SPEAKER_00 0:00

I believe in myself and my abilities. I can do anything I set my mind to, or I act with confidence and with a plan, but I accept that plans can change. Or some might even say, it is enough to have done my best. Now these statements are easier than implemented by many, as this is all about self-belief. Now, self-belief is a person's belief in their ability to complete tasks and to achieve their goals. Now, judging yourself to be capable of success increases your chances of actual success. And judging yourself as not capable of success reduces the chances. So today I will introduce you to a surprise guest who will take us into the world of self-belief and what we can achieve out of it. I believe you will have precious nuggets to note down. So please bring in your pen and paper, and till then I shall wait for you. I'm on a mission to coach and mentor 100,000 high school students and help them realize their dream of studying in the best universities of the world and build happy careers for themselves. So, I was talking about the surprise guest. His name is Rahul George, and he is India's premier self-hypnosis coach and a personal guide. He has been on this path of personal development for over two decades. And my first meeting with him was in the virtual world when I joined Internet Lifestyle Hub, a community created by our mentor, Siddhart Rajekha. And I was mesmerized by the way he speaks and understands people. And just last week, I was able to connect with him personally at the Freedom Business Rebound event at Chennai. It was a meet of around 600 coaches. And this meeting only increased my appreciation for him. And I couldn't stop myself inviting to my podcast. So here he is to talk about self-belief and who better can be if not him.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Thank you. Thank you for that. For those wonderful, very heartwarming words, uh Kapil. And it truly is my honor to uh, you know, firstly to get this invitation from you. And the moment I saw it, I said, I didn't even have to think twice. I said yes. We will, you know, I'm really looking forward to us meeting and you know sharing ideas uh online, not just for our own, you know, our own personal connect, because we've, you know, we've had many a conversation since I think now it's been more than six months. But the fact that we get to share ideas, and I'm really looking forward to the questions that I'm sure you have in mind for me, uh, with the intention of truly being able to be of benefit to students, especially when they're now at a crucial juncture, at an important juncture in their life, where they make decisions that will shape the years to come. So I'm truly looking forward to hearing your questions and allowing I truly believe in the power of um, you know, there are no no mistakes, there are no um there are no coincidences. So I'm I'm just staying open to the the power of your questions, which will help me connect to the answers that come from beyond me. So I'm I'm really looking forward to our time here together. And of course, for you know, students, um I'm definitely looking forward to questions that you may have, whether you when you listen to this recording, you know, when you have questions, I definitely am looking forward to what those would be. Uh so without further ado, uh Kapil over to you, and uh I'm really looking forward to um to hearing those questions that you have uh for your students.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

See, uh when uh as I began with, uh teachers say to their students that have belief, don't hesitate to work hard. And in the initial stages, like when the year begins, the student is in that dilemma that every student wants to you know do well, but as time passes by, such you can say hesitations come over. Why so and how to overcome them?

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Awesome. So I'll pick the word hesitation that you picked or that you said from you know your your question, and I'll start from there, right? Um hesitation, a lot of that has to do with what not just students, but this is people in general, but let's keep it specific to the students for a moment. Hesitation comes from the fact that when when you actually, you know, when you think about the future and you're not sure about what you want to do, what you want to become, uh there's a certain amount of doubt that gets triggered. Right. So if you were to say, you know, how do we remove hesitation? I think a lot of that has to do with the work that you're putting in as a student, in the context of, you know, yes, you want to get into a good university, yes, you want to get into a professional course. But I'll go one step further saying, what is it that you really want to do, let's say, after you get that degree? Right? After you have that experience abroad. Because studying abroad is by virtue designed to change your perspective on life. So if you come from a small city, if you come from a metro, or even if you come from the, you know, the smaller towns, the point is that the moment you decide, and or let's say your parents have decided that they want you to study abroad, I can promise you this your perspective on life, your outlook to life will change. Right? That's a bonus. But if you if you was, if you were to ask me, so Rahul, what is the antidote to this doubt, this self-doubt, right? I would say keep asking yourself this question, okay, what do I want to do after this? Let's say I get the I manage to go abroad, right? Finances have been arranged. Now I'm doing this professional course. Then what? So when as a student you get into the habit of thinking ahead, thinking beyond just the education, that in itself will start to help you create some kind of grounding. Right. So it's in like the world of hypnosis, in the world, which is where the world that I come from, right? Professionally, when I work with people, I use hypnosis as a methodology to help them calm their nerves, to help them visualize a beautiful future. The one thing that I always remind clients is to have a way to be grounded, right? When you're able to think about, okay, it's like in Hindi we say, right, iskebadkya. So what is it that's going to happen after this if you get into the habit of thinking that that's one way to make you feel more um more hopeful for the future.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Okay. Thank you for the very nice explanation. And through this, uh, I'm happy, you know, while I was listening to your answer, one more question came to my mind. Because as we began today, it was like self-belief for the students. But when a student is preparing to go abroad, and even the parents want it, but some kind of self-doubt comes even in the minds of parents. Basically, it might be because of love. That how will my child be able to conduct himself abroad? Uh, will he be, you know, needing me all the time? Uh, there was a uh mother who I attracted even, in fact, even today, uh evening also there was a call who said that she wants her daughter to go abroad, but she wants to go along with her so that she can take care of her, right? So, why this self-doubt over your own child who you have nurtured for so many years?

