“State administration has suspended 13 out of 75 colleges from the admission process,” told my friend as I was walking toward the interview venue.

I was there for my university selection and admission process, and with utter shock, I nearly shouted, “What the…!”

The news only came at the very last moment. So, you can imagine what I would have gone through when nearly 20% of the options were off the table. It affected the entire admissions process, and I lost my choice to study Computer Science Engineering.

Quickly recovering from that shock, I decided to take that as a challenge to my abilities. To get my foot in the door, I settled on Civil Engineering.

Subsequently, I had another chance to opt for Computer Science after a year, and I lost that again due to early intake closures. This time I settled on Electrical-Electronics-Power Engineering.

Over a period, I learned that resilience comes from three key aspects.

• Perception of crisis
• Commitment to the goal
• Self-control

How do you treat any crisis?

When you look at the problem as a challenge to your abilities, you will feel charged and motivated to face it. It changes the mentality, and you stop seeing yourself as a victim. As you feel challenged, your response changes, and you start to learn from failures. You progress forward while you work to finish the challenge.

Look at the problem as a challenge to your abilities.

How committed are you to the goal?

Being committed to a long-term goal gives you significant power to plow through challenging times. Think of it as walking through a dark tunnel. When you focus on the tiny light at the end of the tunnel, the journey becomes more comfortable as long as you keep your goal in sight and stay committed to it.

Being committed to a long-term goal gives you significant power to plow through challenging times.

How good is your self-control?

Self-control is all about making choices. You must understand and discern what is controllable and what is not. If you focus on uncontrollable, you will feel helpless, victimized, and lost. You will tend to react. Instead, when you focus on what you can control, you will respond. You will be able to move forward instead of getting stuck. Despite the friction, you will learn from it and progress, that’s the plan.

Understand and discern what is controllable and what is not. And then focus on what is manageable.

The crisis that unfolded during my uni-admissions crisis gave me a significant challenge. But, my life took a significant turn as I handled it, and it changed me permanently!

But I was able to do it only because I treated that crisis as a challenge to my abilities. I was entirely committed to becoming an engineer with Computer Science knowledge, and tackling the problem helped me learn more than that. Had I lost my self-control back then, I would never have finished it, and my life would have been different today.

The point is

Whether it is uni-admission problems, Covid-19, recession, or any other crisis, none of them stays for long! But you must make sure that your response is coming from your better self.

Just imagine, a few years from now, what will you tell your friends, colleagues, followers, or your children. Do you want to regret your reactions, or do you want to take pride in your actions?

There is a fundamental lesson in all this - Whether it is success or failure, they are not permanent, but how you deal with them can have a life-long impact!

Whether it is success or failure, they are not permanent, but how you deal with them can have a life-long impact!