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I did this exact thing last year. In October 2014 I weighed 197 pounds. By mid-January 2015 I was down to 172 pounds. Here's what I did:First of all, this all coincided with my decision to start running. In late September, prior to my decision to also lose weight, I started a Couch-to-5K program. That means I was running three times a week. It started out with short distances and no more than a mile or two. But by January I was running 4-6 miles on each run. On Thanksgiving Day of 2014 I ran a 10K in under 60 minutes. Prior to that September I was not a runner at all. I just dedicated myself to getting in shape and starting to run and that's what happened. I enjoyed it and kept it going even after the 10K, and through the winter. (A side note: I kept it going all summer and ran a Marathon in October 2015, just over a year from when I started running.)The other thing I did was control my food portions and track my eating. For the most part I didn't eliminate anything from my diet except the late evening snacking. I mostly continued to eat the same meals as I did prior to the weight loss, I just didn't eat as much of things. I also made sure not to drink too much soda. Eliminating it completely would have definitely been much better but I knew that wasn't going to be maintainable. So I kept myself to one can with lunch and one can with dinner. No cheating on the weekends, either. Also, I don't drink so I didn't have to worry about empty calories in beer. I know that would be killer for somebody who drinks beer. The key is to make diet changes that are maintainable. There are all sorts of crash diets that are much healthier but if you don't think you can maintain it, then there's no way you'll keep it up because you'll miss the foods you cut out, then you'll binge and you'll undo everything you worked for.The main thing that kept me accountable was that I tracked everything I ate. I used MapMyFitness to log all of my meals and workouts. Everything I ate and drank got logged into the system. If it was a glass of orange juice, it got logged. If it was a handful of peanuts, it got logged. If it was a complex homemade dinner, that's right, it got logged. I would take the time to check the ingredients for numbers of calories, fat, carbs and protein and add up the numbers for all of the ingredients, and log it all into the system. Almost every restaurant has nutrition information on their website and for homemade things you can Google things like "nutrition info flour", for example, to find out what kind of calories are in various ingredients.I also did a bit of research to figure out what my calorie intake should be for somebody of my height/weight/activity level. For me, I decided that I wanted to keep my daily calorie intake around 2000 calories so logging my food was important to make sure I stayed below that number.It wasn't easy, but as soon as I started losing weight it started to become somewhat of a game. My initial goal was 185lbs since that's what I was at through most of college. I got down to 185 pretty quickly, at least faster than I expected, so I just kept going. Finally I got down to the low 170s and decided I didn't need to push it any further. There were a couple days where I dropped into the upper 160s but that just meant I was able to give myself a bit of a cheater day and snack a bit extra. :) It cost me a bit extra money because I had to go out and buy some new clothes. And some expensive pants that I bought in 2013 are now too big.A couple tips:Weigh yourself every day and log the number. I still do it and can look at a full graph of my weight going back nearly a year and half. It helps you notice if you start losing ground, you see the chart going up, and it kicks your butt back into gear. It's more fun to watch the numbers continually drop. Sometimes they pop up a little bit then drop down, but if they go up too many days in a row I would really crack down and make sure not to over eat, or run an extra mile to make up for things.Don't eat after 8pm, or within 3 hours of whenever you go to bed. If you eat before bed the food will be sitting in your stomach all night and won't digest as well and you'll weigh in heavier in the morning. This happens to me still sometimes when I snack late and all of sudden the scale makes it look like I gained a few pounds in just one day. After a couple days of no late evening snacking, the scale reading gets back where I expect it to be.Log everything! Log your weight, log your workouts, log your food. It keeps you accountable to yourself. If your goal is to lose the weight, then there's no point in cheating. Just make sure you log it so you can keep track of everything you're doing. It'll help motivate you to keep up with everything.Drink a lot of water. This keeps things digesting and keeps things moving and just keeps your body working better. Just make sure to go pee in the mornings before you weight yourself. A pint of water weighs one pounds, so a good pee in the morning could easily drop off a pound or more.Bottom line, it's totally doable. Just add in 20-40 minutes of running, three days a week, and limit your portions and your snacking. It's that easy!

