Souce: Pexels
Have you ever met someone and taken an instant liking to them? Someone who’s energy is infectious and someone who makes you want to be better? I was lucky enough to meet such a person in Girish Navani, someone who a friend of mine met some years ago and a man who started to come out with us every Thursday night. I never really knew Girish personally but we did actually spend quite a lot of time together in the same group. Girish Navani at that stage was only in the UK for a short while and then he went back to his native India, having left a real impression on me.
Ideas
At the time that I met Girish I was working in a supermarket full time, a job which I wasn’t overjoyed about but one which paid the bills. I had so many ideas for launching a business when I first started working in the supermarket full time, but as is often the case those ideas and the hope which I had eventually got grounded down. Listening to Girish however reminded me of the fervor and energy which I had when I first started the job and he was filled with ideas and inspiration, something which began to rub off on me.
Relaxed
In the couple of years prior to meeting Girish I had a tough time of it and was beginning to become more cyclical and constantly worried about things that were out of my control. I knew that I had changed in this way, but I couldn’t quite work out how to overcome it and get back to my old self. Girish was basically the antithesis of how I was back then, he was cool, relaxed and very rarely frustrated by things. I watched him on many occasions in situations where I would have reacted badly, and he simply let things flow past him. I decided that after watching Girish Navani act in this way that this is what I needed to do in order to get back on track, and little by little I learned to stay calm and relax, rather than getting myself tied up in knots.
Supporting
A characteristic of Girish which really inspired me was the way that he supported others in our group. He would be there to lend emotional support, he helped one of the boys set up a charity night and he was just someone who was always up for helping someone else out. In many ways Girish reminded me of how I used to be when I was younger and after seeing him be so kind and supportive, I began to question what had changed with me. This inner reflection was so important for me and I used it to try to improve the person who I was.
Girish Navani and I rarely had a one-on-one conversation and strangely, he will never know how much he inspired me and how meeting him really changed a lot of my life, unless he reads this that is…