A Note of Thanks...!!

Well, it isn’t often I say that, but since November was the ‘Month of Thanks’, I decided to write this eulogized piece of prose for all those people having played a significant role in my life (I know I am 19 days late!). If you are reading this, you are one of them. Hmm, from where should I start…Let me begin by telling you that you are amazing!! You all matter for me a lot and I do certainly care for you. Over the years, it is still a great deal of time, when we get and walk together discussing those crap issues. Without you all, may be I would have been somewhat different Nishant and certainly not lala (for those who are unaware about lala thing, I would rather say people in college knew me better with this name) or nish or others (I shouldn't disclose them here :P) or maybe I would have been with those cloddish people who don’t use their mind for thinking purposes. But yeah…thanks to you, I am good enough, atleast till I write this. It gives me amazing feel knowing that someone is there who loves me just for being me. Thanks for being with me in my happy times and always listening to me during hardships. You always had something to say, that steered me to the right direction. I would also like to thank those who criticized me for my actions and work. Their criticism helped me enhance my perseverance and work on my capabilities.

You all guided me the life’s path in a way or other. And for making my life this beautiful, I am indebted to all of you...thank you for all you've done…thanks for everything..!! (p.s.- itna bhi khush mat hona, mene bhi tumhare liye kuch kam nai kiya!! :)). 

I look forward for the same love and support in future….

This post is dedicated to the most lovable person on this earth, my brother, Deepak Goel, who asked me to write something. He might have been expecting something big venerating him, but sorry bhai…free mei itna hi milta hai…!! :P

The Perfectionists' Thing

I was quite wrong when I thought the last semester to be the end for those riveting names for me. A few days back, a new tantalizing one – ‘Perfectionist’ was added to my names’ archive (already having 9 unique names) by one of my new friends. When some of us hear this word – perfectionist, we start picturing a uptight and neurotic person who sets impossibly high standards for himself to work.

Wait wait…may be I am someone who stacks a bunch of papers in properly fashioned manner from end to end, who places his things at right place, who doesn’t forget to lock his laptop in almirah before sleeping & who is quite good with managing font sizes in project reports….but I’m not that uptight one. But yes, you can call me adaptive perfectionist. I will rather take it as compliment J.

Now some of us would argue on whether being a perfectionist is good or bad! If you ask me, it’s good if it makes you feel happy. But if you tend to be one just for making others around you happy, then I’d rather say that you are just making your hair fall J. If perfectionism is used in right way, when one sets achievable high standards, it can be seen as a major productive force which can drive you to great achievements. I would also like to make it clear that being a perfectionist doesn’t infer you to be a perfect person.Be a perfectionist, it’s good to be one if you work within certain limits of perfectionism.

I’m bit of a perfectionist and I don’t mind admitting it. I am generally less satisfied with something I do, & I always try to improve it quite a few times. Even I edited this post 3 times after posting it on the blog. I am not perfect, but I tend to do perfectionism in my every work. And I derive pleasure from doing so.

When you think the way ......................................others do

It happens most of the times that people tend to move in life with ideas of other people. They don’t even bother to give a thought on the matter, irrespective of whether how much tenebrous it is. And what is the result? – they live their life the same way…work in crowd…and when they die, no more than fifty mourners pay their last respects to them.

If Edison would have thought the same way, we would have been watching the television in dark (I know its a poor one)...If all of the programmers implemented the same logic in their codes as Ada Lovelace did, would Infy, TCS and others ever existed??(this comes from my engineered heart)….and yes, if all entrepreneurs would've thought the same way, then to whom Venture Capitalists would be financing these days!! (I am also doing MBA :) ).
I have had the experience of working with some of the best and challenge of enduring the worst. Most of others fall in middle. And according to me, what separates them is not talent (although it surely contributes), it’s how they perceive things. They think different from others and this also becomes evident from their success.

The world we see, is exactly the same. What others think should not be the driving force of our life. Now the obvious question arises- “How to think different?” Hmm, that obviously comes from your willingness to do something new, something different, to innovate….and then you’ll see yourself out of this world and you’ll be living a entire new life…!!

