It’s Never too Late to Chase and Live Your Dreams

Create Your Life The Way You Want

Today Eduemeralds talks about taking the road less travelled. Rahul Das, a boy from Assam’s Bajali district, raised solely by his mother cracked NEET in his first attempt and secured his place in undergraduate course at AIIMS, New Delhi. Rahul who left his engineering profession to chase his Dream to become a doctor has proven that it’s never too late to chase and live your dreams. It’s his perseverance that has finally paid off for him and his passion. His mother, whose countless sacrifices have paved the way for his Success, takes care of him and his younger brother with her earnings from selling tea. His father abandoned the family 11 years ago and since then his mother’s strong will and determination to raise her sons and give them good education remained indefatigable.

Rahul passed his Class XII exams in 2015 with excellent grades but couldn’t pursue his college study owing to his poor financial condition. Next year, in 2016, he got admission in Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology at Changsari, Guwahati and after completing his engineering, he started working with an MNC. Rahul took no time in realizing that it wasn’t his dream, he had no job satisfaction and he felt a strong desire to chase his dream of becoming a Doctor. One fine day, he resigned from his job and started preparing for NEET. He studied for around four months to prepare for NEET; coaching was never an option as he knew his mother’s meagre income couldn’t afford that. Apart from banking on the NCERT books, he availed free classes on the internet to understand concepts and to clear his doubts.

Today, Rahul is proud of his achievement and wants to become a neurologist; he has set an example to all those who are dragging their ways of life just because of the lack of the courage required to change the course of life and due to the reluctance to make sacrifices to chase their dreams. Rahul is not alone who constantly live with the aspiration for achieving self- significance and love to carry a sense of fulfillment that makes them happy, content and free from regrets in the end.

What You Think About Yourself

An acclaimed writer and highly revered philosopher, Neville Goddard popularized a vision that: everything you experience and see is the result of your own thoughts. So turn your life to the way you want to go ahead with. Ask yourself- do you really like the way you are living your life or you had dreamt something else for you. Are you really an empowered person who has the capacity to fulfill all his wishes and dreams? Have you really scaled those heights you had set the level for? Is your self-image is the same you had envisioned? Just stop for a while, think, introspect and focus on what exactly you want from yourself and your life. Sometimes the dreams are bigger and they make us apprehensive about the certainty of their fulfillment. But my dear Reader, when you start dreaming, do you bother about its size; No, not at all; then why you nurture inhibitions when you resolve to living them. It doesn’t matter how big or small your dreams are, the more important part is how big the size of your efforts, persistence and commitment to live that dream is. Create your life the way you wish to and remain restless till you make it as per your dreams.

Imagine as if You are Living Your Dreams

Create your Life the way you want and to do so one must live the way and imagine him/her in that skin because imagination has a strong power to fill your favorite colors in your life. While striving hard for your ambitions and goals try to imagine your success and immerse yourself in those moments of triumph. Learn to manifest what you want in your life and stay positive with the strongest expectations of your success and positive outcomes. Stop worrying about the difficulties or the problems and failures.

 

Be Unstoppable Once You Start Chasing Your Dreams

Fix your attention on what you want for yourself and ignore all distractions and temptations on the way, it will help you progress faster towards your goal

 

“What you put into life is what you get out of it.”

~Clint Eastwood

These words pulsate with the robust spirit expected to chart out a new life. When you start chasing your buried dreams the first challenge that you meet is battling the perceptions; perceptions of those around you who won’t hesitate in reminding you about the Comfort Zone and the cozy cocoon you are already in. And, this arouses self doubt, dear Reader doubt can never exist where there is a sense of closeness; it needs distance to appear and flourish. If you are close to yourself and listen to your aspirations, you can never doubt yourself for pursuing your passion. Break the prison walls that hinder your self-growth and hold you back from chasing your dreams. Be Mindful in your choices and never bury your dreams. Age is just a number, circumstances are fleeting situations and lame excuses don’t make any difference. 

