How to know whether you are good at something? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2014)
Question : Sir my name is Pranay Raghav and my question is that we all know the saying that ‘if you discover your real appeal in your life what you are good at, then you will be very successful’. Sir, ninety percent of people spend their whole life doing something that they are neither good at nor they like. So, at this age, what should be discovered what we are good at? Like what are we good at? How should we discover that?
Acharya Prashant : Good. Pranay, being good at something is not a matter of proficiency in a certain skill.
What do you mean by being good at something? (repeats)
You are good at something when that thing takes you to your center. And what is at the center? A certain calmness and peace. Doing something if you feel relaxed, joyful, peaceful, then you are good at it. It doesn’t matter what is the level of your skill. So don’t ask me what am I good at, How do I discover that? Turn the question a little and ask, what is good for me , not what am I good at.‘What is good for me?’ – should that not be a more fundamental question? ‘Sir, what is good for me?’ ‘What should I do?’ Find that out which dissolves you. And you will certainly find something of that kind. It has to be there. Yes? There is nobody here who would not have experienced moments of dissolution. And that applies not only to a certain task, it also applies to everything else in life.
You are asking, “what to do?” Do that which dissolves you. How to choose people to be with? To whom should I relate? Who should be my partner and companion? That person, with whom you feel dissolved. Where there is relaxation and peace, where there is no need to keep thinking and calculating. That is the person who is right for you. Whether it’s a job, or wife, or house, there is one common way of coming to the right decision. See, whether the presence of that place or person or work, gives you peace and nothing else matters. And that’s why I am repeatedly saying, see whether it dissolves you.
Dissolution means that there is nothing more that’s going on here (pointing towards the mind). You know that constant noise clutter, is gone. I am just myself, simple being. I don’t have to pretend. I don’t need to be pretending to be someone else. If in a particular office , you always need to have a persona, a mask, then that office is not for you .
A famous entrepreneur, he said, “If you love flying kites, fly kites ! But then fly kites with all your heart.”
That’s what is good for you. Getting?
There is a particular name for such a work. Such a work is not called work anymore. This work is then called calling. Yes, what is it called? Calling! This is my calling. And remember, calling is always unique. You cannot have hundred people in this hall with same or similar callings. That’s why I am often amused when I see that a particular company comes to hire in a college campus and four hundred students are applying.
How can four hundred of you be enamoured by the same job. How is it possible? In everything else, you want uniqueness, don’t you? But in matters that are so central to living, like work, you become a flock of sheep. Why? You won’t tolerate if all of you are made to wear the same T-shirt, even a uniform. You won’t like it , would you? Then how do you like all of you being in the same organization, in the same role, in the same capacity? But that’s our dream .
Don’t worry whether you get enough money. Existence has ways to sustain you. You see where your heart lies. And that could be something very unique . It could be so unique that it becomes scary. It is often scary, that’s why we are afraid of pursuing it. We leave it. We say, “I don’t want to go into it.”
What do I like? I just like reading comic scripts.
Now, Comics! Is an engineer meant to spend his life with comics?
You never know what’s in store for you. Go ahead. Stay with it. Have the guts!
That is what is good for you. And you will find it. It’s impossible that you don’t have anything in life that simply calms you down. It’s impossible! And if it’s not there, then it’s not yet too late. Try. Explore. Figure out. You will get something. But don’t settle Pranay, for a second hand life. Don’t go in a particular direction just because it’s the order of the day. We have just one life and it’s very-very precious. It’s not meant to be spent sleep-walking.