Age - 25Current job - NTPC limitedQualification - BTECH NIT TRICHY with a CGPA of 9.04 (mechanical engg)Salary - 12.3 lpa CTC ( 58.2k inhand, free medical, laptop, mobile, bills, accomodation and the list goes on)I am very much happy and satisfied that I chose NTPC out of (ntpc,iocl,bpcl and ongc). Reason being the kind of work culture, people around you and yeah a year long training program which is indeed alot of fun. I joined NTPC in sep 2016. I had my technical training at ntpc simhadri for 3.5 months which was power plant familiarisation. The classes started at 10 am and continued till 1 pm. Then lunch break for two hours and then again a two hour session and then you can go to gym, play tennis, go for swimming and what not. People working in ntpc are really happy and satisfied with their lives and job. Right now I am in Noida undergoing management module for 2.5 months. I went for Outborne training in TEHRI for a week which was fantabulous we did tree climbing,valley crossing, trekking, rafting etc etc. I love this company to the core and would have spent my life here if it was not for a UPSC job :-P.After training we are posted to our locations where we are supposed to sit in an air conditioned control room and work from there. Only problem is that you have to work in shifts which changes in every two days. Two days morning shift(6–2) next two day afternoon(2–10) and post that night shift (10–6). Night shift being the most difficult,then you have a day off and then general shift where you do have to attend a meeting for an hour or so. So it is 6 days work and 2 days off (considering one hour general shift as off :P). You do have alot of holidays (30 earned leave, 12 casual leaves, 6 restricted holidays, 20 half paid leaves, 16 leaves for working on saturdays and plus 10 more leaves for the same purpose and is encashable). You have to work for 8 hours after that you are free to pursue your hobby. You do get a variable pay of around 1.2 lakhs per annum. You do get 60k for laptop, 40k for pc ,10 k for mobiles, briefcase allowance,spectacle allowance, free medical in hospitals like apollo and fortis, free accomodation in townships etc etc. If you enjoy city life more, then this company is not for you. As you will be posted in remotest location of the country where even flipkart delivery is not possible forget about malls, multiplex, dominos,pizza hut etc etc. But you can enjoy your life and your family can live a peaceful life.So why am i leaving ntpc?I was attracted towards GROUP A services in India since I was 6 yrs old (I am serious :P). I always wanted to be a class one officer. I have cleared ESE 2016 with an AIR 62,was expecting a far better rank but things got ruined. Everything in your life doesn’t go as you have planned. Wanted to join indian railways but will end up with indian ordnance factory services IOFS.Am i happy?Yes, I am very happy with IOFS there are several reasons for it listed below-It is not as hectic as indian railways where you always need to be on your toes. You can take leaves easily. Iofs is a (8–6) job with two hour lunch break :P.With more authorities comes more responsibilities. In railways you are heading more than 700 people at the very first posting and believe me handling people is very difficult. Handling machines is rather very easy. They won’t judge you,they wont talk behind your back. In IOFS I will be handling a staff of around 100–150 people which is good enough.I would be posted as an Assistant director in ministry of defence. Sounds good right :-P. I would have my own cabin with IES written below my name. I will have a stenographer for doing the typing stuffs.I will get military canteen facillities, will get a 2 BHK accomodation, will get all my bills reimbursed and a inhand salary of around 53–54k during training (15 months training :P) and around 62k after training though far less than ntpc (around 15–20k) but when you look at the bigger picture it doesn’t matter.Yeah and here is the most beautiful thing, i will have a car with govt of india written on it,with the logo of ministry of defence :-P. And a red beacon when i become a general manager after 28 yrs.In railways you don’t get leaves easily, your job is hectic,moreover you can get transferred or suspended if any mishap occurs. During kanpur accident DRM was transferred to ranchi and two officers were suspended. Moreover in railways more preference is given to IRSE and IRTS rather than IRSME. Only 18/67 DRMs are from IRSME. Out of total 40 chairmans only 10 are from IRSME. So you can do the math.In IOFS recruitment is done through CSE as well as ESE but the name assigned to all of them is IOFS rather than IRSE,IRSME, IRTS,IRSS, IRSEE and other services like RPF and signal engineers. And mostly railways is dominated by civil engineers and civil servants (by looking at the number of chairman from civil engg (20/41) please check wikipedia data might be incorrect). While in IOFS promotion is solely time based.I am not discouraging railways, would have taken it for sure if i had the chance :P. But i am happy and content with whatever i have got. Salaries will be same at both the places until you resort to corruption which i assume you won’t. I will become Joint GM in 13–14 yrs basic salary will rise upto 3.22 lakhs :-P. (Current basic pay of JGM is 1.18 lakhs (after 7th pay revision)multiply it by 2.67 current pay comission multiplication factor( Assuming there will be a pay revision in 10–12 yrs having atleast same multiplication factor). Anyway salary doesn’t matter when you reach a level above money,where money doesn’t attracts you anymore. You like to do a job because you are serving your country. You are serving your army by providing them arms, vehicles, clothes and what not. You get to work in tandem with DRDO, with other countries like france, russia,usa etc. And that gives you a passion to work, to let your country men have a peaceful sleep. Where you get satisfaction for your work, where you are above petty profits and all you are worried about is supplying quality product. Work culture is good, people are good, you live a peaceful life, you get a decent salary. You are happy, your family is happy. Isn’t that you were always looking for in a job? Is it about money? Is it about audi?? Is it about armani,gucci?? Then this job is not for you. Money can’t give you happiness. You will earn 40k you will find it less,then you earn 80k still less, then 2 lakhs a months and you will find that less too. :P. Your job should be meaningful, you should provide services to your nation and believe me guys I could have easily earned in 6 digits,will talk about it later someday. First let me tell you something.Why money doesn’t matter?I have to go to flashback for that. Two and half years rewind JULY 2014. I joined HERO MOTOCORP as a Graduate Engineer Trainee, CTC was around 6.25 lakhs per annum with an