Winners' Podium E-Book

Anchit Barnwal

• Herausgeber: V&S Publishers
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 221

Beschreibung

An invitation for essential and successful living

Leseprobe

Published by:

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© Copyright: ISBN 978-935-05732-2-8

DISCLAIMER

While every attempt has been made to provide accurate and timely information in this book, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, unintended omissions or commissions detected therein. The author and publisher make no representation or warranty with respect to the comprehensiveness or completeness of the contents provided.

All matters included have been simplified under professional guidance for general information only without any warranty for applicability on an individual. Any mention of an organization or a website in the book by way of citation or as a source of additional information doesn't imply the endorsement of the content either by the author or the publisher. It is possible that websites cited may have changed or removed between the time of editing and publishing the book.

Results from using the expert opinion in this book will be totally dependent on individual circumstances and factors beyond the control of the author and the publisher.

It makes sense to elicit advice from well informed sources before implementing the ideas given in the book. The reader assumes full responsibility for the consequences arising out from reading this book. For proper guidance, it is advisable to read the book under the watchful eyes of parents/guardian. The purchaser of this book assumes all responsibility for the use of given materials and information. The copyright of the entire content of this book rests with the author/publisher. Any infringement/ transmission of the cover design, text or illustrations, in any form, by any means, by any entity will invite legal action and be responsible for consequences thereon.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1Talent (Finding your niche)

Chapter 2Attitude (You are worth your attitude — how to enhance it)

Chapter 3Goal Setting (The completeness of your goals)

Chapter 4Motivation (How to motivate yourself)

Chapter 5Success (The winning formula)

Chapter 6Idea (How to capture and turn them into a reality)

Chapter 7Happiness (Its importance in life)

Chapter 8Steps to Happiness

Dedication

To thatSupreme Powerwhich rests within all of us&My parents,for being with me as a force to reckon with, always.Dad and Mom, I love you forever.

Acknowledgements

Today, I am elated to present my work to you, but calling this book solely mine would be a gross injustice to the efforts and insights of those who have, directly or indirectly, been instrumental in making this book achieve its present form. This book is the result of collective effort of my friends, relatives, teachers and many more people who have, in one way or the other, facilitated the process of writing it.

I would also like to acknowledge the heterogeneous nature of people—mostly their individuality—which inadvertently led to sharpening of my observational skills beyond the normal and made me capable of seeing things differently from others.

At last, I humbly thank the folks at V&S publishers for helping this book see the light of day.

I have talked more through stories, quotations, illustrations and day to day observations than through words alone, so that everyone—young and old—finds this book an engaging read—so effortlessly.

Thank you!

Take a shot of the following Questions to make out whether you are in need of this book or not:

Do you intentionally or unintentionally think about your work while off duty? If yes, you might need this book.

Do you think money and money alone can take the pain off your life? If yes, you might need this book.

Do you think over the years your life has become more complicated? If yes, you might need this book.

Does the first thing you put to test, under pressure, is your health? If yes, you might need this book.

Are you able to hold onto the happiness which comes with an increase with your earnings? If no, you might need this book.

Are you clear with your individual definition of happiness? If no, you might need this book.

Do you think your work is your talent? If no, you might need this book.

Are you satisfied with your both personal and professional life? If no, you might need this book.

Does an increase in your earnings also make you rich in time? If no, you might need this book.

Does, profit, charity and pleasure go together in your life? If no, you might need this book.

When you fail, do you always make out the reasons behind your failures? If no, you might need this book.

Do you think ‘ideas’ click only to a few? If yes, you might need this book.

PREFACE

Our actions totally depend upon our thoughts and our thoughts are nothing but the sum total of our attitudes. This book attempts to infuse in each one of us the kind of attitude required to excel in all the spheres of life, be it personal or professional.

We always hear people complain of something missing from their lives, without being able to exactly pin-point that very ‘something’. This ‘something’ could be a spark, which we miss on our way to success; or could be the satisfaction post achievement of that success; or it could be anything to do with a pleasing personality, having a better attitude or a wish for a more balanced life. Or, simply it could be a lack of happiness in our lives. This book intends to tackle this very ‘something’; to surface that which we miss in our lives and the ways to fill that vacuum.

Success, satisfaction and happiness complement each other. They must go hand-in-hand in order to avoid a feeling of worthlessness or having led an unworthy life, which will pinch us more in our deathbed than any kind of tangible loss that we may have suffered during our life time. This book offers elaborate guidelines in terms of chapters for a balanced, successful and happy living.

Happiness was designed to be natural to us but with today’s fast-paced and ever busy life, we are steadily and gradually losing touch with it, and today it is one thing which is not natural to majority of us. Happiness has now become a subject of learning which everyone must master before taking his plunge into the so called ‘mad-world’.

