My Pleasant Encounters with Change

Change is the only constant. We all have experienced it in some or the other way. One change which I experienced was joining Enterprise. I have been a part of this community for 4 months now.I have experienced and done a lot of things during this period  which have played a role in transforming me. I am going to share three such ways in which I have been creating myself in these 4 months.

1)Think Less Do More

My first project was to market, invite and host Enterprise’s very own workshop #karo. As I was hosting the workshop I spent sufficient time on basically understanding the concept of #karo. For me #karo in one line is “Think less, do more”. I used to spend a lot of time thinking about stuff that I want to do, the ways in which I can do it, finding the “perfect” method and waiting for the “right” time.Overthinking leads us nowhere but I used to do that a lot. I tend to think a lot about how “useful” this thing will be to me. This used to take up a lot of time and would eventually result in me not doing a certain thing.  It has now decreased to a certain extent because I have understood that doing is the best way to learn something. The work which we put in gives us direction. I have stopped saying no to things at the first instance in most cases.All in all I have realized that doing gives me more clarity,confidence and results than thinking does. Thus I am creating myself to be more of a doer than a thinker.

2)Power of documentation

Enterprise follows a credit system as a tool to examine and keep a look at the progress of everyone. This credit system requires us to document each and every minute spent doing Enterprise work, Attending Enterprise sessions,etc. This is called the Body of Work.Earllier, I used to spend a lot of time in stupid,useless and unproductive stuff. As it wasted my time, it also left me demotivated by the fact that I have wasted my day. Lately, I just completed 150entries in my Enterprise journal and seeing that number was overwhelming for me. 150 entries mean a minimum 150 hours of work. I could have never imagined myself doing this because of what I was 5-6 months ago. I never used to document my work, progress so many times I used to fade away in between the process. The amount of time and effort I had put in is the reason I push myself to do more as looking back it is extremely motivating. What I have picked up from this is incorporating some sort of documentation in every aspect which will have that same effect as the entries for Enterprise have on me.They help me to keep moving, working harder and achieving harder goals. This is how I am creating myself by introducing documentation in every aspect.

3)Doing things which are out of my comfort zone is the only way in which I can get out of my comfort zone

At Enterprise, each task is thought and deliberately made in such a way that it pushes me out of my comfort zone. For example, making sales calls to unknown people, going out and doing a project with a street vendor, presenting my work to a client etc. I would have never done any of the things mentioned above on my own. I have encountered a transformation from me being in my comfort zone to me looking for opportunities which can help me get out of my comfort zone.I would never used to take lead and do things which seem embarrassing or uncomfortable to do but the stuff I have done at Enterprise has changed me. Due to this I am slowly getting used to doing things which are uncomfortable for me. This one is by far my biggest realisation from this journey of 4 months. One such incident is when I went to conduct a workshop for an NGO last month. Fortunately all the workers there were more comfortable with Marathi as compared to Hindi and English. So I grabbed the opportunities with both hands and conducted the workshop. If it was me 4-5 months back I would have never put up my hand and facilitated the workshop but I did that due to my realisation. I have started to believe that for seeing progress I should get comfortable being uncomfortable and that’s how I am creating myself.

This entire process has more than any physical change, caused a change in my attitude. It has changed the way I look at things,situations, challenges and opportunities. The fear I had regarding any change has reduced. This has made me more adaptive and open. I look forward to more such changes which transform me and mould me into a better version of myself.