The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it. Sir William Osler
We are curious by nature, but very often our curiosity is peripheral and we are unable to sustain our interest. This means that while we know a little about many things, we do not know much about any particular thing. In this day of competitions and specialization, to have an edge and be successful, one needs to leverage ones competitive advantage in the market place. This means that we need to have a deep and specialized knowledge, which can be gained only if we take an active and passionate interest in it.
It was Dale Carnegie who made an interesting observation when he said ‘If you take interest in people, people will take interest in you’. The importance of taking interest is equally true about everything in life. It is when you take interest in studies that one prepares better for exams, if music is your passion, it is logical that you have deep and abiding interest in it and if you are a food lover it naturally follows that you know the best eating joints in town or have access to the recipes of some exotic dishes, simply because you take interest and collate that information. Extend the logic a little further and you will notice that almost all successful professionals are passionate about their profession mainly because they have taken an extraordinary interest in the same. The same holds true for all successful people; be they in business, the performing arts, those with a scientific bent of mind or even those doing a mundane job extraordinarily well like the pizza delivery boy or the waiter in the restaurant.
It is not as simple as it looks to identify and get interested in something that in the long run gives you excellent results and brings success to you. This is because, many things interest us but when we get into the nitty gritty of each, we soon discover that there are certain unavoidable activities associated with it that challenge us, are repetitive and boring and tax us mentally and physically. Often we are lured by interest in passive activities like listening to music, watching TV and partying around, but to make a success of it means that we have to be active and leverage our interest with some learning, hard work and risk taking.
Remember: The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.”- Horace Walpole
Try these:
- If you are a student ask which subject in your current course interests you the most? If you are a professional or a homemaker ask a similar question about what interests you the most in your current role. Next ask if you are taking any special efforts to leverage your interest and gaining more proficiency or adding value to your area of interest. Eg As a home maker, your interest is in the studies of your children. Are you reading up on new techniques that will facilitate better learning? Do you know if there are resource people around who can help your children with some of their weaker subjects? Do you think you can have a data bank of such similar inputs related to students and studies that you can leverage and make into a profession as an educational consultant or offer education relate services?
- Now that you are reading this paragraph, it is probable that it is because you liked the contents. It is also probable that you do not fully subscribe to the views here. In either case, are you interested enough to leave a feedback by clicking on the feedback link at the end of the post? If you liked the post, would you like to be updated about the posts regularly ? If you say yes, will you be clicking on the related links to subscribe to this Blog and be notified of new posts via email?
- Have you noticed the links to the weekly posts that is present at the tail end of the post? If interested click on it and discover some other interesting posts. Notice that you have to make the small effort to click and link if you are really interested.
For answers to last weeks challenge in the post ‘Doubts’ dated 8th February 2010, please see today’s post on www.poweract.blogspot.com dated 15th February 2010.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
You are also invited to visit our weekly Inspirational and Motivational Blog www.poweract.blogspot.com
