After a really long break, I rejoined the gym a few months ago. As it is with any other rusty machine, even my body took some time to get used to moving again. As I started the treadmill, I was panting within the first 3 minutes, and right next to me there was this "uncle" thumping along at 10 kmph. For me maintaining a light jog @ 7 kmph was a big deal and for the guy next to me, jogging @ 10kmph was a breeze.
As I went to the weights section, my trainer asked me to do bicep curls. That classic exercise where you keep lifting the dumbbells. My trainer asked me to start with 7.5 pound weights. After two sets of 15 lifts, I was quite exhausted and my arms felt like a pair of 10 pound weights hanging on each shoulder.
And there was a guy right next to me, with arms twice as large as mine, pumping 25 pound weights in bicep curls combined with overhead lifts.
For me, 7.5 pounds was a big deal, and for someone else 25 pounds was nothing.
There are people who are amazed at the way I can work with numbers and come up with ideas, the way I think can surprise quite a few. Then again, as soon as I enter the office, I see another 29 smarter ones around me and it makes me really question if my cranial cavity is empty. What is big deal for someone is hardly worth talking for someone else.
We come across so many people who are better than us but hardly ever put in any visible effort. On the other hand, we come across so many people who can't even manage the most basic things.
I was watching this cookery contest on TV where the contestants were pitted against the chef. The contestants had a half hour headstart before the chef. But when the chef started cooking, he wasn't even looking at the recipe. At one point he was fine chopping vegetables even without looking at the board and the contestants actually stopped whatever they were doing to see him work.
Ofcourse, the chef won hands down.
When I was just out of my school, being a Chartered Accountant was a huge deal. Anybody who was a CA would receive admiring glances from us students. Then, we were in first year of studies, and anybody who had qualified CA in first attempt was a role model for us. A few years later, when we had qualified as CAs ourselves, we realised that it was not that big a deal to qualify as a CA. Qualifying was only a launchpad for a career.
Today, I see so many students look at us as an inspiration.
I was struggling to manage a 7 member team as a branch head and here I know a person who at the age of 28 has created an entire industry and his business is a Case study at the IIM.
All of us guys know how difficult it is to get the Roti perfectly round, most of us can't even get past kneading the dough. That itself is a big deal for us. Then again there are guys who make impossibly yummy food that looks good too...
You can't wake up one morning and expect to be the best at what you want to do.
That "Uncle" jogging @ 10kmph is able to do it because he has been doing it for years and the stamina has developed over years.
That "Big Guy" pumping dumbbells was not born with large biceps, he has built them over years with a lot of practice.
I was not always brilliant with numbers and ideas. It takes practice and effort, and ofcourse interest.
On the first day, 7 kmph for 3 minutes and 7.5 pounds was a big deal for me. Today, I'm already doing 8 kmph for 5 minutes and pumping 15 pounds, and it doesn't feel like the big deal.
What I'm trying to share through all these experiences is that --- One person's big deal could be very ordinary for another person.
Whatever you are finding difficult to do, there is someone else already doing it... and if someone is able to do it, then its not a big deal...
Do you still think what you are doing is a big deal??? Do you still think what you have achieved is a big deal???
And most important of all... Do you still think that you are unable to do something because its a big deal???
Remember... it might be a big deal today... but if you decide... if won't be that way for too long...
As I went to the weights section, my trainer asked me to do bicep curls. That classic exercise where you keep lifting the dumbbells. My trainer asked me to start with 7.5 pound weights. After two sets of 15 lifts, I was quite exhausted and my arms felt like a pair of 10 pound weights hanging on each shoulder.
And there was a guy right next to me, with arms twice as large as mine, pumping 25 pound weights in bicep curls combined with overhead lifts.
For me, 7.5 pounds was a big deal, and for someone else 25 pounds was nothing.
There are people who are amazed at the way I can work with numbers and come up with ideas, the way I think can surprise quite a few. Then again, as soon as I enter the office, I see another 29 smarter ones around me and it makes me really question if my cranial cavity is empty. What is big deal for someone is hardly worth talking for someone else.
We come across so many people who are better than us but hardly ever put in any visible effort. On the other hand, we come across so many people who can't even manage the most basic things.
I was watching this cookery contest on TV where the contestants were pitted against the chef. The contestants had a half hour headstart before the chef. But when the chef started cooking, he wasn't even looking at the recipe. At one point he was fine chopping vegetables even without looking at the board and the contestants actually stopped whatever they were doing to see him work.
Ofcourse, the chef won hands down.
When I was just out of my school, being a Chartered Accountant was a huge deal. Anybody who was a CA would receive admiring glances from us students. Then, we were in first year of studies, and anybody who had qualified CA in first attempt was a role model for us. A few years later, when we had qualified as CAs ourselves, we realised that it was not that big a deal to qualify as a CA. Qualifying was only a launchpad for a career.
Today, I see so many students look at us as an inspiration.
I was struggling to manage a 7 member team as a branch head and here I know a person who at the age of 28 has created an entire industry and his business is a Case study at the IIM.
All of us guys know how difficult it is to get the Roti perfectly round, most of us can't even get past kneading the dough. That itself is a big deal for us. Then again there are guys who make impossibly yummy food that looks good too...
You can't wake up one morning and expect to be the best at what you want to do.
That "Uncle" jogging @ 10kmph is able to do it because he has been doing it for years and the stamina has developed over years.
That "Big Guy" pumping dumbbells was not born with large biceps, he has built them over years with a lot of practice.
I was not always brilliant with numbers and ideas. It takes practice and effort, and ofcourse interest.
On the first day, 7 kmph for 3 minutes and 7.5 pounds was a big deal for me. Today, I'm already doing 8 kmph for 5 minutes and pumping 15 pounds, and it doesn't feel like the big deal.
What I'm trying to share through all these experiences is that --- One person's big deal could be very ordinary for another person.
Whatever you are finding difficult to do, there is someone else already doing it... and if someone is able to do it, then its not a big deal...
Do you still think what you are doing is a big deal??? Do you still think what you have achieved is a big deal???
And most important of all... Do you still think that you are unable to do something because its a big deal???
Remember... it might be a big deal today... but if you decide... if won't be that way for too long...
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