Never see what’s done, focus on what’s yet to be done. If you love to paint, pick up your brushes and canvass to fill it with the colors of your dreams, if dancing was a childhood hobby, join a class today or start your own classes today, if you love to cook but fallen into corporate sector, dare to foray into the field of your passion, if you have a knack for music but owing to your busy schedule can’t spare time, today is the time to dust your old guitar and touch the strings, you will definitely cherish your life. Daunting efforts will be the prerequisite for breaking the boundaries drawn by self and the stereotypes set by others but sooner or later you will achieve what you dream for as it’s never too late to chase and live your dreams.

 

So, dear Reader- when are you picking your paintbrushes to color your dreams? Gear up to pluck the strings of your guitar and let the music of your fulfilled dreams reverberate in your heart.

Your Life Largely Depends Upon the Choices that You Make

How Your Choices Make Difference in Your Life 

 

Choices That You Make

When all the efforts for the negotiation had failed and the battle of Kurukshetra was certain, both the clans, Kauravas and Pandavas decided to meet Krishna and seek his help. Duryodhan from the Kaurava’s side and Arjuna from Pandava’s, went to meet Krishna; Duryodhan arrived first but Krishna was in deep sleep so he sat near his head and waited for him to awake. After a little while Arjuna also arrived and took a seat near krishna’s feet. When Krishna woke up, he first saw Arjuna and wanted to help him but Duryodhan advocated Kauravas should be helped first as their representative approached before Pandavas to the Lord so their claim on Krishna’s help must supersede Arjuna’s. Krishna knew that albeit Duryodhan had arrived first but Arjuna was seen first so both should receive his help in the battle and to resolve this dilemma, he offered them a choice- One side would take Krishna’s huge army and weaponry; all skilled and fierce Yadav warriors and the other could have Krishna alone, neither he would fight nor he would use any weapon.

Krishna asked Arjuna to opt first because he was younger and without any hesitation he chose Krishna. Duryodhan was filled with immense joy and glee, sure of his victory and becoming invincible with the huge army of Krishna. But Arjuna was certain that he had made a right choice. He didn’t underestimate the importance of strategic thinking and the valuable guidance that could only be provided by Lord Krishna to defeat the formidable army of Kauravas. As Krishna was unrivalled on war strategy his mentorship was always required but his presence was even more indispensable this time because this battle was against Pandava’s own brothers and Gurus.

Arjuna’s intelligent choice not only changed the course of the Kurukshetra battle but also got him back on the war front when he was consumed with self-doubt on the battlefield and not ready to shed the blood of his own brothers.

The choices that we make today, factor out future because our action and achievements both depend on what we choose to do. Life is indeed a platter of choices and opportunities, it is we who make the most of it and how we will make most of it- By making a right choice at a right time.

Envision Yourself With the Outcome

Every day brings new aspirations and countless choices so confusion is inevitable. Let’s start by weighing out the options, look inwards to assess which option can be more fruitful and give you purpose in life by serving your self esteem also. Try to visualize yourself with the results of the choice that you have made for yourself and imagine the entire possible scenario with the intuitive wisdom; it will definitely help you in making a right choice. Most achievements in life rely upon the strategic choices that lay a foundation for a perfect planning and desired outcome. To live your dreams you need to decide upon what you really like to choose and why.

Choice Make Difference in Your Life

Never Make a Choice in Haste

The choices that are made in a hurry often lead to regret and disappointment so avoid crossing the labyrinth of choices when you have no time to think, reflect and contemplate. It’s better to delay rather than taking a regretful decision. Sometimes a decision taken in haste can put you under tremendous pressure and the excitement and jubilation that you show in the beginning can vanish in nanosecond. Indecisiveness starts with impatience and impulsive approach which further escalate to unwise reactions and unfavorable circumstances. Good and wise choices always take time and patience to be made and keep your stability and composure level at ease when you jump into action with such perfect choices.

Be Honest With the Choices You have Made for Yourself

Once you make a choice, put your focus squarely on it and strive to work honestly for the same. When you are honest with your decisions everything else will fall into place so Burn Your Boats once you are done with making your honest choices. Things may be unpleasant temporarily but Trust Your Instincts and keep scaling high with perfection and persistence. A choice is just like a commitment and once it is done, there’s no turning back; the motive force behind your decision will enable you to combine your emotions and intellect to build a grand platform for success and fulfillment.

