Many people lead a miserable life of regret with frustrated ambitions bubbling in their heart because they tamely allowed their own opinion and thoughts to be overruled and set aside from their cherished dream or desired goals.
You will hear many people say with a sad tinge in their eyes…”If only I had stuck to my decision…if I had trusted my own decision and then followed it with persistence to finish, I might have amounted to something and would have been much happier…!”
This the saddest truth of their life…their stories of ‘might have been…’.
But why it happens?
Because such people lack the power to take firm and quick decisions and then to stick to them. They feared and then wavered. Their mind was always in a flux. And hence, they could not arrive…
To achieve your goal, you need to decide quickly and effectively. It is the hallmark of a master mind! Men of unwavering decisions and whole-hearted actions are the achievers.
Say a firm NO when required and a YES with all your vigor when you are sure about yourself. If you are always in a state of dilemma or have a wavering mind, you will arrive nowhere.
When you have a well-defined and a clear-cut goal to achieve combined with a burning desire to achieve it, you are already on the road to glory.
An indefinite ambition causes only destructive restlessness and discontent.
Determine your objective first!
Set yourself and a target, a clear goal. Human being is a goal seeking animal. All progress as such is the outcome of this goal seeking desire. Life will lose all its meaning and purpose when it has no goal to reach!
When you have the motive, you will gather all the energy to perform the activity that is required. A drive or motive not only will drive you towards your objective but would also act a booster. And then you move towards a stage when achieving one goal will lead to set and achieve another goal. And the process continues…
Set your goal high! Set a difficult target.
Dare to do something different, something fresh, unexpected- away from the beaten track, away from the cult of mediocrity, the cult of the common man!
Trying to reach high will keep you on your toes. At no point you should say “This is the peak”.
Do you believe in regular stock taking of your life?
I believe most of us do. It’s better to do it as it helps us in ensuring that we are moving in the right direction and if any course correction is required.
And one needs to be absolutely honest with oneself while doing this self-analysis as you are both – the appraisee and the appraiser!
The sun is about to go down
in a while. Mild golden rays of the drowning sun gets into my room filtered
through the long outstretched branches of the lone coconut tree outside my
window. In some moments, the year would come to an end. There is that
anticipated excitement of the New Year which is only a few hours away and at
the same time, a feeling of loss engulfs me too! Loss? Yes, loss of the golden
time that just zoomed past in the form of a whole year! But why say loss? Well,
loss as so many things still unaccomplished in my life! Every year is just
slipping by like the sand in my fist…yes, there were important tasks
accomplished and some big achievements too in this year but what about those
dreams that still remained dreams year after year!…
“How is your Portrait
learning class going on?” I asked my school time friend when we recently met.
“No, I never started!” He
replied with a sigh!
“Why? What happened? Last,
when we spoke and that was quite some time ago, you seem to be very keen on
learning the art of Portrait making?”
“Yes, it was my dream for
long…but you know, not able to find time for this. Also, the kids need more of
my time now when I am at home.”
I did not ponder him any further. I myself have been struggling to find time to learn the Guitar for long. The now not so newly bought Guitar is just hanging on the wall since it made that grand entry to our house. It must be feeling acrimonious in a similar fashion to what my colleague , Subramanian (actually, Subbu my dear friend!) feels towards me for still not having met his long pending request of releasing one of my team members to his team. Shame on me for letting both, the Guitar and Subbu, down!
Forget about the Guitar or
Subbu, but this is a hard fact and a harsh reality of our life. We somehow get
so much consumed in our routine job and the family responsibilities that it leaves
us with no time to pursue our interests which are so close to our heart. And it
is true for both genders. So, what do we do with our dreams that are still
unfulfilled? Should we let them die a quiet and peaceful death? Does everyone
do that? I don’t think so. There are many people, despite all their
professional and personal commitments, who find time to pursue their hobbies
and dreams. After all, you just have one life to do all these!
