Trust Yourself

For all my talk about trusting other people, I feel it is all secondary as compared to trusting yourself. You must have, at some point of time, felt that you have been wasting too much time doing unnecessary things when there is inportant work to be done; or that your recent actions have defined you a bad human being; or that you are a complete loser in life. But the very fact that you are thinking it means that you are not.

If you are the kind of person who feels bad about not doing your work when you should, my bet is on the fact that the work is either not really important or you don't have to do it immediately. The truly careless people simply don't give a damn. If it bothers you that you are wasting your time, I'm pretty sure that you will come through at the critical phase. I'm not trying to say that you should rest easy knowing that things will work out just because you have realized that you are wasting your time when you shouldn't... rather, I'm saying that you should keep your calm at the time when you do start working, for it has a very deep impact on the quality of your work. If you ever took the trouble to speak to your mother on the days when the food at home tasted terrible, you're sure to find out that something was bothering her! Keep your head, and you will both finish your work and do it well.

If you've ever felt that you are a terrible person, don't worry.The really terrible people won't know that they are. Sometimes one needs to be a little harsh in order to do the right thing. God only knows how many times I've been brutally frank with my friends in order to help them realize their faults and change. It's strange shortcoming of all people - we tend to have our blinkers on until someone points out some things to us. And then there's anger, disbelief and indignation, followed (hopefully!) by a state of introspection and then the truth hits home.

Feel like you're a total loser? Relax. You've got company. But seriously, stop feeling bad. Nice guys really have a hard time in this world until they gain self-confidence. All you need is to learn how to make an impact on the people around you. Once people realize you exist, they will start listening to you, and automatically, everything in your life will miraculously look different. It's as though the tinted glasses were removed. I've seen this happen with many people. The second aspect of this is... (clearing throat) Kaizen. That's the Japanese word for constant improvement. Keep asking other people and yourself, what am I doing wrong? How can I improve? And sure enough, asking the right question usually results in you realizing that you already know the answer.

Why am I giving all these pep-talk kind of lectures in my blog? Yech. God, please cheer up my friends so that I can get out of this stop-worrying-guys-cheer-up-the-world-is-a-nice-place mode!

Cheers (and I guess I really mean it this time),
Prashanth.