Skip to main content

In praise of effort, grit, determination

 It is the Olympics. And one hears stories like these: The Philipines weightlifter Our very own Mirabai Chanu.

Every Olympic story (even the ones who do not figure among the medals) is a story of grit, determination, relentless practice, giving up a lot of "nice" things in order to achieve something they think is important. 

On the other hand, when we see the children study for their IIT/Medical or any other entrance exam we are tempted to say, oh, poor kid - how hard they work at an age when they need to be playing and singing (add your favourite non academic activity)

But think of the youngest medal winner - who is all of 13 years old - surely the kid did not win a medal without putting in effort? Surely sports achievers do not spend time singing and dancing or studying - they spend time in sport. 

The point being, it is perfectly ok for both types of efforts. The child is working hard regardless of whether it is in sports or academia or arts - and it is worth being appreciated. 

For achieving anything, giving up a semblance of normal life is expected. Whether it is 8 hours of studying everyday, 8 hours of sport everyday or 8 hours of music or dance - it is perfectly ok. Even to keep your body in shape, some degree of effort is required.

Nothing can be achieved if one wants to have an afternoon siesta and a life of leisure. And then after all, what is human life? Isnt it all about going after something you want?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

No conferences

Decided not to attend any conferences this year. Atleast not the typical ones I have often ranted about here. Will be both choosy and intentional about which ones to attend.  The ones to attend are the ones put up by practitioners of a craft. The rest is marketing one way or other. 

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...

The power of jotting down ideas

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented.