Month: September 2019

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Life is Short…Live it Now!

Man standing in front of dawn sun with arms stretched as if to embrace life!

I was lying in the hospital bed. I just heard the doctor whisper to my wife ‘In the next 24 to 36 hrs.…nothing can be done now. It’s over!’ I raised my eyes and saw the expressionless face of my wife and son. Gosh! I am to die in the next 24 to 36 hrs. Isn’t it too early for me? Why so soon? My God! So many things I have to do which are still incomplete or not touched at all. I need at least some more time…God, what are you doing to me? Why are you doing this? I was talking to myself with tears rolling down both my cheeks. I’ll be leaving this planet in the next few hours…will not be able to see my wife and son and my dear friends again…ah! It’s so painful! I felt sad, very sad. It was not the fear of death but the sadness that engulfed me because so many of my wishes were still unfulfilled. Suddenly, I hear a loud sound of the divine conch blowing in my ears. Oh God!, the Yamraj (the God of death as per Hindu mythology) has already arrived! Has he come too early? The doctor has given me 24 to 36 hrs…why has he come now? I hear the loud sound of the divine conch again in my ears and this time I get up on my bed. Sweating on my forehead I look around and see my wife sleeping peacefully next to me. I further look around and find out that I am in my bedroom. Oh, what a frightening dream! But it leads to a thought process in my mind…

These days it is raining heavily in Mumbai restricting people to venture out. Unless one has to go to the office or for other important work, people prefer to remain inside their cozy home just lazing around. As I sat at my study table looking outside the window, I could see rain showering down with full intensity. Mumbai has witnessed a good rainy season this year. Enjoying the rains from my room, I decide to get some hot coffee for myself. Once back at my table with the coffee mug, I pulled out my journal from the bookshelf. I keep this journal to record my thoughts and ideas and visit it periodically. Sipping my coffee I turn over the pages and see my long term life goals page. I see a lot of scribbles on this page where the goals had been modified, added and ticked off which were achieved. One thing appears very apparent on this page; my top two goals are still intact i.e. not achieved so far. These two were my biggest and all-time life goals set with high priority when I had jotted them down a long time ago. Years have passed but they still remain unachieved. I did achieve other goals to a great extent along with adding new ones but my top two goals remain intact. No action taken till now. Why? Because these two are my big life goals and I am just waiting to finish some of my other goals before I find the right time and other means to work on these two top goals. How foolish I have been! I should have been working on these two goals from the beginning which were my life goals so that by now a good amount of progress could have been made by me. But I was waiting all this while to finish some other things before I could start working on these goals. Did I waste my precious time? Is there enough time left to achieve these two goals which are my life goals?

Actually, these two un-complete ones are not goals; they are/were my dreams. These were the dreams that I had woven while growing up. And somehow they just remain a dream for me till now. Why? Because I have taken it for granted that I am here on this planet for eternity and will work on these later! How stupid!

Actually, we take it for granted that we have unlimited time at our disposal and we will take action on our dreams some fine day when the right time comes. That time will never arrive! And neither do we have unlimited time. Rather we have very limited time. In fact, we are not even sure how much time?! It can be just a tomorrow or maybe just the next moment! Who knows?

If you are still in slumber then please wake up! Get up and take stock of your goals and dreams. Block your time for the next two/five/ten years against all the unfinished tasks that you have listed as your life goals or dreams. Make them happen NOW. Don’t procrastinate. This is the time and the only time you have. If you don’t do it now you will never be able to do it again. Remember, time flies like an Arrow, you will never know when it flies away.

I have started work on my long time pending goals now and I am slowly inching towards achieving them. Yes, I have given myself a deadline too…

Life is like that. That one fine day never comes. One has to make it happen. Slow and steady progress need to be made each day so as to have the compounding effect later on. It’s like one cannot live unhappily day in and day out hoping that one fine day some magic will happen and then he or she will become happy. No, it will never happen that way. You have to work for it to make it happen. And I would suggest, please make it happen right now. As I said earlier, we all have limited time at our disposal.

Do you know what renowned author Paulo Coelho has said in this context? He quotes “One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time left to do the things you’ve always wanted to do. Do it now.” How true!

