Do it for the pure joy of doing it

     

101 Habits to Greatness - Habit 78

"We are not a drop in the ocean; we are the ocean in a drop." –Rumi

You are infinite, you are brilliant and you are beautiful, just the way you are. You were meant for Greatness and you do not have to prove anything to anybody. What if the people around Einstein told him, that he must become only Shakespeare? What would the world have lost then? We are all special in our own ways. So you never have to convince anybody about your worth or what you are really passionate about. The only person you have to convince is ‘YOU’. When you believe in your dreams, the world will believe in it too. Never do it for the money, fame or status you get out of it, do it for the pure joy of doing it and you will see the results you really want in your life magically appear before you.

Recently I saw an interview on a television channel of Lionel Messi. He is a football player and plays as a striker for Team Argentina and the Spanish Barcelona Football Club.  He is considered by many as one the greatest footballers alive. The interviewer asked Messi, “How are you so good at what you do? When you started playing football did you know you would achieve so much in the game?”. To this Lionel Messi replied, “I am very grateful for the love I have got. But whenever I played football, I never did it for the fame or celebrity status it brought me. I played it simply to have fun. I wanted to play it all day and score more goals and win more matches.”

This answer of Lionel Messi showed me why it is so important, you enjoy what you are doing. When you do something you really like, it will never seem like work at all. It will be like you are at play all day. If you are fortunate enough to get into such a situation, you will see that it is when you work on your passion that you are most confident. You feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you were born to do. The idle time you have away from the work of your life will seem like work to you now.

Thomas Edison loved what he did. He wanted to spend all his time inventing things. He often worked for 72 hours straight. It is said there were many nights ,when he slept for only three- four hours. This is what he said about doing what he loved best,

“I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.”
Thomas A. Edison

Today Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history holding 1,093 US patents to his name. Both Thomas Edison and Lionel Messi understood the power of doing something for the pure joy of doing it. You can do so too and find the Greatness in your life today.

Do not convince people. Let them recognize your Brilliance

"We are not a drop in the ocean; we are the ocean in a drop." –Rumi

You are infinite, you are brilliant and you are beautiful, just the way you are:)You were meant for Greatness and you do not have to prove anything to anybody.

                                                                                            

 What if the people around Einstein told him, that he must become only Shakespeare? What would the world have lost then? We are all special in our own ways. 

So you never have to convince anybody about your worth or what you are really passionate about. The only person you have to convince is ‘YOU’. When you believe in your dreams, the world will believe in it too.

You do not have to reveal everything about your life to people. There are certain things that are best kept a mystery to the people around you. When something you have been working on for a long time is accomplished, let people be surprised and amazed by what you have done. This is much better than them expecting something you have been talking about for the past few months.  

When I first wanted to go out and conduct my youth empowerment seminars, people never understood what I was trying to do. I made the mistake of trying to convince everyone I knew that I really wanted to do this. I was wasting valuable time. Remember that time can never be brought back even with all the money in the world.

 The Poster...

Then I realized I do not need to convince people anymore. I just have to go out and get this done. So I started approaching school, colleges and youth organizations regarding organizing the seminar for their students. The response was not very nice from most of these places. I decided I was not going to let this stop me. I will go on with this seminar. I am not fighting only for my self. I know the information I share in this seminar can completely transform a student’s life if applied effectively. I went on and decided to hire a hall for a self organized event. I took out some of the money I saved  over the past year and paid for the hall. I printed out my first poster.

 I then went to an academic center to invite the students for the session. I knocked on the door and a representative of the center opened the door. I said, ‘Ma’am would you be interested…’ and before I could even complete my sentence the representative banged the door on my face. I had two friends standing next to me when that happened and it felt really bad. I said this is all right, let us go to the next door. We got several more rejections. I told them we are not going to quit. We went on with the seminar. Fifty students attended the event from over six different schools in Bahrain. A reporter from the local paper had come to cover the event. The next day there was a front page report of the seminar with details about the event and the participants learning experience in it.

When this happened all the people that told me they did not understand what I was doing, came back and congratulated me for successfully doing this amazing event. They said they were surprised.

I was not surprised. I knew this was going to happen from day one. I just did not know how and that is why at the start I needed their validation to confirm if what I was doing was all right.

This was the wrong approach because every time I went up to another person and he or she told me what I was doing would never be successful, I was losing out on a little bit of the spark that got me started on that project in the first place. The problem was that many of the people I was trying to convince did not believe in the magic of risking everything for a dream only you believe in.

