I had been to a personality development session recently by Dr. Anand Menon, a known figure in this field. According to him, writing down your goals for life would give some sort of structure and direction towards the way your life progresses. I think he is right. After all, you only get one shot at life. Everybody comes into this world the same…as babies…with the same level of understanding. Everything else that follows is what makes us into the people and personalities we are today. But from this stage forth, what becomes of us? I am now 27. 27 years from now, what stage will I be in? Do I really want to leave that to fate and chance? That, according to me, is a huge risk.
It is better to have something to work towards. Even if it is just words on a piece of paper at this point, knowing that I have that much left to achieve in such a short span of time, motivates and inspires me to get on my feet and begin right away. Of course, there will be many obstacles on the way, plenty of speed bumps and sharp turns. A zillion people saying I cannot achieve any of these goals. But truly, I should not be telling God, ‘Father, I have a big problem.’ Instead, I should be telling the problem, ‘Hey problem, I have a big God.’ I think just saying that much in complete faith is more than half the battle.
In my case, my primary problem is that I am afraid. Fear. It is always palpable, often overwhelming. Knots my stomach, makes it hard to breathe. Somehow, unconsciously, I have already set myself up to fail, before I have even started! Before I have even made an attempt! After all, unless you fall flat on your face, you will not know how to get back on your feet…and the more times you fall, the more practice you will have at bouncing right back up. It is a good thing babies don’t know anything about ‘failure’, or else they may never try ceaselessly to stand after their initial attempts lands them back on the ground with a thump. If they gave up at those first attempts, they may never learn to stand and walk. And then where would humanity be?
I think we are our own worst critics. We tear ourselves down before we have attempted anything. At least an outsider will only criticize us if our attempt fails. But we somehow screw ourselves right at the beginning, before even taking our place at the starting line…if only we would give ourselves a shot, have some faith in ourselves. Really! After all, as Edison said, ‘I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’ Ten thousand! Have we genuinely found even one way that doesn’t work?
I genuinely admire these people. Not because of their outstanding contributions towards humanity, but because of their imagination, optimism and self confidence. Although no one else believed in them, they were sure they were a step or two away from something big. They were onto something. And they were right eventually. This for me is truly inspiring. After all, how many people have sat under apple trees? Surely, quite a few of them have had apples falling on their heads. But how many had the imagination to question, ‘Why did it fall down and not up?’
Nothing in this world is a given. If someone tells you something cannot be done, it is all the more reason to attempt it if only to ensure that it indeed cannot be done. Because I am sure, while trying to disprove that person, you might just stumble upon something that is bigger than what you imagined. After all, the mind often sees possibilities that we may not be able to fully comprehend. For many, it may be ‘silly things’. But for the inventors and true inspirations of our time, who have pushed these ‘silly’ thoughts and ideas to the limit, it is often a ‘stroke of genius’ or ‘creativity at its best’.
If we define ‘success’ by how we measure up against another person, we are limiting ourselves. We can probably achieve much more. Instead, it makes more sense to define ‘success’ as what we have achieved compared to what we could achieve. Then who but ourselves can decide whether we are a success or failure.
Written on Monday, October 31, 2011
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