Hero

 

There's a hero / If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid / Of what you are
There’s an answer / If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know / Will melt away

 

And then a hero comes along / With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside / And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone / Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth / That a hero lies in you!

 

The song Hero by Mariah Carey is truly motivating and has been put to use often during my training programs. When our life goes through trials and turmoil, we seek intervention from a hero who will save you. When the hero arrives, you let go of doubts and worries and forget your fears because you feel safe.

 The song says you don't have to depend on a hero to keep you safe and that you can protect yourself. When you finally realize that you cannot depend on external heroes anymore or that you are tired of having to depend on a hero, you just have to be strong or be prepared for whatever comes and to take it head on.

 Rather than depend on someone else to be your hero and watch over you, you could have done that yourself because deep down in you, there's a hero. And true empowerment is all about discovering and reclaiming the hero in you.

 

When things go wrong and hope goes thin

Reach inside you to reclaim the hero within!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis

 

Burden free

Yesterday at the Museum of Goa, Suraj Morajkar unravelled his remarkable journey in an interaction with artist Subodh Kerkar. There was a common strand in his responses… he chose to be burden free at different pressure situations in his expedition from first generation entrepreneur to establishing himself a brand!

The first burden was about being eligible in terms of experience, qualification or backing… he had none but it did not weigh him down. As he grew, there was the burden of competition… to outdo others… but he chose to focus on his own aspiration.

There were many pressures: to magnify ambition… to speed up… to stretch out… to match up… to change values and lifestyle… to be swayed by connections… to play safe and sell out… Suraj chose to avoid all such pressures and remain grounded to his roots and his principles. And this attitude stood him in good stead.

 

Too often, too many of us are unsteadied by external encumbrances. We allow the burden of expectation, conformity, haste & reckless ambition to weigh us down. We can choose to be free from these loads by maintaining the connection with our values and the core vision of what we set out to do.

We must choose to avoid unrelated burdens that stifle our free will and free movement towards the destination we are heading. We must be driven by intrinsic motivation without being deviated by extrinsic distractions. We must choose to be burden free.

Focus on the dream while walking the road

Be burden free from all diversionary loads!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis

Do Something

An elderly lady would go to a lake & clean the shells of turtles there. When a passer-by asked her the reason, she said that the algae or scum that builds up on a turtle’s shell reduces its ability to absorb heat and slows down their swimming. It can also corrode their shell and weaken it over time.

But the man pointed out that most turtles live their entire lives with algae on their shells. The woman agreed that was true. He asked, ‘are you really making a difference if most turtles don’t have people around to clean their shells?’ The woman laughed and said, ‘I making a difference to these ones!’

Dr Seuss said it so well that ‘To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.’ Even if we cannot change the world or help everyone, we can still make a huge difference in one person’s life by offering them the help that we can.

So often, so many of us prefer to not do anything because we can’t do everything. We must do something for someone, rather than wait to do everything for everyone. Our world is empowered by little acts that make a difference, even if it is limited to a few

Do not wait to do everything for everyone

It is better to do something for someone!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis

Choose to Challenge

 The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose to Challenge’. Those who choose to challenge are choosing to be alert, aware and active. They are ready to stand up and stand out from the crowd. History is witness to many such women who have risen up to the challenge.

 However, it is also true that there has been great opposition to the courageous ones. Savitribai Phule & Fatima Sheikh had dung and stones hurled at them. Rosa Parks was arrested for seating on a ‘reserved’ seat in a bus. There are many who have been attacked, brutalised and murdered for rising up.

 Today on social media, we see Freudian slips by many in the way they troll the women that speak up. The abuse includes threats to rape. And such regressive trolls are followed and supported by others who themselves may not have a courage of unmasking their real attitude towards women.

 Prejudice is born of discriminatory conditioning. The challengers could do without abuse and bigoted judgements. May be the rest of us have to choose to challenge our own chauvinism & prejudice. We must call out gender bias. We must choose to be sensitive, responsive and responsible to help create an inclusive world.  

 those who choose to challenge, every day

need a non-judgemental, abuse-free way!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis

Take the Joke

Politician, Shashi Tharoor is known for use of complex words while speaking English. Words like sesquipedalian, perspecacity, defenestrate make you run to refer the lexicon. Memes on his English trigger laughter as well as help learn a new word.  Last week, a hilarious tutorial video was posted by a Pakistan comedian, Akbar Chaudry.

In it, he comes up with ways to speak the kind of English Tharoor does and ace it. The ways include taking the dictionary and crush it as a smoothie or inject it like a drip or turn it to powder and snort it. Immediately, he starts to speak Tharoorian words. Actually Chaudry is lip-synching to Tharoor’s speeches playing in the background.

The hilarious clip has gone viral with over 3 lakh views in just 3 days. It has been shared by thousands including Tharoor who ‘reshared’ the video. He asked for a similar video on the Pak PM, Imran Khan as well. We don’t how that one will be received but we all know that Tharoor can take a joke.

 

If you can take a joke, you are able to laugh when someone makes a joke about you or does something to trick you. Everyone loves a good joke but when the joke's on you, it's hard to know how to react, respond, and continue having a good time.

So often, so many of us are easily offended. We question the intention and react with rage and accusations. Being offended is a choice. You can choose not to let a joke get to you. We must stop taking things too seriously. We are human and our traits and actions can seem funny to others. 

A light-hearted kidding is good to help lighten perspectives. If you are having a hard time finding the humour in a joke about you, try taking the perspective of an outsider. Retell the joke in your head but about somebody else, perhaps somebody you don't even know. This will definitely help reduce your defensiveness.

Do not overreact to every barb & poke

Take it easy & sportingly take the joke!

~ Pravin K. Sabnis