inhand salary of 37k. Initially there was a training of 5 months i was very happy, i made new friends, lived in gurgaon, went to haridwar stayed in big 3 star hotels, went to club PATIO in gurgaon life was very smooth and i was happy. I used to spend around 10k per month and save 27k. Then suddenly lightening struck, the day was 24th nov 2014. When suddenly the HR announced Anshul Tiwari OPERATIONS in NEEMRANA. I didn’t knew how to react,what to do,couldn’t it be dharuhera or haridwar or anything else, i mean i didn’t want gurgaon but atleast it could have been dharuhera plant. Anyway as the luck would have it,12 lucky ones out of 127 Gets got Neemrana plant. We were cursing our luck, few people even cried and i was neutral i thought i will go and study there, will crack upsc or gate and leave the job. The worse the place is, more you are motivated to leave that. Then a week later it was announced 3 more people are coming to Neemrana to join us. And next day 2 out of them resigned :P that was the terror neemrana had created. From our senior batch 14/22 had resigned within a year. I thought whatever happens, it happens for a good maybe GOD wants me to study and get outta here. Then we had orientation of various depts. One of the section head was very serious, and was asking alot of questions to us, he had a tattoo in his hand and we thought he was cool. Later he announced he is head of machine shop which was my area (2 more friends were there in it). Then came the first day he asked me to come in morning shift :P . I said sir right now i dont have my own vehicle so i can’t come in morning shift. He said ok with disdain.Somehow days passed by i was studying little bit and i bought a bike and the morning shift started. Initially it was easy but then came the month of january i had to getup at 5 am in the morning and leave by 5.45 am, temperature would be around 5–6 degree celcius. I somehow managed a week in morning shift. But then my senior colleagues and my boss asked me to come in morning shift for a month. The guy who is used to sleep at 1 am has to get up by 5 am.I forgot to describe about neemrana :P . It was a place in NH-8, 120 kms from delhi and 140 from jaipur. It was around 90 kms from gurgaon and 35 kms from rewari. So if you want to go for a movie you have to go to rewari which used to take an hour to reach. And if you want to enjoy city life you had to go to gurgaon which took around 3 hours. For food we asked a tiffin service to deliever it for 50 bucks a tiffin. As it was a new shop initially it was very good but then quality deteriorated and one day he served us stale food we called him and said it is stale we can’t eat it. He said no it is fresh,we asked him to taste it :P (all were enggs from top Nits),he dipped his finger tasted it and spitted it. And we realised that getting even basic nessesities of roti, kapda and makaan is difficult here :P. It was difficult to get a cook over there, daily you can’t eat in dhabas. We tried two or three more tiffin services all of them were really bad. One of our stingy roommate used to eat maggi and yippee daily. Or he used to go to plant early by 12 pm and had his lunch as well as dinner in plant only. (Yes there are people like that too :P) Somehow we were managing with food. There was a good restaurant we used to visit that on sundays. We were 5 flatmates all in different shifts. So sometimes we used to see each others face once in a week(even my roommate too). All of us were frustrated to the core. Only solace in our lives was the internet :P. We had a 80GB pack for a month.Coming back to my boss and office. My daily routine in morning shift was get up at 5.15 am, get ready by 5.45 am, reach by 6.05 am, then in hero motocorp there is a culture you are forced to go to prayers, you have to do exercises if you are not found doing that, you will be called by production head and he will make sure you attend it next time. Then there were around 40 operators in our shop. You have to take their attendance ( yeah just like your school), you have to distribute PPEs to them, give them few fundaes and get started for the day. You are supposed to take care of the cleaning of the shop floor area,call and find a housekeeping guy, start all the machines see if there is any problem, i was given responsibility to fill the production board to make few charts and graph and all clerk like work by then it would be 8am. Then we had a tea break where you were given a tea in a steel glass with either a packet of biscuit or something else. And yes you were so called assitant manager of an organisation as big as hero motocorp :P. You have to take care that no operator stays back after 10 mins of tea break. Once my boss found an operator standing there after teabreak, he called me and bashed me like anything and asked me to take care of it. Then there used to be a meeting of prod head with section heads and he will bash them like anything. And then they will take a meeting in their respective sections and transfer the bashing on us :P Words like you are an engineer from NIT patna you should tear away your degree and start cutting grass in the backyard, you take this much salary and you do nothing why did we hired you guys in the first place,was very common. Meanwhile i was scared with machines, I always tried to learn and get hold of it but i never succeeded, I committed a lot of mistakes and felt bad about it. I tried my level best for 3 months and I realised i was not efficient in shop floor. An engineer from a top notch college was doing something that an ITI guy can do, i had to change grinding wheels on my own along with two operators, i had to change rack of machines which involved opening nuts and bolts and standing on an oily surface and was risky too, had to put a request for getting PPEs, oil etc etc. For lunch half an hour was the alloted time but we were asked to finish it in 15 minutes and come back. I was supposed to stand from 6 in the morning to 3 in the noon,if my boss saw me sitting anytime in the day he used to say i always find you