 

Choices always play an important role in shaping up one’s career and life so let your mind know, understand and reflect the myriad of choices and pick the best for you. Let your decision-making abilities push your mental prowess to break the boundaries and liberate yourself from the clutches of self-doubts and inhibitions that hold you back from your Pursuit of Passion. Your life largely depends upon the choices that you make.

Take complete responsibility for all your choices. Be logical and intelligent to choose, choose what you love and love the choices that you make for yourself. The wiser the choices you make the more rewarding life you enjoy! 

Be Proud of Your Identity and Love your Uniqueness

 Be Proud of Your Uniqueness and Love Your Identity

Having a role model in Life, worshipping his/her virtues and persistently strive to win the similar achievements is not wrong but nurturing an obsession to live the life of your ideals and role models by emulating them in every aspect of their life and individuality is worthless and demeans your self-worth. Getting over-influenced by any of your ideals or role models will be debilitating for your personality and eventually you will lose your identity. We all know that among the 7.9 billion of the world’s population, none is similar to any, neither the finger prints nor their faces or voice, nothing is similar. Even identical twins are not identical in every aspect; they possess different personality traits, attitudes, skills and passions. Humans are endowed with wide and beautiful diversity yet people try to blindly follow and imitate their role models. Pursuing your passion to achieve success in their field is always inspiring but copying their walk, talk, dressing style or looks will cost you your unique identity which is the most precious gift God has given to you. So learn to be proud of your identity and to love your uniqueness.

Once a teacher asked his pupils, “Children, what would you like to become when you grow up? The answers were varied, a few took names of their favorite celebrities, and others chose their favorite sports persons, scientists and political leaders. They were amused to share that becoming like them and living life like them was their sole aim and future dream. Suddenly the teacher noticed a boy who remained quiet throughout the discussion. Surprised, he went to him and asked, “Henry, you haven’t shared, what would you like to become in future?”  The innocent child replied without mincing his words, about his dream, “Sir, I just want to become Henry David Thoreau.” And the child was none other than the acclaimed American Naturalist, Essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau.

Though the answer was unexpected but it left everyone around him stunned and clueless. Henry explained in just one single sentence what it meant to accept and admire one’s own very existence. When you love your identity you transcend the world and believe in your completeness.

You are a combination of unique traits, different values and the most amazing features of your own then why to cloak yourself in someone else’s life and personality, why we harbour greed to become somebody else and live their life and lose the profundity of our valued existence. Over-indulgence in your role model’s life and yearning to get into their skin will knock you down and destroy your self esteem. Such tendency results in the attitude of hollowness that gradually impoverishes you and ebbs away all your strengths and positivity.

Be ambitious, know your strengths and Learn From Your Mistakes to keep growing in life. Not just the outside world, identify the world within you also. You have a beautiful world inside; the world of your thoughts, your faith in your existence, the light from within, the strength of your intellect and the beauty of your emotions. This world is invisible but its power is palpable that keeps you awake and reminds you continuously- you have come to this life with a purpose, go ahead and fulfill that.

Start Writing Your Gratitude Journal

To stay happy within and be proud of you, have a habit of writing a gratitude journal. Mention everything in your diary that makes you happy and express your gratefulness to those small things of joy around you. If you wish to extend your gratitude to some special people in your life without letting them know, you can write that in your journal. This journal will make you feel very special about yourself and you will be proud of having such amazing sources of joy in your life. Human birth a priceless jewel, a rare blessing and the precious moments of life shouldn't be frittered away in emulating others' life. Your life is not meant to follow others obsessively and drift along aimlessly over admiring others. You have the power within to make people following you, just awaken that unique power that is blazing in you. 

 

Equanimity in both Pain and Pleasure

We often resist or resent the normal flow of life because we fail to understand that happiness is just an occasional episode in this delightful drama of life. We stay indulged in the conundrums of good and bad, winning and losing dilemmas. Ergo, we miss to experience the palpable vibrancy and vivaciousness in our lives. This approach trivializes the aim of our life and the essential exuberance inherent in us. So, build a Happy Life on the firm foundation of your own values, virtues and Life Skills. When you become a freaky fan of your ideal you start nurturing grandiose indulgences and imitating that person makes you a slave of their ideas, styles and way of living. 

Be the change that you want to see in the world. What you dream and expect for yourself, give it to others as well. It makes you dissipate love and positivity, you will get the same in return but if you spread anger and hatred you will receive the same.

