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“You are very self-deprecating!” recently commented a friend. She had said this earlier too. She is one of those wise ones (not because she voiced a correct thought about moi 😀 ), whose opinion I cherish.
That got me wondering. Am I really?
Fortunately or unfortunately my mother and my son are my Facebook friends. My mother who trawls my online posts with a religious zeal says that I go overboard with my online presence and going by my native South-Indian sensibilities, that is way too loud. My son thinks I’m sharing way too much information about myself.
Unlike friends, you cannot disown family. So the opposite train of thought is I am not really modest.
In the past one week, I had been attending conferences and simultaneously giving talks too.
In these conferences, we were constantly told to be more vocal about our achievements because we might be doing awesome work but others wouldn’t know because we aren’t talking enough about ourselves. The inherent conditioning and womanly hesitancy stop us from being our own vociferous advocates.
Most importantly being ambitious is good. Painting a mental picture of where you want to be in a couple of years, career-wise and working whole-heartedly towards that goal is imperative. Figuring out ones’ IKIGAI is the key first step to acing the race.
True, there are times, you might be guilt-ridden that you aren’t giving enough to the home-front. But that’s the trade-off between chasing your aspirations and stifling them. Go fall back on your support-system unabashedly. Gender-Bending starts with you.
On a side note, I have promised my daughter, I would there for her whenever she needs. She shouldn’t feel the need to give up on a hard-earned career. Time will reveal how the cards will fall.
This is where what Shah Rukh Khan said once in an interview, makes absolute sense. ‘I work for a brand called SRK’
Identify yourself as a workable brand first and work towards fructifying that dream
Also never be apologetic of who you are and what you do. Be Bold, not Brash!
Because no else one knows your story as well as you do.
No else knows how much the sores on your feet have bled
No else knows how often you have shushed those strident dreams into silent submission
No else knows what courage and iron will it finally took to break those shackles
So step out, exhale, scream to the world
That you have arrived and there is no going back.
The genie has been unleashed, there no is bottling up anymore.
Image via Pixabay
Anupama Jain is the author of 'When Padma Bani Paula', a breezy novel about second
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