Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Today on the podcast, we are talking about how to know how good you are. Is there a measure for whatever you do? And whoever you are? This is a question that should be in your mind somewhere. If you are a student of self-improvement, you are practicing self-improvement, and you believe in personal development. And you listen to this podcast, let’s say and you read books and you listen to other podcasts also. And this should be on top of your mind this should come at some point it has in my life, many times. And it comes from a very good place that is not from a place where you are asking that question because you may be developing an imposter syndrome.
What if you are an imposter that this is I’m not approaching? That’s not where we are going with this, this discussion today on this podcast. And people do ask that question. Because sometimes they feel like they’re doing something they truly do not represent that they don’t have in them. It happens. And I hear people telling me that I’m doing the wrong job, I’m doing a wrong job, I don’t belong to this job. I don’t see myself it’s not valuable to me. And because I’m not really feeling it within the inside of me, I think by telling what I’m telling others and doing what I’m doing. I think I’m misguiding others. That’s all a different discussion. But is there a way to measure who you are? Is there a measure? Is there a metric that you need to work towards? The answer is no. There is no measure. And there will never be a point where you will come to know how good you are at doing what you do. Because if you go for externally validating this, there are people who do things much better than you do. That’s the truth. There is talent there, there are gifts that people have that are much bigger than you. So there is no way to measure this. And there is no data to prove anything, not because somebody does something better than you doesn’t mean that you’re doing any worse. That’s the point here. So I’ve been through this myself, and I came up with three things that you need to really watch out for. And those three things will ensure that at least you’re on the track, at least you have the confidence, and at least you have the self-esteem. So the question of whether you can compete and win doesn’t arise because you are living these three things. So let’s get into this. I’m sure you’re going to find some value in this today.
That’s why I’m hoping that’s why I’m recording this. The first thing is practice. If you practice what you do, then there shouldn’t be any doubt in your mind about whether you’re good or you’re not good. All that so you should, you shouldn’t have that confusion at all, as long as you’re practicing. Practice means you’re devoting a certain amount of time every day, every hour, or every week to an activity that you think is important to you. I’ll give you an example. This podcast. This for me is practice. I’m doing this every day. So I shouldn’t be questioning whether this is good, or is this something that I should I’m not doing to the right levels, or none of that stuff that there shouldn’t be any confusion and confusion could be in different shapes and forms. But there shouldn’t be any doubt that’s the right word. There shouldn’t be any doubt. Because I do this every day.
Now, can I do it better? The answer is yes. Can this be done? can I improve it? Yes. Can I bring some elements of change? Yes. But at the bare minimum level, I’m doing this every day. So if I’m practicing them, I’m okay. So if you’re practicing what you’re doing, let’s say you’re a programmer, you’re a coder. If you’re not coding every day, then there is a problem. Because that’s what you do for a living. You should be doing that. You shouldn’t be at a point where Oh, I was good. And all I have to do is brush up a little bit and I should be okay. No, you’re not going to be okay because you’re not practicing. Let’s say you’re a musician. So you’re a singer. You were singing well, but you do not sing anymore. And every time you tell yourself that, oh, I need to just practice for a week and I’ll be back. No, you want. You cannot. Because practice means that you are in it. You’re living it. And every time you stop practicing something, it goes away. It goes away. Sit here So let you see, I was thinking of turning this podcast into a weekly podcast, I’m working through it. Because if I have a week’s time to come up with one podcast, this one is a daily podcast now. But starting in 2023, we want to turn this into a weekly podcast, this is something that I’m discussing, and it’s very dominant on my mind. But the risk that I run is, if I do that, I’m gonna lose my practice, I’m so good at doing this, that if I do not, I can do it once a week or once a month, that’s not the point. In terms of value. That’s not the point in terms of content, I don’t think it’s an issue for the listener at least. But then from my side, I’m going to drop my practice. If I drop my practice, I cannot come back into it. That’s the risk. The second one is patterns. You see, a part of your evolution is you should be able to recognize things not only in you, but in others, and everywhere, every time you see something that is working seamlessly, you should be able to spot it, we spot it day and night, we spot the traffic seamlessly. It’s very hard to spot something that is happening inside of us. So there are things that are happening automatically within you, your skills, your talents, that they’re they are happening. And working towards making you successful, you got to spot them. And once you spot them, you got to turn them into practice.
