Himanshu Narang | Advice For When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed

Himanshu Narang - Stick to It

Exhausted and overwhelmed, Himanshu Narang was about to give up when his grandmother shared with him 6 simple words that turned his life around.

Transcript:

June the 30th, 2012 when I landed in Vancouver, and in Canada for the first time, and Vancouver welcomed me with rain.

Here I was in this beautiful city of 600,000 people without a single friend or relative. I didn't know anybody here. I'm Indian so it's ironic that I did not have anybody here, but it's true. I didn't know a single person in this country.

So one year into Canada I had to look for a summer internship, and I had to go through tons and tons of job applications to find a three month internship in a factory, two hours one way, three buses, and a train to get there, and then coming back. Life was good.

However, life went on, and December of 2013 I was ready to graduate. I was turning in the assignments. I was completing my reports, preparing for exams. I was busy. I was tired. I was stressed out. I was frustrated, but I was pumped up. Ask me. Say, "Why were you pumped up?"

Audience: Why were you pumped up?

I'm glad you asked. I was pumped up because as soon as I finished my MBA I was going to go back to India to see my family.

A couple of days after I reached India I was having a conversation with my grandmother, and she asked me, "How are things in Canada?" and I said, "I'm not sure." Things are going to be difficult because that was the evidence I had. I had a hard time looking for an internship, and there were people who graduated in December, 2012 who were still looking for jobs in December, 2013, so one year they were unemployed.

I knew about those people and there were quite a few of them, and some of them were even smarter than me. I knew all of that, I said, "It's going to be difficult, and I'm not even sure. Maybe I should come back to India or figure something else out," and she said something to me which I have never forgotten. She said, "Son, everything new is hard at first. Everything new is hard at first. You're in a new culture, new country amongst new people, it's bound to be difficult. But it doesn't mean it will stay difficult. If you stick to it long enough, it will get easy. If you stick, it will click." She said that in Hindi, so I don't ... I added my rhyme to it, "If you stick, it will click."

Being able to live through the challenging phase has allowed me to create the options that I've been able to create today. To do what I do today. To live what I call, "My dream," and it was only possible because of that message. Because I could have otherwise given up.

As you try to get into these strategies, it is going to be difficult because everything new is difficult at first, and being able to stick through the difficult phases it's going to get easy, because as my grandmother said, "If you stick, it will click."