Live it Like Ansh

Hitting rock bottom and building something from scratch all over again is one of my favourite feelings ever. People don’t understand that it’s something we’ve been doing since we were kids. Whenever your tower of blocks fell, or you completed your favourite Lego set, did you leave it as it was, or did you start from scratch again? When your little brother stepped on a puzzle you had been solving for days, or your dog spilt coffee on your assignment, would you give up and leave it?

We adults don’t seem to understand this simple logic, and we tend to feel like it is the end of the world. I’m not sure about the intensity of our problems, but I have a simple rule to deal with. Firstly, I would check whether someone has done it before. If yes, I can solve it, and I already have a way to do it. If not, then it’s even better; I’m getting the challenge to do something which might even be impossible. I might sound stupid, but we’ve come across this kind of situation so many times. For example, once in college, my flatmate and I had back-to-back exams with a 2-hour break in between. The second one was the most challenging subject, so we focused only on the first (they were optional but had to be given once). Then, after we were done with that, we decided to chill since we had already given up, but the guilt was troubling us. There was nothing we could do since 1 hour had already passed, so we decided to toss about whether we should take the test, and the outcome made us appear for it with 45 minutes of dedicated study. We scored our highest semester marks and had one of the funniest stories to tell.

The reason I wasted so much of your precious time telling you this story, which you could’ve used in watching more reels, is that it’s not hard to make tough decisions; sometimes they may turn out to be the best ones you’ve ever taken. Life is too short not to take that leap of faith because what’s the worst that can happen if you do? Your life remains as it is and doesn’t go as you wanted it to be, but answer this for me: what if you don’t make those risky decisions? Your life remains the same, and I don’t know about you but for me, it’s one of the scariest feelings, so why not do something about it?

Okay, enough with the motivation, let me warn you again: I started this blog talking about rock bottom, and when I talked you into taking that leap of faith, remember life will punch you to the ground. Your head will bounce with the impact more than I count (just like in those cartoons), but I want you to jump back on your own just one single time every time life pushes you down. I have two quotes I followed during that time; one is obviously by our favourite Rocky- “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”, and the other one is “God gives his strongest battles to his strongest soldiers.”

When you are down, you get endless opportunities to get up and do something different; ninety-nine per cent of people don’t take them. It’s a beautiful place to be in when you are stripped of all ego and pride, and there is nothing else you can think about but getting back stronger. Nobody talks about you, nobody remembers you, hell, even people don’t even bother about your birthdays. At this time, you must realise, my friend, that you are not doing any good to these people if you are listening to them or not. Do whatever your heart says and wait for the magic to happen. The same people will tell stories about how good you have been throughout the start. Don’t speak anything; let the world talk about you and wonder what’s next for you. Act dumb, play smart. Give them every reason not to believe in you, and when it’s done, don’t say anything; the Sherlock’s will find it out themselves.

Talking about what I’m up to these days, it’s been one hell of a ride, and I’ll quote the first two lines from one of my all-time favourite songs- “Khada hun aaj bhi wahi, ki dil fir bekaraar hai.”

“When there is no turning back, then we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward.”
-Paulo Coelho