Article#27: Goals

“A goal properly set is halfway reached”, a wonderful quote that I read somewhere. Every one of us have goals about something or the other at some point of our lives. While the moment we achieve our goals becomes important, I believe the journey to reach that moment also equally matters. This article is about how I reached my own goals at various phases of my life.

It was January 2010, almost 9 years ago, the time I was in the final year of my college. We got to know that in another one month, we are going to have our on-campus placements by one of the top MNC, none other than TCS. We would have an aptitude test followed by three rounds of interviews, technical, MR and HR. All the 4 years we used to have aptitude classes once in a week. But I never took them seriously and was in my own world with my friends. However, that moment I strongly decided to get selected in the campus. I got so obsessed with it that I ignored almost everything and everyone around. I borrowed the very famous book, ‘RS Agarwal Aptitude’ from our college library and started working on every chapter in it. I never used to take a step out until I complete a single chapter at a moment. No college, No friends, No mobile chitchat, No rides outside, in short I could see only my goal in and around. Within a short span, I could complete the book and learnt many new things in Aptitude. In the meantime, the day was round the corner. I took all the required suggestions from my seniors. The usual test till that time included Aptitude, Vocabulary and reasoning. However, that day we noticed a change in the pattern. It was completely on Aptitude and even there was negative marking. We were surprised. I gave my best for the test and eagerly waited for the results. Whoa, I was one among the 20 students who got selected in the written test out of 150 that attempted the test. Only one day we had for interviews in between. I didn’t sleep in the night before the interviews. I had the first round of interview for an hour, almost on everything that I studied all the 4 years. It was very tough. The second round was average while the third was awesome. I gave my best in all the rounds, but somewhere I wasn’t sure if I could crack it. Finally the results were announced. I was one among the 14 students who cleared all rounds of interviews out of 20 that attended. Only 2 students from our Computer Science Department got selected and I was one out of them. That moment, I cannot forget in my life because I understood that if you put your best efforts for something, no one can stop you from achieving it.

It was January 2014, almost 5 years ago, completed three years of career in IT Industry with some ups and downs. This time I targeted to be in my own flat. Things were not easy because I was at the age of 24 and not much aware of anything clearly. How to find a house? Where to find? What are the criteria? How does the process start? Whom to contact? How would it go? Where does it end? Lot of questions. Slowly I started to know the information from known contacts. I used to roam in the city during the daytime and attend office shift during the night time for a month, the most challenging days of my life. From the initial time of agreement to the bank loan till the registration date, there were many problems, many issues. But that didn’t stop me from moving ahead. The first time when I saw the flat, I thought it was mine, I decided not to look back and move forward whatever the case it would be. I showed it to my friends and relatives for their opinions. To a major extent, I received positive vibes from everyone. I wasn’t aware of the process or documentation. So, in each and every step, I ensured to keep someone from family or friends who got experience in this area along with me or at least checked with them on call about the details. I got all the link documents verified by a trust-worthy lawyer, my uncle. I roamed around 3-4 banks for loans and opted the best out of them based on criteria like time, process, ROI, etc. There was a signature mismatch from the other party in one of the documentation due to which I had to bring my lawyer uncle into picture. I took lot of pressure, I had sleepless days as I was doing night shift in office. Even the registration date wasn’t confirmed exactly till a day before. But it happened so quickly that finally I was in my own flat within a week after the registration. It was another special moment for me because I understood that it’s not necessary for you to be clear on the journey to reach a goal. What counts is your determination.

It was January 2018, a year ago, got to know about Toastmasters in my office building. I attended the meeting for the first time. I love to talk on stage, but that very first day, I was nervous and gave an average talk during the table topics session. However, even after the meeting, I was thinking about it. I wanted to make it big on stage some day in table topics. For the second time when I was on stage, I was too tensed that I lost my mind completely. I didn’t know what I was talking. I gave a super duper flop. I was disappointed like anything that day. It took 3-4 weeks for me to gain some strength and courage to go on the stage again because I felt as I gave a flop, the next time if I go, I should give a hit. Finally, the day has come. Somehow, I managed to talk so well in the table topics using even the word of the day and idiom of the day that I ended up getting best table topics speaker for the first time. That was another amazing moment for me because I understood that if you want to achieve something, you shouldn’t give up.

To conclude, if you put your best efforts with strong determination without giving up on failures in between, nothing can stop you from reaching your goals. So, set your goals at the best and become successful. All the best.