When I stopped convincing people and started working on my dream to conduct that first seminar. I felt liberated. I felt so powerful in that moment because I was not scared anymore. I broke all the chains that connected me to my comfort zone. I went out and just did what I had to do.

Eventually when you actually pull off the event, project, book, song or anything you are passionate about, people will look at you amazed and ask you, ‘You are so brilliant at ___________How do you do all of that?’

Your time has come because now they have recognized your brilliance and you do not have to convince them anymore...

Entrepreneurship and The Art of Modeling

I was 17 and I had started my journey into the world of public speaking and writing. Instead of immediately working on my dreams, I decided to model past successes and failures. I decide to observe and learn from the best and worst in my field. 

To become an author, I firstly developed the habit of reading. Then I started reading books in different genres. I then decided which genre I wanted to specialize in.  It was personal development and then I read three hundred books in this specific genre.
To become a youth empowerment speaker, I studied the world’s best professional communicators. I made a list of the world’s top hundred professional speakers. Then I saw YouTube videos making a note about what was unique about each speaker.
Could you apply the same concept to Entrepreneurship? Yes, if you want to start a technology company, why not study the world’s top hundred technology companies.

It is okay to be different

Recently, I was asked this question at a talk I had given at a local school, 'Why do you do this Abhishek? Why do you put in so much of an effort to connect with other young people and to show them they are special?'

This was my answer.....

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As students we are not very different. We all want to be accepted for who we truly are. We all want to find that one special thing in each one of us. We all want to contribute towards some cause we are really passionate about.

It is just that we are all differently talented. One student may be good in academics, another in sports, another in entrepreneurship. What is important is that it is time people understood that every student is good at something.

And it will be extra-ordinary, if we can in some way show this student that you can take this one thing you are really good at and make it the focus point of your life. This is what the Empower One Billion Campaign is all about. That every student is special and unique in his or her own way. And you can use that uniqueness to change the world.

Then it is important you do not only tell people you like to do something, but you also train really hard at becoming really good at it. Then you put in the efforts to not only become best in your school, college or country. But you find a way to become best in the world at what you really like doing. This comes down to the 10,000 hour rule I mentioned in a previous blog post. Put in this time to become an artist at your craft.

When a student understands this, it empowers them in a way like no other. When I see a student come up to me and tell me that they want to go home and work on their dreams today. When I see students telling me that I made them believe they are extra-ordinary. I realize I will do this for the rest of my life even if I am constantly rejected and even if I get a thousand No's. 

Today I have spoken to over 3600 students across Mumbai and Bahrain. I realize that through this campaign if I am able to change even one student's life, I would have made a big difference. If even one student will go home and say, 'Yes, I am special. I can be extra-ordinary!' Then I think I am successful, not because I am very rich or because I am very famous but because I was able to change one person's life and that to me is something I will take to my grave... 

As Mother Teresa famously said, "Do not wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person." 

Haruki Murakami and the Dalai Lama - Daily Rituals

1) Haruki Murakami's Daily Ritual

 

Haruki Murakami in the above memoir, described his love for running everyday and how it has changed his life

Michael Phelps and the Power of Habits

Michael Phelps the American swimmer that won 8 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics is another benefactor of the power of habits. 

Many do not know that his feats are a result of one of the most physically demanding training schedules for any athlete ever. He has made it a habit to swim 80,000 meters a week, which is about 50 miles. 

He trains twice a day, and swims for nearly 5 to 6 hours everyday, six days a week. He lifts weights thrice a week. He also has a 12,000 calorie diet that he has committed to. 

The Empower One Billion Youth Empowerment Campaign

Objective : To empower one billion young people to find the Greatness in their lives

 

The EmpowerOneBillion Campaign is a youth empowerment movement dedicated to showing young people how they can design and create great lives for themselves by taking personal responsibility for their lives and working on their dreams from a young age. 

It also aims to show them how they can impact the world by creating extraordinary careers in work fields they are passionate about. In the process the movement aims to show young people how they can contribute to the world just by doing work that matters and leaving the world a little better than they found it.

 

Empower One Billion Keynote at the Mumbai Public School

        Empower One Billion Keynote at the Al Mahd Day Boarding School, Bahrain

 Empower One Billion Keynote for 350+ students at the Asian School, Bahrain