Tuesday 19 April 2011

People, Process & Success!!


A Story in a Train
 
Once a grandfather, a young mother and a child, all of 8 years-fresh from a life threatening surgery were traveling by train from Coimbatore to Chennai…

The child had survived the surgery and was looking forward to a new beginning-her eyes full of dreams.

They met another young family who had a boy of the same age. Now, this family had a copy of Reader’s Digest in their hand.

It carried the story of organ donation of a little boy who was declared brain dead in a road accident. His parents agreed to cut off his life support system and donate his organs so that he would continue to live.

This well meaning self-righteous family inspired by the story started to advise the girl’s family to kill her and donate her organs to the public!


Why?


Each one of you would have definitely interacted with 8 year olds. Theirs is a world of dolls, school, music, dance, friends, games and dreams. Now I request you to put yourself in their shoes and imagine the questions she would’ve asked herself… that innocent 8-year-old’s active brain raised a million questions. In fact, innocence was lost.

  • What is life and death to an 8 year old?
  • Why do people want to kill me?
  • Am I useless?
  • What did I do?
  • Fear of the unknown grips the child-Will my parents agree to this suggestion?
  • Would I become a ghost and live through others?
  • I feel so jealous of their son who can laugh and run along the train. I hate him. Why should that boy have everything?
  • Don’t I have the same emotions as their son? How could they suggest such a thing?
  • Didn’t God give me a better brain than that boy? Why should I die and he live?
  • How dare they speak like that and hurt me with their words?
  • Who gave them the right to break my spirit?
  • Why is nobody stopping them?

And the biggest question of it all…

  • Why did you create me like this God? Why me?
Life

Yes, maybe you guessed it right…the young girl in the story is Me!


The questions I asked don’t apply to me alone. Life throws challenges at each one of us. Each one of you would have experienced a situation or are probably experiencing a difficult situation that is beyond your control today.

Fear. Anger. Denial. Hopelessness and a hundred other negative emotions grip us. We blame ourselves, people who matter to us and God. 


People

God has given me the opportunity to closely interact with people as a HR Professional. I’ve made some interesting observations over a period of time.

Like war, physical handicap seems to bring out the worst and best in people.

As a specially-abled person (I’m a survivor of Atlanto Axial Instability), I’ve encountered three sets of attitude towards me: 

  1. People who think I’m a great inspiration to them. They feel they can overcome anything after meeting me.

  1. People who think I’m better off than them because the world is generally kind to me and life is seemingly easy. They feel my handicap is an advantage which they don’t have!

  1. People assist me if I need help but they just cannot handle it if I outperform them and they try to demoralize me with their harsh words!
 Process

As a trainer, I’ve used the following lessons of life I learnt that night in the train to make a change in the lives of the some of the people who belong to the second category:

Spirituality

Belief in God helps foremost. It helps you accept reality.

As a Christian, I believe in a very encouraging verse in the Bible.

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)”

If not for the hurdles I’ve crossed, I would not be what I am today.



Family & Friends
Inner circle-surround yourself with people who are not jealous of you-be nice to them. How many times are we polite to complete strangers but rude to our own family? Over a period of time I learnt to put my family in front of me as much as possible. Trust me, it requires practice.


Passion

Passion is a goal. A motive. A dream. A vision to live your life. That night in the train I vowed to myself that I would prove myself and make this story public to touch others and here I am.

Persistence

Failure. Emotional lows are normal. No one is superman or superwoman but the trick is to keep picking yourself up. Never, never, never, ever give up till you realize your dream.

Attitude

Only two ways to look at life – half full and half empty. My mother always taught me to look at the cup overflowing. I could have easily become a bitter person and blamed everyone for my physical handicap that night but I chose the other way.

Humor 

Learn to laugh at yourself. My dad would introduce my medical condition to others & I would think “What am I? Not a person…I guess I’m AtlantoAxial instability itself”

Success

Today, people call me a success, my classmates in MBA look up to me! I’m no longer useless. These tips can definitely help achieve success. Success means different things to different people but deep down everyone wants to be successful in life.

Reminds me of the story of the two brothers: 
 

  One boy was an optimist and the other was a pessimist.

  The parents decided to put the pessimist in a room full of the latest toys and video games and he optimist in a room full of horse manure. This would make the one more optimistic and the other more pessimistic.

  After several hours had passed they went into the room full of toys and found the pessimistic boy in tears. When asked what the problem was the boy said “I don’t know what to play with first, and I’m afraid I’ll break something”.

  They then went into the room full of manure. There the optimistic child singing and dancing with joy in the manure. When questioned by the therapist why he was so happy about being in horse manure, the boy said, “With all this manure, there must be a pony here somewhere.”


SO If you find yourself in a roomful of shit, go chase your horse. Just remember, it IS close by!!


10 comments:

  1. Hi, great encouragement, thanks.

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  2. When I first heard your speech in TEDx, myfirst thought was that you can inspire many youngsters. The second thought was about your faith in God and in his words.
    Keep going. Reach to as many youngsters as possible.

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  3. Thanks a million for your encouragement!

    Glad it inspired you... do forward it to people who might be in need of motivation...

    I'll consider myself blessed if it helps someone!

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  4. Great,Anne! u truly will be a great inspiration for many!
    Btw, I'm ur friend Lydia's sister. she only had sent me the link.
    God Bless!!

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  5. God bless!!!Great motivation!!!

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  6. Hey optimistic,(Miss. Ramakrishna !)

    You are the best Asusual!
    Great Great Work !Its very Inspirational.I would say "Anne is another name for Motivation" and i am sure your blog would make people to think more optimistic..

    We haven't met after our college dayz.I wish to get a rewind button to cherish those humorous & Happy days ! Like to list some (sleeping in the first row,writing re-model exams oh sorry! re-re-models..Sharing the food during class hours, pulling each others leg,just filling the first page of the test paper,your best days @ MOC,the day we gave a big hands to you when you became a MISS. RAMAKRISHNA.)

    Its Great to be your Friend!Love u !
    Wish you for the upcoming Success in your life!!
    God Bless Dear !

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  7. thats was interesting piece... motivational... way to go girl....

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  8. I am glad u started a blog.. when is your next post.. U r an inspiration :)

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  9. Sweetie pie, You are an TRULY an inspiration !! I knew deep down in my heart that you would have a story & smelt early-on that God would have done some thing deep in you for you to be the person you are :)!!! YOU ROCK!!! GO ON ROCK THE WORLD!!!! Love,Savitha Rajesh

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    Replies
    1. Savitha,

      This is an encouragement like no other for someone as laaaazzy as me! Thank you so much.

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