three joggers

This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, iPleaders.

I was going from Infocity in Bhubaneswar to the railway station, to board a train at the crack of dawn. I don’t usually wake up early in the morning, so it was kind of an unusual sight for me.

The roads were mostly empty, with almost no traffic. However, every few minutes we crossed one, or two, or a group of them – the joggers.

I began to observe them.

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At one point in time, I used to run a lot. I ran while I was in college. I fondly remember my runs in Mumbai, along the Marine Drive when I started my career in a Mumbai law firm.  

When I quit my job to start iPleaders, I still kept up with the habit. Running kept my head levelled, blood pumping, mind focused and spirits up. While I was working in Delhi, it was more difficult to keep up with running , due to the lack of suitable infrastructure. However, looking at them, I knew exactly how those joggers were feeling, from my own experience.

There was an chubby lady with a look of determination and agony on her face, jogging alone. It appeared that she had become overweight, but was now determined to get back to shape. The possible outcomes of jogging for her could be, that she will succeed if she doesn’t injure herself (joints can be badly affected by long-term running, and new runners frequently get injured in many different ways due to bad running technique), or that she’ll lose motivation after a month or two as she slims down. From what I could see,  I would not expect her to keep up her running for much longer.

Then I saw a very fit girl running at a brisk pace, looking down at the road, while she listened to music on her phone. You can tell an experienced runner apart from others, simply by the way they run. She was running in an effortless rhythm, one graceful stride at a time. She looked very fit, and I don’t think running is her only fitness activity. It was quite evident from her appearance that, she is not running for fitness, but for passion. I bet this is how she carves out some quality time from her day, for herself.

She looked like a lifelong runner to me.

Then I saw a group of joggers. Some of them were fit and experienced runners, others were evidently novice people, stumbling along. This was a community of runners, pushing and encouraging each other, laughing at each other. At the end of the run, they will probably hit a nice breakfast joint over boisterous chatter.

For them, running is not a struggle but an enjoyment. I bet even the newcomers don’t miss too many runs.

The power of such communities to transform a person is immense. I hope the single woman I first saw labouring alone, finds a community like this. It would ensure her long-term success in running, and make her a much happier person.

The joggers are just symbolic. This is how it works in your career, or legal practice too.

To keep learning, you need to rise above the hoi polloi. In order to stay competitive in the long run, you must be able to enjoy learning the law, as well as learning essential skills. Even, when you know a lot, you have to fine-tune your knowledge and skills, on a regular basis. That is why it’s called a ‘practice’.

It becomes easier with experience as you progress. The beginning is the hardest. Don’t lose hope, stay on track.

But most importantly, find a community if you can, where others are engaging in a pursuit, similar to yours. This way you have more fun, and therefore you learn better.

We recognise the need for a community for learners at LawSikho. That’s why we believe in online courses that has online video-based classes, discussion forums inside courses, and even WhatsApp groups, where the students interact with each other. Imagine doing an exercise, then comparing your answers with what others did in the class. You can assess for yourself where you stand. Will that keep you more involved? Our studies show that it does.

It’s a much superior learning environment than canned online courses, where you just read some material, watch some videos and give an exam, but don’t get to interact with either a coach or your peers.

The power of the community is huge. Leverage the power of the small, but strong and growing LawSikho community. In order to succeed, you’ll need people with similar goals, supporting and learning together. A community which helps you steer in the right direction towards your goals.

Here are our upcoming courses that have the last date of admission coming up:

Last date of enrollment 14th November, 2018

Last date of enrollment 30th November, 2018

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