We all are familiar with the story of Hanuman being punished with a curse in his childhood by Lord Brahma. Bewildered by that curse, Hanuman forgot about his might, his infinite powers and abilities and began acting like an ordinary Vanara. He finally again remembered his power when Jambavan reminded him at the time of searching for Sita.
I believe in today’s world, just like Hanuman most of us have forgotten our infinite powers and living ordinary lives. And the sad part is, there is no one like Jambavan who reminds us of our true potential. Through this article, we will try to figure out where have we gone wrong in our lives.
Let’s start by asking ourselves a very basic question. How many of us have ever penned down our Goals – Academic Goals, Personal Goals, Professional Goals, Financial Goals, Fitness Goals, Short term goals, Long term goals. You may be thinking, what big deal, i already know that setting goals is important. But my question is, you know this but have you penned down your goals? And if yes are these goals measurable? I am sure 95% of us don’t write goals. Also tell me can you write down 10 new things that you have done in last 6 months that will take you closure to your goals. Just imagine, if this is our seriousness and attitude towards one of the most important things in life, then do we deserve success. If our goals are not definitive and measurable, we don’t have a road map for achieving our goals, what are we going to achieve and how.
Many of you would have attended trainings on Leadership, motivation, personal development etc. We feel so motivated after training, we are charged up as if from tomorrow, everything will change in our life for better. Slowly when our employers make us attend these trainings regularly, we start loosing interest. The reason is simple because there is no change in our life. Some of us blame trainers that all this knowledge has no practical utility. But have we ever thought that the Principles, the techniques which these trainers taught us, have we applied those wholeheartedly in our Professional and personal life. Again the answer is no. So is it the trainer’s fault or we lack the willpower and desire to improve our lives. Steve Maraboli once said “The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts - it gives you what you demand with your actions.”
Have you ever thought what success means to us. Is it not true that we are happy in our present company with our pay packages and promotions till the time we meet a friend who with similar qualification is earning far more Salary than us. This one revelation changes our whole perspective. Then the question is “Should we be competing with ourselves or with others?” And if the answer is others then with how many of them can we compete and till` when. There always will be somebody better than the other. And if the answer is with ourselves, then why were we sitting in our Comfort zone till now not increasing our skill sets and competencies. Why were we not improvising, why were we not challenging ourselves. If we had set goals for our life, this would not have been the situation.
Have you ever thought under what circumstances you got upliftments in career. Was it because of the passion, hard work, perseverance, the fire in you for a sense of achievement. Or was it because Company had an opening and your boss found you to be a more suitable candidate. You may say but i deserved it. But my question is were you putting in enough efforts to make this event happen in life or it just happened in your life. “Achievers convert their dreams into reality in their real life”. What destiny gives to them is bonus.
I liked reading books on Self Development, Financial Management, Leadership, Motivation etc for years. I admired the beautiful thoughts, Principles, techniques of those books. I used to remember few of these thoughts for couple of months after completing book and as i moved to another book, i forgot whatever i read earlier. Slowly this started bothering me because i would forget everything, so the knowledge was of no use. Then i would console myself that ultimately all this reading stuff was going in my Sub Conscious mind and i am slowly becoming a better person. However until you face a practical situation in life, to which concepts embedded in your Sub Conscious mind apply, all that you have read will be of no utility. Reading books would help only when you make the good thoughts of those books a day to day habit of your life. Knowledge without practical implementation in day to day life is of no use.
Well all this leads us to a common conclusion. The baby Hanuman in all of us needs to realize the immense power of action and implementation. We have to take charge of our life. The trainers and the books can give you so many concepts, thoughts, ideas. But their role is limited to that. Unless you implement these techniques in your life, all this knowledge is of no use. You have to have faith on those ideas and implement in your life. It’s your life, you have to decide your goals in life, and have to devise ways and means to achieve those goals. Similarly your friends or colleagues achievements can never be a parameter to judge your success or failure in life. You have to decide what are your priorities in life and based on these priorities you should decide your parameters of success. Compete with yourself to attain happiness and Fulfilment in your life. Implementation is of Paramount importance. As Lord Budha rightly said “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”
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