GET EXCITED and MAKE THINGS

Hello friends,

We all have been cribbing and complaining about our job, work, routine and in general life lately. I agree things get strenuous and nerve wracking at many times. But as someone has said “when the water reaches above your head, either you drawn or you learn to swim.” And I think in either case the suffocation ends.

I too believe that when any frustration or suffering reaches it peak the only thing happens is either we give up or we find a way out.

For me also, my job and work as a designer had started to make me feel stagnated. Same kind of briefs, same kind of solutions and most of all same routine had made me very very frustrated at work. On top of all that when you are not happy with other things at work like non satisfactory salary, everyday stressful traveling, boring briefs, impractical timelines or at home like stressful plus boring weekends then you start feeling like waste of a designer.

When all this frustration had built up so much pressure, I had to find a solution. Not at all do I say that it’s the best or permanent solution, but atleast a decision to take a step and accepting and being prepared for the fear of going wrong.

As someone has said “its easier to worry than to take action.” In our case, I can say that its easy to sit and crib than to find a solution and its even more difficult to act on it and improve the situation. It takes courage. So we always take the easy way out and continue cribbing about things but may be we don’t have the courage to change the situation. I would say that we all have the courage but we never try. Because what we don’t understand is that by sticking to the same situation we are doing more harm to ourselves than taking the risk of changing the situation. And sometimes the solution can be as small as taking out time for ourselves for our some hobby or can be as big as changing the job or even profession.

I remember in college how enthu we were, how energetic and spontaneous we were. I agree today we have other burdens and responsibilities but back then also we had some other tensions and expectations our head. But the most important thing we had then, which we don’t have today is “EXCITEMENT”. Excitement for work, design, project assignments, bunking and more than anything excitement for everyday life.

Today, do we have that excitement in life? That enthu in life?

We have to bring that excitement back in life. What can we do to feel excited about going to work everyday? How can feel super excited everyday, when we get up in the morning?

I know that many people must be living unexciting, stressful life, Many people travel like this everyday, struggle to reach office, do a boring 5 to 9 job, work over time, eat food that they don’t like and sleep with sad thought of having a similar next day.

But the question is, do we want to live like this? And I think the choice is ours. I think everyone has a choice. Some people choose to accept the situation and enjoy it. I really appreciate them. Atleast they wont sit and crib but instead find a way to be happy about things. But when we know that the whole situation is going bring unhappiness to us, then change is a must. And yeah, its very easy to surrender to all the excuses and sit and continue cribbing. Excuses like its too late in life to change anything, family or financial responsibilities, market situation etc etc. if we want excuses we will find 1000s of them but if we really want the solution we will find one powerful one to kill all 1000 excuses.

It depends on what really we are looking for. Its like the day you are grumpy, you will get the worst auto guy and the day you are happy even the forth seat person will smile and ask you if you are comfortable (which is a miracle if you know)

So , when I was in this phase of frustration and cribbing, I met a lot of people who were also frustrated with life. But this one girl shook me up from inside and made me think when she asked me one simple question, “what are you living like this for?” Let me explain. So she told me, “just stop for a moment, relax and ask your self. That we give up everything, our health, social life, hobbies. We struggle everyday to work, do crap work at office and get peanuts as salary. What exactly are we doing this for? Are you getting any award? Or any big recognition? No, doesn’t look like. Then for money? No the salary is not satisfactory at all. Are you feeling happy at the end of the day atleast that you did some good work, something that you are proud of or something that made you happy?  If all answers are no, then why? For what? And this questions really shook me up cause I had no answer. (BTW that was Shitu Aanand if you guys know.)

That was the first time, I realized that cribbing has become the comfort zone. And change is the challenge. But slowly when mentally I got prepared to change things and accepted that I don’t want o continue like this, I came across people who really inspired me in big or small way.

Aashim inspired me to think that life is to be lived happily, the way we want and that work is not life but is part of life. When we will enjoy life and be happy about it, we will enjoy work and that’s when we will do best at it too. We need to give time for little things in life also besides work. We give work unnecessary importance most of the time. We have to take things lightly and not over burden our selves with too many expectations.

We expect too many things from ourselves. And we take all the responsibilities on our head. Family responsibility, financial responsibility, house responsibility, work responsibility, project delivery responsibility. We are not super heroes and so if we cant achieve everything in life, its ok. Its ok to not take family on world tour or give your sister a grand wedding at big hotel or own a huge house in bombay.

We should have less responsibilities and more passion in life. Responsibilities add burden on our head but passion brings excitement and zest to do things. If money is your responsibility it’s a burden but if you are passionate about money, you will make a great career with it and do good in it.

Shweta always inspires me to keep going on in life and never to loose hope. Whatever situation life throws you in, if you want to you will find a way to do what you want to and to be hopeful and happy is up to you at any given time. In spite of any problems or rather difficult situations, she has always been same enthu person. She is still enthu about doing new things, find out about new arts and crafts or things that she likes and that’s why I guess in spite of getting less time, exposure or freedom to work than us, she is always full of excitement. Unlike us.

Kapil inspired me in a big way, that we can do things which generally we are scared of or we think we are weak at if we are dedicated towards it. Kapil was a person who on every weekend would just wait for someone’s call and  get bored at home alone. Also he would be too lazy to do any extra thing on weekend or on weekday too. But after he has quit his job he has been dedicatedly doing his illustrations regularly. And also I haven’t heard him crib even a bit about getting bored at home after he left his job.

There are a lot of such inspirations around. We just need to be in right frame of mind to gasp them. 

I came across this girl on net called Diti Kotecha. She is a designer and a photographer. She loves to travel and has a travel blog too. She also designs for and works for NGO.

http://www.ditikotecha.com/

http://www.nonasties.in/

She is just the inspirations for rest of us to just get up and go out and do what we like with passion, and do something meaningful something that will make us feel good and proud. The inspiration, that the energy, enthu and passion shouldn’t go waste but should be used in a good productive way.

I really think, that we all are also a bunch of enthu, hard working, passionate, talented people. We just need to dust those corners of our mind and bring back that excitement and passion in life. And I am sure we can also definitely inspire someone in someway if we bring out our real selves out and give our best.

Looking forward to see the excitement back in all our lives and now when we meet next we meet with all smiles and happiness to share and nothing less. J

Love you all,

Nital.