Well friends truely speaking this post is a bit lengthy for a blog...but it got me qualified for India Youth Conclave 2010..so just thought to share it..
Here it goes:
Although dictionary defines success as “A state of prosperity or fame”, its essence, value and degree depends on person under consideration, time and situation. The feeling of the success achieved is same in almost all situations, the difference lies is in the duration of the impact due to the success achieved. A pregnant lady achieves success after giving birth to a healthy baby. Happiness received in form of impact of her ‘success’ will last with her throughout her life. On the other hand, a poor man’s success is achieved when he is able to feed his family after working tirelessly the whole day. But the duration of impact of his ‘success’ is not more than few hours, since he knows that he will again have to work, may be even harder to meet the demands of his family. Again, a terrorist attack in Mumbai was a success for the terrorists but a short term indeed, thanks to the spirits of Mumbaikars. Moving on to macro level, a country’s success is when it shows resurgent economic growth, has efficient security architecture to fight terror, and its capability to amalgamate technology with climatic situations.
Despite of time and degree of impact of success, few common points can be laid down for the achievement of the same, which can aptly be termed as ‘mantras of success’.
1. Define your success: A ‘problem’ can be best tackled if it is defined clearly making it least ambiguous. A clear idea helps one to concentrate and deviate less form the aim. A student can define success as attainment good marks in the examination or acquiring the best possible knowledge of the subject. Here it can always be debated that the attainment of knowledge, automatically leads to better score in examination. Thus clarity is must in the definition of the success.
2. Discover yourself: After the success is clearly defined, it is very important to know whether one has the capability to achieve it or not. It can be argued that this should have been done before defining one’s success. Why to have a desire to achieve something which one is not capable of? But as rightly said, it is better to die trying that not to try at all. One can always acquire skills and discover ways after defining his success. Thus, a student, rather than diluting the thought of acquiring knowledge, should focus on how he can groom himself to achieve the same.
3. Overcome your fears, defeats and never giveup: Past defeats and fears pulls one efforts backwards. They can never be changed but can be improved upon. If they become hurdle in ones efforts, they should be forgotten, although difficult but not impossible. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. A student unable to achieve success in his previous examinations need to overcome his underdog felling and work towards his aim.
4. Planning, including flexibility and adaptability: Planning leading towards success should be done well in advance, before actions being taken. With the fast and dynamic environment around, one needs to be very much flexible in his ideas and adaptive to the surroundings. One should be clever to sense these changes too. The success in such situation, many a times, can be delayed if some unprecedented priorities popup in between. This deferment in time should be considered so as to let success remain ethical. Continuing with the student example, it may happen that the authorities decide to prepone the exams. The student believing in acquiring knowledge can defer his plans for the time being, instead of intending to use ‘unethical’ measures such as cheating. Success with a flavor of ethicality has a different flavor.
5. Work hard and smart: Aptly put, there is no shortcut for success. Hard work is the key ingredient for success. Smart work refers to not sticking to those procedures which do not value to your attainment of success plan. This mainly happens due to lack of planning and defining success unclearly. Student working hard in his studies, together with a plan with right mix of joyful and recreational activities together with studies will help him attain success without unnecessary tensions.
6. Celebrate your success to keep the passion alive: Mostly this aspect is overlooked, despite being a very important mantra for success. One should celebrate the major milestones achieved on his way to success. This helps in recharging ones spirit to achieve the future milestones. A student trying to acquire knowledge should celebrate his achievements, so as to keep the spirit alive.
The mantras highlighted above helps in achieving success efficiently and ethically. These can be amended and performed as per needs and one’s ability. As for example, a poor man can’t afford a big celebration after arranging meals for his family, but is equally satisfied when compared to the pregnant lady who can afford throwing big parties for her ‘success’. In the end, success and its achievement can be summed up in the words of Anthony Robbins: “Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, 'Here is an opportunity for you to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary.”
:) :)
