There are so many of us who are blessed with talents that are lying latent and untapped either because of under confidence , lack of direction or an  overwhelming life style. Personally I always thought I was going to be an author ; after all I had written over a dozen children books as a child and my first ever job was a Bollywood and lifestyle journalist.

But when you are barely twenty years old, Rs 2000 a month can easily deflate your dreams and I soon realised that there must be an easier way to make money and have a great lifestyle .So much to everybody’s surprise ( it wasn’t even like in my top 100 ), I applied for an airline as cabin crew because a friend was and got in a pure fluke.

Of course, the road was not easy; I was asked to shed twenty kgs in three months and lo behold I did the impossible. ( yes I shook my body fiercer than Shakira)

Flying for an International airline gave me the kick I needed but of course there was always something missing – a piece of a puzzle I just couldn’t fit.

Deeply unfulfilled,  I was lost . The answer still didn’t come to me.

 Here I was trouping three different places, in one month, meeting gorgeous European hunks and I was still unhappy .

Crazy huh.

Then I quit over night and decided to freelance write once again .

Assuming this was the hanging piece.

Same story – Little money +Huge lifestyle expectation = Disappointment.

It’s then when I realised what is it that stopped  me from doing both ?

I wasn’t happy in either / or.

So fortune shone once again and I sheepishly applied for another air carrier and made it .

But this time around I didn’t divorce the pen.

I continued pursuing s regular column in a loc tabloid.

You see when you have a creative hobby or a passionate pursuit, it can’t be surpressed for too long and it should not be a prisoner to your own limitations of time and laziness.

It can be something as basic as learning guitar or a career as promising as a sculptor or artist ; its almost criminal to let it go in the thrash bin.

I am often asked this question-  how I balance two careers when one can hardly manage two kids or two wives or two lovers ???

Well here are some useful tips to those who want to have their cake and eat it too –

1. Make a list

Of the  things that once upon a time made you happy or things that you have been thinking about doing forever but have never got down to soil.

-Social work, feeding stray cats, designing clothes, knitting sweaters, car racing, farming,  sports, plumbing, healing, counselling….

2. Close your eyes and imagine

– what your world would feel like if you had that ‘ one thing ‘ in your life.

It maybe more than one thing.

You won’t get it right the first time . Or maybe there are challenges. Tackle them. Don’t be afraid to try.

Big deal . No one is counting how many times you fall.

Then choose the one that’s most practical and the one that brings out a positive emotion  while you are engaged in it .

If it’s love or excitement?  then you are on the right track

Now take that one thing and jot down five ways of how you can bring it in your life

3 Give yourself a deadline .

Remember the closer it is  to your initial excitement, the more chances you will pull through.

I started writing my book over night,

Like suddenly I switched off the tv , I said no to th social invites and I started pounding

I had no idea, not even one .

But when you decide today is the day , the universe supports .

Thoughts flow , energy manifests into the physical world.

It took me one day to write my first story .

And what a shame I had proscasnated for over ten years

4 Yes your first job/ career that you love or don’t love cannot be forsaken.

Please don’t go tell your boss to shove it up

This is not about giving up.

It’s about balancing it out and combining two forces

5 Learn to say no .

No I am sorry I can’t make it for your dinner ( I am busy with my artwork )

No I don’t think tomorrow works for a gossip session ( I am busy finding out ways to make my life count even more )

6. Reasearch

See what’s already out there.

Tremendous competetion should not dissuade you ; it should only make you more open to new and cooler ways of doing the same thing.

7. Don’t expect

Okay so it’s a hobby only – so what ?

My writing was always a hobby …when I started the book. I expected nothing much except feeling good and powerful . It’s a bonus that I published .

So get into it with the mind set that ‘yes you can turn this love of yours into a career’ but if it does not happen it’s fine.

At least you have it in your life in some form.

8. Work your Butt off

I burn both ends . I fly on tight rosters and I write on my time off .

I combat jet lags and I travel between travels to script my travel articles and videos ;

I drink endless coffees to keep me going on foreign shores .

Sacrifice is the key.

Yes you might get exhausted doing both but you have to find time. There is no right moment. Any moment between two breaths is the right one.

If you already have a full time job; weekends and late nights are your zones to make this alternate path stick.

No excuses . Forget the Sunday naps and the  compulsory nine hours at night.

To win some you lose some.

Results are worth it

9. Seek a support system

Cut out those from your existence  who don’t support this new lifestyle you are aiming for.

If you can’t cut them off, then ignore them.

The only people who tell you to give up on your dreams are the ones who gave up on theirs.

Delete . Space. Enter .

Friends and folks who encourage you and see the best in you,  are the ones you need to be in touch with at this phase

10. Finally get serious.

It’s your life . Yours alone. You don’t have seventy years actually, even if that’s the average.

The first twenty /thirty are gone by the time you grow up and understand and decide and then get here, to this juncture.

By the time you are let’s say fifty five /sixty …  it’s some health issue or the other and that’s if you are lucky to have stayed cleaned so far .

So that actually itgives you like ten to twenty good years in between .

It’s not as much as it seems .

So Get on with it .

Keep that boring job or perfect  job whichever it is for you and juggle it with another. (The one that’s your very own calling!

The kids will understand, the husband will try, the in-laws will have to.)

And the biggest benefit is that it keeps you out of trouble, depression and mood swings.

‘Cause you have no time for the above.

I can’t think of one without the other!

It’s like two feet.

I started moving forward only when I finally found synchronicity in this duality.