April – July is considered as admission season in India considering that Class XII board exams conducted by leading boards including Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) and various state boards are over. Large number of students need guidance on which career path to follow, which college to seek admission, which exams to apply, understanding the admission process of various Universities and so on. If you are a student who is seeking answers to questions like these, here are a few tips that will come handy in your decision-making process:

# 1: Know your Interests: By the time you have finished your class XII, it is understood that you already have some idea of your strengths and career interests. It is possible to change that, but it is very unlikely that you will take up anything totally unrelated.  

# 2: Know Your College / Counselor:  Know your college / counselor - read every detail before you go for any admission fair or counselling session. All information and knowledge will come useful during admissions time.

# 3: Do Your Home Work:  Go to a counselling session with full preparation, prepare a list of questions you might ask from the counselor, from the college authorities and so on.

# 4: Validate Information: Once you have attended multiple counselling sessions don’t take any information on the face value of the counselor or the brand name of the institution. Why I am saying this is because we live in the world of information overload and unless you re-check and re-validate all the information to your satisfaction, blind trust on it can land you in trouble. Ask mentors, teachers, seek guidance from college seniors and so on.

# 5: Evaluate Future Prospects: Whatever be your assessment of the future course of action, always evaluate the decision with yardstick of future possibilities. For example, there is no point in joining a less popular course of a reputed college, since there must have been a reason for its low popularity. 

About Vineet: Vineet is a Motivational Speaker and a Certified Career Counselor. He inspires students via his motivational talks. To know more about him, please visit: http://www.vineettandon.com

Of the many challenges Indian Education System faces, one that always bothers me is the quality and quantity of teachers in the Indian Education System (across schools, colleges, universities and autonomous institutions). 

I mean at First there is more than adequate shortage of teachers in the country (despite of the fact that we keep talking about our demographic advantage); Second, teaching is no where closer to being considered as a preferred career of choice (which means most individuals who are in teaching are rarely cut-out for the task) and Third teachers who are serious about their profession and willing to put their heart and soul into it, rarely have good mentors and rarely do they have a clear career growth path. 

In my quest to seek answers to some of these questions, i reached out to Ashok Pandey Sir, Educationist and Director Ahlcon Group of Schools who passionately shared his own journey and shared his perspective on "What does it take a school teacher to transition into a school principal"? 

If you are a teacher seeking career growth or a school leader seeking inspiration to groom next level of leadership, this podcast offers a very passionate account from the life of a teacher, mentor, educationist and a thought leader! 

If you have any questions or suggestions about this podcast, please feel free to reach out to me on my website: www.vineettandon.com or write to me on [email protected] 

We all need motivation. Many a times in our lives we need motivation for different reasons.

What will motivate us at different points in our lives will vary, however, I am sharing few of my all-time favorite quotes about getting started. These quotes are part of my research over the years and perspective which keeps evolving over a period of time. 

#1 The best time to start anything is now! Proverb

Explanation – It’s human nature to put off things unless they are very sure about it… However, trust me, if you keep pushing off that idea you are so passionate about, just do it. Only once you do it will you come to know that probably it was so doable and not all that tough!

#2 You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take - Wayne Gretzky  

Explanation – Getting started is the scariest part of anything big. You fear the risk of getting failed, you fear your reputation and what not. However, we don’t win, unless we play the game. We will never have all the information, never have all the resources and never have all the answers needed to succeed. Go ahead. You will discover them during the journey.

# 3 Don’t let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started – Marilu Henner  

Explanation – Lot of times in the quest for perfection, we just procrastinate and defer decisions. Start small, make mistakes and improve on the way. There is nothing perfect the way we know it when we compare it with what it started.

#4 You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great – Zig Ziglar 

Explanation – No one became great on day one. Everyone started ordinarily, faced hardships, made some mistakes, learnt from failures and eventually reached their goals. No one who has achieved anything worthwhile achieved anything without getting started.

#5 What would you do if you weren’t afraid – Sheryl Sandberg 

Explanation - Imagine that you have all the power and resources to work on your dream project. Would you still not start? So, are you afraid of lack of resources or are you afraid of failing when you start? Think and think deep and the answers will emerge from within!

This podcast is about inspirational quotes to get started and inspired in life. Quotes referred here belong to respective authors. Explanation of the quotes is as understood by Vineet Tandon, India's leading #MotivationalSpeaker. 