Be proud of yourself, identify the elixir, you are bestowed upon with and radiate from within!

Mistakes are Learning Experiences to Keep You Growing in Life

What Makes You Hesitate In Admitting Your Mistakes?

“Life is too short to keep complaining about others’ mistakes and too long to keep hiding your mistakes.”

It’s very natural to make new mistakes with new challenges, while accomplishing new tasks and growing. Why to hesitate or feel embarrassed in making and admitting mistakes; many of us believe that accepting your mistakes will make you a loser or a naïve so they don’t want to admit their mistakes publicly. On the contrary, wise people never hesitate in accepting their mistakes, they focus on practicing how to maintain their self esteem even after admitting their mistakes and take pride in learning from their own mistakes as well as from others’.

Flexibility in Your Attitude

Learning from your mistakes and accepting them make you more flexible and ready to adapt. Everyone around you- friends, family, colleagues or mentors can be protective in consoling you that it wasn’t alone your fault but you know that the buck stops with you. And when you develop this attitude, you become resilient and imbibe flexibility in your life. You start believing that there is no right time to make a change, nor a wrong time to rectify a mistake. You understand that mistakes are learning experiences to keep you growing in life. People may fail despite having abundant resources and Strong Support System if their attitude cannot help them charting a course of excellence and such attitude can be developed only by admitting your mistakes and learning from them.

Helps You Develop A Stronger Self-belief

It brings a positive change in your self-belief when you learn to accept your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes but not everyone dares to admit; once you admit, you develop an inclination how to mitigate the damage done due to that mistake and to be perfect in your next effort. You start addressing your inner critic to guide you and you grow with the self-assurance in trusting your own abilities, capacities, strengths and decisions. When the mind is anchored in the self, it lights up life, widens the opportunities and removes the Fear of Failure and ignorance. Your self-belief plays a predominant role in handling this fear positively and makes you feel accomplished even after making mistakes.

 

Your Casual Approach Can be the Biggest Deterrent

Akrasia, a Greek word that explains the concept supporting the idea of free will, kind of temporary weakness of resolve or a collapse of determination which drives you to do something you are fully aware is wrong. People with free will or casual approach take the mistakes committed by them for granted or a part of mundane activities which results into complacency and lethargy that eventually impedes their growth trajectory. Everyone who does something is liable to make mistakes but repeating the mistakes, or not improving with the mistakes can prove to be a deterrent in your growth. Cultivating a casual approach to let go your mistakes and ignoring the consequences may lead to other serious problems and when one is unfazed by such incidents, can obstruct one’s own path of success.

 

It is rightly said that “Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.” But people with fixated mindset on ‘Mistakes means Failures’ never take them positively and fail to turn themselves into their better versions. They avoid speaking about them and instead of learning, they invest their efforts and energy to evade and hide them; which can be self-destructive in long terms.

When you accept your mistakes, you learn and grow with them; accepting them doesn’t prevent you from making more mistakes in future but it certainly teaches you how to use these stumbling stones as pathfinder to walk your journey faster.

Having the courage to admit that you have done something wrong implies that you haven’t done it deliberately and you don’t want to repeat the same again. When you have this trait in your personality, you may experience bouts of disturbance, but it will not deter you from reaching your personal fulfillment. Mistakes are just tools to grow and learn better, errors are inevitable and always happen with some benefits and it depends on us what we take away from our mistakes and how we learn not to commit the same mistake again. Let’s acknowledge our mistake rather than covering it up, denying or pushing it aside so that we can shift our perspective towards our learning process. Always ask these questions to yourself before you analyze your mistake- What went wrong? What didn’t work and why did it go wrong? This analysis will help you to see the bigger picture and help you develop resilience. Mistakes are learning experiences and evidences to prove that you are trying something coming out of your Comfort Zone.

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”

-Elbert Hubbard

So stop fearing! Keep trying harder, keep making mistakes and just be Compassionate to yourself after making one!

