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“People don’t understand me.
When will they understand what I want?”

We want people to change. All the time. Because they are not right.
However, they think the same for us. They think they are right. It is us who needs to change.

Instead of changing either, the knots just intensify.

Changing people is hard.
Beginning with ourselves is harder.
But more real. And possible.

We have everything, yet something is missing.
We are successful, yet don’t feel successful.
There are blessings that the world thinks we have, yet those very blessings keep us trapped.

Why do we feel like having nothing despite having everything?
Because we have everything that the world wants and nothing that we truly want.

There is a template that we have been following not knowing that we have a plain page to draft a new route.

We don’t feel empty because of lacking something that the world could give us.
We often feel empty because we lack the awareness of what we want.

The sad news is that the emptiness is within.
The good news is that the emptiness is within, so it can be taken care of.

Why college?
Not to think of it as a degree to rely on forever, rather taking those 3-5 years of your life to change your life completely.

How to do that?
By spending time with totally different people, by living like a pauper, and by getting comfortable with never getting comfortable

What to do to get there?
– Taking as many internships as possible
– Being an active member in college societies – by organizing fests, events, etc.
– Writing cold emails and asking for opportunities

Is college education rotten?
Colleges are selling what they’ve been selling for long. They don’t guarantee holistic development. They are just responsible for providing us the opportunity – to get a good network, get good internships and create opportunities for you.

The recruiter wants a degree which the college gives you, but real learning comes from courses and internships, doing those along with clearing college exams is the real game to sign up for.

Maintaining balance in college and internships:
Out of 24 hours, if we sleep for 8 and spend the rest 5-6 in college, we still have ten to spare. Also, when we really want something, we will find a way to make it happen.

What are the metrics for a good college?
– Very strict selection criteria
– Lots of opportunities for extracurricular activities
– Alumni who have gone on to do great things

But what if you realize you are in the wrong college?
If you can, quit and get to the right one. If you can’t, spend time outside of your college by writing cold emails to founders and doing several internships to get the real world learning.

My take on postgrad
If you want to work in India, MBA in India; if you want to work abroad, MBA abroad except the Ivy League Colleges that 

Postgrad should ideally be pursued after working for 1-3 years because you get a perspective, you get to know how real world works

To bring things home:
Do not put pressure on the college to help you find your purpose. Purpose isn’t an equation where we input our college degree and we find it. It takes time and it requires awareness to understand that what you truly want from life is totally different from someone else.

If you inculcate and practice this awareness during college, you would have already made the best of your college (and life) education.

It’s hard to have more time.
Too much to do.
And all that’s genuine work.

But if we do what we have been doing, how will we ever get different results?

The key is to do different things to change the results, because the same things always guarantee the same results.
The key is to know that the most successful people also have the same twenty-four hours, what and how we do things matters.
The key is to know that we have the key, not the reasons we tell ourselves.

Of course, time is a constraint.
That equally makes it a power for us.

We have big dreams. They want us to never stop.
Our fears are also loud. They want us to stop right now.

Which one will win?

The one that gets heard the most.

Dream is an inner voice. Fear is an acquired one.
The voice that gets heard more, is the voice that wins.

Content creation is something all of us must do.
It’s a process of becoming and seeing the change in ourselves from who we were to who we are becoming.

However, a lot of people get confused about what to create content on. 

The answer is: whatever we do.
If we play a guitar, that would be our content.
If we love to write, it becomes our content.
If we managed to be productive despite stress, that becomes our content.

There’s only so much that we can create, but there is also so much that we can share about who we are. 

We’re going through a difficult time.
We’re failing.
Perhaps everyone has already believed we are a failure.

But who is a real failure?
Didn’t every successful person fail more than succeed?

The purpose of failure isn’t to prove how big a failure we are.
The purpose of failure is to test how determined towards success we are.

An overweight friend is asking us to eat healthy.
A friend with zero savings always nudges us to invest more.
The coworker with a secure job is pushing us to pursue our dreams.

Too often, we lay more importance on who is giving the advice instead of what advice is being given.

“They aren’t living that life, what right they have to give me the advice,” we wonder. 

Perhaps that is the exact reason they’re giving the advice.

We want to get the task done.
Before the deadline.
But we get it done only right before the deadline.

That causes chaos, confusion, and even lack of focus.

What if we broke down a huge task into small deadlines?
It’s about feeding the inner muscles to act that get activated near the deadline.
The smaller goals we achieve, the higher our confidence is to get more done.
The virtuous cycle just continues.

The goal isn’t to own the task at the end of it.
The goal is to flex the muscles to own the outcome at each step.

We take time to nurture all our important relationships.
Family. Friends. Colleagues.

However, what about the relationship with the most important person, i.e., ourselves?

What is our response when people criticise us?
What if they don’t give any reaction?
How do we stay grounded when they celebrate us?

Their responses may change, however, the inner stability is a result of our inner conversations.

We don’t control what the world says to us. We control what WE say when the world says to us.