me unlike anything ever had.