Finding what are you good at | Drishti Sharma | TEDxGPREC

Summary

In a heartfelt speech, the speaker shares her transformative journey from a shy, underconfident girl to a successful content creator. She reflects on her struggles with self-doubt and societal expectations, revealing how she overcame personal challenges through perseverance and curiosity. By participating in various competitions and seeking new experiences, she eventually discovered her passion for content creation, leading her to leave a traditional job for a more fulfilling career. The speaker emphasizes the importance of believing in oneself, being curious, and taking calculated risks, inspiring others to step out of their comfort zones and pursue their dreams.

Takeaways

• 😀 Embrace Change: Transitioning from a traditional life plan to pursuing your passions can lead to unexpected opportunities.
• 😅 Overcoming Fear: Facing personal challenges can help build confidence and resilience.
• 📚 The Power of Reading: Discovering impactful literature can transform your mindset and inspire new paths.
• 🌱 Continuous Learning: Staying curious and open to new experiences fosters personal growth and self-discovery.
• 💪 Self-Discovery: It's crucial to explore various interests to find what truly resonates with you.
• 🏆 Celebrate Small Wins: Each attempt to step out of your comfort zone, regardless of the outcome, is a victory in itself.
• 📈 Taking Risks: Transitioning from a stable job to pursuing a passion project requires courage and careful planning.
• 💖 Follow Your Heart: It's important to pursue what you love while also considering practical implications.
• 👩‍💻 Content Creation Journey: Turning a hobby into a career can be fulfilling, but it comes with challenges.
• ✨ Believe in Yourself: Cultivating self-belief is essential for achieving your dreams and overcoming societal expectations.

Q & A

What initial mindset did the speaker have about their future?

The speaker initially believed they would lead a typical middle-class life, focusing on education, marriage, and raising children.

What personal challenges did the speaker face during their schooling?

They were shy, lacked confidence, and felt out of place after transitioning from a state board to an elite English-speaking school.

How did the speaker's experience with their principal impact them?

When the speaker was injured and couldn't greet the principal, they struggled to communicate due to anxiety, leading to feelings of exclusion and further diminishing their confidence.

What actions did the speaker take to overcome their challenges?

The speaker participated in various competitions, which helped them step out of their comfort zone, despite losing most of them.

What pivotal moment changed the speaker's perspective on their life?

The speaker discovered a book titled 'The Power of Subconscious Mind,' which emphasized that their current life was a result of past thoughts and that changing their mindset could alter their future.

How did the speaker transition into content creation?

During the pandemic, the speaker started converting their written blogs into video content, which eventually led them to pursue content creation full-time.

What does the speaker identify as a significant societal conditioning for women?

The speaker notes that women are often conditioned to believe their main goal is to prepare for marriage rather than pursuing ambitious careers or personal goals.

What are the three key lessons the speaker wants to impart?

1. Believe in yourself and your dreams. 2. Stay curious and continually learn. 3. Follow your heart while using your head for calculated risks.

What was the speaker's ultimate realization about their capabilities?

The speaker realized that if they could overcome their initial fears and insecurities, anyone could achieve their goals with perseverance and effort.

What advice does the speaker offer for those hesitant to step out of their comfort zone?

The speaker encourages taking small steps each day to push beyond comfort zones, emphasizing that growth often requires stepping into unfamiliar territory.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Embracing the Stage: A Journey from Fear to Confidence

In this part, the speaker reflects on her remarkable journey from being an introverted girl in the audience to standing confidently on stage. She shares her early life expectations, which revolved around a typical middle-class upbringing, marked by self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy after transitioning to a more competitive school environment. A personal incident where she struggled to speak in English during a school visit by the principal further shattered her confidence, leading to anxiety about social interactions. Ultimately, she decided to take control of her life by participating in various competitions, despite often losing. This decision was the first step toward personal growth and set the stage for her eventual transformation.

05:00

🔍 Seeking Purpose: Navigating Career Challenges

In this section, the speaker discusses her initial job experience, feeling trapped in a cubicle that did not align with her aspirations. She explores different career paths, such as interior design, wedding planning, and teaching dance, but finds them unfulfilling. This period is characterized by her search for a 'something else' that would resonate with her passion. The turning point arrives when she discovers a transformative book that reshapes her mindset, encouraging her to take control of her destiny rather than blaming external circumstances. This newfound perspective leads her to embrace content creation as a side hustle, which ultimately becomes a significant aspect of her life.

