By
Nandini
January 15, 2020
Quite a few of my friends visit San Francisco ( SF) for their work and get all charged up during their stay, their energy is simply infectious. And I hear & read about so many start-up stories based out of SF, that it seems like a magical World out there. In fact, when we see their impact in our daily lives like our dependency on Uber or Dropbox or Slack, it only reinforces the desire to be there in the most happening place of the World. The way I was looking at SF, was that I just had to get there and I would get transformed into a super me.
I had a casual conversation with a geek school friend of mine who has been working there for a while now. I asked him about the lifestyle of SF to further make my reinforcements stronger.
His answer was not something new and I keep hearing about it from every corner of the self help books or articles. It did have a different effect hearing it from him though. May be my state of mind was receptive only then.
At the least, 50% of transformation I was expecting would still depend on me.
The internal me.
He kind of cleared the clouded illusion I was living in.
He said “ Nandini for any person just the external world or environment can’t do the magic, unless the person really has the conviction to transform. Yeah, the environment around does have an impact however, it would be majorly be driven by the kind of person you put, in such an environment.”
It happens to quite a few of us, where we wish or dream or aspire that if only we had an opportunity that another person had or if only we were in that place, our lives would have been lot different. All this may be true to an extent. However, when you succumb to such a thought you loose the control of your life to something intangible.
While on the other hand, take control of your life in your hands and transform it where ever you at this moment to the direction you aspire. And soon you will find yourself there. A beautiful quote that reiterates the same
“Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.” -Hal Elrod
I don’t deny that external environment has immense value. This dilemma of internal world or an external environment does play a role. However, even to make the best use of opportunity of living in such an environment one has to take the first step of charging ourselves with change and action. You have to be at your best game.
So when the first step anyway depends on us, why not start it where ever we are?
“Success is 1 percent in inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison
So what do you want to become in 2020?