Adieu my collegues.. until the next time

Two months of notice period have passed, and I arrive at the last day in office. Like most people, I too am bad with goodbyes. I want to leave with words that would leave behind some portion of my experiences, but know that whatever I say would not do justice to it. There would always be the few people, who made my stay great, that I would not be able to say bye to properly. But then it is my hope that I would definitely be keeping in touch with them in the future. So in that sense, it is not goodbye but until the next time!
For a long time I was wondering what I would say. Goodbye in itself is sufficient, but feels bland to me. I mean, in this age of digital and social media, we could always keep in touch. Most of you would either be already on my Facebook or Google+ or LinkedIn list right? So it is utmost ease to keep in touch in the future. But I still have the nags to put in more words, possibly because I am getting older. I hear that folks talk more as they age. And given the fact that some of my hair is turning white, I would take that as an incentive to just go ahead and dump these thoughts onto you. Not of the past, but of the present and for the future.
Please don't take this as advice, these are merely my working points. The items that I am trying to focus on myself. A few months back, I came across the Morning Manifesto. I liked it so much that you can find a printed A4 size page tacked on my cubicle. I have taken most of the points below from the morning manifesto, a subset, and added a couple of my own. Here they are, with my own commentary alongside.

Get uncomfortable. - “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

Push yourself to go higher. If you get very comfortable with your what you are doing and only do what you are confortable with, chances are that you will stop learning. Learning new things always comes with difficulty, and difficulty will make you uncomfortable to start with.

Be confident; build confidence. - “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”

Even the best need practice to make perfect. And confidence comes only with practice. You need to take every oppurtunity that comes your way. In the current context, I would say you need to make oppurtunity too if there seem to be a lack of it. The way I see it, oppurtunities are not going to be gifted. Demand oppurtunities! Go get them.

Be grateful. - “It’s not just another day; it’s the one day that was given to you today.”

We are some of the priviledged in the society. There will always be difficulties but there will also be people who face more hardships than us. Be grateful to what has been given to us.

Be optimistic. - “Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.” - Dalai Lama XIV

No comments here. Just need to feel it!

Collect moments, not things. - “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” - Dr. Seuss

Build memories, thats whats going to stay with you even after the warranty period of things expire. And believe me it will expire. In the end, memories are the only things you would be left with and you gotta make sure they are good. Work towards it, don't leave it just to chance.

Be kind and stay genuine. -  “Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson OR "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle" - Ian Maclaren

Well, another way to look at it is to try hard not to be a jerk! Quite often we trivialize stuff. Oh! look at that they did such a silly thing. They took so much time to build this rusbbish?" These are some of the comments I oft hear. And believe me, I have been guilty of it myself in the past. Now, I try to catch myself before these thoughts materialize. How dare I think that I could have done a better job? I was not part of that team. I didn't experience the possible late nights and heavy pressure working they could have gone through! I didn't walk along with them when they were doing it. Then how in goodness sake can I be such a jerk to even imply that I could have done better?

Be principled! - "There are three constants in life... change, choice and principles." - Stephen Covey

I had read somewhere that principles are what define the character of a person. Or in other words a person without princliples is a person without character. Take stands in life. Its ok if not everyone is happy and pleased with you. It may need some getting used to, but believe me not everyone in the world is going to "love" you anyways so why compromise?

Chase your dreams and set new goals. -  “Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.”

This one is the most difficult one for me. You see it involves goals and I am really bad with goals. I am not one who can have grand visions. But what I like to do is set small personal goals. Even this goal of personal improvement will change over a period of time. I hope to master some of these and then replace them with others. So a list will always be there for me to improve upon. The key being improve. Create your list. Borrow from here, somewhere else, it doesn't matter. Get what you like and just begin.

And with these thoughts I leave OpenText Cordys.

It's time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure. - Ernie Harwell