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How to keep your passion alive in this fast-growing, ever-changing World and avoid getting boxed up in a routine life....??.....

It only takes a candle-light, to remove the darkness,

It only takes a smile, to break the ice,

It only takes a drop of water, to build an ocean...

And....

It only takes a small step, to build a happy life

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              When new joiners become a part of my team, I usually like to be an ice-breaker and chat just like a friend to get to know each other better and build a rapport that will go on to help us collaborate better while working. Their first question is always, "THREE years! In the same company that too! How come you are not bored?" It's the same question I get when discussing my profession amongst relatives and friends.

              We, the Next-Gen are always looking out for "A change", so staying in one place seems weird to them. But, we often forget we look for a change, when you get bored of the "the usual routine" and that means when you only do things for what you are paid for. A new company, a new job, a new project, a new city; whatever may be the change; but these things have a validity for their "new" tag. It's because even if we opt for the about change, we do the same old things we did before also, so obviously the newness goes off in no time.

              So how I didn't opt for the change and how I kept the "new" factor in my 3 year career is because of the "Extra mile". It's not exactly a mile, it's just tini-tiny baby steps I used to take whenever I felt, "Now, this looks like it's becoming a routine". Here's how I kept passion intact for technology, for learning new things and doing new things.

              It all started when I had not even completed 6 months within my project and a new girl joined our team. My team lead and project manager, don't know what they saw in me :) - my technical skills, my pro-active nature, my inter-personal cum communication skills, that they chose "ME" to be a mentor for a fresher. This was literally my first reaction when my Team lead conveyed it to be at the floor, "Mentor! And me! I myself am a fresher, what will I guide another fresher? I can help her but I think the seniors in our team can guide her better". The Team lead just laughed and said, "We know your capability better than you, simply we wouldn't have chosen you. Don't doubt all our years of experience and tell us that we made a wrong decision". I smiled embarrassedly and took it up. And the rest was history :), every time anyone joined I was picked as their mentor and I brought such good results not only in the freshers but also didn't let the extra responsibility affect my work; that no one thought twice on whom to choose as a mentor.

              I was and still am so proud of being chosen as a mentor, especially when there were so many experienced team members in the team; I could even smell their jealousy ;). I should thank my lead and manager for believing in me when I didn't and partially to my super seniors too who stated their "Busy" status for not taking up the role ;) It installed in me a new confidence and gratitude that I could give back something from what I learnt. I always had a passion to teach others and now looking back I guess my management had recognized it in me even before me.

             My extra mile started because I was assigned to it, but after that whenever I felt bored I used to remember my mentoring role and I myself used to assign such tasks to me. The extra miles came along as taking part in other non-technical activities like client interaction activities, floor decoration competitions (we won the second prize for it :)), and so on. This is the best part of being a part of an MNC, they have so many other activities to celebrate each festival/occasion. Also, they have special interest groups to purse your other passions like singing, dancing, reading, trekking and what not; you name it and you have it. If it's not there you can create it and obviously among the 10k+ employee, you are sure to find atleast a team of 10, who have same interests like you. There are also social service related activities that you can take part and give back something to the society and make the world a better place to live. I have taken part in audio recordings of books for visually impaired individuals and my next milestone is learning sign language. (Please Wish me all the best for it )

            I have shared my experiences and lastly I would like to say, take up anything which YOU are interested in as YOUR EXTRA MILE and see how it shapes up your life to give it a meaningful experience. Some extra miles have to be for technology/professional life and some HAVE TO, HAVE TO and HAVE TO be for your personal interest. After all, to have fully fulfilling professional career; a Work-Life balance is very important.

           Best of luck for your future endeavors! If you liked my blog, please do check out my short stories at Wattpad and pls do share it among your friend circles if you like it. Oops ! I forgot to mention my other extra mile of writing as a hobby :)

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Ranked as #695 in Short stories category as on 25th April 2017 🙂🙂😇

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