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Beautiful question. I was holding back on talking about the parent uh for a moment, assuming that this would be mainly listened to by students. So let's address the other half, right? A lot of any parent's uh self-doubt comes from fear, right? And I've seen this many, many years ago, and I've seen this repeat over and over again. That as a parent, if you are willing to trust the effort, the focus, the attention that you have invested in your child for the last 15, 16, 17, whatever number of years, at which point typically your child is now getting ready to to go abroad. This is this is that moment where you can truly allow. So if you ask me what is the the the password, right? The password to the parent's self-belief, it is allow. Meaning that if this parent is willing to allow their child to grow, allow their child to experience life, then they are putting their child and themselves on this path of self-growth. Right. And a parent listening to this might say, very easy for you to say that, right? It's my child. But this is where it's like in even in psychology, we talk about the different phases of life, right? There's also something that's called the empty nest syndrome, right? Or that phase where you are now going into the empty nest phase, which means that your children have grown up and they've left the coop or they've left the nest, right? Which essentially means that now it's their time to go go out into the world and to make something for themselves, to be their own person. So it's not my place to lecture. I'm just saying that the word is allow, right? Like when you and I were having this conversation, today's what, Wednesday, right? So when it was two nights ago when we were having this conversation, I was on the train on the way back, um, and this is what I was sharing with you that if you start as a parent, the more you start investing in yourself as you know, two parents, meaning the mother and the father, I'm going to assume for a second, if it is a household where there are two parents, or even if there's a household where there's one parent, if you're willing to start investing in yourself at this stage, right, which means there are going to be changes in your life because your child is no longer, yes, I think to me, my mother will probably still, in some ways, see me, you know, always as her little child. That's that's a given. However, this is an opportunity to actually allow yourself to grow as a parent, as an individual. Right, right, right. And if they do that, they're actually doing a massive service to not only their child, but to themselves.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Great. And now I'll be asking a question which has troubled me the most. Right. Because, see, students are worried about the exams, but I feel they are more worried about the result than the exam. Right? Or the and what will happen. Correct. And sometimes there are external pressures that actually, you know, put them on the backstage, I would say. And as a result, we see that societal tendencies develop and they start self-doubting their ability. So, how to overcome that? And what would you like to say to those students?

SPEAKER_03 13:48

Very, very powerful question, and which has a lot of, as we call them, it has a lot of ramifications, a lot of um side effects, in the sense that, and we were talking about this in fact when we met a week ago, right? That for a lot of students, when they start thinking about results, they're thinking in a very sort of binary way, pass or fail. Or in their minds, they're thinking of it like a static image, which is maybe they're seeing you know their friends laughing at them, or they're seeing the the dejection in their parents' faces. If you if you if you were to ask me, as a simple hack, imagine you have the ability to create a movie in your mind. So let's say, let's take the the worst case scenario first, right? A student is imagining in their minds that the result has come and that they have failed. Let's just play that out. The key word here is what happens then? By asking the question, your mind's already starting to visualize something. And I say, okay, what happens then? That's the next frame as a as part of a movie, right? That's the next little clip. What happens then? So if you play this, what happens then to the game, right? Or even better, what happens next as the game? And you keep playing this till eventually your mind will start to find something positive. Like, okay, so what happens then is I don't get to travel abroad. What happens then? I start working at a shop in my local area. What happens then? Life goes on, you know, day in, day out, day in, day out. What happens then? Oh, one day there's this um tourist who walks into the store. What happens then? This to this tourist seems to, you know, believe in me. What happens then? This too, this tourist says, hey, you know what? I'm starting this this uh factory back where I live. You know, I can definitely do with you to manage that store. So the mind has its ability to eventually, if you allow it to momentarily think about things that are negative, but without trying to prevent it, eventually the mind will circle out of that into something positive. What we were talking about, and what your question was more about, when people only think of, oh, if I don't get this, it means I have failed. And the only way out is sometimes the extreme step. A lot of students do that, right? A lot of students literally can only imagine shame. Shame of failing, shame of you know the way their their uh classmates are, their their uh batchmates are looking at them. And they're only able to think in one dimension shame and guilt. Right? Shame because of what how they're feeling when they're imagining people looking at them. Guilt because they've let their parents down, because they've uh let themselves down. They think that. But that's not the reality because in their minds, if they start to play this game more, which is what happens next, just playing this in itself is the beginning of them shifting their like it's like literally they're widening their frame, right? And they're extending the frame. So what comes after that? What comes after that? What comes after that? And eventually we're able to bring ourselves up.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yes, yes, makes sense, yeah, right. And lastly, if I ask you that, what suggestions would you give to such students? Because self-belief is a problem with many, right? And we know that as counselors, as individuals, that if a student is able to come out of it or have that self-belief, the student can do wonders in whatever field, right? So it's let it not be only academic, they are just uh innumerable fields, right? So, what uh would you like to you know suggest to such students? What should they be doing so that they are able to implement that self-belief?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

