Our business in life

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves — to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today. ~Stewart B. Johnson

Time and time again, many of us end up wishing we could do better in life. While having more wealth would perhaps be uppermost in our wish list, there are many other yearnings like being better looking, more articulate, more daring, more intelligent, more popular etc. What is common across this spectrum of wishes is the reality that our desires are often fueled by a streak of jealously or a craving for them because someone else has it in ample measure. A natural corollary of this sort of thinking is a subconscious breeding of negative emotions and a stifling of our own strengths, abilities, talents and potential.

Without exception, each of us is blessed with a uniqueness that is hard to explain, difficult to identify but something that is definitely possible to utilize. Nothing is as unique to each of us as our ability to think independently. So by tweaking our thinking inwards to our talents, our abilities and our immense potential we can focus on a structured, proactive and gratifying life by using all the gifts we posses to the fullest. We need not make great inventions nor are we required to take path breaking steps to leave our mark in this world; all we need to do is improve everyday and thereby influence the world around us personally, progressively and positively.

To improve and get ahead of ourselves we need to PLAN

Prepare– No one wins a battle even with himself/ herself without preparation. The primary requirement is to make an objective personal assessment of one’s own strengths and weakness, outline the contours of personal potential and perceived limitations and make a personal scorecard in the form of GOALS. Progress can then be measured, slippages be recorded and the effort required clearly identified once the preparation is comprehensively done.

Labor – From birth onwards we have to labor or work, right from the time we wailed loudly at birth and progressively thereafter as we learnt to speak and walk. Fortunately for us nature had prepared the blueprint for our development from babies to being children and then our parents and teachers prepared our blueprint to adolescence.  From adolescence when we began to have our own independent thinking the labor slowly became more personal and individual specific. If we have cultivated good habits, encompassed the right work ethics and have the right attitude we can utilize our preparation with the appropriate effort to achieve our goals. However labor is not embraced easily because it involves hard work, discipline and the rewards are occasionally not commensurate.

Assess – For the average person nothing is more painful than getting a report card. Assessing one’s progress and performance in real life is far more tougher for the failures are more painful, occasionally there are no second chances and success often seem very fleeting and momentarily. Yet when viewed with faith and hope as the predominant emotion, a pragmatic assessment offers us opportunities to progress, improve and excel. We can become aware of the corrections we need to do in order to realize our full potential and it also helps us luxuriate in the coziness of our success especially when we had planned and labored well.

Navigate – There are times when we can be numbed by our inability to progress, stunned by unexpected failures or stumped by quirks of fate that would challenge our resilience. For some of us it is equally probable that we can be drunk with success, fail to appreciate that we did get lucky breaks and go adrift in the vast ocean of life. It is these times that necessitate that we navigate carefully, purposefully and successfully through the minefield of self doubt, fear, arrogance and brazenness.

If we can plan our life as above, everyday would bring us the joy of personal progress, the thrill of looking forward to tomorrow and the bliss of a fulfilling life.

Remember: “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”  ― Mark Twain

Try this:

1. Outline 5 childhood dreams that you have yet to fulfill. Now work out an action plan to attempt to achieve at least 2 of these dreams in a reasonable time frame.
2. Make a list of 5 successful persons at least 2 of whom you have personally known. Enumerate at least 3 qualities that you believe made each of them successful.
3. Assuming you had adequate financial resources write down

• One personal dream you would try to realize
• One personal quality that you would try to develop
• One new skill set that you would go ahead and acquire
• One social service cause you would commit yourself to

This post is courtesy www.actspot.com

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