If you have questions about the podcast, please write to me on [email protected] 

Imagine all the good things in life that we seek like happiness, peace, serenity were available in a store near you at 90% discount. If you were given an option to buy only one of them from the store, which one would you pick up and why? I am sure, the way we normally think, entire family would have gone, each one to pick up something different, so that as a family you got everything in place. 

This podcast offers an interesting perspective about how a businessman, who was a miser, went to the shop where all these things were available on huge discount and ended up paying a convenience fee for visiting the store, while he didn't even purchase anything. 

Listen to the podcast to know more. 

This podcast is in English and listening time is: approx 7 minutes. 

If you have questions or need clarifications, please feel free to contact me on [email protected] 

We all have different forms of association with Music. For some, it is a healer, for some it is an escape from the harsh realities of life and for few others it can be a source of inspiration and even a childhood hero! 

In this guest episode with Vineet Tandon, learn, what Anita Karwal an IAS Officer and Chairperson Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has to say about her association with Music and the role music plays in Cognitive Development. 

If you have any thoughts, suggestions and feedback, please feel free to reach out to me on www.vineettandon.com or send me an email on [email protected] 

What is the best prayer you can offer to the lord or to the divine power? Well, i think the best prayer is when you have a dialogue with the god in your own words - a pure heart to heart conversation. This podcast, Prabhu Se Prarthna - is in Hindi and if about offering prayers to lord in the most simplest words. 

This is the story of a family of eagles who have three little eaglets - Ena, Meena and Deeka. When one of the eaglets Meena failed to fly high and fell down from an astronomical height, she and her younger sister felt terrible and gave up hope of flying again. Her mother persisted and with proper training and care all the three eaglets were able to fly and live their life fully. This is a modified version of the story that originally appeared in the book, Even Eagles Need a Push by David McNally. This Podcast is in Hindi. 

यह कहानी ईगल्स के परिवार की है जिसमे अभी तीन बेबी ईगल्स यानी eaglets ने जनम लिया था । उनके नाम थे ऐना, मीना और डीका ।जब एक दिन उड़ान का प्रयास करते समय मीना ज़मीन पर आकर ज़ोर से गिरी, तो उसका आत्मविश्वास गिर गया । मीना और डीका को लगा शायद वह अब कभी नहीं उड़ सकेंगी। उनकी माँ ने उनको हिम्मत बांधते हुए बार बार प्रशिक्षण दिया और अपने आप पर भरोसा करने के लिए कहा। अपने आप पर भरोसा करते हुए, उन्हें अपनी आत्म स्वरुप का ज्ञान हुआ और तीनो बेबी ईगल्स आसमानो की बुलंदिया छूने लगे और उड़ने लगे।यह कहानी संशोधित संस्करन है उस कहानी का जो मूल रूप से पुस्तक  Even Eagles Need a Push by David McNally में प्रकाशित हुई है!       

A lot of people get confused when they hear the word passion and the confusion is amplified many times over when we hear Global Leaders, Sportsmen, Thinkers, Hollywood and Bollywood actors & actresses using the words like “follow your passion” in their interviews and tweets. The problem worsens further when the most authoritative names in the world of media publish stories with contrasting headlines: For example, there was an article published in New York Times titled, “Why Find Your Passion is such a terrible piece of advice” and Time Magazine published an article “How to Find Your Passion”. 

This podcast attempts to demystify the word passion and how people can identify what their true passion is. A post about this is also available as an article on my website, please visit the link: https://bit.ly/2R8ctSP 

When someone asks us, how are you, we normally give a response basis our life role, as a student, as a working professional or as a family member - which is not a representation of who we actually are. This Podcast, answers, why we need to look at life objectively and how we can actually do it. If you like this podcast, do subscribe / follow to this channel and get a fresh new perspective every week! 

To know more about Vineet, please visit, www.vineettandon.com or follow him on any of his social media channels. 

Loosing one's eyesight can be one of the most traumatic experiences one can ever have! How does one emerge successfully from such a situation? Nupur Jain lost her eyesight due to a medical condition, but never lost her vision! Nupur worked hard to earn a graduation from LSR college and a Post Graduate  degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai. A President of India Awardee, she currently works at GAIL India as Senior HR Officer.

Listen to the story of Nupur Jain as she shares her journey on the Podcast #TheChordsofLife #Episode3 #InspirationalStories #VineetTandon #MusicalMotivationalSpeaker #Ideasforabettertomorrow