Self-Motivation is the Launch Pad for a Successful Life

Before I begin, I would like to quote from the movie, ‘The Theory of Everything’- “However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” And to keep our faith alive in hope, and be optimistic, we must stay self-motivated even in the direst situations. Everyone knows that self-motivation is the launch pad where your life takes off to the highest yet it’s very difficult to learn, imbibe and practice self-motivation. How to motivate ourselves; is a very simple but an arduous question to answer. The theories and quotations on motivation seem worthless when we face difficult situations in life so let’s work on the real practices to cultivate self-motivation in LIFE.

Cultivating Self-Motivation is Different for Everyone

When the term, ‘SELF’ is associated with an individual; it’s apparent that it will be different for every individual and the same is with Self-Motivation. There will be no rule like ‘one-size-fits-all’ for self motivation. Everyone feels motivated in different situations or with different catalysts so just sit down, think and reflect what motivates you the most and what demotivates you, who motivates and who demotivates you. Answer these questions before you start on your journey of attaining a high level of self-motivation. Your answers will be based on your experiences and choices; try to recall any incident of your work or family life when you felt highly motivated and what was the reason of that motivation. What were the factors that motivated you in that particular moment? When you find your answers, just try to reconnect yourself with those factors and boost your morale.

Faith and Intellect

Faith and intellect go hand in hand and faith gives soul to your intellect; it gives an immeasurable power to your mind that it can keep its morale high even in the worst situations. Faith and intellect can mitigate the anxiety of accepting loss and work as two wings to help you accelerate and rise with your self-motivation. Without wisdom, faith is blind and without faith your intellect is meaningless, so keep Strong faith in yourself to stay motivated.

What Helps You Bounce Back in Life?

Let’s discuss the next question i. e. what helps you bounce back in LIFE? For many the answer could be family, friends or role models but the reality is the individuals themselves so always remember you fight back and you rise after every fall not because of others but because you want to. Self-motivation helps you build realistic goals and keep you away from impetuous vision of transforming yourself over night. It propels you to take baby steps, gradually and steadily and helps you realize, how dedicatedly you complete small tasks, how quickly you adapt to the new circumstances and bounce back from the days that disenchanted you. When you start small, with an open mind you soon become equanimous and resilient to change and eventually learn to set realistic expectations for yourself.

Why Self-Motivation is Important?

To understand this concept better, let’s observe and analyze the levels of motivation of two Women who go to gym; one who only goes to gym when her friends force her to go or her doctor is strongly recommending her to exercise to get healthier. The other woman who likes to do workout because this way of life makes her happy and feel good about herself, is actually self-motivated because she doesn’t require any encouragement or external force to schedule her time for gym. In both the cases, the outcomes are clear and we can understand that when the driving force comes from within, it always yields desired results but when you are motivated to achieve the standards set by someone else; you can't expect your goals to be achieved and must be ready to accept that you are not self-motivated.

The concept of waiting for auspicious days for new beginnings just like birthdays or New Year is hardwired into our psyche. Even if we ardently desire some change we have a tendency to hold ourselves back and keep waiting for good time. Self-Motivation helps us evade such outlook and propels us to start immediately.  Self-motivation makes you competent and equips you with self-efficacy which ultimately helps you set your personal standards and evaluate your ongoing performance.

The conclusion is, you know all the answers of this ubiquitous question: "How to keep yourself motivated during tough times?"  But the only thing you lack is to ask yourself the right questions at the right time and that’s the crux of all the theories of motivation. Most often, it’s easy to conquer the world but very difficult to conquer our SELF and the same theory is applied when you try to motivate others; always remember a true leader and motivator always leads by example and not by quotes. So Practice What You Preach and demonstrate before you dictate and stay always motivated from within if you wish others should get motivated from you and to set it right that self-motivation is the launch pad for a successful life.

Learning to Say No Is an Important Life Skill

 

The Effective Ways to Say No Can Relieve You from Stress

Blogger: Have You Learnt to Say No?

Reader: NO

Blogger: Let’s Learn How to Say No

Often it becomes very difficult to say NO if people ask for something. Actually we are wired to connect ‘YES’ with love, care and support of that person. Conversely, ‘no’ is taken as rejection; it may provoke ire in our heart, we start deleting those people from our friends’ list and harbour grudges against them. So we prefer not to take the risk of sounding flippant and inadvertently keep on churning our own regrets and helplessness after saying ‘YES’ to something we really don’t want to. Saying no is an important skill and we can’t say yes to everyone and every time. People feel annoyed and disheartened when hear no, so it’s really arduous to escape such situations. Learning to say no is an important life skill, you have to be courteous enough while saying no. It’s pretty natural to not agreeing every time but one should take care while saying no or showing disagreement. One should never make others feel insulted, ‘No’ must never be mistaken with disrespect and apathy towards your near and dear ones. So it’s one of the most important skills- how to say NO to someone when you are not in a position to help them. Let’s read a few tips to say NO without hurting people.