sitting and doing nothing. My clothes used to turn oily,greasy, from white to brown and what not. I never looked like an engineer rather looked like an operator. Cycle time was 18 seconds. Yeah that is the time given for assembly of your precious bike. Operators have to work their hearts out for 9k. I used to feel for them. I was trying my level best to impress my boss but he formed a perception i am waste, i can’t do anything in my life. He used to ask me to maintain a paper sheet in my pocket which should have production of all the machines (in total 30 machines) every hour. And i should be able to answer why production was low in that particular machine on that particular hour and message him every hour if any problem is there. As if i had 6 hands, 6 eyes and i could multitask :P. Few of my colleagues had no sympathy towards me. They all had an exp of 8–10 yrs and what were they doing??? Same thing what i am doing, even after 8 yrs of work ex. They were working in shifts, living a meaningless life in a village just for the sake of money. I could not have imagined my life there, i could not keep my family like that. I was getting depressed day by day. My legs used to pain like anything. Leaving time was 2.45 pm but i was not allowed to leave till i did the whole documentation and i had to stay there till 4 pm. Then i used to come back to my room sleep for an hour or two and then the quest for food would begin. Where should we eat today? We used to go to different places daily. The sole purpose of earning money is to get good food, and we were not able to find it anywhere over there. Somehow i used to study for an hour or two,then again the cycle repeated for a week. Sunday’s were meant for sleeping after the saturday night party. I didn’t get a good gate rank as i didn’t prepared well. Frustration was building in. I asked my dad should i resign and go for preparation,he said no don’t leave such a good job. My boss used to scold me atleast thrice a week. Daily after coming to the plant i used to check his car in the parking if it was not there, i used to feel,I am at the cloud 9 :P. My boss used to take alot of leaves atleast 3–4 in a month. We were entitled for around 46 leaves in a year.After a lot of frustration of 3 months. I asked my boss for a 2 days leave as i wanted to go to my home. He said why do you need these much leaves?? I told him it takes around 16 hours by train and then from here to delhi it takes around 3 hours by bus. Then i am going after 4 months,I will spend atleast 3 days there (2 leaves + sunday + 2 holidays of holi so total 5 days). He said why didn’t you booked a flight?? I told him I can’t afford it,to which he replied flights were cheaper a week back why didn’t you booked it then.( I was like what the hell is wrong with him. I am asking for 2 days leave after 4 months). Then he said okk but your performance will be affected by it i said okk sir :/ (as if i will stay here for eternity). I came back and the same routine started. One of my batchmate came from gurgaon plant for some work he looked into my condition and said please leave this bullshit job. Our job is very cool yours is like a labourer. And i went to have lunch with my friend and was talking to him about my life there. Then suddenly my boss passed by my table in canteen. And then he came back and asked what are you doing here? I told him i am having lunch. He said don’t you have manners you didn’t greet me when i passed by. He insulted me infront of my friend. I remained silent. Whenever he used to scold me i always tried to remain silent. I respected him as he was older than me,as well as he was my boss. I used to do whatever he used to say. One day one of my colleague said why do you always listen to him? He will ruin your life, speak out otherwise life will be hell for you here. I know you are not interested in work over here, try to change your department or leave this job, you are young and from a good college, you can crack GATE or IES. I regret not preparing for any exam when i was your age, you should not commit the same mistake. Get away from here this job is not for you. I got inspired and started thinking about the day when i had cleared iitjee, aieee and other exams. I knew i had the calibre all i needed was time to prepare. One fine day i was working in a machine talking to an operator and i was pissed that particular day, we were changing rack standing at a height of 12 feets, the operator forgot to lift a handle like lever which was for lubrication purpose it had holes for oil to come out. I asked him to start the machine and there I was drenched with oil from my hair to my clothes, my body was full with lube oil, that added fuel to the fire, i was in the night shift, operator apologised i told him it was not his fault. Reached home by 11.45 pm. Took a shower and started thinking is this it?? That’s how my life is going to end?? Started crying on my predicament and then decided i will do something about it. Few days passed by my boss called me one day and rebuked me infront of the operators and said really bad words, you are good for nothing, you guys know how to take salary but you don’t work. That day was it,threshold was crossed. I got angry, real angry, told him sir, i can’t work like this, you don’t like my work fine, you change my dept, even i don’t like working here, i will better resign and prepare for govt exams.He replied you can’t do a good job here,how would you clear an exam? If you leave this job I assure you that you won’t get a job anywhere. I told him that is my problem and i will live with it. After this incident he remained silent for few days but again he started bashing me, One day i was sitting and doing some paper work in pc he said you always sit down and work in a pc why don’t you go to the line and check problems there. I told him all machines are running fine and hence i am doing some paperwork. He asked me to leave at once. I went.One fine day i was talking to my colleague and he saw us,that guy was new in the machine shop. He said you are already