Last three days were the most exciting days of my life. You wait for some unexpected moments and yes, here they come. With the surprise…charm…and enthusiasm.
When the week started, little did I know that it was going to be a different one. Some formally dressed people came in our class room and were dividing our class in two batches so that they could carry out their seminar. And what kind of seminar? Seminar on personality development. Err! Now what’s this? Already we had those boring sessions on communication skills and presentation techniques in our previous semesters. Wasn’t that enough to groom our personality?
No, it wasn’t. It will never be enough. That was my first reaction when the first day of this seminar was over. I felt better, rather, I was excited. I could sense a particular enthusiasm in me. Otherwise the usually serene, tired me, was actually feeling like swinging to and fro and exercising even though I was late at coming home. When enthusiasm grips you, you feel at top of the world. There arises an urge to explore many new things about yourself, about others and everything around you. You feel fresh. And exactly this was my condition that evening when I was returning from the first day session of the world famous Dale Carnegie’s official Personality Development program.
A friend of mine commented that I actually don’t need it. But somewhere I felt how I badly I need it. At least after the first day, I was very keen to attend the remaining two days. And this magic was because of our enthusiastic trainer, Feroza Engineer. We were lucky to have her. She was quite open minded, sometimes crazy, smart, dashing and a very approachable personality. Her mere presence gave us the indication that what will follow won’t be an utter boredom. Yeah, it wasn’t. She made us swing, dance, laugh, talk and most importantly, showed us how to be ourselves. Her funda was quite clear. When you talk to people, your words, your presentations or anything, is not the message. The message is the real YOU. YOU have to be expressive. YOU have to be convincing enough to let person in front of you get impressed by you. YOU have to be the most approachable, smart person. In short, YOU have to be the message. YOU have to be YOURSELF.
It was an immensely learning experience. But at the end, it all depends on what you do about it. Nobody in the world can make you talk, if you don’t want to talk. And in the competitive world as ours, there’s no room for introvert people. You’ve to become a people’s person. You’ve to become flexible. You’ve to become decisive. Otherwise there’s no donut for you!
At the last day of the seminar, I also got to know that I was being elected as the Joint Secretary in Literary Council of the college. I wasn’t aware of it as we were in the seminar and when we came out for a five minute break, everyone outside came congratulating me. Initially I was confused. I had given the interview and almost forgotten about it. But unexpected things always happen. And when they happen, you feel pleased, happy, jubilant.
It’s only when you be yourself that you can make others understand you and yourself. In whichever professions you go, you’ve to be open minded and dynamic. By dynamic, I don’t mean that you need to be an all rounder. Of course you should know your limitations and weaknesses. But you can always make an attempt to overcome them. If you don’t bring a change in yourself, you’ll never feel the change in anything around you. You’ll become stagnant. So the key is to always explore new avenues within and outside you. There is nothing in life which you can’t do. At the most, you’ll fail in doing it. So what’s the big deal? At least you’ll be proud of yourself for the fact that you’ve explored something different…tried something new.
