Podcast script 2-My story of dreaming big, failing, and succeeding

Script Hello there, in this episode, let me tell you my story, story of dreaming big, failing and succeeding. Before that, if you ask me why should you dream big? I want to give you 3 reasons.

It will give you a sense of purpose in life. You will look forward to something every single day.

The process of getting there will change you for good, it will make you stronger, more confident and happier. One of the renowned motivational speakers Les Brown once said "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” The journey of achieving a big dream will make you a better version of yourself.

You are capable to do it. So, why not? Right? Just dream big

Okay, now let's come to my story. A little backdrop into the story, I grew up in a small town where having big career plans, having dreams about achieving a lot were not very common. You know, people are happy with their slow lives, get a decent education and get a job that pays decently or do something that everyone else is doing, get married and get settled, that was the scene. But I always dreamt big. when I say I dreamt big, it doesn't mean I wanted to earn millions of dollars or own a huge company or it doesn't even mean I wanted to get admission in IIT or IIM. It just means my dreams were a little bigger than most of my peers or the people around me. To be more precise, I wanted to do that thing which people around me thought impossible, because it was a small town, students here didn't have much exposure to the outer world, we didn;t have much contacts and the education was also kinda basic. Okay, so the story starts when I finished my 12th standard. When most people thought engineering or MBBS was the only choices, I wanted to study basic science. I wanted to choose something that interested me, rather than following the crowd. Then I did my BSc in a local college, and then I started thinking of really big things. I wanted to join a prestigious university for my masters, because I decided that I need something more than what the local university could offer. I wanted to meet people from all over the country, I wanted to speak fluent English, which was not possible at the local university. I wanted to study in a very different, broad minded environment, you understand what I'm talking about, right? So I started applying to all the central universities, wrote a few entrance exams, I applied to all other state universities, other district universities. Mind you, this was in 2012, and we didn't have a computer at home, or internet on my phone. I used to visit those cyber cafes if you still remember them! Unfortunately, I didn't clear any exam except 1 exam. So, I was happy I was almost sure that I will get into this prestigious university. And I went there for the interview, it was the first time I travelled out of my state and I was really excited. But life hits you hard when you're least expecting, right? I missed my chance there by a few marks. So, there I realized that I don't have any choice other than my local university. I was heartbroken. I remember how I cried the whole journey back, that my father was so worried for me. So, I finally got admission in my local university. I was disappointed, yes, but I didn't stop dreaming. I started dreaming about doing my PhD in some prestigious institutes of the country. I started aiming for IITs or IISc, that kind of institutes. I started looking for entrance exams, I started studying for them in my leisure hours. I cut down on my chats with friends, outings, trips and I studied all the time. There were so many people saying negative things like 'whoever studies in this university, ends up here, they will not go anywhere'. It was really demotivating at times to hear such comments, but I was determined to prove them all wrong. It's not that I wanted to do it for proving them wrong, but I wanted to do it for myself. I wanted to be among few of the intelligent scientists of the country, I wanted that exposure. Okay, I wrote the PhD entrance exams just after finishing my masters, and I didn't clear them. I was disheartened but still I didn't stop dreaming! I decided to go for coaching to clear the entrance exams. I went to Delhi for 6 months for coaching, then I finally cleared GATE exam and cleared a few interviews in IITs and finally joined JNCASR for my PhD. This is my story of dreaming big, failures and success. Even when I was doing my PHD, I felt like I should do something more and I started my side hustle as a life coach. I grew my instagram page from scratch. Now I'm almost at the end of my PhD and I haven't stopped dreaming big! I have big dreams for my career which I will share with you in coming days. So, if you ask me what I have learnt from all this,

The first step in achieving anything is dreaming about it.

The second step is to turn that dream into your aim or goal. Right? Maybe by writing them down, setting exact goals, or by announcing it to someone who can hold you accountable, so you turn your dream into your aim at this point.

And then comes effort. It's so important to put in the effort it takes to achieve whatever you dream. Almost everyone in this world dreams about many things, but only few people are ready to work hard, so let's be one of those few people.

Next is perseverance. See many of you might relate to this, and even I have been there. We start things with a lot of enthusiasm and josh and then we don't persevere as soon as we hit a road block. When you're going to achieve something big, failures, hurdles will be there on the way, for sure right? The only feature that separates people who conquer their dreams from the people who don't is perseverance and grit. Failures are nothing but the lessons you learnt in the process. So, remember, don't give up on your dreams, ever!

Having a positive mindset- Many times I didn't use to get results in my PhD experiments and I used to be very upset and think I'm not good enough, I can't learn this etc etc. I am in the transition from a very negative mindset to a positive and growth mindset. The belief that everything is going to be fine, and the belief in yourself, that you are capable of learning it, you can do this- having this mindset goes a long way.

These are some of the lessons I have learnt through my journey of dreaming, failing and succeeding. I want to tell you through this episode, dream big, whatever that ,means to you. If it’s earning a few extra bucks from your side hustle, so be it. If it’s about joining a better college, fine. If being happy and healthier is your big dream, that’s fine too, or if you want to take an unconventional career path or own your business go for it. Let me sum up the episode for you- dream big because it's worth it. Convery your dreams into your aims and goals, put in the effort, persevere your dreams, don't ever give up on them, try to have a positive mindset throughout and you will definitely achieve all your dreams. That's it for today guys. In the coming episodes We will talk more about conquering the dreams by being positive, building habits, reading books and also taking care of ourselves. Stay tuned!