Being Yourself...Not Such a Bad Thing

We all go through life trying to make a difference in our own lives, in our careers, in other people’s lives, and even in the lives of our pets.

All we want to do is give the people we care about is a good life, but what ends up happening is that in trying to fulfill our desire for a good life, we end up learning a lot. Ultimately, in trying to make a difference in our own lives we end up learning the most.

What do you define learning as? It is through the process of learning wherein we realize what works and what does not work, what makes an impact to our lives and what does not make an impact to our lives. Along the way, we come across incidents, moments and individuals who help us learn better - who provide that eureka or that aha moment that allows us to think better – which allows us to think better, which allows us to leap forward in our thinking and learning process.

Instead of learning through our mistakes again and again, these individuals and moments provide us that insight into something that is so simple yet the core of what our lives are and it really change sour perspectives towards things.

As you watch this video – I’ll request you to please think of those moments/individuals that may have touched your thinking touched your life at some point in time. It does not have to radically change your life but at least it must have made some impact to your life that you still remember it so many years down the line.

A lollipop moment:

What we saw here was something as simple as a person walking in and interacting with people - they did not really do anything…we can’t even say they transferred their level of confidence. Essentially, all the man did was build a connection between two people, a connection which ended up transforming lives. What's more important to remember that everyone has the capability to do this, and it is simply a matter of communication.

We are human beings and we communicate. It is only through communication of ideas that we progress and we gain understanding. It is only through communication that we actually become more complete as human beings wherein we recognize our own potential.  

More often than not we tend to self-constrain ourselves, we limit ourselves by not trying - by not asking a question in a forum, by not doing something because we think it is too difficult to do. How will you know you can’t do something until you have actually tried it out. Maybe you haven't climbed Mt. Everest - but how do you know you can’t!

But the point is, is in this case, in this video, a person went ahead and initiated a connection. The person did not have to speak to that girl at all - he could have just handed her the lollipop and moved on – but he went ahead. The common link they had was they were new and did not know anyone - and this person basically initiated a conversation. The video showcases a simple moment that connected two strangers, but this type of moment just does not have to only occur when you are in a new place or be centered around communication as you will see in the subsequent video.

It can also be how something changes your whole approach to entire life. We hear lot of things, things like – honesty is the best policy – things like that – they sound like good ideas, but these are the values that we strive for and then there are moments that actually make us realize why these words or phrase have endured the test of time.

 My Grandfather's lollipop moment:

The lollipop moment in my Nanu’s story was that yes you can be honest because it is the right thing to be and you can be rewarded for it. However, two things happened here. A person showed leadership by not punishing someone for his honesty; and on the other hand the other lollipop moment is from this person who had the courage to be transparent for what he really wanted in his life. Because if he spent his entire lifetime acting like someone else, then he might as well go and act in Hollywood! 

The point here is that that person was clear and transparent in his primary reasons even though they were misdirected or misplaced reasons for wanting something - but it required courage to do that. The ultimate lesson of the story is that is courage is rewarded and that leadership is about acceptance and recognizing a person's honesty. It is by staying true to oneself that we gain the strength to stand up for what we believe in.

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