Thought Process..

Big journey..are you ready for it ? New country, new language & different people, do you have what it takes to study well ? Are you going to get carried away by people ? What if you fail ? Will you tell your parents your choice of pursuing sports management was a big mistake ?…This and thousands of voices in my head as I boarded the flight to Madrid.

My mother waving goodbye and even she realised, I was a little off colour but she firmly smiled and told me, you’ll be alright (in my native language). I smiled back and disappeared past the immigrant check….

The first thing I told myself as I landed in Madrid: “ You’ve made the step, your responsible for what happens and you need to instil belief within yourself. No one will do it and no one cares. 

11 months later..I am in Sevilla interning for a company and on a Renfe to Madrid I was ruminating as my Masters has come to end….

Over these 11 months I have learnt some valuable lessons and would like to share them:

1. Your mental state matters. The way you see things will only be seen by you and no one else. There has to be a fundamental belief that your idea + practicality will provide you the best tools to move towards your goal or objective. There will be constant things that may take you off your road, accept them. Thinking that everything will happen exactly the way you envisioned it will just make you sulk because the process is never straightforward. You have to go beyond your so called “limit” ( which doesn’t truly exist but is a phenomena in the mind ) to open doors that you never thought you would see or existed. 
2. The minimum thing you can do is respect everyone you meet. I do not mean in a way where you do everything he or she tells you, just the fact that accept the individual you will talk to or are going to interact with will have ideas, behaviours or a thought process that you may not adhere to or like. But giving that minimum respect suffices your mind that you have done your bit. You have had no pre conceived notion about the individual you met and you leave the individual in the same mind frame. If it’s a good conversation, you may follow up, but if not then you have done your bit by hearing him/her and now it does not matter. This saves a lot of energy and is a beneficial exercise for aligning what you deem important and what not. 
3. Be a constant learner. Go beyond the usual classroom; talk to people who you’ve never met on social media or in person, travel ( subjective ) to learn different cultures, cook if that helps, learn the language (foreign country). You have to see yourself capturing the little bits to make the final notion in your mind richer, better and engaging. The little things as seeing a kids running, people having a great time in a bar watching a game of football or the lovely streets painting a canvas and more will magnify the experience. Learning does not mean only a book, classes or finishing an assignment. This is the usual, the other bit might be you taking up another course not related to your topic, reading books, going through articles and having to build a perspective about a point or a dance lesson as well. There is no strict methodology to how much you learn but you have to keep initiating an interest, be curious and know that there is no full stop to knowledge.
4. Pain + Reflection = Growth. This is a common formula which has kept me going. The innate ability to accept that I do not know many things, accepting that I am not just good enough for somethings ( drives me mad ) and occasionally letting go. The thirst for knowledge is there but sometimes overthinking makes the easy steps seem like an unbearable thought and we deem ourselves as someone incapable of doing things. 
5. The “Purpose” of what you are doing and why are you doing it is the most important question you can as yourself. Is it money ? Care ? Social impact ? Personal development ? It can be more than one and therefore you have to build yourself to achieve what you set out. This can take time but this is method you believe provides you a unique value proposition ( context of life ) and this should drive you when you feel you are stuck, uncertain or lack ideas. Do not give up. You matter and so does what you believe in. 

I have miles to go before I sleep, but there is an unquenchable thirst within to try things, resolve problems, listen to people and dwell in unfathomable ideas. My thought process keeps me ticking, makes me curious and provides me different things to ponder about…

what does yours do ?