Dear Friend,
This is an absolutely vital stage of your life and career. The decisions that you take now will determine how your entire life will proceed. You should only focus on your career at this crucial ‘make or break’ stage of your life. Your parents and families have made many sacrifices to ensure that you get the opportunity to build a successful career. Your primary responsibility at this juncture of your life is only towards your career goals. Many students while away their time on social media and gaming. The Internet has the potential to help you in your study and research that people of my generation never had. Gadgets can be a double-edged sword. They can help you to enhance your knowledge of the world. They can also prove to be major sources of distraction. Gadgets often decrease the attention span of students. There are students who keep glancing at the social media notifications on their phone in the middle of their study sessions. You need to learn about the immense benefits of the concept of ‘delayed gratification’. Many studies of successful people have driven home the message that those who are able to control the urge for immediate gratification are able to concentrate on studies and work for long periods of time, and are thereby able to achieve success. Learning the skills of meditation, yoga and pranayam can also help you develop a calm temperament which will help you to achieve your goals.
Recent events in the country have shown that many youngsters are spending a lot of time and energy in joining and organising protests in and around their university campuses. This is a huge waste of the time of students. At a time when students should be busy building their careers, some of them are going for political marches and demonstrations. Political parties happily use the time of these students to further their own selfish causes while leaving the youngsters to their fate. I urge you not to become mere pawns of political parties in their game of acquiring and retaining power. You have to assume the ownership of your career decision. Your destiny is well and truly in your own hands! In this column, I have often told you to scan the way you deal with the 24 hours that are allotted to you everyday. If you can save even one hour that you otherwise while away every day, you will get 7 extra hours every week. This can make the big difference between success and failure when you are competing in prestigious examinations where a few marks can decide your destiny.
We often need inspiration when we are in the midst of our preparation for difficult competitive
examinations. I am sharing with you the closing lines of Nelson Mandela’s favourite inspirational poem
by the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley called ‘Invictus’. The meaning of ‘Invictus’ is ‘unconquerable’ or ‘undefeated.’ I wish that you develop indomitable spirit in the pursuit of your career goals : “It
matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll; I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.” You are truly the captain of your preparation for competitive examinations. This period when you are between 19 and 23 years old is the golden period of your life. If you work
hard in a focussed manner, you will increase your chances of success. Please remember that all your
competitors are also burning the midnight oil. It has often been said that “heights by great men reached
and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling
upwards in the night.” There is no shortcut to success. The long and arduous road of hard work is the only route to success. We at the CSR are committed to pave your path to success. With us, you can!