Road to Success

One of the cravings of human life is to achieve life goals. We set our goals and start walking towards the same with a definite purpose. On the way we meet some roadblocks & obstacles. When we get tired, we take an occasional halt to get rejuvenated & start anew. We also meet many people who are heading towards the same destination or going to a different place. On the highway of success it does not matter who our co-commuters are or what is their destination. We don’t change our route as per their convenience neither do we get influenced by their choice of route. 
When we start our journey,we are gung-ho about it; we not only want to reach our destination on time but also want to enjoy our journey. On the way we get jaded & exhausted & want some rest. But we only make a temporary halt; we don’t stay anywhere permanently. We may get attracted by the scenery but we don’t make a home there. We enjoy it only for a short period & start again. Our only objective is to reach the place where we have decided to go despite the hindrances, roadblocks or other influences.

Surprisingly, the road to success & the road to failure are almost exactly the same. So, why do some people reach their goal well on time while others either get late or never reach their destination? The problems with our journey towards success are multi-fold. We don’t succeed because we don’t know our where, why & how. 
First of all, we don’t know our destination. Many a times our objective is only to go for a long ride. It really doesn't matter where are we heading to. But life is not always a long ride to unwind. It is much more than that.

Secondly, we don’t have a purpose or why did we start our journey in the first place. What inspired us to start our journey? What motivated us to venture out & take the first step.

And, thirdly, we don’t have a road map. One fine morning we just get up, pack our luggage & get going. We don’t plan for our journey. There is nothing wrong with planning on the way. But you must have some basic plan in place so that you don’t bungle at the first step. You may change your planning on the way as per the need of the journey but you cannot begin without any planning. So, on your way to success, take care of your where, why & how and the goal will take care of itself. So there is no difference of route as far as success & failure are concerned.  Roads are the same; the difference is in our approach.

But, there are some people who don’t need any of these whys & hows. These are the people who don’t begin & you know where they reach ultimately- NOWHERE! 

Fear Factor

Our whole existence depends upon one aspect- How big do we dream? In fact, it also doesn't matter whether all our dreams come true or not. Our dreams give direction to our goals which get manifested in different forms.
If dreams are so important then why don't we dream long enough?
There are two reasons why we stop dreaming. The first one is that the environment around us doesn't support this & considers this as a waste of an activity. A child dreams best when he is young but stops dreaming or shrinks the size of his dreams as he grows up. He encounters two obstacles on his way. First, he finds people around him who limit his dreams & secondly, he faces failures on the way of fulfilling his dreams. If he is not taught or he doesn't learn to tackle either of the two, he starts falling into a pattern that is set by others & hints at living an ordinary life.
After a certain period he shivers merely at the thought of having a dream. If at all he dreams, he dreams small; so small that it doesn't make any difference to his existence. Any new dream scares him to death. Instead of living his dream, he starts living his fears. Surprisingly, most of his fears come true because he believes in those & his belief on his dreams further shrinks. Fear is the most crucial factor to kill our art of dreaming.
So the only way to keep dreaming is to challenge your fears. Do what you fear most. Most of the successful people adopted this technique; they did what they feared.  They also did whatever others warned them not to try because it was too difficult or out of their reach. They questioned every doubt and defied every limit. The only thing that you need to overcome is your fear. If you don't, rest assured, one day it will overcome you.  

Failure Inspires Winners

When we undertake a task, we have only two options. Either we come out with flying colors or we bite the dust. Both can have far reaching ramifications. If we succeed we may feel motivated to start something new. It can give us confidence to do things which we would hesitate to imagine in ordinary circumstances. On the other hand success can make you arrogant & cocky. Ironically, many a time success can be the cause of a huge failure. 

Similarly, failing is a funny business. It can depress you so much that you go into a shell & lose all faith in your capabilities. It can hurt you badly & leave you wounded forever. Most of the people forget that failure is only one of the results that shows up for a particular action of theirs. In fact, failure teaches you more than success does. Failure is a sure shot way to grow, provided we accept failures in right spirit. 

Whether you become a loser or a winner in life will largely depend upon how you handle failures. And more importantly how you handle yourself when you fail. If you take failing only as a result, you will learn from it. But if you take failure as a serious issue & take it to heart, it can ruin you. We don't fall to remain on the ground forever; similarly, we don't fail to be in that state for long. Like falling teaches you  to walk, failing teaches you to succeed. But tragedy is that people take failure in any enterprise as a permanent comment on their capabilities. The fact is that a temporary failure tells you about your current status; it doesn't comment on your future prospects. Your future prospects will depend upon your future standing in that field which largely depend upon your current preparations for future challenges. 

It is not the failure that fails you in life; it is your response to the failure that decides your fate. And remember, if you are not encountering enough failures in your life, you are not having big enough goals. And small goals only give small results & lead to an average life. 

Work Before Success

The quote, "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary", has been attributed to many people including Mark Twain, Vince Lombardi & Vidal Sassoon. But it doesn't matter now as they all passed the same message, though in different words. One thing that each human being craves for is the desire to be successful in a particular field. Sometimes, he wants success so badly that he is ready to stake his existence for the same. Achieving success in life has many secret formulas but one that is known to all but practised by a few is hard work. People want to get everything in life without giving it everything. They want to reach their destination on time without driving at required speed. 

There is no doubt that there are many other essential ingredients of success formula e.g. a strong vision, short term & long term goals or will to succeed. We can't reach anywhere if we don't know our destination or if we don't have a will to go. It will be no more than daydreaming. You also need to have a strong plan to reach your destination. As The French writer, Antoine de Saint said in very succinct style, " A goal without a plan is just a wish." So, you need all these & many more factors to succeed in any enterprise. But one thing that is indispensable to success is hard work.