So you got to look for patterns. And if you can’t find and people back in the day, when I used to do seminars, people used to come into the seminars and sit there and like, I’m going to go through this self-exploration exercise, because I want to discover myself, you cannot discover yourself in a room through a worksheet. But that is a start, it’s a good start to have. But that is not where the change happens. Or that is not where the realization of change happens. Or you recognize change, you start the change. So the best way to understand patterns is obviously to engage in a long-drawn self-exploration process, which I think you’re doing anyway. Because you listen to this podcast, and every other podcast, and read books and all that. But then you got to ask around, you got to talk to people who know you more than you think you know yourself. It’s not that they know more. It’s just that they see things in you that you cannot see. Because our eyes are always outward, not inward, mostly. And to see inward, we need to use the brain sign, not the eye. It’s hard, it’s difficult. So ask around, and find out what people see in you that you don’t see. And then sometimes you got to remind yourself that this goes back into the self-exploration part, you got to remind yourself to see things that you already have done. But somehow things are showing up in your life again, as you’ve done you. I’ll give an example. I was watching a webinar, and somebody was talking about this technique. And at some point, I said, Wow, okay, this is amazing. This is incredible. And I let it go like it was amazing. So I took some notes. And then And recently, I was going through some of my old recordings on a hard drive. And one of the recordings was from the year 2007. And the same thing I was talking about in 2007. In one of my presentations in one of my recordings, a live event, I completely forgot about it. And again, this goes back to the original point, if you don’t practice it goes away.
So I was like, oh my god, I take this back in 2007. And here I am in 2022. Listening to this again as if it’s new. It’s funny, Life is funny. So God sometimes rewinds, and I go back and listen to some of my old recordings. And I learned from my old recordings, at least have started doing that now. And the third one is your personality, your persona is something that you got to keep on developing and there is no measure for this. And as long as you’re somehow developing your personality, then I think there is nothing to measure. There is nothing that you need to get worried about. So what is personality? There are two parts to it. One is the Be your dress. And the second is how you address it. So let’s talk about the dress part. The dressing is not impressed someone, you could be in any dress, I dress up in a certain way, you may dress up in a certain way, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter what you put on your, on your body, that’s not the discussion here. Dressing means a smile, and small, little ornamentations, that reflected values. That’s the key here, lot of small little ornaments or whatever you call them, small little things, a smile, a gesture, things like that, in a good way. Of course, the addressing part has to do with the words that you say, because personality in general is your values. And in the way you dress and the way you address the reflected value. So you’re angry, unhappy, dejected, worried, over overwhelmed, all will show up in the way you show up, they will, and those things will reflect in you. So clearly, your mannerisms. And the most important part is your personality is conveying your self-worth.
So there has to be a set of activities that you need to engage them to refine your personality, constantly thinking about you know, what to do, what not to do, how to do this, how to do that? Is it right? Is it wrong? You got to be questioning that and the choice of words. And again, here here is where reading and learning all that comes in because you cannot have the right words come out of your mouth unless you have the right words in your mind. And the right words in the mind come from programming. And programming means reading books, attending seminars, learning, acknowledging and processing, and also unlearning a lot of things. So there’s a lot to this. But the true measure of a life, a true measure of a life is practice patterns and personality, at least according to me. And again, there are different true meanings of life in different contexts. But if you do these three things in my understanding, then you are you’re good. And you don’t need to measure yourself. You don’t need to compete. You don’t need to put yourself in front of someone and say, hey, look, I look much taller than you. Or I’m much heavier than you. I’m better built than you.
None of these things matter because you are your own reflection at that point. Hey, that’s all for now. I hope this is helpful. If it is let me know. And before you know it, I’ll be with you as early as tomorrow with another podcast. So keep listening. Stay tuned.