Dear Ms BOT

Google driven impression of Bot

As I sat with my hands folded engrossed in my thoughts, I detected mild symptoms of the illness known as “writer’s Block”. I told myself that it cannot be true because Seth Godin says that no such thing exist. Writer's block is a myth. Can I defy him? Probably not!

"Maybe it is a starting cue that I was looking for to start my next post."

I in fact had a few Ideas that could be converted to posts, like we always do most of the times. This "fingers off the keypad" phase ensued because it was difficult to find the right "balance between Benefit and Effort". Ones that could be put together with very little effort did not look worth the time spent while those which qualify wasn’t worth the effort involved. A “catch 22” moment!

Then I received an email from the desk of Ms. R of a blogging portal. It was quite similar in style to the memos that are often used in the corporate world. I was about to toss it into the bin but had second thoughts since it was addressed to me by my name. The content was generic with all the potential to be a spam but customized by addressing it to me by my name. A personal touch to penetrate my spam filter.

Then it struck to me that it’s quite possible that the Ms. R is actually a BOT and to confirm it I replied back and my assumption was confirmed soon. I am glad that I read it as this gave me the opportunity to communicate with a BOT… a new first for my book of records!

I agreed with myself to disagree with the opening statement of the mail which read “it is crazy most of us have not achieved the dream successes we always envisioned for ourselves”. It’s actually a bit weird to  disagree or even communicate with a BOT.

Keeping an eye on the future, I took the strategic decision to practice conversing with AI. This also provided me an opportunity to breakout from the catch 22.

If one is curious to know, why would I disagree with a statement that appears to be quite true, I would be tempted to question “how many of us can define what success means to one’s own self?”

Is your success comparative or is it absolute!

Sometime others perceive you as a successful person while you are uneasy where you stand and dream of going somewhere else. “I deserve to be there”, you keep telling yourself and your perception cannot be further off from them who consider you successful. Sometime the reverse of this is also true!

There are situations where people carry along a “kangaroo career aspiration” while doing well as a teacher/doctor/banker/engineer etc. They dream to be standing in another podium having reached the pinnacle as an artist or writer or someone else. They bask in that glory signing autographs, getting photographed, giving speeches … albeit “the MongeriLal” syndrome.

Human being could be different in thousands of mutually exclusive ways but “day dreaming is our common language as a species.” There is nothing wrong in such behavior therefore, as long as this dreams are not associated with “dream successes” as referred by Ms. BOT.

Success is the attitude towards continuous self- improvement and in my reality remaining happy during the journey is as important as the celebration at the destination.  

Success, therefore is a way of life.