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If look back, I realize that I have always been fond of writing and sharing. The only time I had ever crowd-sourced in my life was when I wanted to start a newsletter for students as an engineering student. Back then a robotics project had sparked the idea of reaching out to students with the intent of inspiring them to create. Those were the days when I wasn't aware of the term 'crowd-sourcing'; just walked into every classroom, spoke about my idea, collected a subscription fee, and rolled out my first ever publication.
Subsequently at business school, the role of editor for the quarterly newsletter was a natural choice.
Contrary to what most of you may think, I was not very athletic as a kid. My proclivity towards arts and literary activities was evident from my active participation and subsequent success in recitation, elocution, narration, singing competitions, plays, dance programs. Most of you may think that sports is my greatest passion, but that spot is actually reserved for music, a passion that I intend to explore in the forthcoming years. The greatest lesson that these activities and competitions taught me - ' talent is over-rated'. And at this point I would like to quote one of my celebrated role models Eliud Kipchoge "No Human is Limited". Everything that we do involves a complementing combination of skill and will. Use all your will power to focus on the requisite skills, work hard with a smart, well - planned approach and mastery is imminent. This principle was ingrained into me as I prepared for a recitation competition with the help of my mother and school teacher. I may not have thanked anybody on Teacher's day, but it did bring back the realization that they were the greatest teachers in my life. I may not agree with everything that my mom expresses, in fact we share a very argumentative relationship that is dreaded by the rest of the family. But I have to acknowledge the fact that she drove me never to take the easy path. Funny thing is that she now wishes that I had chosen to lead a more comfortable way of life, but this was all her making. The values she imbibed will never let me shy away from challenges or take short cuts as I seek happiness from the pursuit of excellence. But somewhere along the way I lost those values as I ebbed away in the flow for 8 years, directionless and with no sense of purpose. Its impossible to share all the stories related to these turning points in one blog post, but resuming physical activity contributed to my fight back into a life full of purpose.
For the paucity of time I will end the first blog here, looking forward to share more about my journey and greater details of the turning points in the future posts. Pardon me for the boring writing style and poor editing, its been long since I have written at length and I promise to get better at this over time. The last thing I want is this blog turning into a space for copy - pasted techniques and advice about training, nutrition etc.
I would encourage all the readers to share their stories/insights here without worrying about communication and writing skills. Some of these thoughts and insights can present solutions to practical and local problems, that no expert can provide. I come across a lot of these problems while interacting with athletes I coach. We figure solutions that remain constrained between the two individuals. This isnt an editorial and the positive readers get the message and possibly find motivation and solutions in their strife to be better. If you find it worthwhile, please share and spread the words, and leave your feedback.