Think Different or Go Home…!!

Somebody said that...

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't" but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, as he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one we know has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle right in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That cannot be done, and you'll do it…

Edgar Guest

Life at the end of Comfort Zone…

We all have a comfort zone, or may be several. These are the circles we draw in our lives, to protect what’s inside without doing much of the efforts. We tend to live in these zones, well because these are comfortable. We repeatedly do only a certain set of familiar actions with same habitual mindset in these zones, and we get the same results. This is like investing money only in secured Govt. bonds with known constant low returns (p.s.- I am a MBA guy J). When we live in our comfort zones, our growth gets stagnated and we settle for mediocrity. But since, we all do have dreams and for their fulfillment, we need to step out from our comfort zones to new zones. We need to expand our actions, so as to find a new us in ourself…to unlock our potentials...and to have insight into the true self.

We all know this!!…but even then, we are afraid to expand our zones, the reason being-comfort. But as they say,” You cannot make waves if you do not leave the shore”. It may be difficult in starting, but as you go with time, your new actions become your habits and you are driven to new exciting results…to a greater person.

So, its time to rezone…Dare, discover and be all that you can be…!!

In fact, Life begins at the end of Comfort Zone...

The Road not taken…

When we look back, we see a lot of options, we could have chosen…a couple of roads, we could have taken..!! It seems that we would have been in a better situation, if we would have taken the other roads. Many people may support this by arguing that the road taken actually plays an important role in determining one’s success. But I strongly oppose them because I believe that success actually depends on  your goal, your efforts and foremostly…your attitude! I would rather say, choose a path and then make it right to work for you. The path may have more hurdles than the other ones, but when you are determined to reach the goal, it ultimately takes you to the destination.

As Earl Nightingale says,”The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along any path to its fulfillment.”

Smiles...........and tears!!

At one day, we are seen smiling & celebrating and on the other day, we have tears rolling from our eyes. I read a post asking about the same,”What is more important in life, smiles or tears?” Although at first look, it seemed simple, but it led to a chain of thoughts. Obviously, one would prefer smiles…everyone loves celebrating and enjoying…smiling always makes life beautiful. But do really tears are not equally important as smiles..??

Imagine if there were no blue devils in our life, would we be able to enjoy the happy times…would we know the feeling of happiness…and would then happiness matter to us…? One can feel the joy of being happy only after passing through bad times. Having tears is an intense feeling which takes you deep…to the depths of your heart!! You look deep within and talk to your hidden conscience. You find answers to your biggest dilemmas of life. A smile after tears bring the real joy and then, the smile makes you feel better…making you feel free. 

Smiles and tears are indispensable. They keep your life from being monotonous. And yes, there are times, when you experience a moment where the eyes love to speak for the joy in you and burst out in tears, and you just keep smiling, instead speaking it out loud. It is one such moment when the tears become part of your happiness and bring out the true joy of your accomplishment.

Come Sit By My Fire…

You have always been a very good friend to me. You have always been a guide to me to show the right  path. When I wanted a hug, you were there. When I was alone, you were my shadow.. For you, I have always been a priority. But now, when our lives have put us apart, when I haven’t seen you for days…I realize that you are a very special part of my life. Someone has rightly said,”Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” You are one of very few people who really know me, understand me… I want you to be with me in every aspect of life.

I just want you to come back…come sit by my fire…

The Voice of The Rain

And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poém of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed, altogether changed, and yet the same,
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn,
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfillment, wandering, recked or unrecked, duly with love returns.)

Walt Whitman

It’s been a while

Yes, it’s been a few months since I last blogged. Life has been very crazy this time. I finally graduated with engineering after a long 4 year time (not completely, yet to do my integ MBA part). I left feeling very excited and overwhelmed, but I guess that’s to be expected after becoming Er. Nishant Goel…J

The excitement came with 2 months of vacation, which was actually meant for summer internship to acquire management skills (they think I am already done with my engineering skills), which I (almost) did very passionately.  I opted to work with SIEL Limited (a part of erstwhile DCM group). People there were very supportive, in kind, they helped me with everything they could. One thing which took my surprising level was that the employees at SIEL were very content with their jobs and most of them are with the group for more than 25 years..!! (when compared to that in most of MNCs). Besides, I used to get delicious meal at subsidized rate with tea 2 times a day (which helped me to stay awake in office...thanks to people of Assam) and a refreshing ‘Shikanzvi’. The period left me with an all time new industry experience with tons of practical knowledge and understanding, for which I am eagerly waiting to implement.