Hard work is the key which more often than not opens the lock of gate to success. People at times choose huge goals only to find themselves staring at failure after some time. The reason of their failure is not their huge goals but that they did not put in efforts equivalent to the size of their goals. There comes a time in your life when everyone else seems to be luckier than you. You think that others get much better result with almost no effort & you, despite putting your best foot forward don't get the deserving result. The fact is that you only see the output. You cannot comment on the input simply because you don't see it. The guy who looks so relaxed in the morning might be the same guy who burnt midnight oil.

Not necessarily, a person will get success in the first go. He may fall hundred times but if he gets up hundred & one times, he will eventually succeed. As Babe Ruth puts it, " It is hard to beat a person who never gives up". A person who gives his maximum to whatever he undertakes is bound to meet success unimagined in common hours.

Mind Wash

Our life is nothing  but the consequence of  series of decisions that we take when we live. It is these decisions that shape our life. Even when we don't take these decisions we make the decision of letting our life influenced by external factors. So, we don't live our life, someone else does. The all important question to ask is- how our decisions are influenced? These are influenced by our thought patterns. We set a certain thought pattern that we follow until it is replaced by another pattern. Though the transition of these patterns is not easy & frequent, we can still influence it to our advantage. 

Our mind is daily bombarded with lots of thoughts, most of which are externally driven. The problem with these thoughts is that they are not controlled by us but by others. And these external influences direct our lives as per their conveniences & requirements. By the time we realize it, we have already pledged a large part of our thinking pattern to these influences. 

Transition is not easy because we live around those external factors & listen to same kinds of thoughts. At times, we want to come out of it but fail because our subconscious mind keeps throwing these thoughts back to us.

So, the important point is how to make your own thought pattern so that you be at the driving seat of your life instead of riding pillion. One easy way is to block every external thought at the outset that may influence you negatively. You meet all kinds of people daily & these people have varied thought patterns & they, knowingly or unknowingly, throw their thoughts towards you. It is like when you move out, you are bound to attract some dust. Thoughts are like dust particles. So, the moment you realize there is something thrown at you, take out a napkin dipped in the perfume of positive thoughts & wipe your face thoroughly. Check your face in the mirror & do it until every single particle of  negative influence is wiped off. This may look very unpractical & cumbersome, but believe me, this is very crucial for your life. 

Another good way is to bathe daily in the river of positive thoughts. Start your day with something powerfully positive. May be you can read some motivational book or article or listen to some inspiring lecture. Make sure that you don't talk anything negative in the first hour of the day. The important part is to do it daily even if you are happy & satisfied with your thoughts. It will work like a sun-screen to protect you from any negative idea that  may creep in. But the most important thing to remember is to do it daily. Make it as important a part of your life as food is. Miss your food if required but never miss your Mind Wash! 

To Know Or Not To Know

To know is to gain knowledge. To know that you know is to be ignorant. To know that you know nothing is the real wisdom.

We stop learning when our being(ego) becomes bigger than us. The moment we realize that we have learnt enough, ignorance starts. There are two ways that we can stop growing- one way is to feel that we have known enough to pass our life & another is to feel that there is nothing  left to know. In the first case, we put a limit to our knowledge & thus we only pass our lives instead of living. In second case we put limit to ourselves & die spiritually. 

A child learns most because he realizes that to grow he needs to know. He gets into stage of  constant learning very fast & remains there for pretty long period. After few years he starts thinking that he has gained knowledge of most of the things that is required to pass his life. Now he intends to specialize & walks in the direction of his dreams. But now he learns not for self but for others-for his family, for friends & for everyone connected to him & he prides himself being called successful in a particular field. Then he gains knowledge of all worldly affairs-he does so to have good relationship with his fellow human beings.

But what he misses is to learn for self. He feels he will have time enough to know when he will be free from others. But most of us fail to get that time & die in utter ignorance. Blessed are those who realize the meaning of true knowledge early in their life & go in quest of the same. They learn not for others but for self. The dilemma is not whether to know or not to, but what to know & what not to. If we can crack this puzzle,we will lead a life of bliss.

Happiness Is A Habit

A man is the sum total of people he meets in his life. Since he comes across a large variety of people in his life time, it becomes quite difficult for him to decide whom to keep & whom to let go. People may behave differently in different circumstances;they remain more or less the same in nature. So, our job is to read the inner nature of a person & take the decision based on the same.

There are people who always spread happiness wherever they go. These people don't let the circumstances affect their mood. On the contrary, they create a positive atmosphere around them. You can smell cheerfulness all around them. They have life written all over their body. Try to be in their company as much as possible as happiness is infectious. The more you be with these kinds of people, the more you would love life. Being happy is not only an attitude, it is a habit as well. If you want to be happy, you will find reasons to be so. Over the years, people who remain happy develop some kind of positive vibes around them & that aura lifts them up. It not only lifts them, but everyone around them receives the positive energy they emanate. How many times it has happened that you  are sad & down but just a talk with someone over phone for a few minutes changes the whole mood? You become lively & chirpy again in no time. 

Why is it so that you become light in the company of pets ? Simply because they don't carry the burden of sad mood with them. They are easy to please & ready to spread happiness with their small acts. Happiness is an emotion & emotions spread fast & are easy to control than thoughts. You can't think positive if you  are gloomy; similarly, you cannot remain negative for long if you are in a cheerful mood. 

What to do with people who have the habit of vitiating the atmosphere with their negative talks?  Simple;either be the reason of their happiness or don't allow them to be the reason of your unhappiness.