The Best Investment - Invest in Yourself!

In previous article we discuss about our superpowers. Now, when we know that we all have superpowers that are there within us and can be harvested whenever we need them, it is important to take time really explore all our strengths and weakness. Only then can we be fully prepared to achieve our goals. But we are mostly clueless that understanding ourselves doesn’t have to be a slow, tedious process, it can always be sped up.

All of us are born with inherent likes and dislikes. These likes and dislikes are clues to the things we will be good at. If a child enjoys painting more than singing, chances are that the child will be better at painting than he/she is at singing. We can think of these as clues that nature chose to expose to us so that we can carve a satisfying path for ourselves.

Most of us have whims, and mostly we choose to ignore them. Even as children, we are rarely able to indulge in every whim. There are always limitations- in terms of times, finance, facilities etc. – to keep us from fully exploring what we are capable of. But these are not the only factors that stop us. The biggest factor, in fact, is our own inhibitions, especially once we are grown-ups. We are afraid of new experiences, afraid of disappointment, afraid of failures, afraid of making fool of ourselves. And this fear keeps us away from taking advantage of opportunities to gather new experience.

Let us understand this with the example of young girl Shikha and the ideation competition.

Shikha was an editor at a publishing house. She was very good at her job and apart from being an excellent editor, she also often proposed new book ideas to the publishing house.The publishing house announced a competition in which teams would work together and come up with new book ideas that they would then present to a jury comprising of senior publishers from all over the world. The selected idea would then be converted into a book that would be sold all over the world.Shikha had never ever participated in a competition. She wasn’t at all confident of her abilities to work in a team. And the fact that the competition was about new book ideas was making her restless. By proposing new book ideas in the past, she had earned a reputation in that area. Her colleagues and even her boss thought of her as a creative thinker. Shikha was worried that if she participated in this competition and lost it, her reputation as a creative thinker would be tarnished too. Can you guess why she was so full of doubts? It was because she had always attributed her past achievements to good luck, and had never given herself any credit for the book ideas she had come up with. Thus, she was afraid of being exposed as someone who really did not possess any great talent.
She was still in this state of dilemma when she discovered that her manager had already nominated Shikha’s name for the competition. Now she had no choice, so she decided to go with the flow. With each passing day, her desperation to win the contest increased, and by the time the date of the competition arrived, she found herself unable to sleep. She knew that she would do anything to win this competition. For the first time in her life she was this passionate about something. She wanted to give it her all.
On the day of the competition, she was put in a team and team started with discussing the various ideas that all members had. Shikha had a great idea, but when she saw more merit in the idea proposed by another team member, she voted for it to be taken up for further preparation and the final presentation. She was almost feverish with excitement. And when her team members were of the opinion that they should give their best and not really care if they win or lose, Shikha was single minded about her goal of winning the competition. Her focus proved to be contagious and soon all her team-members too were bubbling enthusiasm. Guided by their single goal, the group of strangers really became a team and the initial idea evolved to become something they all believed in. Though the team leader was someone else, everyone could see that Shikha was the driving force for the team. When it was time to present their idea, the team leader proposed that Shikha should do it. And the presentation left the judges mesmerized. When their team emerged the winner, no one was surprised. Their idea and their presentation of it were deemed to be the best.Once she was out of the competition frenzy, Shikha herself was surprised. She couldn’t understand what had come over her during the competition. But she was glad to discover this other Shikha. She had gone into the competition based on her creative thinking, but her team had emerged a winner because of her team spirit and leadership skills. Shikha was surprised to discover these two new skills in herself. She had never thought herself capable of what she had achieved.

Most of us are like Shikha- capable, but afraid of failure and public ridicule. And this is why we do not take chances in life. We like to play safe. But one can never really truly understand oneself by remaining in a shell. Unless you experienced new things, you can never experience a new you. Unless you take risks, you can never transcend your normal, day-to-day existence.

Thus act of never giving up, will give you confidence and this confidence helps us realize our capabilities. Confidence also gives us perseverance- the ability to keep going after a failure. If you haven’t invested in yourself, you are more likely to give up after a failure.

      “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

                                                                                                                              -Paulo Coelho