PERSONALITY
I personally believe that my personality has been shaped wholly by the experiences I have been through in my past 22 years. Whether it be from my shy, docile, withdrawn, reserved self during my first few years from kindergarten to primary school to my later developed outgoing, friendly and sociable attitude which I have inculcated in myself over the years.
My personality has been shaped by the innumerable incidents that have occurred in my life. Each event has shaped me in a way I may not be aware of yet. It’s called The Butterfly Effect, which states that even the flutter of a butterfly’s wings over the Ocean can cause a typhoon in some distant land. Every happening in my 22 years has changed some part of me and some part of my future. Personality is not constant, it changes as time passes. Circumstances lead to a change of outlook, a change of position, a change of stance, which in turn would lead to a change of personality.
However I view things today, will change after a couple of years. If asked about my personality I will have nothing definitive to say, for the personality is what defines a person and it is the hardest thing to be able to define yourself and what I say today at 0420 on the 24th of August will not hold true 5 years (or maybe even 5 minutes) from now! Personality has no definition, no answers and more importantly will differ with people’s perceptions, it will differ with time and it will differ with the choices we make.
It’s said that man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is and the most important product of his effort is his own personality.
PERCEPTION
Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?" ~ Calvin
A verse from the Veda says, 'What you see, you become.' In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are.
Perception is a feedback, perception is an outlook, perception is what is based on the innumerable experiences I have had with the unimaginable number of people I have already met and the manner in which they have deciphered those instances to draw a rough sketch of me. Now each of these people have made their own sketch with their own paint and brush. These ‘sketches’ may or may not be the same for all of them, nor may they match the one I have drafted for myself, but yet the central element in all of these remains the same. These perceptions so drawn about me by them will vary from the time I met them, the mood I was in when I met them and the pre-conceived notions they were nursing in their minds before they met me.
The perception my parents have about me is very different from what my friends, my teachers and my acquaintances have developed. My parents took me as a rebel and I can corroborate it in the way he said “Good Luck” to my roommate in my graduation college. My second engineer on ship considered me a maverick; my teachers right from my kindergarten days considered me a conformist, my girl considers me eccentric and my friends consider me born lucky. Each of these perceptions differs (but ofcourse) but then, I still am the same wine tasted by all of them……just in different glasses.
I perceive myself as a go-getter, an achiever, an extrovert and a whole lot of fun. Life for me is based solely around friends, family, football and more football. My perception about myself varies as to the state of mind I am in, 95% of the time I know exactly what I want and the remaining 5% of the time is when I am contemplating what I want to do next. Be it parents or even a shrink, there are not many individuals in this world who can actually perceive another perfectly and even fewer whose perception will match the other person’s actual personality.
Perception is what you see yourself as, the good, the bad or the ugly, but in the end it is you. To quote a famous brand, “I am what I am” and people may come close but will never be able to view anyone perfectly.
MOTIVATION
I believe that there are basically two kinds of people in this world, those who want it and those who want it more, and more often than not the ones who want it more get it more frequently. This is motivation. When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you'll find a way to get it, infact the whole world actually conspires to help you with it too. Motivation is nothing more than a desire and a desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Motivation is what drives a person but then motivation alone is not enough, if you have an idiot and you motivate him, you end up with a motivated idiot. Motivation requires direction, a path, a course, a trail to lead you to the right direction.
Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a "must" and "want." Once people are able to discriminate between what they must and should have, motivation is all taken care of.
Motivation is what makes us all tick; it is what makes us go ahead with the work. I deem myself to be centred around the moment, I live for it, its what makes me look forward to the rest of the day, its what makes me get out of bed, its what keeps me up all night to watch a football match.
I get motivated by a whole horde of things, be it materialistic or emotional. Fun, friends and life are high on my priority list. Personally, to be able to sit and look back at my handiwork with ease is one of the biggest motivating factors. It’s what drives me to get the work done. Onboard the ship it was what made me get down to the engine room day in and day out. To wake up at an unreasonable hour, don overalls and work in 40 C and at times stay awake for weeks on end takes a lot of effort and a burning desire to perform.
As the great Mohammed Ali said, “To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
Demotivation is a state where you start to believe that when your best is just not good enough. You try and try hard to stay clear of such a state, but then we're all only human and our heart affects our mind, which in turn will affect our conduct. We just need to remember that we all get demotivated at times.
There are always a hug number of demotivating factors in one’s life. It is upto the individual to stay unambiguous of them. There are varying instances I get demotivated, it could be if Manchester United do not win, if I don’t perform upto my expectations or if I don’t perform upto some else’s expectations. At times like these all I can do is end up visualising what I did wrong (or maybe what Man Utd. did wrong) and hope for the best the next time. We need to grasp the actuality that no amount of anger, tears or depression can make things good again and thus we just need to stay clear of stress inducing circumstances.
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