One More Shot To The Top🚀
Last year, I remember I was sitting in my room one fine day when a message popped up on my screen. There was a new group debate competition being held in two weeks! I was so excited, I thought this was awesome. So I called up my friends, confident that our team will be formed in 1-2 days and all of 'em would be DYING to take part in the competition.
Let me tell you something...it took me one whole week to form a team and to find the right people, and not because "everyone was interested" but because no one was willing to try! After somehow gathering a team of three people we set about to prepare for our four topics. I again thought, "This is gonna be easy, we are going to crush this...we have a whole week ahead of us." Well as it turned out, IT WASN'T EASY. We were barely able to prepare for our two topics. I remember sitting at the table at 10 pm just one day before the competition, begging my parents for more points just so we had at least SOMETHING to say! Still, the next day I arrived early at my friend's house and we prepared with whatever ounce of determination that was left in us. Two of the debates were supposed to be prepared from before, but for the other two, we would receive the topics 45mins before the round started. On top of that, we weren't allowed to surf the net for ideas. I think those 45mins were the most desperate/hardest of my life😂😂 We were scrambling our brains looking for ideas, flipping pages in our notebooks looking for something, ANYTHING that might just save us! Somehow, 45 mins seemed even shorter than 45 seconds! But when the results were announced at the end, i.e. when our brains had completely disintegrated, our happiness knew no bounds. Sitting there cross-fingered I remember hearing our team, a mere group of insensible amateurs, win first place as we had passed all four rounds with flying colors! It was unbelievable!! (I will hold for applause)😌
Actually, when the results were announced we found out that we had LOST all four rounds...but with flying colors! I just wanted to enjoy that moment when all of you thought, "Oh my god, this girl is a genius!"💖😂
But what I'm trying to say here is that before the beginning of the competition we knew that we weren't ready. Not only did we doubt our ideas, but we doubted ourselves too...and instead of using that doubt to improve ourselves and fill in the blanks, we pushed it away thinking that everything would be alright. Two very, very bad things can happen if you ever push your second thoughts away, 1) You will fear failure and hence not try anything new and, 2) You will tackle situations head-first, only realizing later that it could have been done differently and much more easily. Everyone has some hesitation before doing something big. You need to use that hesitation, that fear of failure, to encourage yourself to work harder, search for something bigger, something better. The first few drafts are always bound to be crap. I mean honestly, this is my third shot at writing this blog! Those first drafts help you to form the idea in your head, they are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Only after trying out every combination, do you get your Eureka! moment and find the perfect one.
Take some time off and give your mind more space to think of new ideas. Search for a different perspective, and be original in your thoughts. Of course, you will definitely get some bad ideas, then very bad ideas, and then you will hit rock-bottom, but on the bright side, after rock-bottom, there's only one way, and that's UP, UP AND ABOVE! Always remember, you are never defined by your mistakes, your original, out-of-the-world masterpiece will define you. Just don't stop trying, the best lessons are always learned from the worst ideas! Even Walt Disney's former newspaper editor once told him that he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas". But now, can you imagine your childhood without Mickey Mouse?! NO ONE CAN! Nothing worth having ever comes easy. So try and fail, but NEVER fail to try.
Nice and inspiring