I should also admit that I have not been doing everything to keep myself healthy during the internship period. I did my breakfast full of paranthas (butter to be obvious), slept in day hours (night hours as well) and started exercising (which ended the next day). Now that I am back to my studies, I plan to pick my schedule backup.

So, that’s just a brief update on my life right now. A lot more posts would be hitting the blog in the coming weeks… J

Choices in life…

We all make choices in our life. Sometimes, we make a well planned choice and sometimes we are forced to make one. Every day, we choose to be happy, angry or sad. Our choices eventually affect us and everyone we know & love. There are generally two choices, we have in our life – to accept things as they exist or to accept the responsibility for changing them. And its us, who make the call. Our values help us to decide the right & wrong. These choices are as important as our breath is to us. There may be hundreds of choices in a day and each of them counts. Somebody has rightly said that “We make choices, then our choices make us.” We should be careful in choosing them as these things taken today program our future. But since we are humans, we are entitled to make some of the wrong choices in our life. If we ever face bad consequences resulting from our choice, we should not get stuck with it, rather we should move on with our new life ahead…

“Any change, any loss, does not make us victims.
Others can shake you, surprise you or disappoint you.
But they can’t prevent you from moving on.

No matter where you are in life, no matter what your situation, you can always do something.
On every turn of life, you will always have a choice.
And that choice can be your power.”

A walk to...

Men in mid 30s wearing flashy nike shoes are jogging all around wondering about the stock markets and the outcome of today’s cricket match. Women are walking gossiping about their mother-in-law. Old ones are giving their opinions on the recent results of Punjab elections to their mates as they were the heads of Election Commission. It seems they are dawdling the things to take the most of these few happy moments.

A number of teams each with a couple of people are playing cricket at every 15 ft of distance ( I sometimes wonder  if there was no cricket, what would be the Indians doing..!!). A 8 month old girl is trying to stand on her barely 3 inches of feet and play with the grown ones. A boy is approaching a football resting in ground as he would kick it directly into the goalpost. Suddenly, someone calls him from back,”Oye Ronaldo, aj tera din nai hega..”(Hey Ronaldo, today is not your day). And his words worked and the ball instead of going to the goal post comes to me standing outside the post.

Then there are some poor and abandoned children searching for their happiness in that of others. Now, you would be wondering about the place I am talking about. It is a park 200ms away from my house.

I felt delighted when I saw this kind of environment. But when my eyes turned to see a heap of waste, all my excitement deflated…

In fact, this is the story of each & every park in India. We blame govt. for the poor maintenance of parks & their negligence towards them. But did we care about this when we threw the toffee wrapper on the road yesterday. Don’t we have any onus towards them..?? These parks are for us only..their plight will ultimately affect us, not the government. We need to realize that we have a certain level of responsibility towards the environment. And if each citizen takes responsibility of his actions, a lot can easily be achieved. As they say,

“Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand

Make the mighty ocean,

And the beauteous land…”

And then there will be a entire new environment…!!

Nature’s love…

Look at the trees, look at birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars…the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. We have been given a gift. A rare, beautiful, timely gift. The gift of healing ocean breezes, sunshine, endless horizons, unexplored grasslands & wetlands…peace, calm & breath of life. All this is the nature’s way to express its love for us. Then there are beautiful little crawling things in the sand. In early morning, when the birds start singing before dawn and the entire space around us gets saturated with the energy. It is the nature’s love. When we walk along the street, the cool breeze is the nature’s love. When we take the tree in hot, the tree’s shadow is the nature’s love. The macro beauty of pollen is nature’s love. The hills, waterfalls, oceans which sooth our eyes are nature’s love.

