One life-changing lesson I learnt a long time ago goes like this: Many a time in life, you are offered two choices, two paths, two cross roads or a fork in the road (as some like to call it) and you take the easier one but it takes quite a while for you to learn (and experience at great personal cost) that it’s only reward is that it was easy.
On the contrary, better things are harder to find in practical life, always!
Sir Edmund Hillary summed up his success in climbing Mount Everest in such fine words:
“It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
If he did not envision the possibility of accomplishing what no other human had ever done before, no body would have ever known that a person by the name of Edmund Hillary ever existed on the face of this earth and the same would have been true for Sherpa Tensing Norgay as well.
When asked by reporters why Sir Edmund Hillary chose to climb Mount Everest, his plain and simple answer was: “because it is there”. Even to this day, many a brave men have died in their efforts to accomplish this one goal in their lives but does it mean we should stop pursuing the same any more? Not by the farthest thought. As a matter of fact, more and more expeditions are being planned almost every day, some even without the use of oxygen.
Why? – because path to glory is almost always studded with unforeseen adversities.
Benjamin Disraeli the 19th Century British Prime Minister gave us these golden words about the significance of action, an uncompromising action, in no uncertain terms: “
“Action may not bring happiness, but there’s no happiness without action”
Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher and writer, teacher and guiding force for Alexander the Great, who wrote extensively on various subjects explained the reasoning behind ‘action’ in such an analytical fashion that is hard to explain any better:
[message type=”custom” width=”100%” start_color=”#FFFFFF” end_color=”#FFFFFF” border=”#fb7200″ color=”# fb7200″]
All human actions have one or more of these seven causes:
Chance,
Nature,
Compulsion,
Habit,
Reason,
Passion,
Desire[/message][su_spacer]
The unfortunate truth in today’s materialistic world revolves around ‘compulsion’ more than any thing else. If only we could initiate a change in our thinking to make ‘passion’ the single most important and motivating force behind our choice of occupation, the rate of achieved success is bound to be much higher. We cannot live life by chance whereas nature does play a role in the outcome of our efforts without guiding it to fruition. Habit and reasoning often come in our way before we can actually jump from one profession to another. Under this above scenario, the only other favorable tool in our arsenal is ‘passion’ coupled with desire to succeed.
In order to re-iterate this point further, please allow me to borrow a quote from Shaquille O’Neal:
“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do”
When you get in the habit of following your passion, worldly distractions do not hamper your activity, the diversions never deter you from doing what you are so passionate about, your main focus is to get what your passion dictates and your desire for success creates a new YOU, a ‘YOU’ that understands the importance of his or her priorities in life, a ‘YOU’ that is not bothered by others’ comments and/or negativity, a ‘YOU’ that is an out and about ‘ACHIEVER’, a self-respecting individual who is determined to stand out from amongst the crowd.
It is this above ‘YOU’ that is the most important person in your life because you are what you make of yourself.
If this doesn’t give you a clearer picture of life’s vicious reality nothing will.
Brilliant post.
Many people know they are capable of achieving great things, and yet something holds them back. Some “hidden comfort zone” seems to stop them from achieving the kind of abundance and success they just know they are capable of. I pray that many more people will realize the greatness that lies within all of us. Choose to be filled with the joy of self-discovery and wholeness.
Thanks a lot for your valuable observations here, Bernie Joshua! You are so right about self-discovery and wholeness.
I am happy to join in your Prayers!
Great post my friend. I agree you must be at peace with yourself. In order to bring happiness to other we must first look to ourselves. Well said
Happiness is not just an internal thing projected out. Happiness is external events and environments that project in. To be happy, we need to think happy things and surround ourselves with people 24/7 that make us happy. On top of that, we need stress and bad things in our lives to make us happy; or else how do we really know we’re happy? We are creatures that love to compare. We compare our moods, we compare our friends to ourselves, we relate our own experiences to external events.
To be happy
1. Positive self talk
2. Schedule frequent meetings with people you like and respect
3. Work out at a gym where there are many young and energetic people
4. Go to events and meet new people
Bharat, I agree that one must have self respect before getting respect from others. Of course, having self respect presumes that the person is convinced that they always do their best, are honest, trustworthy, etc., etc. Not always easy.
As to those that die trying to climb mountains that have already been climbed, I never understood that. I have to wonder what they could have achieved if they had put that effort into something more productive. Mastering self as a reason is a crock. One doesn’t have to risk life and limb on a mountain to do that.