10:02

🚀 Breaking Free: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Here, the speaker delves into the challenges of transitioning from a corporate employee to a self-employed content creator. Despite her success, she grapples with deeply rooted societal expectations and limiting beliefs regarding women's roles. She reflects on her upbringing, which instilled the notion that her life would revolve around marriage and family rather than personal ambition. To combat this, she engages in self-reflection and works on unlearning these ingrained beliefs. The speaker shares three crucial lessons: the importance of believing in oneself, the value of curiosity and continuous learning, and the necessity of taking calculated risks. She concludes with an empowering message, encouraging others to push their boundaries and discover their true potential.

Keywords

💡Transformation

Transformation refers to a significant change in form, appearance, or character. In the context of the video, it represents the speaker's journey from being a shy, introverted girl to a confident individual capable of speaking in public. This transformation underscores the main theme of personal growth, illustrating how overcoming challenges can lead to a profound change in self-identity and capabilities.

💡Self-Belief

Self-belief is the confidence in one's own abilities and potential. The speaker emphasizes the importance of believing in oneself as a crucial step towards achieving dreams. For example, she shares that once she chose to believe she could change her circumstances, her mindset shifted, allowing her to take control of her destiny and pursue her passions.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or setbacks. Throughout her narrative, the speaker exemplifies resilience by continuously trying new things despite facing repeated failures in competitions and career pursuits. Her determination to keep pushing forward, even when she felt close to giving up, highlights the power of resilience in achieving personal and professional growth.

💡Curiosity

Curiosity is the desire to learn or know more about something. The speaker encourages cultivating curiosity to explore different fields and gain new experiences. She mentions her various attempts at different jobs and hobbies, emphasizing that curiosity led her to discover her passion for content creation, which ultimately changed her career trajectory.

💡Empowerment

Empowerment refers to the process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or control what happens to you. The speaker's story illustrates her journey of empowerment as she breaks free from societal expectations and limiting beliefs. By taking charge of her life and making her own choices, she inspires others to seek their own empowerment.

💡Comfort Zone

A comfort zone is a psychological state in which a person feels familiar, safe, and at ease. The speaker discusses how stepping out of her comfort zone was necessary for personal growth. She describes her initial reluctance to engage in competitions and how, by taking that first step to participate, she began her journey toward self-improvement.

💡Limitations

Limitations are restrictions or constraints that hinder progress or potential. The speaker reflects on the limitations imposed by societal norms and her own upbringing, which initially confined her aspirations. Recognizing these limitations was a pivotal moment in her journey, prompting her to challenge and redefine her goals.

💡Passion

Passion is a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something. The speaker's journey illustrates the importance of finding one's passion through exploration and experimentation. Her eventual discovery of content creation as a fulfilling endeavor highlights how pursuing one's passion can lead to career satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

💡Calculated Risks

Calculated risks involve making informed decisions that have a potential for both reward and loss. The speaker discusses the importance of taking calculated risks in her career transition from a stable job to content creation. By weighing the pros and cons and planning her move carefully, she illustrates that thoughtful risk-taking can lead to greater opportunities.

💡Personal Challenges

Personal challenges are difficulties or obstacles that one faces in their life journey. The speaker recounts various personal challenges, such as her struggles with shyness and language barriers, which shaped her character. By overcoming these challenges, she highlights that facing adversity is often a precursor to growth and self-discovery.

Highlights

The speaker reflects on her transition from being an audience member to standing on stage, emphasizing the significance of this journey.

She shares her initial belief that she would lead a typical middle-class life, outlining the conventional path she expected.

The speaker recounts her struggles with shyness and low self-confidence during her schooling, especially after shifting to an elite English-speaking environment.

An experience of being unable to speak to her principal due to a language barrier profoundly impacted her self-esteem.

She faced bullying and exclusion from peers, which intensified her anxiety and fears about making friends.

Determined to change her situation, she opted to take control of her life and sought to improve her confidence through various activities.

The speaker participated in multiple competitions, despite frequently losing, which helped her step out of her comfort zone.

After college, she felt unfulfilled in her job and sought to discover her true passions.

She attempted various careers, including interior design and wedding planning, but found them unsatisfactory.