spoiled and you are spoiling him too. You guys get salary for working here not for talking. He didn’t care for our explanation we were coming from a machine after fixing an issue. He said from next week onwards you will come on different shifts. I nodded to that. One day he bashed the new joinee(his dad was a businessman) in a way no one would. Due to some reasons a particular area behind the machine was little dirty. To which he said “ye tere baap ki company nhi hai ki tu yahan kuch bhi karega, tu yahan salary leta hai” ( this is not your dad’s company, company is paying you salary). The guy was sad, he regretted leaving his previous company, just because of the increment he got here, work culture in the previous company was far better and he was very happy over there. I started thinking about my past. Where it went wrong?? I was brilliant since my childhood, cleared JEE,AIEEE studied in a decent college, was a 9 pointer will it end here?? Can i do the same stuff for 15 yrs and then endup becoming like my boss? Daily after getting up at 5 am i used to think why am i doing this? I dont want this life :/. I filled form of SAIL one of the PSU and started preparing for it, missed it by 10 marks, got very less mark in general studies :P.I tried to focus on few other exams like nmdc and bel missed them by 7–8 marks. I knew by then i can get a job in a PSU if i work hard. I needed to leave this job to achieve something in my life. Initially i thought of changing my dept from operations to services where i will have weekends off. I talked to one of my favourite senior. I still remember what he said coz it changed my life- “Anshul, don’t go after money if you will work here for one more year you will get addicted to money and then you will not be able to leave this job. Leave it now work hard for a year if things are not working well you can come back here or use this experience to join any other company”. I talked to my mom about my plan she said leave the job you are not meant for this beta, you are meant for something big, I always wanted that you prepare for Ies, Ias but you wanted to earn money so I didn’t asked you to do that. My dad initially said its a good job,what if you don’t get any job ,competition is very tough nowadays. I told him, dad I promise you, that i will end up with a job at the end of this year, be it ssc-cgl or any other exam I will find a job but I can’t do this job for my life, i hate it to the core, I can’t survive here, I will go mad if i continue here. My dad said ok as you wish. I had saved around 3 lakhs in hero motocorp :P. Made easy fees was 60k I chose bhopal centre as I didn’t like delhi, full of negative people and pollution. My cost of living was around 6k per month. I gave my fees and tried not to ask money from my dad. But he used to send me money, he always does that I do remember during college,I used to be only lakhpati among my friend’s circle. There were few incidents when my boss blackmailed me and said some personal words about my family which I can’t share here. I cried that day how can some one say that about someone’s family. My friend asked me to lodge a complaint in HR against my boss. I was not sure what should I do? If I would have complained, there would have been a sureshot action against him. As Gets are supposedly valued in hero motocorp. I decided not to complain as I thought he has a family to support and his actions should not affect his family. I remained silent.The day was 1st june 2015. I went to his cabin with resignation letter in my hand. I told him sir I am resigning today. He replied job kahan lagi hai teri? (Where did you get a job). I told him I want to prepare for IES and I haven’t got any job, to which he replied jhut mat bol sahi bata de (don’t lie tell me the truth). I told him that it is the truth and he said “dekh le aisi job nhi milegi tjhe dobara ,taiyari bahut log karte hai soch le ekbar”(think again you won’t get a job like this again). I told him it is a well thought decision I want to pursue my dreams. I had to serve a month’s notice period. My colleagues went to him asked him to have a farewell party for me, he denied by saying “There is no farewell party for Gets”, yeah that was the hatred he had developed for me. Anyway I was given a farewell without informing him and everyone was enjoying except me, I was silent,observing everyone and thinking about my road ahead, and my plans. Then came 26th june 2015 my last day at the office, my colleagues asked me to come in general shift as it was my last day. I was talking to my colleagues, then they asked me to have my last tea. I went and was having my tea and suddenly my boss saw me sitting and having tea. He was staring at me, he looked at his watch and asked me what is the teatime? and what are you doing here? in a high pitched voice. I was pissed I told him today I came in general shift, I am not in morning shift. And then at 3 pm,there was kinda gathering where all my colleagues and my boss were present. And I was sitting in between, they all started speaking about me, one by one. One of them said, Anshul you are not sincere, you need to work very hard otherwise you won’t get selected, i remained silent. It was there time they can say whatever they want to. Few of them encouraged me and said let’s have a pic with him,next year he will become an ies officer and it will be difficult to catch hold of him, he will be very busy and he will forget us, to which I replied in negative.Then it was the turn of my boss, I was ready for his last fucking speech :P. I was happy that I would never have to see his face again. He started anshul, I also gave few exams of UPSC, you know what UPSC is very difficult to crack, anyway you can give it a try. But be sincere, work hard you don’t know how to work hard, it will take time maybe 2–3 yrs for you to crack have patience, if you don’t get selected then go for a distance learning MBA course along with your prep so that you can explain the gap, you can come back here too, I will try to give you a job, don’t worry I am