To be somewhat more granular, you will find that if you do an analysis of your daily time-spend including weekends, you will find there are multiple occasions when you just have nothing to do. And how do you spend this time? You become a consumer- a consumer of internet usage (going through useless updates and mindless surfing of net), endlessly gossiping over the phone or mindlessly watching TV which adds no value to your well-being. Also, I believe a little planning on time management would yield us ample spare time which we can utilize managing our interests and hobbies. It is our mindset which we have built over the years that makes us believe that there is a scarcity of time…all the time!
As we travel through our
journey of life, we often find ourselves caught up in the mad race of acquiring
more and more- more wealth, multiple houses, more cars, more ‘likes’ for our profile
pictures and so on…or simply put; becoming more acquisitive in nature. In this process,
we just lose track of our destination and start wandering around. Just pause
for some moments and think for a while- where did you want to go and where have
you reached now? Are you moving towards the destination that you had in mind when
you started or have you deviated? Have you achieved your dreams or are you
letting them die a slow death?
I would suggest some
simple but very powerful ways to ensure that you don’t lose track of your
cherished dreams and goals. And here they are:-
Write down your dreams or goals in block letters in your personal diary or journal (if you maintain one!). Or, simply write down your dreams or goals on a plain sheet of paper and stick in front of you on your study table or your work area. Read it daily and all the time! At least once in a day, read it aloud! This will help you to mentally register your goals and dreams which will automatically yield in producing some concrete actions to achieve the same. Believe me, it works!
Discuss your dreams and goals with at least one person in your life. It can be your family member, spouse, close friend, a colleague or your teacher or mentor. Ask for advice and means and ways to achieve your dream. There is nothing to feel shy or secret about it. The psychology behind it is that when you speak about something with another person close to you, it creates an obligation in your mind to ensure its completion. You feel obliged to do it as in your sub-conscious it creates an objective for you to achieve that task. Also, you become answerable to the other person when he or she inquires about your dreams or goals. You become accountable in the process!
Maintain your diary or journal and visit it periodically. Your dreams and goals should be listed there in order of your priority. Keep ticking the boxes as and when you achieve or complete your goals. Whenever you visit your journal, it will remind you that you have pending tasks to complete. This way you will not lose track of your dreams and goals.
Remember, life is short. Yes, one day you will wake up and find that you are no more capable enough of doing things as you were able to do so earlier. So, wake up now and accomplish! Fulfill the purpose of your life. Life without purpose is meaningless. Set your goals high so that the process of achieving them becomes a journey to remember in itself. And while you are on this adorable journey, don’t forget to enjoy and have fun! After all, one lives for what?
Well, the sun has downed
now and slowly the chilly wintry night is creeping in. Wow! In a few moments,
we will usher into the New Year! A new year that will give us innumerable
opportunities to grow and shine along with loads of fun-filled moments! So, enjoy
it!
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by
its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is
stupid.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your
balance you must keep moving.
There are two ways to live Life: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.
Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding
the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses
instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
The monotony and solitude of a quiet life
stimulates the creative mind.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
If you want to
live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to objects or people.
You never fail
until you stop trying.
Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.
There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people’s book and write your own.
The Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The Optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.
It’s not important whether you were knocked down.
What is important is ‘Did you get up?’
The greatest courage is to bear defeat without losing
heart.
You need a heart to dream and a mind to set new
goals. Your age has nothing to do with it.
You will have a strong Destiny if you follow the
three Ds religiously in whatever you do- Discipline, Dedication, and
Determination.
Life does not fail you. You fail life by not
responding to the continuous opportunities that it offers to you.
If you imagine yourself as a Failure, you are bound
to fail. But if you start with success in mind, you might achieve it or not but
you will have a successful journey in pursuit of your Goal.
You might have failed in the past but it has no power
to stop you from achieving success in the future. Only you have to decide and begin
your every day with new vigour, determination and more resilience to achieve your
goal.
Every problem in your life is an opportunity for
you to build a new and better life, be it relationship, health, work or
business.
Remember, at some stage in your life you will face hard times. Hard time will make you humble, grateful, respectful for money and time, value friendship, fight your own battle and endure pain. It is the process to make you ready to embrace success and happiness.
