Anxiety and Failure!

This blog entry was written while I was in QM class. Sorry for getting too mathematical!

If there is one parameter which can really measure your variability ( for those who love operations ) or variance ( for those of who still manage to love QM2) from an average state of mind, it is really ANXIETY. In fact, all our negative emotions we talked about in the last post, add up to one single thing and that is anxiety. Let us see how it actually works.

First of all, we all have different settling times (remember control systems?) post any unsettling event. Now that is hard on some of us. All the cool dudes you see around you, they essentially have very low settling times. Anxiety is worsened by the fact that our mind plays like an badly designed amplifier with positive feedback ( omg.. And people think we learn nothing from engineering) in such situations. One negative thought leads to 10 more and so on.

Now here is the worst thing that comes along with anxiety - Failure! Do you remember the times when you were super excited and screwed up? Or India's defeat in world cup final 2003?

Let us hear what Sri Sri has to say about this ..

Can you be ever certain about the world around you? No. You can only be uncertain about your surroundings. Can you afford to be uncertain about yourself? NO. A big No.

Let us translate this for our situation

1. Environment There are n number of companies, n number of expectations from others and yourself, n number of shortlisting and interview criteria , n number of competitors (our dear batch mates) and n days of anxiety and so on.

Now this is crazy. Some X company wants to see "Spikes". Another one shortlists 100 people with different profiles for 3 4 positions. What the hell are they thinking? Well if you ever feel angry about the whole situation, just shout at the top of your voice!! On the other hand, these are things which you can not control.

So it is ok to be uncertain about environment. It affects of us equally!!

2. Me , Myself ( and Irene - Jim Carrey was just hilarious in this movie XD)

See think of a person who always stood by you in your worst times. If you are correct, you can see him/her in the mirror. Yes, this dude/dudette you see in the mirror is one person who never gives up on you and he/she is going to get you through next 15 days or so.

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are. Confucius

I can not resist writing about this story ( read originally in an article by Vinoba Bhave). Once upon a time , the earth's surface became very hot ( just the way fevers are running high here in campus). The prince was this dude who always came up with "global" ideas. So he suggested the King, his father that a grand carpet should be made and should be rolled to cover all the ground of the whole of the kingdom. The king listened to him very kindly and then said, " Dear RG, why don't you wear chappals? "

So kick out all the worries. Information about environment is good. Too much of an information is bad. Whatever you come to know, internalize that information and then do the most important thing you should do. Focus on yourself. Figure out your strengths, build on them. Find out your weaknesses and work upon them. If it is too much of a weakness, figure out a way so no questions from that direction hit you in the interview. I am going to end this section of my post with an interesting quote I found out few minutes back

We are all prime numbers divisible by ourselves - John Guitton.

Failure!

Well just the mention of the word brings horrible thoughts to our mind. But let me bust some myths here. First of all, there is not anything called as failure. There can only be stepping stones towards success. Second, the number of shortlist has nothing to do with the success you will achieve during the D-day. Bargaining power is a myth. For all you know, you are going to work for ONE single company. So whether you have 10 shortlists ( I really feel for these guys, they will not be able to attend more than 30% of the interviews) or 1 shortlist , it is important you crack that ONE interview.

However, here is the deal. You are probably going to hear a NO before you hear a YES. Here is what I think about whats going to happen.

Probability( Success || You hear a NO and still face the next interview confidently) = ~ 1.

Probability( Success || You hear a NO and go mad with anxiety) = ~ 0.

The mantra is "Live in the present". A No is a thing of past. Well, do understand why you got a NO. In this particular case, the reason will most probably be someone performed better in those 10 30 minutes than you did. That does not mean you can not improve your performance. Did you see what magic our cricket team created post a debacle in England?

So while you prepare very hard for your case studies and financial gyaan, make sure you also ready yourself for a battle outside the interview room. You will be in the position of Arjuna and you will be your Krishna < If you have a dear friend to help you out, make sure you treat him with chocolates and stuff in next few days :P . His/ her talk will sweeten the whole experience for you.>

So I repeat,each one of us is more than our resumes and each one of us will be just all right no matter what the journey demands. So let us keep our cool and let us keep the balls rolling! XD XD