Don’t Show Yourself Busy

As every relationship rests on the bedrock of trust and mutual understanding and saying NO is considered as neglecting the people who trust and love you so it’s a very sensitive issue to discuss how to learn to say no. Never say no while being ostentatious in your attitude. If you show off that you are very busy and that’s why can’t help your friend or colleague, it will certainly show the stingy side of your personality. It will be rude and unacceptable so don’t say ‘NO’ abruptly. Take a pause and politely convey that you are preoccupied with certain other engagements, hence can’t help in this matter. Always buy time for yourself as it’s not necessary to respond each and every request quickly and in an affirmative manner.

Avoid Making False Excuses

Often we feel a social or emotional pressure if it becomes urgent to say NO to our near ones. In an attempt to save our relationship, we make false excuses which in turn make us guilty of our own act. The approach required to deal with such situations should involve being courteous in saying; “I’m sorry, I can’t do it right now but will soon let you know if I can help you in this matter.” Making excuses and telling lies will only raise your burden to handle the whole mountain of the mole so just provide a short and appropriate explanation of why you can’t say yes at that moment. Saying no doesn’t become a problem if uttered in an effective and honest way; we propagate the issue if we don’t have a sincere approach and ultimately leading it to communication gaps and relationship problems.

Be Assertive and Polite

Sometimes we are caught up in a situation when we have to say NO to our elders and bosses and it can ruin a lot if the negation is not expressed genuinely. An abrupt NO will be worst option even if you are true to them, so displaying your naivety at such delicate points may lead to harsh consequences.  Be Mindful and seek permission before nay saying. For example you can express your inability by putting forward your apt reasons for saying NO to that particular responsibility or task. You may leave a question in the end as, “Tell me what/how can I do it?” or “I need more time to complete this, will that be okay?” Avoid indulging in arguments to prove your point as such habits may worsen your problems.

Set a Boundary Around You

It’s always wise to draw a line around you that none can cross and demand undue favors from you. Sometimes people find it a real struggle to say NO because they haven’t tried to evaluate their bond with that person. If your relationship is strong enough, both the sides will respect each others’ limitations and privacy parameters. When you set your limits and make people aware of those limits, they won’t intrude into this zone and ask for unreasonable expectations. Our uncompromising adherence to be liked and admired by everyone often make us prey to this deadly habit of being willing for everything. And this is the all-pervasive intrusion in one’s privacy leading to spoiled relations, so never let anyone cross the boundary line which you have drawn for yourself.  

Saying NO, sometimes teaches us to be selfish but being selfish is not a bad thing as far as you are focusing on your goals and priorities. If you have a habit of prioritizing others' needs and expectations over your own; you will fall into procrastination and will end up in frustration. It will be deterrent to your productivity and feelings of dissatisfaction will start mounting. Many people use the tactics of manipulation to overload others and get relieved from their own responsibilities. Think before you say yes to help someone; analyze whether the solicitation is a genuine need or a tactful one.

 

The purpose of your Life isn’t to become a people pleaser neither to be a clown who makes everyone happy and laugh. Never be tempted to say yes with this feeling that people may start hating you if you say NO to them. Because when things are not in your control and you commit for something, you start developing awful feelings and resentment for yourself which snatches away your peace of mind. Be confident that your NO will not damage any of your Relationship rather it will develop a realistic perspective in all your connections. Be firm in your Decisions, draw the boundaries and learn to say NO comfortably.

Always remember when decisions are taken in haste, requests are granted in a jiffy we are often forced to repent at leisure, so pause for a while, check your priorities and finally decide on a YES. And then no regrets!!!

