No job, No prospects, A lot of free time – What to do?

Well this is what I get to hear from people now-a-days. Especially students who completed academic and not selected in campus recruitment (either there was no campus recruitment or they were not selected) are the once I am addressing.

You may not get a Job straight out of college. I feel there is nothing to worry about it. World is full of opportunities. Your day will come. For now, enjoy your free time. Right from LKG to your graduation or post-graduation, you have been working hard. You never got time to look at yourself and ask – “What do I really want to do in life?”

So, I suggest you to take this free time as an opportunity to look at yourself. Ask yourself what you want to be. What you enjoy the most. Whatever you want to do in life some fundamentals are to be in place.

So, improve your personal, communication and technical skills. Don’t be under the impression that your technical skills themselves will pave the way to success. You need to be a good person. A person who is acceptable to your family, your company and society as a whole.

There is always a lot to improve in you. Probably you never get as much time as you get now to focus on yourself in the future. You might get too busy with job and family responsibilities. Just get edge now.

When I say, enjoy your free time, I don’t mean to ask you sit idle. Don’t forget – Idle man is like an idle machine which destroys itself very quickly.

So here are my strong suggestions regarding what you should do to make the most of your free time:

Improve your language and communication skills

What you are is important. It is your responsibility to let people know what you think. They don’t read your mind. So communicate well. Your school, your college etc. are secondary. You are primary. A good school or college would have given good foundation. But if you don’t have good foundation, start now. It is never too late.

Be a good person

Being a good person is as important as anything else in life. What good is it to have a very successful career, but no friends and family to share? What good are you when there is no one in the world who loves and cares for you? So, be good to people. Don’t ever forget, in relationships - what you give is what you get. So, give more and get more.

Be good in your profession or business

Yes. Life demands a lot. You are expected to be good on many fronts. You just can’t talk sweetly and do nothing. You just can’t be a good person who is incapable. So, develop skills that are required by your profession or business. Be good at profession. There is nothing like getting dividends without investments. So, invest well and enjoy dividends.

Enjoy nature, music, sports

I never say spend 24 hours on your improvement. What is the point of winning when there is no time to celebrate your victory? So enjoy life – which is a gift to you by God (or universe). Enjoy nature. Enjoy simple things like rain, sunset, sunrise, beach, mountains etc. We all have access to them. Listen to music. It energizes you. Play whatever sport you can. It allows you to develop the habit of giving your best to win. At the same time it helps you to take defeat with grace. Because you must understand not everything in life goes according to your plan. So be ready for unexpected and unwanted.

Have discipline and passion

Discipline in the simplest form is nothing but doing things that you want to do and that you must. For example, if you want to get up at 5:00 am, doing so takes discipline. Some resist temptations and move forward and some become victims of temptations. I feel that is the difference between success and failure.

Do things with passion. It drives you forward. Passion allows you to enjoy what you do. Even today, Sachin Tendulkar (after several years of international cricket) goes to ground as passionately as he did when he was a kid. That’s why he still enjoys what he does and gives the best.

A great man, Michael Jackson (unfortunately he is no more with us) once said – “the real joy of life is getting to unknown tomorrow”.

Enjoy each day as it comes.

I will be more than happy to help you in any possible way I can. Write to me at srikanthpragada@gmail.com.

Srikanth Pragada