From a little spark may burst a mighty flame. Dante Alighieri
Each of us carries within us a spark that can ignite a fire in the belly that in turn will enable us to be powerful change agents. Not too many of us though, can really identify that spark within us or use it effectively to ignite the fire in our belly. That is the reason most of us go through a mediocre life, content merely with what we get and not venturing into anything that requires us to play a very proactive role. As someone rightly observed there are three types of people in this world; those who make things happen; those who see things happen and those who wonder what happened. Have you at least moved from the last category to the second last category? Here are a few reasons why most of us remain in the last category and never enjoy the warmth of the mighty flame.
The first problem is that we undervalue ourselves. Most times we keep comparing our abilities selectively with others and conclude that we are hopeless or at least mediocre. The truth is that we can harness our potential and achieve much more than what we are currently doing. The key to realizing our full potential is in doing our job to the best of our abilities not bothering about what others will think or doubting your own abilities. Even the ball boy on the tennis courts realizes that he is a vital part of the tournament and hence takes greater efforts to do an excellent job. Do we see ourselves as vital cogs in the big wheel of life? Our next problem is that we do not commit ourselves. Commitment is a big responsibility and the burden of that weighs heavily on our minds. We therefore feel it is safer to just make the bare minimum efforts to ensure that the work is done and no blame is assigned to us. Without commitment we do things by half measure, are not at all quality conscious and worse of all make no effort to enhance the value of the task on hand. When a person commits to a task he owns it and therefore wills himself/ herself to overcome all hurdles and deliver quality.
The third and most serious problem is that we do not have self belief. Only with self believe will someone venture to take on challenges. The rest of us simply trudge along the tried and trusted path and alas the view is always the same. When one has the self belief, one is prepared to take on challenges, accepts risks and strives to exceed expectations. Take the case of a person who wants to eke out his living as a referee. The pay may be just about average, the work long and arduous and there is always the risk of player discontentment. Hence it is only the person who passionately believes that he /she does love the sport, the role and relishes the challenges who will make referring a career choice. Refereeing at national and international level will then be the goal. Finally we douse the spark within us by negativity. Even if a person has self belief, negative thoughts will always be a dampener and will kill the initial spark that a person has. When opportunity comes we have to grab it, not brood over the consequences of grabbing it. Negative people view everything with tinted glasses and so they go in search of imaginary demons that will sabotage their efforts, fear calamity at every stage and rarely take the initiative to volunteer.
Success and exemplary performances are not the preserve of a select few. It is each individuals birthright but when we have second thoughts we end up missing the chances and then ruing our fate. On the other hand if we grasp everything that comes our way, we will definitely succeed in tasks that we are prepared to believe in, commit to, become confident about and see as a very positive and wonderful opportunity. What is significant is that in the process we not only execute and extraordinary job but also make the profound discovery that we have actually ignited our minds and hearts and there is a raging fire in the belly.
Remember: Even the mighty oak was once a nut.
Try this:
- Attempt to replicate 5 activities that you enthusiastically did during your school days. Eg. Painting, mimicry, making paper boats or paper planes, sculpting, writing poetry etc. See the joy and delight that you experience when you are doing this. Ask yourself why you didn’t pursue a career that involved any of these passions.
- Make an attempt to study the lives of great personalities who had humble beginnings. Ask yourself what was the turning point in their lives. How did they grow so much when circumstances were completely against them? The lives of Abraham Lincoln, George Washinton Carver, Mother Theresa, are some names that come to mind immediately for a closer study.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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