Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Stronger Than Yesterday!

How many times in life, our happiness or satisfaction has come to a halt by looking at peers? Sometimes, we are personally very happy on what we achieved but when sharing it, we show the pride only to people who have achieved less than us? I feel that our satisfaction quotient in life has come down and our happiness quotient has become relative to our surroundings. What should our comparison be on is the key to life and this blog!

Just imagine that you bought a second hand car. How is your tone of communication, when communicating it to a village man Vs a person who owns 2 cars? Say you score 60% on a paper in which you usually fail. You will express your happiness to other failure candidates with a couple advises to them on what they can do, to be you! But you might either not communicate to the class topper or pass it on to him as a news if you have to. Dont you think that we play low with people above us even though our own sense of pride is high on what we achieved?

In the facebook page of A.R.Rahman, I saw a post where an authority judges elephant, lion and monkey on their capabilities with a single test of climbing a tree. Though funny, it nailed a beautiful message. Is there a single measure that can grade all of us? There is no "One Size Fits All" in this world.

Why do we compare? Every living organism subconsciously adapts to the surroundings and thus it becomes law of nature? Our parents [or we as parents] usually compare children with neighbors and ask them to be [or not to be] like them? So it all starts there and we continue it for our life and we pass it on as a legacy to the next generation. Instead of complaining the law of nature, we as humans with the unique sixth sense can overcome it!

Believe in "Stronger than Yesterday"! In effect compare yourself with what you were yesterday. Do this to be safe and successful for the following reasons:
  • You know what your life needs, to be better!
  • Your surroundings/situations are not same as other person and thus you cant apply his way or doctrines!
  • You are the one who knows your plus and minus better. So the only one who can balance your equation is you!
  • Beware! A wrong upper limit of "Becoming Einstein" can make you run for your entire life without achieving it.
  • Beware! A wrong lower limit of any other lazy/failure person, will take you "no where" as you will achieve your goal sooner and feel contended.

All life's EQUAL and each life is UNIQUE. Each of us have a job to do and we do it in our one way. It could be taking you UP the ladder faster/slower based on how you approach your tasks. Please note that I just mean NO to comparisons and not learning by seeing others. Life is not too long to punish ourselves for what we are. We will have to bring the best out of what we are, and in that journey make ourself and people around us happy. If you believe that you have that extra mileage to achieve, even if the people you used to compare with have failed, you will be able to do it.

A bird sitting on a branch doesn't sit there trusting the strength of the branch, but the strength of its wings! So, Believe in you! Believe that you are a unique formula. Introspect to see what you can do, to be better that the past! Set small milestones, achieve them every now and then, and always strive to be stronger than yesterday! You will incrementally reach great heights one day ... Observe others, get inspired and try it your way ONLY if you feel you can! This is the legacy that according to me, we should pass on to the next generation!

Happy New Year and Stay Spirited!
- MJ

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Hunger – A Sign of Strength or Weakness?



Often, the word Hunger is linked to lack of something that makes one weak. But are we looking at it as an instigator to fill what we lack? What we achieve or would like to achieve is the result of hunger/craving/passion that we have towards it. Hunger is not a ‘lack’ of something, but if we don’t have it, we lack success. This is the crux of my thought process today.

Like an expert swimmer who doesn’t fear the deeps and like the phoenix, which doesn’t fear the fire, a person with a hunger for something doesn’t fear obstacles towards his destiny. Let us literally take the attitude that we demonstrate when we are hungry. Don’t we eat crazy like a glutton the moment we see food after prolonged fasting? Does that demonstrate the force that we have/exhibit when seeing our passionate food?

A spiritual digression to this topic can also be cited here. The reason why we follow fasting before we offer our prayers ... There is an unconscious activity or energy flow that happens in our body, when we are hungry. It is believed that when you starve for a very long duration and sit near a small tender plant for few hours, the plant droops down losing its vitality. It is because our body tends to absorb the vital energy around it, when it lacks/craves for energy. Scientifically I would say that energy flows from higher to lower concentration. Thus came the belief of praying in empty stomach that makes our body absorb the spiritual/positive vibes effectively. When every cell of our body exhibits this involuntary behavior, don’t we have a reason to believe that hunger is a sign of strength in us?

I have heard of a story where a man goes to Swami Vivekananda to know the secret/tip behind achieving what he wants.  Vivekananda takes this man into the nearby water body and immerses him inside water. When the man somehow manages to come out and takes a deep breath for his survival, Swami says that one should be that desperate like how desperate he was to get that one breathe of life while he was under water. That’s the hunger that can also be called as desperation to achieve.

Hunger gives us the drive to run for what we want. It sets us on fire and helps achieve greatness. Its only when we don’t act upon this intensity, it starts to develop weakness in us.

Stay Hungry and Stay Tuned towards your goals!
-         -  Mani




Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Sustaining Vs Stagnating

I was supposed to pen this blog a couple months before, when I completed 10 years in IT. It took some time for my brain to connect my fingers to the keyboard. So here it goes...

The months of May and June, usually puts me into many questions towards my career, every year. Every May, I complete 1 extra year in my company and Every June I complete 1 extra year of experience in IT. This year I was checking myself against "Stagnating Vs Sustaining".

There is life, when you say that you are sustaining on your goodness and success. It means that you get past your previous milestones and constantly maintain a pace in the race, to meet new laurels. Sometimes your successes and your comfort zone make "Stagnation" look like a Sustaining Activity. Appreciations from known colleagues, people praising you wherever you go, setting goals to your comfort and laziness can cause this delusion.

As life changes and you get into more commitments, it is difficult to have the same vigor in you that you had when you were a bachelor. Everything in this world is bound to wear-and-tear and thus we slow our pace too. But, it is always good to check if you are stagnating at a level. Sustain and Stagnate means staying in a level. But as you can see one is lively and flowing and the other is stale.

Making smart moves to sustain your success is very important as we get into a lot of personal commitments. Work hard Vs Work Smart is again a key. One can work hard and get the same results as working smart. But as you progress in your career and get into a higher role with lots of professional and personal commitments, we will have to choose the smart way to enjoy success. We can't run fast and work hard, when our hands and legs are fettered with too many commitments. Are we just concerned or cautious about the steps that we take during this transition? Again, both "Concerned" and "Cautious" shows your worry towards a happening. But, as you can very well see, one is of superlative in nature. I feel being 'cautious' begets actions from your end towards careful planning of your career.

Being 'Cautious' about what you do, to 'sustain' your success is the simple message that I wanted to convey. Again you can either think about this or meditate on it. You know what I am going to say here ... :-) Both 'meditate' and 'think' create a thought process. But when you meditate, you give life to the thought process and make it flow through your smart deeds!

Innovate, Inspire and Get Inspired always!
- Mani