Life is Always What You Make It Not How You Get It

Make Your Life The Way You Want To Live It

Dr. K Sivan, Indian Space Scientist, the Former Chairman of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and popularly known as the Rocket Man of India has been an inspiration for many young scientists and aspiring youth of India. The glorious saga of his perseverance and attaining excellence to finally living all his dreams seems to be an incredible journey, a manifestation of this belief, life is always what you make it, not how you get it.

K. Sivan, son of a humble mango farmer, born in a small village, is the first graduate from his village. He did a lot of hard work in his father’s mango fields. He continued to help his father even during his college days. Sivan wanted to pursue engineering but due to lack of funds he couldn’t convince his father. He protested, remained on hunger strike for a week but of no avail. Finally he surrendered and took admission in B. Sc. Mathematics. When he completed his graduation, his father agreed to send him to an engineering college and he joined MIT in 1980. Sivan never had a pair of chappals till he got admission in Madras Institute of Technology, wherever he would go whether school or at relatives’ he was barefoot. Sivan struggled a lot with choices and preferences throughout his career; he wanted to join Satellite Centre but was appointed at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, he wanted to be a part of Air Dynamics Group but was given PSLV Project. But whatever was assigned to him, he put his heart and soul to accomplish the same and there was no turning back. He worked on the design and development of launch vehicles for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Under his leadership, ISRO had a successful launch of 104 satellites in one go on February 15, 2017 which is a world record and a phenomenal achievement by ISRO.

K. Sivan recalled very nostalgically, “Whatever came in front of me as a Challenge I just wanted to give my 100% perfection and dedication to it. I never spent time in thinking what I didn’t get in my life; I just gave my best to whatever assigned to me- right from the mango fields, school life or job, I never paid attention on what I was expecting. You always don’t get what you want in life, so acknowledge what life gifts you and perform your best at it. When any small or ordinary thing is done with utmost precision and perfection, it becomes extraordinary.”

This insightful story gives enough food for mind and proves life is what you make it, not how you get it. Let’s see how we can practice it with small steps:

Your Decisions Steer the Course of Your Life

Your decisions must be based on your optimistic attitude towards the future possibilities and your planning to materialize them. Everyone makes mistakes and mistakes don’t mean you should change your mindset and start living in fear and making each of your decisions under inhibitions. No matter how strong or average your profile or personality is, you always leave an impact through your decisions and how you deal with the challenges. So keep being impressive and impactful without measuring the magnitude of your achievements. Be innovative and pragmatic in your Decision Making Abilities because extraordinary people never take interest in doing simple and easy things, they develop enough resilience to accept new challenges and embrace failures in their life.

Your Body-Mind is Designed for Hard Work not Leisure

Keep pushing your body and mind beyond their limits and see the results, if you don’t feel like grinding yourself, you develop a habit of giving excuses and that’s the best time, you need to pause and question your sincerity towards your goals. The belief that thoughts have unlimited power is a much-mulled inference. Our thoughts are a constant source of infinite Emotions and energy which gradually help conditioning of subconscious mind. When thoughts dwell on leading a goal-oriented, fruitful life, we get infused with positivity and our maximum potential which in turn lead to enhanced efficiency, productive thought process and a winning approach. Just like human mind, human body is an equally amazing machine and meant to function relentlessly. Nature has given us no scope for idleness and lethargy so put your honest efforts in the hard work required to achieve all your goals and make your life the way you want to live it!

 

Lack of Self Discipline is Slavery

Any difficult task and its accomplishment is a mental challenge not physical one and to accept any competition, you need to instruct your mind before you train your body and acquire all those skills necessary to accomplish the task. Self discipline is the key to success and it takes long to train your brain so as to achieve the desired results in your pursuit. There are three important benefits of inculcating self discipline in your life- you have control over all your emotions, so if something tempts you against your goals you stay firm and focused. Secondly, you start thinking positively about your win and it keeps you consistent to strive hard for your dreams. No change, no victory, no revolution can happen in a day, it’s a long period of hard work spent with self discipline. You are not an independent person if you are not self disciplined person; you are just a slave of your own whims and fancies. Lack of self discipline is a major deterrent to becoming aware of your strengths and capabilities.

Dear Reader, life is like a roller coaster ride, punctuated by many happy, unhappy, adverse and challenging events and every punctuation mark offers us a hidden achievement- either a win or a lesson. Get rid of your self-sabotaging habits and look forward to be a better version of yourself.  Let’s practice to have the sagacity to embrace the learning at each milestone and keep carving the masterpiece-the LIFE itself, the most precious gift of God.