A pivotal moment occurred when she stumbled upon a book that inspired her to change her mindset about her future.

The realization that her thoughts shaped her reality led her to take proactive steps towards achieving her goals.

She began to write blogs about her reading, which eventually transitioned into content creation during the pandemic.

The speaker experienced significant growth in her content creation journey, eventually leaving her corporate job.

She faced challenges in adjusting to her new role as a self-employed individual, struggling with the transition from employee to boss.

The speaker highlighted societal pressures on women regarding career and marriage, revealing how they influenced her self-perception.

She emphasizes the importance of unlearning limiting beliefs to pursue one's dreams more freely.

The speaker concludes with three key lessons: believe in yourself, stay curious, and take calculated risks.

Transcripts

so this is how it feels to be on such a

big stage I'll tell you why I started my

speech with this sentence because a few

years back I used to be a person who

used to sit in the audience right there

and today and I'm standing at the

opposite end with a mic speaking on the

stage it's a wonderful

feeling

the the distance from the stage to the

audience it might be of a few feet but

the journey from sitting there to

standing here has been quite an

extensive

one to give you some context let me take

you to my pre- Enlightenment

days I always believe that I'm going to

lead a typical middle class girls life

where in first I'll graduate then I'll

do my postgraduation then find a job

then get married have kids and then

spend rest of my life raising those

kids but something changed and life took

a different turn for

me but before this turn could happen I

had to face some personal

challenges during my schooling times I

was a shy underconfidence and

introverted girl who never believed in

herself who shifted from a state board

to IC board and that made her feel out

of place

because between those Elite English

speaking kids I felt as if I have no

clue about how to speak in English and I

still remember one day like my leg got

leg got sprained in school and was I was

so injured that I couldn't stand

properly and call it my luck or bad luck

my principal visited the class on the

same day while on the other day she used

to sit in her cabin and have lunch or

food everyone stood up to greet her

except this one scared girl who was

injured when asked for the reason I

couldn't utter a single word because in

my mind I was wondering

what could be the English translation

of I was so worried to utter even a

single word and I just I just sat there

without saying anything while the

principal kept asking me for the

reason and when my friends got to know

about my translation problem they

started making fun of me they started

saying bad things about me and they

started excluding ining me from the

group as if I didn't belong to their

Elite

Community it shattered my confidence and

I was anxious throughout my life for

making friends in

general I carried this anxiety with me

everywhere even in my college even in my

school and after after a point I was so

tired of trying to fit in trying to

please everyone trying to beg every want

to be my

friend I realized that I can't be a

person who's always lost who's always

sitting in the corner who has no

friends at that point I had two options

one was to cry rant or blame God for

making me shift from a state board to

ICC

Board second was to wipe off my tears

and stand for myself and I chose the

second

option that was the first time I chose

to take things into my control if the

older dishy didn't push herself that day

I don't think I would have been standing

here speaking about my life

story so back then the first step that I

took to be a better version of myself

was to take part into debate

competitions dance competitions drawing

competition any kind of competition that

used to happen I used to give my name to

it and that was my first personal

challenge but the funny thing is I lost

at almost every challenge every

competition that I took part in and it

shattered my confidence even more but

not my

willpower honestly I didn't care much

about winning because my win was taking

the first step to get out of my comfort

zone I carried the same

mindset to my college and after I

completed my college I got placed in an

company and on the first day of my job

my boss showed me a cubicle and told me

that disy this is your space and you

have to spend your 8 to n hours 5 days a

week although the cubicle was pretty

aesthetic but I couldn't imagine

spending my next 5 years of life in that

small

space I was like I'm not made for this

I'm made for something else but what is

the something else and how do I find it

this was my second personal

Challenge and to tackle this problem I

started finding my something else by

trying out multiple things in my life I

had my weekend free so I started uh

interior designing course thinking that

maybe this is something that I'm made

for but I quit that course within a

month because it was too boring for me

then I wanted to become a wedding

planner after watching a Bollywood movie

band Baja barad thinking that that this

is definitely something that I want to

do but again I quit the idea within 3

weeks

because uh the process was again too

boring for me then I because I had my

weekend free so I thought that why not

teach dance to little kids and I was

like final I want to be a choreographer

now

but again I quit that job within two to

three weeks because handling the mood

swings of those little kids

is not that easy I preferred sitting in

my cubicle in

