Friday, September 08, 2006

The Success Mantras - an amateur speaks

Let me try to don the garbs of a motivator today. Though few may argue, how can an unestablished and unproven person inspire others, then let me tell you that my stars say the next Roman Abramovich is in the making !

Let me start by stating the obvious.

If you really want your dreams to come true, you've got to dream first !

But the truth is few people dream and even fewer people have the courage and conviction to follow their dreams. The principal reason that prevents people from recording success commensurate with the reservoir of talent and genius they possess is the fear of failure.

So here goes the first lesson :
Never get the wings of your dreams clipped by your fear of the unknown.
Let loose your imagination and dream big !

'Dream for stars, you will at least reach the moon !'

Thus it becomes imperative to have a dream, a dream target, a dream destination before you embark on your journey towards success. Some will say 'Success is a journey not a destination'. Well yes, it's very much true, but just tell me, how can you start a journey when you don't even have a destination in mind ; would you call an oceanic expedition a success even before you reached the island you set out for ?
You must have a measurable yet progressive goal against which you could always benchmark the progress of your expedition.

Now that you've a dream, you've got to take an important decision.
'Do you have the pertinacity, mental strength and conviction to realize your dream ?'

If No...well,no need to say more. You may go back to sleep and dream being the next Bill Gates, if you aspire to be a technocrat or being the next Arsene Wenger, if you are a soccer aficionado like me. Sweet dreams !

But if your answer is in affirmative and you really want to realize your dream then it's the perfect time to do some macro-level planning.

'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail'.

Identify the important steps/stages en route your destination. Identify the competencies and resources that you presently have or must acquire/build in order to successfully sail through the different stages of your plan. You may not be able to visualize everything at this stage, but at least you would have made a start. Do remember, the plan we have right now is just a road map to guide us along our journey; it's not once and for all, so you are expected to update it time and again as you move ahead. While devising the plan do keep in mind that the plan should be flexible enough to accommodate some unexpected provisions that may arise in future because of unforeseen reasons.

Now comes the most important stage of your journey - 'The Execution'.
As Nike says, 'Just do it !'.
While 'doing it' you don't just have to follow the plan very religiously and meticulously. Rather the plan should be seen as I guiding force just to ensure that you are always moving towards your target though the pace at times may seem a bit slow. Always remember, 'Rome was not built in a day', so take small yet measured steps one at a time.
I agree, this all is easier said than done. No doubt this is the most difficult and enduring part of journey and is the one which is going to decide the height of the success summit that you will scale.

Perseverance is the key to this stage. History is replete with examples spread across different spheres of life which prove this point. Most of us must have heard the legend of the King Bruce and the spider. The king got his inspiration from a spider who despite failing to reach the top of the cave a number of times kept trying and eventually succeeded. Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have remarked , 'Victory belongs to the most persevering'.

Beware of the temporary setbacks and failures you are likely to encounter in this stage. After years of endurance, most people give in when their fortune is just round the corner. Remember, 'the hour before the dawn is the darkest'.

'Don't give up though the pace seems slow, you might succeed with another blow'.

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
The destination is far, the path is tough and the journey is long. So make it a habit to celebrate small successes that you come across in between. That will keep you motivated to survive the hardships of your journey and make you feel 'it is enjoyable'.

Never ever become complacent and haughty after reaching the success summit.
It's much easier to fall from the mountain top than it is to reach it !

Go ahead, chase your dreams !
Success will be all yours !

All the Best !

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi dear ..
Once again .. u have written some thought provoking and wonderfully written stuff ..
TOO GOOD !! Keep it up !!
What I learnt from this post !! .. I should wear my specs and go to sleep .. So that I can clearly see what I dream !! ;-) ..
And btw .. What u dream of ?? Lets hear more about it ??

Anonymous said...

I believe thinking big and making ur dreams come true..is a means towards achieving happiness in life..
I feel goal in life is not to set ur dreams higher, but is to achieve happiness..

Cheers :)

Not 'The One' but 'The Aspiring One' said...

Happiness is a state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from
contentment to intense joy (def. courtesy : hyperdictionary). Everyone
always strives for that state of well-being though it depends on the self
how he/she wants to reach there. For someone realization of his dreams may be his source of happiness while for someone else just doing nothing may be the source of happiness. But do realise that implicilty or explicitly both have set themselves different goals (for the second person the goal is to do nothing and while striving for it he is experiencing happiness).
You can introspect and find out that since childhood you had always set goals
and targets (sometimes knowingly and at other times unknowingly) : you always wanted to pass in the exams with good marks, you always wanted to make your family members proud and happy by way of your actions, you wanted admission in a good college and then a good job.

And well Kuldeep, you don't have to set dreams...dreams come naturally to
every person and are a reflection of the inner conscience of the person, his
mentality and his aspirations. You may or may not want your dreams to come
true, but that's a different issue.

You may wonder if everyone sets goals and if everyone dreams, then how come
is the list of the successful and happy people so small !
That's because very few people have the courage and coviction to follow
their dreams !