I am Kollipara Pravallika, a fifth-year dual degree student from the Civil Engineering Department at IIT Madras. This blog is about my journey, musings and reflections through the course Soft Skills Development Workshop. 

Before I begin speaking about my journey and thoughts about the various topics covered as a part of the course, I would like to give some context - context about me and the circumstances which led me to take this particular course.

I am a friendly, mostly calm kind of person. I am told I am quite stubborn which I believe is just my grit and determination to get what I want. Last semester, I contested in the Institute Student Body elections for the position of Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary. The process of elections got me thinking about myself - my strengths, my weaknesses and the process of campaigning brought my attention to the importance of effective communication. I realized how important it is to be confident, fearless and have great conviction in what you think is the right thing. I have always known that communication is important and as a kid, I have participated in many a competition on debating, elocution, etc. But this time I could see the importance of effective communication against a mere delivery of words. That is when I realized the need to improve my confidence, self-esteem and communication skills. This course felt like the perfect opportunity for the same and thus, I immediately registered for the course. In retrospect, I think I took a good decision. Now, I would like to share my learnings and journey through the course.

Bingo

One of the best things about this course is the in-class activities. This activity was one of my favorites. I have always been a friendly person. I have never exactly found it difficult to communicate with others per se. However, through this activity, I did realize that I am not that comfortable with initiating conversations with strangers unless and until I had a reason (like work, etc.). After this, I have consciously tried to work on initiating conversation and breaking the ice.

Excellence: How do you define it?

What is excellence? Who decides it? What are the parameters to measure excellence? These were some of the questions discussed in the class. As a simulator for the discussion, a documentary about the Mumbai 26/11 attacks was shown. The video showed how the Taj Hotel staff put their lives on the line to complete their duties as hosts. This narrative was particularly relatable to me because I was a resident in Mumbai at the time of the 26/11 attacks. This video puts the question about excellence into perspective. Excellence is giving your best even in the direst of situations. Excellence need not mean doing "great" things but doing everything you do greatly.

Time Management

As a part of this module, a case study about an employee's daily routine and his dissatisfaction with his work was discussed. This was very similar to a problem I was facing at the time.  The employee was facing multiple issues because he was not able to delegate work effectively. As a secretary (this was the beginning of my tenure), I was facing similar issues. I realized I was micro-managing a lot and hence experienced a lot of unnecessary stress. So, my first learning was an effective delegation of work amongst my team members.

This semester has been particularly hectic for me. In the initial part of the semester, I was unable to balance my academics, my responsibilities as a Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary and my placements. I was going with the flow and was giving my entire attention to whatever issue presented at hand. For example, there would be days when I would do nothing but focus on my placements but after doing so for 2 days straight I would realize that I have been ignoring my coursework which I had fallen behind on. So, the next few days would go in covering up for that and miss something else important. So, the next thing I learned was that I needed some structuring and prioritization of tasks.

It was at this juncture that I decided that I needed to change this about my life. I segmented my daily activities into the following parts: 1. Position of Responsibility 2. Coursework 3. Dual Degree Project 4. Placement work. After doing this, the optimist me drew out a very strict and rigid timetable and daily goals for myself to follow in the upcoming days. I failed at it miserably. Turns out, my goals and timetable were too good to be true. They were unrealistic. I did not factor in breaks for relaxation, catching up with friends, etc. The highly unrealistic goals and timetable, in fact, affected my productivity negatively. So, the last and most important learning was to set realistic goals. 

Happiness

This module introduced us to the concept of IKIGAI (life's purpose). To put it briefly, the key to happiness according to this concept is to find your purpose, your reason to wake up and your reason to be alive.

So, IKIGAI is the intersection of "What you love", "What you are good at", "What the world needs" and "What you can be paid for". Personally, this sounds like a pretty simple and straightforward concept. In fact, this might even sound quite obvious to some. But here's the catch- It is not easy to find your IKIGAI (at least that's what I feel). Finding something which covers all these 4 things is not easy because of so many reasons - (a)Peer pressure (b)societal pressure (c) lack of awareness of opportunities(trust me, this is a reason for a lot of people), etc. 

So, now the question is how do you find your IKIGAI. Well, you cut out all the background noise, the pressures, others' opinions and try and explore various things till you hit the jackpot. It seems quite random, right? I so wish there was a way but doesn't seem like there is one. Some people find their IKIGAI very early in life and for some, it happens only much later. For example, Colonel Sanders did a number of jobs before he founded the famous food chain KFC, at the age of 73.

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