You Can, Without a "T"
- Knowledge
- 08th June 2020
Written by Ayushi Chamaria
Let me tell you the story of a young girl named Joanne who loved to tell stories. She lived in a happy household with her parents and younger sister, Dianne. Times were tough at home because of her parents’ meagre salaries, but the one thing they had no shortage of were books. To escape the realities of life, Joanne would often venture into magical worlds of rabbits who contracted measles or that of the seven cursed diamonds.
As she grew older, things got progressively more difficult for Joanne. Her mother was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease called Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She was merely 25 years old when she lost her mother to the illness and went into deep mourning. While recuperating from the loss, she met a man whom she married and had a daughter with. But alas, this did not give her a happy ending either. Joanne separated from her husband and moved to a different city as a single parent with no money to her name.
Amid all this hardship, inspiration struck Joanne. She was on a train when she conjured the unbelievable story of a boy in a world replete with magical spells, enchantments, potions and ghosts. By now you might have guessed that Joanne is none other than J.K. Rowling!! After rejections from 12 different publishers, she went on to publish the Harry Potter series, making her the world’s first author to be a billionaire.
J.K. Rowling is the ideal example of tenacity during hardships. If we work hard enough, there is nothing we cannot achieve. So, what are some things we can do to beat the odds?
Start Small.
The first step of keeping a positive attitude is being self-assured. It is natural to experience doubt in the face of adversity, but reinforcing self-confidence can help to inch towards your goal. An easy way to boost self-morale is by setting short-term and easy targets, that you know you can accomplish. Once you get past them successfully, you’ll be more motivated to tackle the harder obstacles more easily.
Persevere.
When times are tough, quitting can seem like a very enticing option. The fear of failure, self-doubt, and complacency are a few emotions that may become deterrents in our goals.
We must not let failure stop us from trying altogether. It took a lot of attempts for Thomas Edison to develop a light bulb, for the Wright brothers to pilot a plane, and for Alan Turing to create a computer, but if they hadn’t reiterated on their work every time something went wrong, we wouldn’t have these ingenious inventions.
If you do not perform as well as you hoped to in a subject, that just means it needs more attention and more hard work - and should not be ignored.
Build a Plan of Action.
Once we prepare ourselves mentally and remove negative emotions from the equation, we must formulate a plan of action. Putting down our objectives in tangible words makes them more real and coherent. This will also help us in chalking out a path with milestones along the way. This way we can check up on our progress and adjust our speed to suit the timeline we have determined. Exchange your goals with somebody so that you can empower each other to perform optimally.
Network.
Albert Einstein once said, "I don't need to know everything; I just need to know where to find it, when I need it." The way I interpret this is that one needn't excel at everything, but must be resourceful enough to be able to acquire the expertise when in need. This skill comes with networking and building relations. A healthy connection with friends, family, associates, and peers can help us become more resourceful. Use this time to rebuild old connections and connect with like-minded people (online only ofcourse.)
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We will always remember these times as trying ones, when the world came to a standstill because of a global pandemic. But we will also remember May 30th, 2020 as the day SpaceX launched astronauts into space in a rocket ship built for commercial use. Even in the face of extreme distress, mankind has achieved a feat which is out of the world (pun, indeed intended). This goes to show that mankind is still brave, strong, united, and determined. We will get through this and emerge victorious and wiser.