On D
ecember 15, 2019, with faith in my heart and twinkle in my eyes, I entered the Kampus – Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK) to join the batch of Post Graduate Program in Business Leadership (PGP-BL), a 1-year MBA program at IIMK. The banner on the front door of the college is still fresh in my memory as I vividly remember a chill down my spine at the first sight of that magnificent door. From that day onwards, something shifted and I felt that heavens smiled at me after a really long time. I was so proud of myself of making it to one of the most sought after b-schools in India and hence my dopamine level was at an all-time high.
After the ini
tial days of beautiful sunrises, mesmerizing nature, and creating everlasting friendships, the academic rigor started. It was as enjoyable as any other part of it. The long to-do lists, the pressure of deadlines, the nights before exams, the day of presentations, the group case studies, it was exactly what I wanted out of my MBA experience. Each hour was filled with so many things that it felt as if the days became longer. Remember, the feel-good sensation you get after a good workout when the legs pain, it was exactly the same and God knows I was waiting for this for so long. For me, the pain turned into beauty and I was ready to make poetry out of it.
But then, suddenly, life happened. The roller-coaster which I was on, unexpectedly stopped and I was asked to get off the ride. The whole world went into a lockdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and MBA colleges were no exception
to that. As I look back to that day, I learnt that anticipations from life are so precarious because sometimes you don’t even know what to expect, leave alone charting out a trajectory of milestones.
The whole experience of life in a ‘lockdown’ is still very bizarre and unsettling. Sometimes, the excessive noise around is deafening and the overwhelming amount of information available is drowning. Some days, I am so positive and inspired that I want to take on the world and want to do so much in less time. Contrarily, on other days, I feel so defeated and demotivated that it’s a task to even crawl out of bed.
Having said that, I still make conscious efforts to turn my face towards the sun so that I can’t see the shadow and make the most out of the situation in hand. During this whole experience, I have created a ‘4P Strategy’ (sorry, I am a sucker for frameworks) that helps me keep a tab on myself.
- Perspective: In this lockdown, apart from gaining a few kilos, I managed to gain a perspective on life in general. For the first time in life, there was no rush, no hurry to be somewhere, no haste to finish things. I utilized the new found elixir of time in reflecting, introspecting, soul-searching and it won’t be wrong to say that the lockdown brought me closer to my own self, which ironically I was searching so frantically outside.
- Positivity: Before COVID, I never really realized the power of positive affirmations and optimism. The crisis brought the whole humanity to its knees and reinforced the fact that nature is above whole mankind. In such uncertain times, I try to feed my mind with positive and constructive thoughts rather than pessimism. This actually helps me uplift my mood and make sound choices.
- Patience: The COVID calamity has also been the biggest challenge of patience. Whether it's restricting to the confines of our homes, or accepting the looming cloud of uncertainty on the head all the time, I am sure of the fact that the crisis is making me more patient and accepting as a person. After the initial struggle, I came to terms with the situation and have now realized that trying to do everything right doesn’t reduce the number of curveballs thrown at you, rather it’s just a testimony of the fact that you are adept at handling more that would come along the way.
- Persistence: Finally, the good old persistence never goes out of fashion. It's indeed the secret sauce to all the efforts that come to fruition. Sticking to the task in hand, making the most out of each opportunity and complete surrender to the goal are the true differentiators to ultimate warriors.
At last, I would like to say that there is no denying the fact that the COVID crisis has deeply affected the humanity and it indeed continues to disrupt businesses, economies, systems, and practices in place. However, it’s never a bad idea to pull out the silver linings from the dark clouds and make a sky full of stars for yourself, because if you won’t, the
n who else will?