So, if you want to learn a musical instrument, get into any sports, learn singing, open a restaurant or a coffee shop, visit a particular place of interest, enroll in the course of your interest, write that long-pending novel or book …please do it NOW. Work hard and leave no stone unturned until you achieve your dream. And always remember, no defeat is final until you stop trying!

I have almost finished my coffee now. I look out of the window and see that the rains have stopped for time being. But still, it is wet and misty all around. I decide to go for a quick walk down the road and come back to work on my pending goals. Yes, I have limited time and I need to achieve my goals soon. You too work on your dreams and ensure that you achieve them sooner!

Cheers!

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15 Powerful Life Changing Quotes By Paulo Coelho

Donuts with chocolates and muffins indicating dreams and success.

“At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

“Life has a way of testing a person’s will, either by letting nothing happen at all or by letting everything happen at once.”

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”

“Do something instead of killing time because time is killing you.”

“Sometimes, we are so attached to our way of life that we turn down wonderful opportunities simply because we don’t know what to do with it.”

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”

“Close some doors today, Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere.”

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

“Don’t explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you.” 

“If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.”

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

“Life really is generous to those who pursue their destiny.” 

“Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.”

“When I had nothing more to lose, I was given everything. When I ceased to be who I am, I found myself. When I experienced humiliation and yet kept on walking, I understood that I was free to choose my destiny.”

Note : All quotes are by author Paulo Coelho

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In Search of Myself…

Wooden bridge across the river

When I was a child, in the school

I never wondered who I was

I was a carefree soul…

Study and play that was all what I did

Never bothered as to who I was…

A good or a bad boy, a dumb or an intelligent student,

I was who I was and never bothered about how or what I was

But as I grew older, in college

I started wondering, who I am

What I will be in life, if I am good…

A good student?, a good son?, a good friend?

I was bothered…bothered about everything

What I studied in college, it was not what I wanted to

But I had no choice, I had to…

You need to be a graduate to be eligible for any job, I was told

And I graduated and still remained unsure of myself…

Who I was, what is my place in this world..

I had dreams; I had the fire…to conquer the world…to show them what I am capable of

But actually, I never knew what I was capable of…

But I was sure, I never wanted to become like a common man

I thought I was different…and I was different, I believed

I was different but doing the same odd things that everyone else was doing around me

But still I believed I was different and never wanted to become like the common man…

Doing the same odd things led into a job, only to make my parents happy

It was an achievement then…to get a good job, ‘good’ directly related to the salary

Could not figure out what was the good in the job…but continued doing it for years,

And still believing I was different and I will show it to the world….I continued with my job

I made some money, bought a house and a big car;

And continued doing the same things as what everyone was doing

Over the years I became more as a Manager, Vice President, Director…

My friends and colleagues too, had more or less similar or even better adjectives

And then suddenly after all these years I realised I was no different from others…

And that I could not show anything different to this world…

And now, there was even no fire left within…

In fact the fire died long-long ago…and I was never ever aware of the fact

And I had only this much to show the world

These few adjectives beside my name…

This is what I could show to this world…in all these years, only this much! What a pity!

And now I ask myself; Are you The Manager or The Vice President or The Director?

No, I am not…I am none of all these, I tell this to myself

 I am none, I repeat again to myself

I am a free soul, I am the master of my own life, I slowly whisper to myself

I want to write my own destiny…even at this stage of my life, I want to write

And whether it makes me or breaks me completely, I care none

But I want to be the writer of my life’s drama, my life’s karma

And no one should dictate me my terms

And No, I don’t want to be anyone else…

And neither wants to carry the heavy burden of those phoney adjectives…

I am the wanderlust, the painter, the writer…an artist

Let me see this world as the wanderlust, as a painter, as a writer…as an artist

I take this small step forward…to see the world, in search of myself…

Note : Written in autumn of 2012

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Life Quotes : 1

Life is not about finding yourself; Life is about creating yourself.

When life leads you to a difficult path; it is to take you to a beautiful destination.

It’s a funny thing about LIFE; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, very often you get it!

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.

Life is a box of chocolates. you never know what you are going to get.

Life is like riding a bicycle. if you stop, you fall. So just keep moving.

I believe the primary purpose of life should be to be happy. if you achieve all other things and still be unhappy, that life is not worth living.

Note: Compiled from various authors.