Right from my childhood, I have been searching a lot to explore my hidden talents. Finally, when I grew up, this question about hidden talent popped up a lot many times during my interviews. Now, I am keen to find out what my hidden talents are and how to find them within myself!
While looking for an answer, I came across news which was telecasted recently on one of Indian news channel about a man named Mr Sathish Bidla (the man behind the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) mascot “Shera”). He came from Chandigarh, Punjab looking for a job and settled down as a personal assistant to the Organising Committee's Additional Director General (Communications). And very soon he got selected to become the official face of 2010 CWG mascot “Shera”. At this young age of 23, Sathish became an overnight celebrity!
This piece of information made me even more confused. Did Sathish himself become a celebrity or was it Sathish with ‘Shera’? In my opinion, I guess it’s a combination of both. This is not a million Dollar question and I am aware that there could be so many views on this topic. Just imagine, after being ‘Shera’ for a month, do you think Sathish would be able to be a celebrity throughout his life? In his interview he mentioned that he is a person who was always interested in dance, music and that he had dreamt of meeting so many celebrities. This ‘Shera’ made his dream come true and also managed to bring out the talents hidden in him. He was able to dance, sing and also feature in CWG album!
So what makes us hide certain talents which would otherwise make us a complete human being? Do we need a ‘mask’ to express our hidden skills? My thoughts are going wild and it is asking to me "Like Sathish do we need a ‘mask’ to bring out our hidden talents and is it possible to continue to show it to the world without the same ‘mask’? There are so many friends of mine they enjoy singing and dancing when they are totally drunk. Some of them sing extraordinary but when they are normal without having alcohol they couldn’t able to sing or hum!
Many of us come into this world with talents and abilities. Most of us land up with jobs with a great future. Sometimes we look at other people and think, "Boy! Weren’t they lucky to be gifted with that talent or that ability?" We look at celebrities who earn in millions and sometimes wonder why we aren’t able to do similar things.
Let's look closely at where that talent came from and how it was developed. Many of us do not really remember things that occurred in the first five years of our lives. However, right around age five, we start to interact with other people outside our families. It is this interaction that results this secret hidden talent to start to develop. So we do need an atmosphere (friends circle) to explore our hidden skills. I firmly believe that if somebody can find my hidden skills in my childhood then it won’t be the same life path which I had right now. So it’s very important to find all possible talents of a kid from their childhood and to entertain or train them becomes equally important.
Those who are grown-up with the “hidden talents”, have to wear a mask to explore their talents and it’s better to find a good friend or a partner to motivate them to get rid off their mask. Trust me sometimes these hidden skills can change your life into some other dimension so always search for it.
Coming back to Sathish’s story, I think he enjoyed his stardom for a month though it was in the name of Shera but the best thing is that he found his hidden skills. If he can make use of this excellent opportunity then he will be a real celebrity in the near future. Otherwise he would then have to wait for another big event to become a celebrity!
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Sunday 19 September 2010
What is the habitat of Happiness? Would it be possible to have one?
Right from my childhood, I have been so curious about how to find happiness and its different sources. We devote our entire life to be happy and everything we do in our life is a quest for happiness. I always wonder how we could find the real happiness in life and is there something called ultimate happiness. If so, then what does it really mean, how could we achieve it, can we create it by our self and is it transferable. These questions always bother me even now.
At every critical juncture of my life, I always thought why this so called “Happiness” is not entertaining my life. What is lacking in me? Is it a good job, a beautiful girl friend or enormous wealth? What exactly could help me to find this wonderful feeling?
Like many other people I also started thinking about what creates the habitat of happiness? While travelling, while having shower, while sitting alone, before going to bed, I started to think vigorously about it, because I really wanted to find it. Unfortunately all these make my life so complicated that I couldn’t find a proper answer to it. I know it’s very sad. When I started thinking about it very seriously, at first, I thought when we achieved our aim in life then we may feel the happiness. If that is the ultimate path to happiness then rich people or people who achieved everything in life are so happy in their life… but are they really happy?
So what exactly creates happiness? Is it “Everything” or “Nothing”? What do you think? It’s tough to decide, isn’t it? But I have to find it because I want to succeed in my life and without happiness, I think it’s impossible. Then I decided to read and search for articles related to this and I found so many articles talking about ‘’what is happiness’’ and how to find it. I don’t know whether the authors’ of these articles are happy in their life?
What do you have to get in order to be happy? I am going to summarize certain findings of my research. The first and the most important thing is “There is nothing you have to get, do or be in order to be happy. In fact happiness is our init nature”. If happiness is our init nature then how come I am not experiencing it? Well, the answer for that is quite simple. We are spending our entire life learning to be unhappy. That means we are learning a ‘mental model’ from our childhood days, a notion about the way the world works on various things such as how to find a better job, how to live, how to go out for party and so on. But the truth is we don’t know about this ‘mental model’ instead we think that this is how the world works.
So what is this ‘mental model’? In short “To get something, we have to do something, only then we can be something”. Yes this is the model we always think that makes happiness in life and we use “if-then” clause for that to work e.g. If I got my dream job, I would be the happiest man in this world, if I have a girl friend; I would go on holidays so on and so forth. Think about our life ten years ago. We had so many “if-then” clauses in our life and many of those things are there with us right now? Still we are not happy? So what is the reason for being unhappy in life? Well, Well, Well … again it is getting complicated. The answer for not being happy is just because we human beings changes our “If –then” clauses continuously during the period of time.
We spend all our time investing on this “if –then” model and we invest so much in the outcome of this model. But the truth is the actions which we do to achieve something in our life is in our control but the outcome is not within our control. The outcomes may not be the same as we always expect. But we invest so much of effort in outcomes and we want things to be happening the way we wish…. that may be something we learn from the model and if it is not the expected outcome, then we would say “life sucks”.