always here for you and he smirked. I kept quiet, I wanted to say alot of things but I knew that it was not the right time to say that. I said ok thank you sir, I will keep that in mind. I met everyone, met whoever I knew, talked to all 80 operators who gave their hearts out. They said you were the best among all other team managers, and they will miss me alot, few of them even cried. I told them to be in touch. Then there was a party from my friends where I was sitting around and observing, thinking what to do in my future. (Today as I speak,10 out of 12 Gets have resigned from the Neemrana plant) I left for bhopal the very next day.Joined made easy worked really very hard. As many people PM me for the time table that I followed. It was I made weekly plans, three days plan and daily plan tried to stick to them. Daily I read The Hindu, I gave an hour for english and vocab, I gave one and half hour to GS, 4 hours for coaching, two hours for taking bath, eating and other stuffs, 6 hours for sleeping, remaining for technical subjects.I used to get up at 8 am. Then used to study english for an hour. Then took breakfast, and then technical till 5 pm, in b/w 45 mins for bathing and eating. Then used to go to made easy 5.30–9.30 during breaks I studied vocab and grammar, used to come back by 10 pm had my dinner then GS for one and half hour and then technical till 1.20 am. Then watched Big bang theory a episode daily. And then slept till 8 am. I followed it religiously till october.After gate I changed my sleeping habits. I used to study till 6 am and then sleep 6–12 and then took lunch/breakfast :P. I used to remember the days when I was in hero and how sad I was, and I compared it with how happy I was during preparation. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I was motivated, I knew I will clear ies very next year. I gave exams like ssc-cgl and ssc-je too. I always feel we should give more and more exams. I cleared prelims of both of them didn’t gave mains,didn’t want to spoil a seat. I gave NPC-CGPTDM cleared prelims, got called for document verification after mains,missed it by 8 marks. Reason being exam was in nov 2015 and syllabus was not completed by that time in made easy.I gave mppsc state engineering services too, qualified prelims as well as mains (by the time of mains GATE result was not declared) didn’t attended it’s interview, again didn’t want to take a seat as I was already selected in IES. I know few people who were selected in IES still gave that interview just for the sake of boasting that they have secured a rank here too. Wasting life and time of a serious candidate.I got AIR 97 in GATE 2016, I didn’t believed it when I saw my result.I was ecstasic, put a status in fb :P . I opened fb after 9 months. Deactivated fb few days later. Got selected in bpcl,ntpc,iocl and ongc. I avoided giving too many interviews, i do have 14 interview call letters in my home and I attended only 4 and converted them all. You might think that I took 3 jobs, but let me tell you I got selected in bpcl earlier but I knew about the attrition rate there, so I gave ntpc,iocl and ongc interview. And no one is sure if he will get selected in a particular company. Air 97 (two guys can have same air), air 92 were rejected by ntpc. Air 41,45 were rejected by ongc and air 92,161(obc) was rejected by iocl. Bpcl even rejected air 7, air 14,air 28. So it comes to your calibre in the interviews. I gave my IES interview on 15th sep 2016 and joined ntpc.Then on 29th nov 2016 around 8 pm, i got a message that congrats for your selection in ies, I was ecstasic, I wanted to check my result on my own and was angry initially,but after listening to the news anger went away. I locked myself into my room, as he didn’t mentioned my rank, I checked from the top found my name against AIR 62. I was not happy with that though, but was happy that I got selected atleast. Called my mom and dad they were very happy, I am the first one in my family to clear any UPSC exam. My mom and dad were very happy and I was happy for them. I got my name published in the newspaper, gave credits to my mom :-). She is the only reason for whatever I have achieved in my life. I called all my friends they were asking for a party. One of my friend said send a message to my ex boss. Initially I was reluctant but I did sent him a message and told him Sir I got selected in UPSC IES with AIR 62. It is all because of you thanks for harassing me otherwise I wouldn’t have left the job. There were few more stuff which I said and I won’t like to mention that here :P. I was feeling relieved after sending him a message :P . He blocked me maybe now it was his turn to be scared :P. Today I am very happy with whatever I have achieved in my life.I have written a very long answer. It took me 3–4 hours and 5 sittings to finish it off. Please pardon my grammatical mistakes, though I will edit it, but your help will be appreciated. This answer is for all the students who feel demotivated, let me tell you guys you can do wonders, all you need to do is identify the power inside you, you are like a lion, you should be fearless. There is always light at the end of a tunnel. It’s not about how hard you fall,it is always about how hard you come back. There is no shortcut for success. You have to work hard but once you do so you will be rewarded may be not today, may be tomorrow, maybe day after tomorrow but keep working hard. Have faith in your abilities. God helps those who help themselves. Forget about everything for a year (11 months). I removed fb, whatsapp and all other apps on 26th june 2015. I used to cut all my friend’s call. I used email for communicating limiting it to 2–3 friends and 2–3 mails daily at the maximum. You reap what you sow. So arise awake and not stop until the goal is reached. Watch videos of mateusz M. Give your best shot you should not have any regrets in life.PS - I hope you reach this far in my answer :P. I am sorry to write such a long answer I wrote it in the flow. May God bless you all and you achieve your goals :-). I know my answer went off the track. I just wanted to differentiate between two extremes of a job. And I want to say once again “Money doesn’t matter in life what matters is whether you are happy or not”, If money mattered then Gaurav agrawal sir (CSE’13 AIR 1)would have been working in singapore in citibank, Ira madam (CSE’14 AIR 1)would have been working with nestle, Saikanth varma sir would have been working with google (CSE’14 AIR 18), Sudhanshu yadav sir(IFOS’13 AIR 42)would have been working in IOCL and I would have been working with ONGC :P (jokes apart). Do what you enjoy because only that will give you satisfaction. Challenge yourself daily, strech yourself, make your own boundaries and one day you will reach Zenith. All the best :-).

