As part of our endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from India and around the world, we invited Model & Influencer Dr Aruna Poredi for an interview with us to understand more about her inspiring entrepreneurial journey so far. She is a Doctor, Model, Leader, Fitness & Yoga Enthusiast, and Best Talent Winner & First runner up winner of Mrs World Peace 2021 and Mediqueen Mrs Maharshara 2020. Let’s learn more about her journey and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Dr Aruna:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey, please;
I come from a disciplined Army family. Born in Bangalore and raised in Pune city, Maharashtra. I did my schooling & medical education from Pune and did medical practice for 9 years in India and further pursued Masters in Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs.
Currently, I live in Thailand and work in a Biotech firm named Bionet-Asia Co. Ltd., Bangkok, with a proud responsibility of vaccine product registration in many foreign countries including India. I am passionate about everything what I love to do.
I have grown up with one tagline in my life, that is to become your own role model for your all walks of life, where you are responsible for your own attitude and happiness and that is why I feel proud to be my own role model.”
What made you passionate about modelling?
When I was around 18-19 years of age, I dreamed of walking the ramp and it was this dream that kept me awake to get into a victorious moment.
Considering the fact that at various stages in life, one is occupied by various things and are governed by priorities and responsibilities at that time. And being a medical student, I was occupied in sculpting my carrier and carrier graph then was my priority, so that time did not conceive for this passion.”
And in my younger age furthermore carried those signature thoughts by seeing around, that, to get on the ramp, means you must be with required good height and look and physic and that was the reason kept my dream buried only in my heart and never shared with anyone.
But, at present, I feel comfortable balancing my other responsibilities and priorities with my family support and my husband’s grace, who actually motivated me to enjoy my passion, and he made me feel that there is no barrier to showcase your skills if you have the desire and the confidence to make your dreams come true.”
Surely with age, one gathers a lot of experience, gains self-confidence, not just as a woman but as a wife and a mother too, which relates the worth of being a woman more, where I really enjoy my passion.
This is all about how my passionate heart drove me to achieve this incredible journey to walking the ramp and stealing the crown with the great zeal of dedication and sincere discipline.
And that was my amazing moment when I hugged and kissed my one of the biggest dream of my life, the moment I walked the ramp, that was actually when I had already lived my dream, much before even the results were announced in Mediqueen Mrs Maharashtra 2020 beauty pageant, where, I was honoured the first runner up the winner and Best Talent winner where my move was Aerial Hoop.
There I truly got my confidence boosted at such a level, from where all magic started happening actually to know my own potential and erased all my doubts about myself and in regard to the so-called physic requirement to get into pageantry, although my height is small, but I realized that was absolutely not the criteria to get you on the ramp and was neither hesitant to participate in pageantry because of my height.”
I have and had the mindset where I kept breaking those mind blocks whatever I can do and the attitude of “ I can do that for sure” and continued the vibration of positivity, which can drive you anywhere to enjoy your passion/your dream and there you always come up with all positivity. Further, I garnished my talent and emerged as the winner in ‘Attitude online fashion week in 2020’ which was organized by Shradha Ganjewar.
In the first virtual international pageant competition in the world with total of 41 countries participation, Lumiere International Pte Ltd – Singapore owned company, were also captured the title runner up to first place in Mrs World Peace 2021 virtual beauty pageant, crown of Mrs Heritage Beauty to the pride and delighted to represent India. Armed with undeniable confidence, an array of talents— Aerial hammock.
So, this was the beginning of the journey of my dream, my passion, which was not just the day of winning the crown but the ‘fire in the belly’ attitude that always kept me inspired to raise the bar higher and higher, being the best version of myself.”
My journey from very simple college days to this world stage has taught me to live courageously, where I dared to dream and live my life to the fullest.
Everything that I am today and will be tomorrow, to fulfil my destiny is all because of my parents, my companion, mentors and my friends with whom I love to share the moments.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Human life is an unpredictable journey. We travel from successes to failures and from failures to success. Failing is not a bad thing in itself, failure is simply an opportunity to begin again.
In my opinion, it is impossible to learn and grow and become a successful person without passing through adversities and difficulties in learning new things or during achieving your desired goals.
I was illuminated from a very young age that “we can do anything where we put our minds to” and it is the determination, willpower, to never give up on anything on goals/desire, that were all key pointers.
Whatever I wish to achieve (my interest, my goals), and when I bring myself to the moment of joy and clarity within myself, it is the moment of my wellbeing that I decide to do it courageously, without wavering it and without changing the direction of my priorities and having enjoyed my journey within myself and experiencing thoroughly by my OWN ATTENTION.
When I am in charge of my thoughts, then it does not bother me much even if it has positive or negative results, as I am the one responsible and hence there are no regrets left on your mind.”
Our motivation changes as we move towards a goal. Learning how to deal with challenges takes time, persistence, and a positive attitude. No matter what the life situation, the hard time will happen. But, with the right mindset and practice, I am able to overcome them every time and grow in the process for sure.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
I do admire my parents, companion, my daughter and mentors for having their biggest supportive and encouraging priceless role throughout my life.
