By Juhi Bansal

What is your biggest fear- “what will people say” or “what will happen tomorrow if I don’t follow the rules”? 

When I was growing up, my teachers used to tell me, let fear be your guiding force. Fear of failure, fear of not making it, fear of not fitting in. And it did! It drove me to get summer jobs, earn while I learned. It made me do an MBA (and worry about placements night and day). It got me to do a conventional banking job where I grew miserable despite a textbook performance.

Somewhere around that time I decided to not let fear get the better of me. I decided to give up on convention, try new things and live each day as it came. Thankfully, my partner in crime thinks exactly on the same lines.

If you let fear be the driving force, sooner or later it will get the better of you. I tell my students the same thing. Don’t give in to peer-pressure or career woes or worry about “kal kya hoga”. Drop a year, travel, intern, teach, learn to cook or play an instrument, explore other discplines, take courses that intrigue you. Your degree should empower you not enslave you. 

And while these words of wisdom are for the “early- twenties” people I have some gems for my 30 plus friends as well.

Don’t fear change. It is coming even if you try to stop it. So, why not join it and have some fun on the way? And might I add, it is the best way to keep the spice level up in your life! 

So, dig into that rainy day stash and travel to your dream location. You’ll figure a way out if that “rainy” day did come. Wear a new lipcolour, get a different hair cut, try that new workout and eat the new cuisine you’ve been dying to!

I have been challenging myself these past few months- from trying a new genre of books to learning to cook to pushing my lazy bum into working out- I’ve completely gotten out of my comfort zone and that’s whats keeping me going- every new day is exciting and full of surpises.

Speaking of change, this is the shortest I’ve gone since middle school I think!

this was my length until recently

PS: I have been micro-blogging a lot these days on my Instagram account. I constantly post my workout stories (which resulted in me having to defend my dark circles) and how I overcome my inactivity demons by running and more recently how I stepped out of my comfort zone by getting my hair cut very short.

Credits:

Outfit: Naushad Ali c/o The Travelling Trunk

Necklace: Forever 21

Shoes: Charles & Keith

Clutch: c/0 Lovetobag

Pics: Bhavya Rathore