UPSC Journey - Courage & Determination

Rohan, a UPSC aspirant, who like many, would go to bed each night with grand promises to himself.

“Tomorrow will be different,” he’d whisper.

“10 hours of study, 1 mock, 2 hours of revision”

But when the sun rose, so did his old bad habits.

He’d reach for his phone, saying, “Just 10 minutes, I will see if there’s something important on telegram”, and end up scrolling through YouTube shorts, 10 minutes turned into an hour. Then two.

The library got delayed. The study plan collapsed.

Books went untouched. The guilt piled up.

And so did the belief that maybe… he just wasn’t good enough.

But despite the self-doubt, he’d never give up entirely. Even in his worst phases, he’d still read a page or two—a tiny act of something productive against the laziness that had chained him.

Then one morning changed everything.

Rohan stood frozen outside his parents’ room and heard his father say,

“We should stop hoping… he won’t crack it.”

His mother, silently broken, still replied,

“Maybe… but one more chance? I still see something in him.”

That fragile hope of his mother cut deep.

He realized his inaction wasn’t just burying his dream but it was breaking theirs too.

With teary eyes and trembling hands, he grabbed a marker and scribbled on his wall:

“No More Excuses.”

And from that day on, rohan changed his habits- 

1) No phone after 12 noon. Not even for 5 minutes.

2) 2 hours of revision every day—no matter what. If skipped, he had to write the reason and stare at it the next day. That guilt became discipline.

3) He made a realistic schedule & not a fancy one.

4) Started waking up at the same time daily.

5) Every study session was timed. No aimless reading.

That year, he gave his second attempt.

The results came.

His name wasn’t there.

It broke his heart yet didn’t break his spirit. Because deep down, he knew:

“He’s close so damn close.”

When he saw the disappointment in his parents eyes again, he didn’t cry.

He looked them in the eye and said,

“One more year. Just one more. I’ll make it. I swear.”

And this time, he gave it everything .

He didn’t need motivation videos anymore—his why was strong enough.

There were still bad days, but never a wasted one. He’d not just count the number of hours he studied but would ask himself what new he learned. 

And then came the third list.

‘AIR 29’

Rohan ran to his parents, breathless.

Tears in his eyes.

Voice cracking.

“I made it.”

His father broke down. His mother held him like he was five again.

That boy who once couldn’t get off his phone…

That boy who once believed he wasn’t good enough…

Had just become an officer 👮‍♀️ .

Moral:

You don’t need a perfect start.

You just need one honest promise to yourself and the courage to keep showing up ✨💫

💟Hero, You’re Running Out of Time.

☘️How long have you been telling yourself “one day”? How many times have you said, “I’ll start tomorrow”? How many years have you wasted living the same day over and over again, making the same excuses, sinking deeper into a life you don’t even want?

☘️You know exactly what you need to do. You know what’s holding you back. And yet, you sit there, watching your life rot away, numbing yourself with distractions, drowning in comfort, wasting time like you have an unlimited supply.

☘️But here’s the truth that should tear you apart:

You don’t.

☘️One day, you’re going to wake up, and it will be your last day. No warning. No second chances. Just silence.

☘️And when that moment comes, you’ll look back at your life—the dreams you abandoned, the goals you never chased, the person you could have been—and you’ll feel it: regret so deep it will burn through your soul.

☘️But by then, it will be too late.

☘️No one is coming to push you. No one is coming to save you. No one cares about your excuses. You either get up and fight for your life, or you sit back and let it rot.

☘️Look around you. This is it. This is your life. The same habits, the same failures, the same stagnant, pathetic routine. You tell yourself you’ll change, but you never do. You want success without sacrifice, results without struggle. You pray that someday, things will magically be different—yet you do nothing to make it happen.

☘️And the worst part? No one will remember you.

☘️In a few generations, your name will be erased, just another forgotten soul who lived, existed, and died without making a dent in the world. You will be another gravestone in a cemetery full of wasted potential. And when that moment comes—when you’re gasping for your last breath, looking back at the years you squandered—the weight of regret will crush you. You will beg for more time. You will beg for another chance. But life doesn’t care. It never did.

☘️So stop lying to yourself. Stop waiting for motivation, stop hiding behind fear, stop pretending you have forever. You don’t.

#rajarlaoriginals #rajarla7 

You think YOUR plans didn’t work out?

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore thought they were going to space for 8 days.

They ended up being stuck for 286 days.

They were LITERALLY stranded in space.

Imagine this:

👉🏾 You pack for a short trip, but instead, you’re gone for almost a year.

👉🏾 No fresh air. No real food. No way out—just waiting in the void of space.

👉🏾 No clear answer to when (or even if) you’ll make it back home.

And here we are, losing patience when:

- A 10-minute traffic jam ruins our day.

- A deal gets delayed by a few months.

- A rejection email makes us want to quit.

Perspective.

These astronauts had no control over their situation.

They couldn’t just book a return flight. They had to adapt, stay calm, and trust the process for 286 days of uncertainty.

And they made it.

If THAT isn’t the ultimate lesson in patience, endurance, and problem-solving—I don’t know what is.

Hats off to these legends for not just surviving, but making history. 

Next time life throws unexpected delays at us… let’s remember:

At least we’re not stranded in space.

Life will throw curveballs. Your plans will go sideways. Things will take WAY longer than expected.

But if these astronauts can survive nine months in space instead of eight days, you and I can handle a few detours in life.

#rajarlaoriginals #rajarla7

Short Inspirational Story …~ Osho

I have heard about a man who remained unmarried his whole life, and when he was dying, ninety years old, somebody asked him, “You have remained unmarried your whole life, but you have never said what the reason was. Now you are dying, at least quench our curiosity. If there is any secret, now you can tell it, because you are dying; you will be gone. Even if the secret is known, it can’t harm you.”

The man said, “Yes, there is a secret. It is not that I am against marriage, but I was searching for a perfect woman. I searched and searched, and my whole life slipped by.”

The inquirer asked, “But upon this big earth, so many millions of people, half of them women, couldn’t you find one perfect woman?”

A tear rolled down from the eye of the dying man. He said, “Yes, I did find one.”

The inquirer was absolutely shocked. He said, “Then what happened? Why didn’t you get married?”

And the old man said, “But the woman was searching for a perfect husband.

~ Osho