I love that uh part of your question, which is all about implementing. So I've talked a little broader for those of you who've been listening all along till now. I've talked broader, I've talked more about mindset, I've talked about techniques, simple techniques that you can apply, which are literally like just putting a few words together in a certain sequence, and you're you're helping your mind generate things from the inside. Now let's talk about things from the outside. Right? In order to create a self- uh an environment of self-belief, it's also important to surround yourself with an environment of self-belief. By that, I mean start looking at what are the books that you consume. If you read, as a student, if you read, I'm talking about beyond your study books, if you read, what kind of books are you reading? And I'm sure you consume social media. So if you do consume social media, what kind of social media do you consume? Right? Do you read books on personal development? Do you read uh or or let's say reading is one part? Do you listen to audiobooks? Right? Do you watch YouTube channels and do you listen to podcasts on Spotify? There's so many of these today, which are easily available and for free. Do you listen to this content? Right? Do you watch these videos by people that today are out there putting content which is designed to uplift you as a person? Because self-belief, if you're only trying to do it from within, it can become very different it can start to feel very heavy very quickly. Because people around you are not going to change until they change. But you can change every moment. Even if you're changing like 1%, you know, point like 0.5% every day. There's a very high probability that in you know three months, six months, a year, two years, you will not be that person in the way you think, than who you are today, if you're able to be mindful of what do you have, what do you surround yourself with. Right? It's like saying if somebody wants to lose weight, one of the first things to do is do an audit or an inventory of what do you have in your kitchen? Right? What do you keep in your fridge? It's simple things, but a lot of times we tend to be in our heads thinking, oh, I want this to happen. Oh, I want to be a size, whatever the size is in your mind. Oh, I want this body fat percentage. But the practical way, and it's a tactical way. Which is what is it that you have in your fridge? What is it that you have in the kitchen cupboards or wherever you store snacks, for example? Right? So these are like some examples to to kind of like put this into context. The other is of course seeking out mentors. Right? Do you have a mentor? Question number one. Question number two. What kind of mentors do you seek out? Right? Because when you start to put all these pieces together, that is when there will be days when you feel bad. There will be days when you feel like a failure. Or let me put it this way, there'll be days when you fail, there'll be days when you feel like a failure. It's not the same. You failed is okay. You did a test, you got the results, and as per the education system, they have you know taken your score as fail. But there'll be days when you feel like you failed. However, in both the circumstances, both the situations, if you are able to have enough people around you, enough resources of audio material, written material, right, visual material, that in itself will be able to keep your self-belief strong. Right? And when you continue to have this and surround yourself with this, it's like how we are part of a community and we are, you know, it's like a lot of people can say, Oh, why do you still need to learn at this point in your life? But to us, we recognize that learning at any age is what keeps us connected to our self-belief. Right? So that is the that is if you want to call it a solution. It's all about one part is becoming more aware of what's in your surroundings, what's in your environment.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Great, great. And as I would end this with, as our mentor says, Siddharth, that don't be an overthinker, be an action taker. So I think that should be the key to you know self-belief, go on that path of self-belief. And I'm sure if students follow this, they can actually get what they want in their life.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

I have one more thing to add here, and this is this is you know, kudos to you. That you're creating this digital library of content, of information, of value. And you know, for students who are right now listening to this, for parents who are listening to this on behalf of their kids, you've already you're already ahead of your old version. Right? If something brought you to this point to listen to this podcast, you already are ahead of who you used to be three months, six months, a year, or even two years ago. Right. And it's it's my uh sincere, you know, it's my invitation to to people who are listening to continue to listen because you have so much that you you on your mission are now sharing with the world, you know. And I I genuinely you know wish and pray that people, you know, listen to this, share it with other um, you know, parents, with other students who are on this journey of you know moving the or and improving the quality of their life. So, you know, thank you for for inviting me, and uh, you know, I'm I'm really glad that I got to share this space with you.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Thank you. Thank you, Rahul, and it was really a pleasure. In fact, my you can say honor uh uh to be here with you on this podcast, right? Thank you so much. Thank you, and I believe we'll have more chances of seeing you here in this space. And I hope you find this podcast useful. And if yes, please subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts to get notified. All my podcasts are around 10 to 15 minutes, so they're short and crispy. And if you find it useful, please share a five-star review on the podcast section of my website, studyabroadacademy. And if you're part of my community, please share a learning below. Until the next episode, cheers, God bless, evil spiring. Bye.