Being Mindful Will Certainly Make You More Charismatic

 

Practice Mindfulness in the Age of Mindboggling Complexities

Mindfulness is the quality of being conscious or aware of something. It can be defined as a mental state that is achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings and thoughts. It’s a basic human quality to be fully present and cautious of what’s happening around and how to respond to it.

Once a blind, old man was walking on a road. He had a lantern in one hand and holding a clay pot in another. One passerby stopped him and asked, “You are blind, day and night are same for you then why you need this lantern?” The old man replied, “The lantern is for you dear young man! So that you don’t hit me in dark and cause damage to my clay pot.”

To explain the importance of mindfulness I would like to quote the words of Viktor Frank1, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Mindfulness is an innate quality that every human being possesses, we need not acquire or conjure it up; we just need to learn how to access it. It guides us not to overreact or being unnecessarily overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. When your jobs become Anxiety-provoking and the day-to-day happenings put a significant stress on you, mindfulness can help. Being mindful will certainly make you more charismatic; let’s learn how to practice it:

 

Mindfulness Means Making the Most of Your Abilities

Be mindful to what you can do and how to prove it, whenever given an important responsibility, always take care of making the maximum use of your abilities and let never others overpower your skills and strategies for the task. When Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan Parvat, many people in Gokul came rushing in and supported it with their sticks. They had a misunderstanding that it’s their power that had lifted the mountain; Lord Krishna had only one tiny finger to support it. So be rational in utilizing your strengths and keep a check if people try to misuse it. Mindfulness allows us to improve our focus, it brings us back to the present moment over and over again, thus reducing the strain on our brain.

Being Mindful is Being Purposeful

During the pandemic we all have developed an ability to reflect and understand that every moment of life is precious and having a purposeful life turns these moments into immeasurable happy memories. A mindful living can win over instant gratification and drives you to gain self-knowledge. It helps you differentiate between the futile, superficial goals and your realistic goals which further propel you to go beyond your boundaries and rediscover your SELF. Being mindful enables you differentiate between your act due to anger and the one done with patience. 

Mindfulness Helps You Forget the Past

People waste a lot of time and energy feeling guilty or regretful about their past, they keep judging how good, bad, successful or failure they were at certain points in life. This hankering after past makes our life miserable and we find ourselves in a quandary. Mindfulness doesn’t mean stop thinking or reflecting, it means to pay a close and sincere attention on your sensations and EMOTIONS so that you can observe and analyze them and grab the solutions quickly and efficiently. Mindfulness makes you kinder to yourself and more caring to your well being.

Spare Your Mornings to Cultivate Mindfulness

We all know that practicing a diligent approach to mindfulness can do magic as it helps you create a short mental space between an event and your stimulus to respond to it. Morning hours are the best to work on it; because the mind is very focused, creative and expansive during that hour of the day. A 10-minute meditation can be of great help to channelize your infinite energy. Take a breath, feel your own breathing and be in the present moment before you proceed for your day’s activities. Stop multitasking as it is a pernicious myth which prevents us from attaining contentment and peace of mind. Never check mails in the morning neither pay attention to the pop up notifications as such practices keep your mind occupy all the time and reduces your productivity. Spend your mornings with you because none can be a better companion to you than yourself.

Mindfulness transforms us and teaches how we should relate to the events and experiences in our life. It changes our way of reacting on trivial issues and trains our mind how the important ones can be taken into considerations wisely and with a problem solving attitude. Problems and frustrations keep mounting when we don’t deal with them properly. Our habit of making judgments on every day to day’s problem drags us into the pit of sorrow and regret. This habit restricts our creative thought process and skillful responses. Cultivating mindfulness helps us pause and ponder over a situation, get a clearer picture of the situation, find the options to resolve the issue and respond with a poised demeanor.

Being mindful is staying strong and motivated in all situations; awards or appreciation- neither to boast about if received nor to sulk if not. It encourages you to select your responses wisely and make calculated choices instead of ending up to irrational and impulsive acts and decisions. Let’s learn to be less reactive and more in tune with the present.