There are few things in Life which money cannot buy!
You may have heard this sentence many times in your life. A real true advice can change a person perspective of viewing the life differently. Sometimes, a sincere advice which you do not want to hear can take you places you never knew exist. When you have an open mind to see the life as it is, you are already accepting the opportunities life gifting you. In today’s world, a sincere true advice is very hard to find. If you find one, you are really lucky because now you can take that advice and think mindfully of where that advice can take you.
I was not with this mindset few years ago. As life throws at me the challenges, I struggled first, was angry next thinking, why me? I couldn’t bear my mind chattering with all these negative thoughts taking me no where. Instead, these negative thoughts pulled me down, caused self doubt and I lost confidence in myself. While I am still at this stage of life, something magical happened. Something triggered me to think very deeply about life and that completely changed my perspective of Life.
A single valuable advice changed my life forever.
Here is the advice I received:
“The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves. We, in our mind believe we are not worthy enough, limit ourselves in not dreaming big and think we are not worth of achieving big things in life. If you can remove that limit which you put on yourselves, no one can stop you except you! If you have the will power and intensity of putting your dreams in to actions, no one can ever stop you. Take each challenge life throws at you and instead of dwelling on why this happened to me, take the same challenge, put it in a positive way and prove yourself by facing the challenge and see where this takes you in your life”
This is the most valuable advice I received from Tom Bilyeu and Bob proctor. I summarized this in my own words.
I was so desperate to find a solution to my problem and I tried to figure out myself by checking on the motivational videos on youtube to remove the negative mind chattering. I came across “Impact theory” by Tom Bilyeu and “Proctor Gallagher Institute” by bob proctor where I received this valuable advice. In my view, these two motivational speakers are my mentors. The communication might not be in person but the way they made an impact on my life is incredible. Nothing can buy a valuable advice from a true mentor who want to change your life in a better way.
From the day I received this advice, I started viewing life differently. It’s not someone who stopped me from achieving something, its me who limited myself. There is no change in life throwing challenges at me, they remain the same but what changed is me taking each challenge as an opportunity for my growth. Instead of worrying about my troubles, I started thinking how can I grow from my difficulties in life and see them positively. As I see life positively, Positive things started happening to me.
I thought of getting better at my skills as a SQL Server DBA. I had a thought, how about I learn and share my knowledge with others so others can benefit along with me. That thought triggered me to start this blog. I started writing blog posts of challenges I face in my daily work and how I fix them. I started reading Brentozar blog posts. I wanted to open twitter account just to see what Brentozar post about his blog posts so I can be updated on his content. I was so much impressed on how much knowledge he have on subject and the way he share his knowledge with other people. I then see on twitter, many professionals talking about SQL Server where I figured out there is something with hashtag #sqlfamily, which I found and felt is a completely different world. I see so much positively here and I liked how much people are sharing and caring for each other. I started seeing people posting about presentations, blogs and what not! I am already loving these positive vibes #sqlfamily spreading around. One day, I saw the post on Introducing “New Stars of Data” conference especially for new speakers. This event was hosted by Ben Weissman and William Durkin. I have the opportunity but I have fear of speaking in public. I thought, I can only grow if I face my fears. I immediately submitted abstract. Luckily, I was selected. I was given a mentor, Deborah Melkin. In the beginning, my self confidence was so low until I met my mentor Deborah. I always had a thought that people will judge me for who I am, but no! that’s my thinking. Not True. Deborah is my second mentor in changing the way I look at life and myself. She build a confidence in me with out me actually realizing it until I gave my final presentation. This blew my mind as I realized I am actually capable of speaking which I did not think even possible. Is that not a true mentoring meaning? Deborah changed the way I looked at myself and life. There are many people out there who change other people lives in a positive way without them actually realizing it.
I always have many questions in my mind. I have interest in learning more and share with others as I learn. As I gave my first presentation, I started submitting abstracts to other conferences but something I know I am missing. I do not know what it is. As I am fairy new in speaking at conferences, I have lot to learn. I faced my fear of speaking and I do not want to stop here. I truly feel this is the first step to my next steps. I want to learn and involve in community more. The more I get involved in the community events, the less I worry about the things that do not matter. A month ago, I was talking to my family member and I said, how wonderful it would be if someone from the SQL community can give me a career advice and mentor me on how I can grow as a DBA.
There is a saying, “You will always find what you are looking for!” As I was searching and keeping my eyes wide open for any opportunity that will help me, I see a post from Paul Randal “Mentoring 2020 – want some help from me?” I am like, now this is what I am looking for! I started reading the post and thought no matter if I get selected or not, I am going to apply for sure. If I am selected, I will have a very good opportunity to get valuable advice that can change my career in a better way. If I am lucky to get the opportunity to have a very well known and experienced person in the Industry as my mentor, that will really help me in solving some of my questions I always had.
I have many questions running in my mind that I need to get some clarity on. Some of them, I cannot even describe here. I need to get started by explaining one by one to get the flow.
If I am lucky enough to be chosen, I need help on some of these below non-technical subjects:
- Presentation skills and improve public speaking.
- Community exposure. I am interested in involving more in the community.
- Work and life balance
- Getting better at Blogging
- Goal setting
- Improving my value as a DBA.
- How can I develop myself so I can mentor others.
- Improving self confidence
- Communication skills
- Dealing with stress.
A single valuable advice from this mentor can have a real positive impact on my life. I am ready to make any number of changes in my life to become a better person. I am really looking forward to this.
Closing this post by saying this again, as I truely believe it-
There are few things in Life which money cannot buy!
Deepthi Goguri's SQL Server Blog 