First Class

Most of our life we try to achieve hard what others have achieved, to be what others look like & to copy what most others do. In the process we lose our own identity which by far is our most precious possession. We live in a world full of copy-cats & also-rans. But there are few who don't belong to this category. They are different in their approach & that is the reason they are different in their achievements. 

There is nothing wrong in modeling your life after someone who has been a success in some field. In fact, this is one of the secrets of a successful life. Following someone is not bad as long as we don't lose our own style. Choosing someone as a role-model is altogether a different proposition. A role model inspires you while someone you copy kills you. We start valuing the person more than we value ourselves. If we don't value self, we don't value anything that belongs to us-our time, our relationship, our uniqueness & most importantly our self-esteem. The other problem with this kind of life is that we become what others want us to be. In short, we give control of our life to others. The world is continuously trying to make us someone else & the real achievement is to resist the pressure of the external world & listen to the voice of the world inside you. Emerson said it quite succinctly when he declared, 

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we try to copy someone, we kill all our creative & intellectual resources. We start seeing the world from the eyes of someone else. And after a prolonged exposure to someone else's vision, we start living his life. We think & act on the commands of others. We become the genie in the lamp that has immense powers but can't do anything for himself as he is always busy pleasing others. The only original words that you hear from him is, "Your wish is my command." And when we live this kind of life we waste the most beautiful gift given by God- our life.

         "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."- Marilyn Monroe  

Great Teachers inspire

Human mind can work in many modes. The easiest one is telling mode & this is what majority of people do- they tell. They tell because they think they know. Asking is easy but it does not come naturally to people because asking means telling that you don''t know.  It takes guts to accept & tell that i don't know. And what to do if you know something.  Should you go & shout from the rooftops that you know? Try it; no one will listen because they won't trust you. They realize that if you have knowledge why do you need to  shout? Even if you whisper, people will come to listen to you if you are knowledgeable. Should you explain ? No need to explain because explaining means convincing them that two & two make four. You don't need to do that. Should you demonstrate? If there is a need, you should show how two & two make four every single time whatever method you employ. But the best way to teach something is by inspiring others. Because when you inspire, you become one with the person. You are the teacher & the learner both. The wall of ego melts into nothingness.  

Liberty Means Responsibility

Slavery has many shades. A man may appear free though he is enslaved by his thoughts. Most men remain in chains of negative thoughts for so long that they think it to be natural to be in chains. As Rousseau put it, 
"Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them." 
Another reason that people live in chains for whole life is that freedom demands a price- price of discipline, responsibility and continuous struggle. For most of them it is too high a price to pay for the freedom of thought or expression. But what they dread most is that freedom entails a lot of responsibility. Responsibility of fulfilling the promises made to self and others, responsibility of practicing what they preached to others & responsibility of proving that  freedom is a better choice on any given day. You need to ask two questions to begin your quest for freedom; first, do you want freedom?;secondly, are you ready to pay the price? If the answer to both the questions is yes, you are already a free man !   

Scare Yourself Daily

Though human being is fit to face any kind of challenge, he develops cold feet when confronted with a new one. We are comfortable doing the same things daily but very uncomfortable in a tough situation. It is because we wait for the challenge to come to us. We don't invite challenges. Inviting challenges is considered akin to inviting troubles. The fact is that the more challenges you meet, the readier you are for the next one. Do something daily that scares you & shocks other. This will benefit you two ways- one, you will learn new things much faster than others & secondly, and in consequence to the first fact, you will never be afraid of challenges in your life. In fact, you will enjoy every challenge that comes your way. 

If you find your life comforting & everything is hunky-dory, there is something to worry about. One big drawback of a predictable life is that you never learn to respond to a tough situation because you never expect one. You feel your life would remain same till end. If this be the case, your life has already ended because you have achieved what you wanted to achieve. Live it again by inviting challenges; they will give you a tough time but they will also teach you something that you would not learn otherwise. 

Illustrious writer, Stephen covey explained it in a lucid manner when he compared such person as sailing in the boat and enjoying his journey. He is going where the boat takes him. He doesn't  need to toil hard because he is going downstream. All of a sudden, when he sees the fall ahead he tries to change the direction by using his oars like hell, but in vain. He can't do anything now for two reasons; first, he doesn't have the strength & skills to change direction & secondly, it is too late. He has no option but to go down and accept his fate. 

Had he been trying to develop skills by inviting challenges during the comfortable journey, he would have prepared himself for this situation. Now he has no option but to regret & this is what most of us do in later part of life when faced with tough situations. Take control of your present & get ready to take on future challenges if you want to live a meaningful life. 

Time To Run

Keeping fit is a funny matter. People exchange their health for money when they are young & when they face illness, they want to exchange all their money for good health, but in vain. When asked  to take care of health, the usual reply is, " Who has time for exercise?" It is like driving a vehicle which is short of petrol & when asked to get it filled, the driver replying, " Come on ! who has time to get it filled?" But if you don't take care of it now, you will have to drag it to the filling station & who knows by that time it will lose the all the purpose of continuing the journey. Exercising is more a matter of discipline than that of need. And the interesting part is, the more you ignore it, the more you need it.

Love Defines Us

Love moves in circles & encompasses everything that is connected to the persons in love. This is the most precious gain from love. The existence which looks mundane to an ordinary eye, transforms into a magical world. And as the intensity of love increases, the circle in which it operates also expands. After a certain period, love becomes blind- blind to any deformity in the world or to any blemish in the person. Life turns into a beautiful song. But the opposite of this fact is equally true. Hate also changes everything around a person. A person who hates someone attracts everything which is negative, sees every act with suspicion & finds the life around him to be bitter & mean. In fact, in both the cases, the world remains the same. It is the medium that changes. The lesson to be learnt from this strange game of love & hate is that we make the world around us; not the other way round. 

Challenge Your Fears

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.