And its our obligation to give the same love to our nature by conserving its resources. As they say,

“The love is a beautiful thing only when it is returned…”

I have a dream...

I have a dream to believe in myself

I have a dream to live with contentment

I have a dream to sing at top of the Himalayas

I have a dream to make my parents feel proud

I have a dream to see India as the global leader & be a part of it

I have a dream to turn back and walk along the bhakhra’s bank
I have a dream to see us together

I have a dream that love would never end

I have a dream that people will respect me for who I am

I have a dream to be able to get through all of my good and hard times

I have a dream to learn what life teaches me

I have a dream to feel one day that I have learnt & experienced everything I possibly could from life

I have a dream that one day the sun would rise to a better world

I have a dream to fly like a bird

I have a dream to dream…

In search of a new path...

Twenty years into my life & I feel I haven’t accomplished anything

I feel like a jack of some trades, master of none

I often feel the emptiness in me

I often scream with fear thinking of being in a roller – coaster

I want to run and at the other moment, I want to hide

I feel like two different people are stuck in me..

People say… I’ve gone mad,

but truth is that I’m lost and

I’m in search of a new path, a new itinerary, a new destination… which will be mine, will work for me & which will fill me with contentment…

I need to prove I’m worth for this gift of life…

The Present

Can you tell what is the best present you can give to yourself..which will make you happy….?? Can it be some expensive Mercedes, some good PG in your hand…or may be a good job in some reputed firm…..or something else….??

You already know

 What the Present is…

 You already know

Where to find it..

And you already know

How it can make you

Happier and more successful.

You knew it best when

You Were Younger..

You have simply forgotten..

I just read the book “The Present” by “Spencer Johnson”. Through this book, I realized that just by living & enjoying your present, can be the best present (gift) you can ever give to yourself. Mr. Johnson has done a remarkable job in emphasizing the need to live in present..to enjoy the present moment....

The Present is

the Present Moment...

The Present is Right Now..!!

Now, some people would definitely argue,” Its easy to say, but not to implement….its not always possible to live in the present moment, how can one forget his past….?? “ The only answer to this lies in...

It is hard to

Let go of The Past

If you have not Learned

From The Past.

As soon as you

learn and let go,

You improve The Present

Today…

By living in the present, we not only enjoy & utilize the best of the moment..it also helps in predicting and controlling The Future. The more clearly we imagine now for our future wants..and more we do something now to help it happen….the more The Future is known to us…the more we are successful..!!

CFA

Somewhat used for Chartered Financial Analysts….Always dreamt to be the one for Airtel. People close to me would definitely know this. From the last 1 & a half year, even my laptop begged me to change the wallpaper saying Nishant Goel as CFA…

Eighth semester left me all alone with no roommate & I guess with no friends left….with no more mehfils or asking for water in rooms….helping me concentrate on my career . Laughing stock turned into some serious career oriented person. Again CFA was the first word to come in my mind….For the  next two days, searched for successful CFA people, saw their testimonials and videos….OMG they filled me with such a enthusiasm that I even bought a book on “Financial Mgt” by ‘IM Pandey’ on the very same day..to have more insight in finance. This slogged period even helped me earn a title – “Mature ho gaya tu to” from our beloved Sahil (some people may know him better as ’Google’).

Third day at library, again the same…searching for CFA exam’s curriculum, coaching, scope..blah blah….then suddenly came across the number of students passing CFA annually – just 39% of appearing students  & that’s the no. for just CFA level 1. The 2^nd & 3^rd level even lie ahead in the game of numbers with just 40 & 50% resp.  After this an another shock came to me, when I saw the enrollment charges for appearing in level 1- 1300 $. Soon after that, the questions took no time to occupy my mind……Would I be able to compete with professionals around the world & will I land in the successful part which is even less than 39% of people appearing with great knowledge in this field…?? Should I ask my father for CFA when I can’t assure him of becoming one…..?? Should I really do CFA or concentrate on my regular studies…??

Still in search for answers….For the time being, I am back to my daily work..and yes, soon going to start ‘The Big Bang Theory’….!! JJ