instead I kept finding I kept trying my

hands into multiple Fields I kept trying

everything and I was I was very close to

giving

up I thought that maybe I'm made for a 9

to5 job

itself and let's not like try something

else and let's just focus on the job but

here comes the U-turn of my story

while I was coming to my home from a

hectic day at work I happened to see a

bookstore and I thought that okay I'm

not a book reader like I wasn't a book

reader back then but I thought that okay

maybe you know let's just step into the

bookstore we are already having a very

bad day so why not just chill a little

bit so I went there I picked up one

random book which was called The Power

of subconscious mind I happened to open

the book and the first page that I read

had this one sentence that I still

remember

which was that whatever you are today

it's because of your past thoughts and

if you want to change your future you

need to change your

today this one sentence changed my

entire life one line completely shift my

mindset as I used to be a person who

blamed everything either on situations

or other people and now I wanted to be a

person who could change her Destiny and

make a life make something of her own

and how strange it is right the beauty

of reading books is like you just you

just have to find that one book that

resonates with you and when after

finding that one book you'll start

reading more books on the same topic and

eventually you'll fall in love with

reading and the same happened to me I

started reading more books and started

writing blogs about my book lessons or

book summaries or book reviews and soon

came the pandemic wherein

I had more time in my hand because I was

working from my home so I thought why

not convert these written uh blogs into

video form and post it online and this

is how I started my content creation

Journey this phase of my life is what I

called my Enlightenment

phase I did content creation as a side

hustle for 2 years and then I quit my

job because I started earning enough

money from content so I was like like

bye-bye goodbye uh good to the you know

pretty aesthetic cubicle and let's start

making our own

money things went well and I felt as if

I figured out

everything

but still I I couldn't push myself to

dream big enough I used to limit my own

thinking and I couldn't think Beyond a

certain point for myself since I was

doing a job for a very long time I was

trained for a corporate structure

psychologically mentally physically I

was con conditioned to be called as a

corporate employee where my manager

assigns me a certain task and I have to

complete it without using my

brain but now that I was my own boss I

was responsible for my professional and

my personal life who to work with whom

to work

with um how to work how much to work how

not to work

everything I OD that I can be a good

employee but I'm not a good boss I'm

good with taking the orders and

completing the task but I'm not good

with giving a Tas to someone else or to

myself and some somewhere I felt that

maybe it's because of my upbringing and

the pressure that the society puts on us

women because our entire childhood we

are made to believe that our actual life

will start after we get married most of

us us supposed to study well enough to

get a decent job and get a decent job to

find a good guy we are never told it

that study hard enough to build a f

business and my story was nothing

different there was literally no other

dream aim or Vision planted in my mind I

felt as if I was programmed since my

childhood to be a perfect marriage

material I had to fight with my own

limiting beliefs and and think big for

myself and this was my third personal

challenge I to tackle this I had to

unlearn my old beliefs and educate

myself to believe that I am cap capable

of achieving anything that I want in my

life I did a lot of self-reflection and

inner work I won't say that I've figured

out everything as of now but I am a work

in progress and there's a lot to learn

lot to explore for me but I want you to

take away three lessons from my life

story lesson number one believe in

yourself believe that you deserve

everything in the world dream big for

yourself fight for your dreams fight for

yourself once you deeply believe that

you deserve a better life that you are

currently living try to give your 100%

work hard to achieve the dreams lesson

number two be curious try to learn as

many things as possible try to read more

books talk to a lot of of people travel

the country try to learn more about

different Cuisines different Lifestyles

there is so much knowledge to gain from

this world and once like if you start

becoming a good listener and a good

learner you will

experience things that you have never

experienced in life before lesson number

three and the most important follow your

heart but don't forget to use your

head I left my job after making money

from my content creation

Journey take calculated risk is what I

would

suggest instead of going in all instead

of going all in just without a plan

because in case if there's a downfall

it's better to fall from the second

floor than from the 100th

floow in the end I would just like to

say that if an under-confident girl like

me who never believed in herself who

stage who had a stage fear and who

wasn't good at English is able to stand

here and speak like give a whole uh

Speech in English I'm telling you trust

me it's not that difficult to reach at

this position and of course there's a

lot more to

experience you just need to push

yourself little by little each day to

get out of your comfort zone because you

never know what you are capable of

achieving unless you

try that's it thank you