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Home » How To Get What You Want And Not Stick To What You Can: Pooja Jambotkar (Transcript)

How To Get What You Want And Not Stick To What You Can: Pooja Jambotkar (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Pooja Jambotkar’s talk titled “How To Get What You Want And Not Stick To What You Can” at TEDxYouth@LPHS conference.

SUMMARY: In this TEDx talk, Pooja Jambotkar begins with a personal journey from her introverted childhood to achieving her dream of becoming the popular girl in high school. She emphasizes the importance of recognizing one’s desires and strengths to transform wants into achievements.

Pooja introduces a six-step process that she has used throughout her life, proving its effectiveness by sharing her own experiences of constant want and achievement. She challenges the audience to differentiate between what they can do and what they truly want to do, highlighting the significance of commitment to one’s goals.

Through her narrative, Pooja inspires with the message that wants can change over time, and how adapting to these changes is crucial for personal growth. She underlines the talk with a poignant question about whether individuals are pursuing their wants or merely settling for their cans. Pooja’s talk is a powerful testament to the power of ambition, self-reflection, and relentless pursuit of personal goals.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Thank you. Thank you for such a lovely introduction. Good morning. Yes, today, I’m going to talk about how to get what you want. So, you have to bear with me because the word “want” you’re going to hear a lot. Okay, the next 15 minutes.

My Journey

So, a little background about me. As a child, I was a very introverted child. Now, I don’t look like one. Yes. But, as a child, I was. I didn’t have friends. In terms of academics, also, I was very average. Extracurricular activities, I would do only dance and a little theater, but not great in other stuff. But, I was not happy with my situation. This, I’m talking about when I was in school. I wanted to change that situation.

I wanted something. Okay, listen to the word: wanted. What I wanted… at that point in my life, I wanted to become that popular girl, you know. You must have seen these movies, “Mean Girls” and all those. You want to, like, I wanted to become that, that popular girl in this high school, or that couple of groups of that school. But, I wasn’t even close. Like, I was like that far from reaching them. But, I wanted that. So, I had to do certain things to get what I wanted.

The Process

So, how did I start? I first acknowledged that yes, I want this. So, that’s the first step is easy. That’s done. Next step, I identified my strength. What is it that can make me reach there? Okay, now I know this. A few of my friends, but they’re still not good enough to make me reach there. So, now what else do I need? I need to add more strengths. I need to learn and learn a lot of things, probably do some hard work in some other field. And, eventually, yes, I did reach that stage where I was the popular girl in the high school.

But, there were a lot of steps that went by till I reached them. Those steps are what I’m going to talk to you all about. Those steps I still use. I’m 38, and my wants throughout my life till now have kept changing. But, the steps have remained the same. I use the same steps. I just have to identify my want. Once my want is there, I just have to use those strengths or the steps, and I get what I want.

Okay, so the first question that I’m going to ask you guys, and at the end, I’m going to come back to that question. Okay. And, I hope you have those answers to this question. The question is, are you doing what you want? Or are you doing what you can? Okay. Did you hear this? The question is the same, only two words change: “want” and “can”. So, you need to ask yourself this question. And, in the end, I’m going to again, come back to this.

Understanding Want and Can

Okay. So, let’s first understand what do you mean by “want” and “can”. The two simple words that we learned from our school, right? Wanting and can do. So, I’m going to tell you the major difference and how you can utilize it in your life. So, let’s take an option of career choices.

Okay. So, for example, I can cook, right? Most of us can cook, so I can become a chef, right? But, is that what I want to do? Maybe not. I can drive; I can become a driver. I can paint; I can become an artist. I can sing; I can become a singer. I can act; I can become an actor. A lot of things.

On a lighter note, I can argue, so I can become a lawyer, and I did become. But, that’s not the case. But, yes, you can do multiple things. I’m sure each one of us can do multiple things. But, out of those “cans,” is any of that “can” is what you want? For example, you want to become, again going back to the career choices, you want to become a pilot, for example. All these things that you can sing, you can dance, you can act, you can cook, you can drive, will that help you become a pilot? No, it will not, right? Because to become a pilot, probably, you need to choose a stream of education, you need to join an academy. There are a lot of things, I’m sure, that goes into becoming a pilot.

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So, this may be the “can” right now that you have in your life will not be useful. You need to add more skills to it, more experiences to it. So, you need to first identify what you want in your life. Yes, and your wants will keep changing.