I read this book for the first time when I was 17 years old.I wasn't ready for it. In hindsight, the only thing that seemed to penetrate my thick skull was the lesson about your circle of influence. Not long after reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," I quit all personal development attempts for about 16 years, but for that whole period, I never fumed about politics or had much interest in the lives of celebrities.I didn't do the best job of focusing only on what I could influence, but I didn't also repeat the mistake of masses who chase gossip and tragedies from the other side of the world.By the way, the "habits" described in the book are not really habits. They are more like mindsets and attitudes. Covey very rarely pointed out a specific daily behavior you should develop to achieve mastery in a particular area. So, it is not so easy to analyze and pinpoint how the book affected me.I read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" the next time in October 2012.Habit #1, Be ProactiveI had some troubles with wrapping my mind over the concept of being proactive. For too long, I played a victim and had a victim mentality. But I was already proactive after the lecture of The Slight Edge, and appreciated the importance of daily actions in areas I wanted to progress.The lesson about the Circle of Influence was a good reminder.Well, I became more proactive, that's for sure. I started a new career. I worked on developing my current career. I fixed our family finances and my health. I just cannot connect my new attitude to a specific aha moment from the book.Habit #3, Put First Things FirstI still suck at it. I simply have too many obligations and too many areas of focus. Wife, three kids, a day job, a writing career, a church community and a multitude of life's trivia (paying bills on time, maintaining cars and household articles, trips, sickness and so on) ensures that focus is a rare commodity in my life.But I definitely got better. My results are proof of that. I wrote over one million words and published a big chunk of them. I started new projects. I worked on my side hustle instead of playing computer games or watching YouTube videos and developed it to the point where my wife could quit her day job.I even wrote a bestselling book about time management and became a personal productivity coach.But again, apart from the basic lesson (focus on important, not urgent), I cannot put my finger on any specific lesson from the book that helped me with this all.Habit #4, Think Win-WinI remember that this part was eye-opening for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to immediately apply it. However, out of habits 4-6 from "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," which I consider "leadership habits," this habit was the one that I had opportunities to practice the most.I took part in many collaboration projects since then: co-promoting books of other authors, organizing and participating in book events, contributing to books of my friends, or recently, helping some people with Amazon advertising campaigns.A win-win approach was also very effective in my networking efforts. Some amazing folks, including a few millionaires, got to know me and helped me out, because I was thinking and acting win-win when I started and cultivated relationships with them.Habit #5, Seek First to Understand, Then to be UnderstoodHabit #6, SynergizeI didn't take away much, nor implemented, from habits #5 and #6. Now, when I've become a leader of a small tribe, maybe I should go back to those parts of the book and reconsider how I could apply them in my life.Habit #7, Sharpen the SawI didn't need Covey's preaching in that regard. I was firmly convinced about how small daily disciplines are important for one's well-being. I also clearly understood that aiming for sustainability was the only reasonable way to go. I already had most of the habits the author recommended: daily exercises, prayer, and reading.Again, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" only reinforced what I knew and was practicing.Habit #2, Begin with the End in MindI'm sure you've noticed that I omitted this one. It's because this is the part of the book that really changed me.To create a personal mission statement, you need to define (Victor Frankl said 'detect') your mission first.Even the concept that I have a mission was bizarre for me. That led me to study my Church's documents, which teachings I found totally congruent with this idea.So, I wrote my PMS and started using it.I wrote a grand piece of statement. What amazes me to no end is that it actually works. I am slowly becoming the person I wanted to be.Like becoming a writer. This dream was not possible. No experience, no appropriate education, no clue... But after 15 months since creating my personal mission statement, I changed one sentence in it from "I'm becoming a writer" into "I'm a writer."By the way, the first book I wrote was about creation of a personal mission statement, and it already sold over 5,000 copies.Anyway, I attribute to my personal mission statement at least 50% of the changes that took place in myself and my life in the last 5 years.Before I wrote it, I was determined to change my life, but had no clear vision how to do that or what the output would be.I included 