The best way to overcome this is to invest in the process, instead of the outcome. We can focus on the outcome, that gives direction but investing on the outcome is a sure recipe for failure.
Happiness is not about having what you want instead, it’s about wanting what you have (gratitude) (Real enjoyment of living by Hyman Judah Schachtel).
Happiness = wanting what you have ∕ having what you want
Please add your valuable points about how to find happiness after reading this article.
Reference
1. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
2. Real enjoyment of living by Hyman Judah Schachtel
At every critical juncture of my life, I always thought why this so called “Happiness” is not entertaining my life. What is lacking in me? Is it a good job, a beautiful girl friend or enormous wealth? What exactly could help me to find this wonderful feeling?
Like many other people I also started thinking about what creates the habitat of happiness? While travelling, while having shower, while sitting alone, before going to bed, I started to think vigorously about it, because I really wanted to find it. Unfortunately all these make my life so complicated that I couldn’t find a proper answer to it. I know it’s very sad. When I started thinking about it very seriously, at first, I thought when we achieved our aim in life then we may feel the happiness. If that is the ultimate path to happiness then rich people or people who achieved everything in life are so happy in their life… but are they really happy?
So what exactly creates happiness? Is it “Everything” or “Nothing”? What do you think? It’s tough to decide, isn’t it? But I have to find it because I want to succeed in my life and without happiness, I think it’s impossible. Then I decided to read and search for articles related to this and I found so many articles talking about ‘’what is happiness’’ and how to find it. I don’t know whether the authors’ of these articles are happy in their life?
What do you have to get in order to be happy? I am going to summarize certain findings of my research. The first and the most important thing is “There is nothing you have to get, do or be in order to be happy. In fact happiness is our init nature”. If happiness is our init nature then how come I am not experiencing it? Well, the answer for that is quite simple. We are spending our entire life learning to be unhappy. That means we are learning a ‘mental model’ from our childhood days, a notion about the way the world works on various things such as how to find a better job, how to live, how to go out for party and so on. But the truth is we don’t know about this ‘mental model’ instead we think that this is how the world works.
So what is this ‘mental model’? In short “To get something, we have to do something, only then we can be something”. Yes this is the model we always think that makes happiness in life and we use “if-then” clause for that to work e.g. If I got my dream job, I would be the happiest man in this world, if I have a girl friend; I would go on holidays so on and so forth. Think about our life ten years ago. We had so many “if-then” clauses in our life and many of those things are there with us right now? Still we are not happy? So what is the reason for being unhappy in life? Well, Well, Well … again it is getting complicated. The answer for not being happy is just because we human beings changes our “If –then” clauses continuously during the period of time.
We spend all our time investing on this “if –then” model and we invest so much in the outcome of this model. But the truth is the actions which we do to achieve something in our life is in our control but the outcome is not within our control. The outcomes may not be the same as we always expect. But we invest so much of effort in outcomes and we want things to be happening the way we wish…. that may be something we learn from the model and if it is not the expected outcome, then we would say “life sucks”.
The best way to overcome this is to invest in the process, instead of the outcome. We can focus on the outcome, that gives direction but investing on the outcome is a sure recipe for failure.
Happiness is not about having what you want instead, it’s about wanting what you have (gratitude) (Real enjoyment of living by Hyman Judah Schachtel).
Happiness = wanting what you have ∕ having what you want
Please add your valuable points about how to find happiness after reading this article.
Reference
1. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
2. Real enjoyment of living by Hyman Judah Schachtel
Monday 31 May 2010
Power of 'I'
From the beginning of human existence, the word 'I' has got different shades in life. Some people considered 'I' as the synonym of Power.. Most people use 'I' to show how powerful he or she is.. Sometimes 'I' help a person to stand out from the crowd and 'I' has got hues of somebody who helps others.
Everyone like the way 'I' associated with each one but they all hesitate to express it because 'I' can spoil their image of humbleness and modesty. If we think our self, everything in our life related to the word 'I' though we don’t accept it publically it is fact that what all we do in our life is just for 'I'.
So who is 'I' what does 'I' really mean?
According to Christianity Eve did the first sin on earth. What did she do? She ate apple given by the serpent and why did she do it? Just because of 'I', she wanted to be more like God and because of the power of 'I' she tempted to believe the words of the serpent. What all we do in our life we just do it for ‘I’ not for anyone else.
‘I’ started doing its job from marriage onwards; when boy gets married he thinks that ‘I’ will get a companion in my life same like bride also think that ‘I’ will get care and love. So the influence of ‘I’ started from institution of marriage itself. Though everyone considered it as a mutual agreement in a broader perspective it is done just for ‘I’. Later when they start to think about their kids again the power of ‘I’ comes to play. People say that I want a kid to sustain my next generation, to look after me when I am old, for me to give all my love and care. In all these statement ‘I’ is the powerful factor and we never accept that fact. We always say that “I lived for my son or daughter”. But the truth is I lived for my kids for myself.
When we look out in a society the power of ‘I’ controls what happening around us. We are doing our daily job for our family but in a way it is done for ‘I’. We are responsible for all the social causes in this society so we tried to control it and we say, we are doing it for the society but the real truth is we are doing it for ‘I’. Big corporate firms, developed, developing and undeveloped countries everyone is working hard for the satisfaction of ‘I’.
So ‘I’ is considered to be the most powerful obsession that controls the universe. If we can share the power of ‘I’ with the less powerful ‘We’ then there is no need of looking beyond infinite to see the God almighty, He will definitely come down and stay with us always.
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