“When you go home today, ask your father and let me know tomorrow.”
This was the conversation I had with my Hindi teacher, Mr. Cyril Sunny when I was in seventh standard at St. Paul’s, Udaipur.
I asked my father the meaning of my name when he returned home in the evening after work. He told me the meaning in short and enquired why am I asking this question. I told him about what happened in the school that day. He smiled and then said ‘Wait, let me explain you in a better way then.’
He reached out to the bookshelf and pulled out a huge thick hard-cover book with brown coloured pages. He told me it was a ‘Sanskrit-to-English’ dictionary. And then, reading from it, he explained the meaning in detail. He told me the word is ‘Nirvana’ which in Noun means ‘enlightenment’. And in the adjective, it means ‘not glowing’. So, Anirvan means in noun ‘one who doesn’t need enlightenment, say someone like ‘Gautam Buddha’. And in the adjective, Anirvan would mean ‘Glowing’.
I went to school the next day and Sunny sir asked me the meaning again during the Hindi period. I explained to him what my father taught me. He smiled and wrote the word ‘Nirvana’ on the blackboard. He then addressed the whole class for the next fifteen minutes explaining the meaning on similar lines as what my father explained to me.
To this day, I remember this incident!
I was fortunate to have teachers like Sunny sir who had such passion for their subject and students alike.
On this teacher’s day, I bow to all my teachers and convey my gratitude for not only teaching us what was required as per the textbooks but for also teaching us about life and how to lead it meaningfully.
Does this thought often bother you? Are you the one who spends a lot of time thinking on “What if….” before starting anything new? Do you often think of the negative aspects even if there are no valid reasons to do so?
You will notice that all your ‘What if…” have one common element- the fear factor!
The ‘fear of the unknown’.
What is Fear of Unknown?
Most of this fear is based out of your assumptions and not on facts. You need to make yourself free from this ‘unknown fear’. Unless and until you do that, it will be difficult for you to accomplish anything important in your life- both at personal and at professional level.
How does one achieve that state of mind? I will share something from my own life. I too had many fears in my mind as I was growing up. Moving from adolescence state to a young man and then to crossing my midlife, I was continuously faced with so many fears that many times I wondered if at all will I be leading a free and happy life devoid of all my fears? Then as I gained experience in life, I slowly started taking risks; risks of giving an attempt to all the things/activities that I had some kind of fear attached to. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the fears that I associated with these things/activities were mere fears only!
In practical life, they (the fears) just don’t exist!
What is the solution?
Here is the Key; to begin with, attempt very small or not very significant fears of yours and keep repeating the action (your attempt) accumulating the small victories. After a point, you will have the confidence and the mental strength to attack your bigger fears. And slowly you will achieve bigger victories. You will be ready to take calculated risks in your life and will make significant progress.
And you know what? The biggest lesson for me in all this was:
People give a damn about you!
So, the biggest worry that we have in our mind ‘what will people say’ is so irrelevant and exasperating.
And remember: On the other side of your FEAR…. lies your SUCCESS!
Am I moving in the right direction? Pic Credit: Pixbay
Moving slower in the right direction is far better than moving faster in the wrong direction!
Most productivity gurus insist on ‘how quick’ rather than on ‘how efficient’. A slight tilt in the wrong direction will have drastic results over the period of time.
Many of us believe that being busy is being productive which is absolutely wrong in the first place. Being busy with a purpose and a goal in mind is actually what it should be to achieve success.
Have you heard of the herd mentality? It is when everyone follows what someone else is doing! Whether it suits them or not, whether it will do any good to them or not, or least, whether it is required for them, people blindly copy because everyone seems to be doing or following the same. Do you believe this will give them beneficial results? Absolutely NOT!
Always, try to find your own path. Carve your unique niche. Take your time to build that pace, but be consistent in your efforts. Don’t just rush without applying your mind. Small gains each day will have a compounding effect over a period of time. So, ensure that you are progressing in the right direction and that your progress is steady.
“Don’t confuse motion with progress. A lot of people are just like spinning in circles really, really fast. They’re not going anywhere.” — Polina Marinova
Your Attitude will determine how you see this glass! Pic credit: Pixabay
Have you ever wondered what is that one key characteristic of successful people?
Their attitude!
Rather their positive and never give up attitude!
Often, we have seen very talented people not making it big in life. At the same time, we have also seen average people climbing heights of glory. Why?
Your attitude towards life decides everything. Be it your success, your well being or your relationship with others.
So, what is this attitude all about?
The dictionary meaning of attitude is “the way that you think, feel or behave”.
As per psychology, an attitude is referred to a set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviours toward a particular object, person, thing, or event. Attitudes are often the result of our experience or upbringing, and they can have a powerful influence over our behaviour.
Attitude is how we judge/evaluate people, events, objects etc in our life. It can be extremely positive to extremely negative.
Our response (behaviour) is the result of our attitude.
How one builds up an attitude?
Mainly through our upbringing (influence of parents and family), values and beliefs, experience, learning, observation, social factors including our role in the society and the norms of the society.
Can one change his or her attitude?
Yes, of course! There are many ways to change your attitude tilting it towards more positive mindset like identifying your strength, being non-judgemental, expressing gratitude, positive affirmations, celebrating other’s success, focus on your wellbeing, keeping your thoughts positive and likewise.
Attitude is how you look at your life! Why not look at the brighter side of it?
And as the famous quote by Zig Ziglar sums it so well:
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.
Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
People have different reasons for the way they live their lives. You cannot put everyone’s reasons in the same box.
Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.
It’s not about how hard you can hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.
You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on! So, you need to move as well! Keep moving in the direction of your dreams and continue your journey with a SMILE irrespective of success or failures.
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!