13 areas of my life in my personal mission statement. My life was a mess, and I wanted to fix it in its whole.I will break them down for you showing how I improved.1. Love.I developed in love of God and of people. I pray a lot more than 5 years ago. I overcame my shyness in personal interactions (weirdly, I had no problem with public speaking, but was a total shrinking violet in one-on-one interactions).2. Children.I helped my son to improve his grades and taught him how to teach himself. I sustained a deep bond with my children. My resolve for this day is to spend at least an hour a week of quality time with each of them. So far, so good.3. Wife.In 2013, my wife read my first two books and said that my writing is nothing special. She insisted I should quit this writing hobby and look for a better job instead.Today, she quit her day job because she is confident my writing brings enough income for our family. She wants to help me in my authorpreneurship adventure as well.4. Gratitude.I started three gratitude journals within 3 months since writing my personal mission statement. Nowadays, I spend about 10-15 minutes jotting my 25-50 entries in them. I became a gratitude fountain.5. Failure.I was deathly afraid of failure. This fear no longer paralyzes me. I'm not enthusiastic enough about my failures, but I accepted them as a part of my growth process.When, in the beginning of 2013, Firepole Marketing rejected my post in the last possible moment (they had already accepted and edited it), I was mad at them.When my paid article was rejected this week (and it was preemptively accepted as well; it was supposed to be just a matter of polishing the piece), I simply shrugged and thanked them for the feedback.6. Achievement.15 books published. Over 43,000 copies sold. Millions of views on Quora and thousands of followers. Dozens of coaching clients. Over 40,000 daily habits check-ins on Coach.me.Yep, I achieved a thing or two.7. Wealth.I doubled my income, tripled my savings, quadrupled my savings ratio, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on items improving the lifestyle of our family (from small things like a Kindle Paperwhite, via bigger, like a second car, to huge, like purchasing our first house).8. Giving.I give away 5% of my side income (of which I had none five years ago).9. Motivation.My personal mission statement was my best motivation for a long period of time.It's still a huge motivator for me.Then I started getting feedback from my readers and coaching clients. I don't need any new sources of motivation anymore.10. Mindfulness.Various activities and disciplines made me more present where I am, right here and right now: while working, talking with my kids, writing, or appreciating nature.I meditate every day. It's just a few minutes, but it works.I also pray much more than previously, and I spend quite a lot of time alone with my thoughts.11. Self-Examination.A lot of my mindfulness comes from this point. I journal 6 days a week for 10-15 minutes and review my entries on Sundays.This is my main tool for gaining self-knowledge. It may seem ridiculously small, but the consistency of this practice (I missed just a few days since 26th of May 2013) ensured that I answered over a thousand questions about myself.I also keep track of my activities in a few (several?) diaries/ logs.Three times I kept a time journal for a period of two weeks. I jotted down every single activity I had been doing and how much time it took.I keep an online progress journal where I write down my business activities. I also keep track of my sleep amount and fitness records there.On 23rd of September, 2013 I started a writing log. I register my every writing session, their start and stop time, and word count.I document my progress on my blog and in my income reports.12. Language.Because of my personal mission statement, I tried (without success) an experiment in 2013—I wanted not to utter a word for the whole day. This experiment also improved my mindfulness and made me aware about my self-talk.I slipped away with my speech patterns after quitting the experiment, but it has had some lasting consequences. For example, I limited my foul language. I also got a whole set of mental tools I can use to get a grip over my words.13. Persistence.I persisted when my wife said my writing is 'nothing special' and I should 'quit this hobby and get a better job' in July 2013.I persevered when my books sold 144 copies in the first five months and one week of my writing career.I kept writing and publishing when my publisher nullified our contract and my book sales were declining at a rapid pace. The last happened at least several times, practically after each book launch.I persisted when, in 2016, I needed to draw funds from my day job salary to keep my authorpreneurship alive. I spent more on training and producing new books/ new formats than I earned from royalties. No wonder; in August I sold only 111 Kindle copies, which was about 55% of my sales in January 2014 at the beginning of my career, when I had only four books published.I keep about two dozen daily habits. My "stick ratio" is over 98%.I learned a lot about perseverance.I even wrote a book titled "The Art of Persistence." It was published in April 2015 and is one of my most popular books.As you can see, my personal mission statement revolutionized my life. It was more effective in changing myself than any affirmations, books, audio programs, or coaching I got.The reason for that is simple--its message came from within. I didn't need to get this message hammered into me. It was inside me all the time. My personal mission statement only helped me to articulate it and once I had it, it served me as a compass.It guided me not only in some huge decisions, but in everyday miniscule, seemingly unimportant actions: how I did my household chores, how and how much I prayed, how I talked with my kids or interacted with my wife.This is the change in myself I attribute to "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."(my life’s trajectory since 2012)