And the topmost motivational source in my daily life is the person I trust the most and that is me. I believe in myself more than anything else, by discovering and defining what I value the most, value myself more than material things and minimizing distractions, focusing truthfully on my time and energy on the things that matter the most.
For every problem, for every difficulty, there is a solution which is simple and clean, so by understanding the right reason behind it and try to correct myself/talk to myself with sincere interaction, there I will take every opportunity to make the corrections, where I take a U-turn, correct it and move forward and that’s where the simplicity wins in the long run and where I am responsible for our own attitude and happiness and that is why I am proud to be my own motivational source every now and then.
It’s my precious life which I invest in the way I desire to reach my intense goals only with my passion and devotion, where my passion is like fire and it is the powerful energy for me to live my best, to believe in myself.
What are some of the strategies that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I strongly believe in the importance of being a confident and self-believer, where you are dared to dream and live your life to the fullest with your self-motivated passion.
Whatever we wish to do (let it be our interests, our goals), bring it to your attention first (no one else is going to help to find your interests, but it is only you), bring your moments of joy and clarity within yourself, and that is the moment of our well-being that we do it courageously, without wavering it and without changing the direction of our priorities and being responsible for your own attitude and happiness. (otherwise, we always tend to postpone our dreams based on other priorities).
Start by evaluating your own performance. Once you’ve identified weaknesses/challenges you are definitely going to improve.
Motivation is often the result of an action, we tend to think that we have to wait for inspiration or energy to hit us, and we get deflated when it doesn’t come and hence ACTION is what we need therein.
Even the smallest efforts to get going create momentum, where smaller actions make a tremendous difference, such as by:
1 – Listing of goals (address one important goal at a time)
2 – Making a path/plan for how you can achieve them
3 – Feel Your Feelings and your heart will guide everything
4 – Not giving up and going at your own pace
5 – Making a Schedule and sticking to it: We are what we PRACTICE and REPEATEDLY DO.
6 – Believe in your own potential, than on anything else
7 – Take Care of thoughts: Do things you enjoy and be kind to yourself
8 – Improve existing skills: You can strengthen something you’re already good at, you could become extraordinary at it
9 – Celebrate every small victory
10 – Expression of Gratitude
I consider my personal transformation, being myself, believing in myself, which is ‘the’ first secret step of the ladder to reach anywhere in my goals, which is my greatest achievement where I am in charge of my own destiny and even baby steps are my accomplishments for which I am always proud.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
Family motivational energy keeps me motivated all the time, which helps me to maximize my personal development in the workplace and in the family too.
Work-life balance is ultimately created through your own choices and the right balance for me is meaningful daily Achievement and Enjoyment in each of my four life quadrants: Work, Family, Friends and my own health, when I constantly strive to create what I care for the most, whether it’s a workspace or home, I always feel like I am enjoying. Work is all about the privilege and an opportunity that you have been allowed to create something for you to grow and which is to be lived for.
Having the inner strength, balance and capability to enjoy your living irrespective of outside situations and conditions is what is freedom and the simplest way to bring balance to your thoughts and emotions is an unwavering commitment towards something.
So once a person is at ease within himself, naturally, he functions at his best. Bringing this sense of ease within himself, bringing this sense of effortlessness within you is most essential. Inner Engineering is just this, to engineer your interior so that you function effortlessly.
That’s how you make your life simpler. Every moment of your life is an expression of your joy, where the relationship of trust and love, courage, mental strength lies in.
So ultimately, work is for your own happiness and fulfilment. Balance is about feeling content and good about yourself and being in control of your life and career path, both keys to creating happiness for yourself and bringing real meaning to your life about love by being present in the moment.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
There is no definite recipe to put for success, these are relative terms and it depends on the predetermined goal set by an individual for their life, for their destination and it varies from person to person, each individual has his/her own recipe/formula for personal success.
And for me, success is when you are able to use yourself and do things independently by planting your goal and living your life to your full-fledged potential, with 100% collaborative efforts, with focused attention, enormous devotion with enhanced perception with your own aspirations and by seeing everything just the way it is, by simply being happy and content wherever you are and in whatever you do, it doesn’t matter what’s the end result will be and the rest will automatically happen.
And when your heart is in something and you no longer compare yourself to others, you will do the BEST and it’s when tremendous things happen where you enjoy with pride and freedom.
“Success is when you walk yourself and live with joy and when you know your own worth by being just yourself and being your own creator in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment for me”.
We become what we think about where success is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal and it is to remind myself once again that I too have the power within.
One learning/inspiration you would like to share with everyone across the globe?
Power of Introspection gives me the ability to consider myself and others and it helps to respect everyone’s feelings too.
Knowing myself inside and out, seeing everything just the way it is, by having the advantage of every moment and every opportunity to understand the most important person in your life is you.
Self-introspection is my ultimate recipe for self-transformation, the best thing I can do for myself is daily introspection by nurturing my mind that Boosts Self Awareness and is the best investment in self-transformation, where the quality of life is essentially determined by how you carry yourself and it allows you to clearly define happiness on your own terms by showing the mirror to our deeds.
The only gateway for you to know anything in this universe is yourself. Anything that you can experience can only happen within you.”
