THINK POSITIVE

We millennials often hear people say that things should happen at the right time. One should get a job before 25 and marry before 30 and so on. As if like somebody has laid down a time table of events in our lives, one is forced to follow the same.   Why is so much stress is laid out on these timelines? They are not the physical development of our body to happen in time but mere social things.   These timelines have put most of us under stress. What happens if you get a job or start a business after 30? Well, if you are determined to achieve what you desire nothing can stop you from doing it. So is buying your first home or car or getting married at a later age. These things should happen whenever you are ready and not because they have to happen at a certain age. But that doesn't mean you sit and just wait for the right time to come.    What is the right time you ask?   Well, it’s when you are ready. Let me tell you one thing here. It’s not that your mind will say

I make new year resolutions every year. Most of us do. But, how many of us achieve them? Only a handful. Research shows that only 5% of people achieve their new year goals.   What about the rest? Well, it seems their motivation fades away with time.   This is not only in the case of new year resolution but, in our day-to-day life as well. A simple example is that many of us think of getting up early but when the alarm rings, we snooze it to the next day. Similarly, when we plan for losing some extra pounds, we start with a bang but, only very few keep going. We won’t think of doing it again until we get motivated.   There are two types of motivation. What we look outside is called extrinsic motivation. They are outside factors that influence us to do a task in order to fulfill our desire. It can be the desire for money, luxury things in life, family pressure, pressure from society, and many more. This type of motivation is good only for the short term.     On the other hand

Often people say they have true best friends who are like family and some say they have family who are like best friends. In my case, I am one of the few lucky ones to have both.   Who is a true friend you ask? Well it is quite a bit different from what you think.   Everybody thinks being true best friends means doing non-sense things in life together or having drinks together or being partners in doing the wrong things in life.   But, a true best friend is not someone who joins you or has your back when you do something wrong. Instead, a true friend will be the first person to scold you or even beat you when you do something wrong. Because they never want you to go in the wrong direction. They want you to follow the path of what’s best for you.   A true friend will never let you do wrong things that may cause any damage to you or put you in harm’s way. They want you to be the happiest and healthiest version of you.   At the same time, they will encourage you to fol

A friend of mine bought an expensive SUV last year. At the time, I had asked him whether it was really necessary for him to spend so much on a car that he wouldn’t use that often. For which he said that everybody would be so impressed by his expensive SUV. For a year or so, all his posts on social media were filled up the pictures of the car at different places.   A year later now, when   I asked him about his car, he said that the maintenance and running costs are very expensive and that he is regretting his decision of buying an SUV. It has become a liability in his life. He further said that he should have opted for a smaller car that would have been more suitable to his city lifestyle.   Similarly, another friend of mine bought a flat couple of years ago at an expensive location in Bangalore. Although not big enough for comfort, it was very expensive because of its locality. I had told him that he should buy a bigger home which was just a bit further from the newly bought f

The other day while I was randomly browsing the internet, I came across an interesting article on stress in life and I wanted to share it with you. So, take a glass and fill it up with water. Hold the glass for a minute or so. It’s not so heavy, is it? But, if you hold it for an hour, you will start developing pain in your hand. If you hold for 6 hours, your hand will be numb and if you hold it even longer, you will feel that your hand is paralyzed.   Here, the weight of the glass is irrelevant. What matters is how long you are holding it. The longer you hold it, the heavier you will feel.   The stress and painful memories in our life are also like the glass of water. When you think about them for a short time, you will feel nothing. They will begin to hurt if you think about them longer. And if you think about them all the time, you won’t be able to do anything else. You will feel like you are paralyzed.   So it is important for us to remember to let go of our stress and p

It was an early morning, as I was just entering home returning from out of town,   I heard the voice ‘Hey Manoj! How are you?’   When I turned around, I saw a senior colleague of mine who had just retired a couple of months ago.   We started talking and I asked him how is his life after retirement? He said it is relaxing and peaceful. Those were his words. He said he is looking forward to enjoying his retired life and received his first pension just a few days before. We chatted for a while and I wished him a happy retired life, then he left.   In my tenure of two years working with him, what I saw was that he used to spend most of his time at work. He would always show up an hour or so before office hours started and most of the time would be the last person to leave. He was a mentor for many newcomers including me. He was a very senior person who retired with 41 years of service.   Back in the 1970s, he was appointed under my grandfather who was a Staff Inspector in Railw

Today I completed my 8 years of service in the Indian Railways. Appointed at the age of 21 years on the 13 th of June 2012, the journey has been no less than wonderful and exciting. Of course, things were quite difficult at times, but they taught me to be a better version of myself.     Not many of my relatives and friends know that I qualified in the NTPC exam for the job. Many of them think that it was just bestowed upon me.   Presently, being a Chief Vigilance Inspector at such a young age makes me feel proud. Probably, one of the youngest ever in Indian Railways. It’s not the end though, got a long way to go from here and I am looking forward for it as well.   Looking back at my college days, what really surprises me is that I never wanted to join the Government services. As a matter of fact, I resisted my job offer at Railways for quite some time. Also, upon completion of my graduation, I had a job offer from Infosys which also had promised me to fulfill my desire for