The Billionth Second of Life

Lately, I hit the billionth second of my life. That means I have spent around 31 years, 251 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes, 54 seconds on Earth. Between the years 2019 and 2020, I hit this milestone.

Why Billionth Second Matter?

The billion-second matters a lot in our lives timeline. Guessing I would be dying by age 60, I’m halfway my journey of Life. To give you an idea of how big these billion seconds are, I have converted them to days, hours, and minutes.

12 thousand days or

3 lakh hours (0.3 million) or 

1.7 crore minutes (17 million) or

104 crores or (1.04 Billion) seconds.

If each second is considered as a paise, billion seconds round off to 1 crore in rupees. Imagine how cautious each would have been if we have to pay a paise for each second to live.

The Journey:

In a span of these billion seconds, I had a very interesting journey. Being an insignificant being on the earth, I had both highs and lows. So many beautiful people walk across your path. Some inspiring. Some are uninspiring. Some people will beautify your path, some will just complicate it.

In this small journey, there were laughs, there were cries, there were failures, there were successful moments, there were errors, there were redemptions, there was love and there was hate too.

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Failures:

Seems like failures have a crush on me. Failures never fail to pop in every situation of my life. Some failures were imposed by my decisions, some were imposed by situations. Some by betrayal. Here are some failures worth mentioning.

• Failure at creating a presentation.
• Failure at my first public talk.
• Failure in negotiating business deals.
• Failure at grabbing opportunities in hand.
• Failure at the sport of badminton, have been a laughing stock.
• Failure of not being good enough at academics.

There are many other failures to be listed which I will write about some other time.

The Successes:

Though success is relative to each person. I define success in winning over every failure moment.

• Now my presentations are featured on Slideshare homepage.
• Now professionally identified as a public speaker. To give an estimate, I reject around 20 talks requests per year due to time constraints. Click here later to read about how people feel about my talks.
• Aced examinations in which I was a failure.
• Aced the department badminton championship and was selected for inter-department University.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Winston Churchill

The Redemption: 

Every decision you make will have a butterfly effect in your Life. So, it is always advised to take decisions with caution. Sometimes, I feel I should not have acted in anger. Sometimes, I feel I would have taken better actions without hurting others. Being human, It is hard to be in the “madhyama” state. (Madhayama is a state suggested by Buddha, where either you do not get too excited or get too disappointed for any failure).

No human being is so bad as to be beyond redemption. -Mahatma Gandhi

The People:

Humans are the most complicated creatures on the earth. It fascinates me to get into those brains and understand what makes them so. People seek attention. Everyone wants to prove he/she is right. Every possible person wants to have an impact on you. Most want to create their identity. Yet they are just living like one in the whole world.

Human beings are flawed and complicated and messy. – Brit Marling

The Love:

People want you to treat them well, even if they are wrong. People expect love without sharing the love. Most loveless people in his world are feeling lonely for their own actions. Sad to see that Love is slowly changing its definition, most relationships are moving towards trade. Nevertheless, thank you all those beautiful people who held me at my tough times with your love.

You always gain by giving love. – By Reese Witherspoon​

The Hate:

A lot of people hate you when you don’t agree with them. People will hate on truth to be spoken. People will hear what they want to hear. No matter what you say. People hate you when they want to be like you. People hate you when you have power. People hate you when you are powerless. Nevertheless, hate can act as a catalyst for your pursuits. Trust me it is more fun in accomplishing things, which your haters doubted.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them. -Charles Caleb Colton

The Lessons:

The journey of being an aggressive person willing to change the world to change me. To give an analogy, first I was willing to fix the pollution around me but Life teaches that all you need is a mask.

• The more you know, the more you come to know, how less you know.
• There is so much to learn. So many talented people out there. 
• Everyone is smart in their own way.
• Empathy matters more than your intelligence. (In other words, your EQ is more important than your IQ)
• People just need someone whom they can listen to.
• Remaining silent always wins over conversing with stupid people.
• Talking less will increase your value intrinsically.
• Never do things for free. People will take you for granted.
• No matter how good you are, you are always valued materialistically.
• No matter how much you love, people can walk away anytime.
• Each one of us is right in our own perspectives within our limited knowledge.
• People around you, shape you. Choose your friends and team wisely.
• Reading matters a lot as it helps you to see the world in different perspectives.
• Finally, Success hugs you in private but Failure slaps you in public.

Next Billion:

Time is ticking faster and faster. 24 hours is not enough to experience Life’s full potential.

There is no point in living the same life for 60 years and call it Life. There are a lot of hopes. Life is all about hopes. Hope drives you.

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.

On the personal front, I have to learn how to handle emotions in a better way. Have to eat less for better health to avoid being a burden for others of ill health. Practise mindfulness.

Professionally, yet to master machine learning and other technologies. Apply the same knowledge for the betterment of the country and students. Learn to write better and read faster. Life may stop at any time. But the learning never stops. It doesn’t matter whether you are 16 or 60.

I had some good seasons and 

some deeply painful ones, 

I have made some spectacularly good choices

and some outrageously bad mistakes, 

I’m very human, a work in progress!

-The Greatness Guide, Robin Sharma