Motivational Articles
There’s no such thing as failure, It is just a wait for success! So the bitter truth is out, and you haven’t cleared prelims! What next?
You can stare at your beautiful plan for mains preparation and curse your luck, the way you prepared, the books you read that you didn’t make it through, or you can take a day, understand yourself that it was a matter of negligence from your own end and start analyzing your mistakes. Choice is yours to make!
This article isn’t for the group of people who fall in the former category.
This article is not for the people who cannot be changed! The latter ones read ahead.
Relax! You are not alone. Thousands of others didn’t make it. Some of them did. You need to be calm and composed and congratulate yourself that at least you dared! You dared to dream.
You dared and went to write the exam on that Sunday. By doing it, you brought yourself a step closer to a phase wherein you can at least analyse why you didn’t clear the exam!
Think of lakhs of those people who fill the form and decide not to appear for it for the fear of lack of preparation. They are still a step behind you. So you don’t need to feel let down by this disappointment of not clearing the prelims.
This is the time that is going to make or break your course of preparation. Either you can start from scratch, follow the same rote strategy that you applied earlier that couldn’t let you clear prelims or make a smart move and alter your strategy to the need of the hour.
“Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end”
Do you doubt your capability or yourself?
There are very few other things that can plague and destroy a young aspiring mind and self-doubt is one among them. At the same time it is doubt that pushes one along on the path of learning and exploration.
So what is your doubt? How can you recognize it? And how can you overcome, or even use it to your advantage?
It is this doubt that act like a silent monstrous snake that crawls up your leg while you are fast asleep to tighten its coils around your chest; slowly squeezing the life out of you. Many of you would have quit jobs put their other careers at “stake”.You will fears that what will or might happen to my career ? Specially when you find your friends appear to be enjoying their lives in Facebook.
Nothing, absolutely nothing else can drain you out of life neither UPSC. It is that moment when you feel like the whole world has deserted you. It is a moment when you feel like you have lived in vain. It is simply a moment of absolute emptiness of courage and strength. Are you feeling the same?
Your present has no connection whatsoever with your past and future.
Let us tell you a story of a girl who went on to take rank 1. (Note the sentence above, we have used the word take )
She had only 2 attempts left and was already 28 (30 was the age limit in her times).
Yet she was adamant that IAS is her calling and had quit a very well paying job to prepare for UPSC.
She was insulted by her manger in the IT company that she would end up as nothing in life.
Now with all in this in mind, the lady Prepared hard. The teachers recognised her talent and hardwork and expected her to get a top rank in the very first attempt.
On the day of result she was waiting in the Dholpur house for the list to be pasted. She expected a rank in top 100, no less.
The list was pasted and destined her name was not there!
Tears of sorrow rolled down her cheeks. She called up her mentor and sorrowfully explained her predicament and decision to quit UPSC preparation.
The mentor astonished as he was but at the same time being mature to understand the uncertainties of UPSC asked her not to quit the preparation.
Instead he said “you will be ranked 1 next year”. Take few days off and start your preparation again.
And Yes, she was Ranked 1 in the coming year of CSE examination
Friends, it is in the moment of hardship and your response to it that defines you. Only in moments of challenges are you truly tested; this is when you need your personality, intelligence, strength and courage.
Doubt is not all that bad, it helps you to question learn and understand. But self-doubt is a different matter altogether. You can doubt your abilities, you can doubt your intelligence, you can doubt your progress, you can doubt your knowledge, you can doubt everything, but you cannot doubt yourself. Give shelter to all other doubts except self-doubt.
Self-doubt is the silent death of the your soul.
Sure it will take a little time and effort to understand where you went wrong, you will feel lost about where to go and whom to approach, but once you sit with a calm mind, you’ll realize you don’t need to approach 10 friends and 5 relatives to tell you what to do.
We are there to guide you at every step. But self-realization is what works the best!
You are the best judge of yourself. You know which areas you prepared well and where you cheated a bit due to lack of interest or lack or time. You have to start analysing where you went wrong, which area of preparation you need to focus more and where to avoid silly mistakes to fall in those to make it for the next year.
Now is the right time for self-awareness! You need to be well aware of your weak areas and your strengths. For the next attempt, focus more on your weak areas and keep revising on your strengths. Prepare your notes well; IASBABA’s initiatives are always there to back up your preparation.
Most of you will find it a little difficult to change your plan of preparation, it will go haywire, but those few who will sail it through are the ones who’ll reach their final destination!
Again, choice is yours to make! 🙂
All the best
IASbaba
