“Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire”
A young girl who has always been a scholar student was inclined towards arts but like most of us she too overlooked her creative skills and decided to focus more on her academics to get a “secured job”. She did well and got into Hindu College, one of the most reputed colleges of Delhi University to pursue bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mathematics.
As the time passed her most favourite subject seemed less and less interesting and as the destiny would have it, one day she came across the art of calligraphy that instantly clicked with her ‘soul’ or as we say, that day she found her ‘MERAKI’. After that day there was no stopping for her. Calligraphy brought out that creative girl inside her she never really focused on. She practiced calligraphy tirelessly, even during her study breaks as it took her mind off all the stress and worked as a therapy. She decided to show her work to the world and made the renowned Letterati page on Instagram.
Here's some of her work that we absolutely love !!
Yes, the aforementioned girl is Surbhi Arora, founder of Lettarati. Surbhi has conducted workshops all across the country and has taught over 900 students in the past year and today she is inspiring many people across the country to chase their dreams and break the barrier of streams.
Talking to our founder Miss Bhumika Phutela, Surbhi said-
“Maths had my mind but arts had my soul”.
Isn’t this the story of so many of us that we succumb to the societal norms of acceptable career options and often overlook our own interests that aren’t mainstream, in order to “fit” in ?
This can usually result in an inefficient and unsatisfactory professional life. While some people chase their dreams and become the role models others aspire to, some are still in the rat race, unaware of their goals or a way to achieve them and they only look forward to weekends and you know what they say - if you hope for Friday as soon as the week starts, you are doing something that is not for you.
What is Meraki?
Confucius once said
“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work for a day in your life”
"Meraki" is a term of Greek origin which means putting your soul into what you are doing or pouring your heart into something. Meraki is something that you are immensely passionate about and something that agrees with your soul. I know this sounds too subjective and you feel like - something agreeing with soul..duh!! But trust me when I tell you that finding your Meraki is most essential essential and one of the major goals of career counselling process.
Before stepping into a field it is very important to realise what you are passionate about it could be design, it could be law, it could be science, it could be anything. More often than not people forget to take in consideration their interest in the field while making career choices. They either focus on the pay check or their aptitude, while these two are undoubtedly very important but so is your interest or maybe even more so.
If you make a career in a field that you are passionate about and have genuine interest in it, the success rate and job satisfaction increases tremendously.
Importance of finding Meraki ?
You might be at a job that provides you with adequate pay check and has decent working hours but you often find yourself hitting the snooze button when it is the time to get ready for your job or maybe you are a student and you don’t like to go to that JEE coaching you have enrolled into just because you were good at maths till 10th (life is cruel, isn’t it?).
Procrastination and unwillingness to go to that job or that coaching often means that you are in a profession that is currently feeding your stomach but not your soul or you have chosen a stream that only engages your mind but doesn’t interest you much.
Finding your Meraki is the only way to have a fulfilling career, Period!
At the point when a profession is lined up with one's enthusiasm, there can be more inspiration to give exertion into creating significant information and abilities, set higher vocation objectives, and participate in activities to accomplish those objectives.
These practices can assist people with improving their presentation at work and upgrade their vocation potential. An average man works for the majority of his life and if you have chosen a profession that interests you, you will never have to see your work as a burden rather something you enjoy and look forward to.
Richard Branson famously said
“There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions in a way that serves the world and you.”
Some people find their passion on their own, while others need a little guidance. Some also fail to understand their aptitude. So the pressing question is how to identify your interest or aptitude? Where to start from? This is where Career Counselling comes into the scene.
What is Career Counselling and Why do I even need it ?
The mistake we most often do is we choose a field that we think is popular or a field that “Sharma ji ka ladka” has chosen even if it is nowhere near what our end goals from life are.
Fret not, most of us fall in a worse trap, wherein our relatives and family friends end up deciding an ideal career for us.
Indian Film Industry has made several movies like Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots (Amir gets us) and the more recent Chichore depicting how each of us is unique and has varied interests but we just never learn.
We know what you are thinking while reading this - How on earth should I decide the most suited career path for myself?
We also know that taking responsibility for the future and deciding for a career for oneself can also be cumbersome, chaotic and can also render a lot of us clueless.
Let’s see how career counselling can help us in this?
Career Counselling or Career Guidance is a process that helps you make informed choices about your career and education; it helps you identify your aptitude, your strength, your personality, your interest as well as the aligning work trends. It also helps in dealing with various education or vocation related problems like low concentration, mismanagement of time and non-agreement with parents.
Career Counselling and Guidance is done by a psychologist or a certified career coach. It's important to see who is your counselor and if he/she is young and experienced enough so you can easily connect and share your problems. It's also crucial to understand if your Counselor is capable enough to understand the latest trends in career and if he/she has understanding of 1000s of new and emerging fields.
Coming on to the process, the psychologist uses a series of relevant psychometric assessment that is a scientific, standardised and objective tests analyse the aptitude, personality, motivators, learning style, and interest of the counselee\student.
Check out Meraki's Psychometric Sample report for better understanding of the concept behind Psychometric Testing :
Career assessment puts forth the important elements one need to consider while making a career choice and the student chooses the option that resonates with them more. Thus the counselee keeps narrowing down to the best-fit career option and as the assessment proceeds it becomes easy for the them to finally decipher their true interest and when all this is complemented with the professional counsel it lays down the roadmap for the entire career.
Such assessments also promote self-awareness. Exploring a wide assortment of potential careers on your own might be overpowering, and data on the ranges of abilities and training required for a specific position might be conflicting or hard to track down. A vocation guide will frequently have the option to give important data in these territories and others.
Process of career counselling and guidance not only helps you find the direction to your goal but also helps you to:
Identify your strengths, weak areas, aptitude, interests, personality etc.
Choose a particular stream, subjects, course and profession
Identify best suited university for further education
Identify your weaknesses
Eliminate all possible confusions
Avoid a lot of myths or what random people and society tells you to do
Avoid a lot of blunders in life
Avoid wasting time and money
Why Meraki Career Counselling?
We firmly believe that money can be earned from many jobs but there will always be one that will give you job satisfaction and inspire you to work more thus enable you to chase your dream.
We hope to help you decipher your strength, your interests, your personality and your aptitude thus an aligning vocation that is in consonance with your values through in a scientific manner and keeping this in mind we use an eclectic combination of Positive Psychology, Psychometric Testing of personality, aptitude and interests and Career Coaching in our sessions to help you find where your heart, soul and mind lies and choosing a more holistic career unique that fits your needs.
We believe that it’s our responsibility to give our undivided attention to help the young minds of the country to choose their best fitting careers specifically designed to their needs. We intend to absolutely devote ourselves in providing a platform to able them to re-discover themselves, their aptitude, their interest and the career options aligning both.
Conclusion
Meraki is something that you are immensely passionate about and something that agrees with your soul.
Finding your meraki is the core element of a successful career counselling. Professional Counselors are specialists at surveying your career needs. They utilise scientific methods to propose the best vocation alternatives from all the accessible and applicable career choices. This information assists with building up the certainty to conquer the obstacles you are facing in your career. We consider this our obligation to guide and give such understanding and certainty to the counselee.
Picking a profession can be a requesting task for the guardians and kids. An absence of any wellspring of venting out feelings and considerations may add to the current disappointment. Through Meraki Counselling, we provide you a stage where such dissatisfactions can be decreased, and centre is re-coordinated to choosing the best vocation choices for the counselee.
Let us help you in this frustrating and confusing career-exploration journey ! And as the saying goes “Secret of getting ahead is getting started”.
Very well written.
Worth reading it.
Quite Insightful
😍😍