Life is an art; you cannot learn to live it without actually living it. Earning more year by year doesn’t mean you have become wiser, for you were busy learning how to earn and not how to live. So, let’s start living by understanding the finer prints of this life and by actually doing rather than plan and postpone endlessly and die feeling sorry for a life full of regrets.

Satisfaction and willingness are the two pillars of life. If we are not willing, the easiest job will seem to be the toughest. And if we are not satisfied, no amount of wealth or comfort would be of our use.

Sometimes just a small change, a simple choice can let our life go from nowhere to somewhere and from somewhere to everywhere; just one incident can infuse that spark within us which not only let us glow but also let us glow others; which not only show us the way but also let us show the way to others. Remember, it was just a post-battle sight which led Ashoka change from a bloody warrior to a messenger of peace, and transform into ‘Ashoka the Great’.

This book could be your chance not only to attain that most awaited and desirable success but also to hold on and grow both internally and externally with it. In other words, this book is an earnest attempt to transform you into a complete individual.

To Whom is This Book Targeted?

This book is not for them who claim to be fully aware of their own self and the finer prints of this world and human life in general. This book makes an effort to make people realise their own self and co-relate their life with the various stories, facts, anecdotes and day to day practical examples and observations given in it.

This book is for people who want to unleash their true potential; are in search of their talent and a success—which is satisfying. This book is also for them who have a brush with success and wish to hold on and grow with that success. And finally, this book is for people who want to lead a wholesome life—a life worth living.

In total, this book assures a more balanced, oriented, fulfilled and enriching life to everyone who decides to take a plunge into its pages. Notwithstanding, I welcome you all for a joyful experience ahead.

Throughout the book, I have used masculine gender, only to facilitate the reading experience. All the principles apply to both the genders.

TALENT

Finding your niche

A king once wanted to shorten the length of all coming years, so that he could celebrate his daughter’s birthday, every year more frequently. In order to decide which month to delete, he called all the months and asked them to prove their worth or risk facing a burial into the pages of history The bemused months asked for a week’s time to defend themselves.

A week later all the months, in order, lined up in front of king. January, being the first defended himself by saying, “Your majesty I am the beginning, without me people would be deprived of a new year”

The next in line, February said, “Children cry less in my presence as I have the least number of days, besides I give people a chance to come closer and celebrate love on my 14th day”

March defended himself by saying, “I bring in the season of spring, giving a sense of freshness to the atmosphere”

April squealed, “Only I am traditionally authorised to have a specific day for people to play fool on one another, if I am gone, people would miss the opportunity to make themselves and others laugh”

May put, “Flowers begin to blossom during my presence.”

June said, “People are always eager to choose me as their wedding month, if I am gone, people would fret for having lost the opportunity to get married in my presence.”

July and August echoed in equal voice, “We are the only months to be bundled together with 31 days; deleting one would mean breaking our association and uniqueness”

September reminded the king, “It’s during my presence that most crops get harvested”

October was comfortable to put, “Your daughter loves me most. I am her birthday’s month!”

November eagerly said, “The universal children’s day is celebrated in my presence, if I am removed, many countries would be in dilemma to celebrate their children’s day.”

Finally December defended himself by saying, “If I get deleted, people would be confused of the ending of a year, and would also be deprived of a Christmas each year”

In this way all the months, one after another, defended themselves for a survival. The king, who had been patient with everyone, noticed that they all had a valid point in their favour. Eventually, he announced, “Though you all are different from each other, yet all of you are equally worth in your own right and none can face an execution; you all are safe”

So we see, the months who were ignorant of their own self, discovered and made out their worth when the situation demanded of them. Similarly, we humans, like animals, birds and even trees— which are positively unique among themselves—have something special within us, only waiting to be tapped. This ‘something’ can take us higher, stretch us longer and make us stronger and faster. This ‘something’ is our talent.

Your Strength Lies Within You

“I never met a man so unknowledgeable. I could not learn something from him.”

–Galileo Galilei

Humming bird is the smallest bird but has the distinction to fly backward too. Kangaroos can run fast but cannot go far. Tortoise cannot run but can go far.

Penguins and Kiwis are the birds which cannot fly, but they are also the birds who are blessed with something which is restricted to them only. For instance, Penguins can jump as high as six feet in the air and can also move faster than a submarine, while Kiwis have the distinction to hunt with their sense of smell.

Birds can differentiate between colours, they use this ability to choose their food, whereas animals are colour blind, they have a better sense of smell.

We humans are no different if one falls short in one field; he of course has something other special ability which is limited to him only. We all have that seed within us, which awaits our attention and which has the potential to blossom into a full-fledged plant one day.

Even a weak is capable

A king once wanted to get his only daughter married. Unable to decide on the person, he got the two rooms of his palace filled with the gold bars of equal weight and size. He made an announcement, “Whoever succeeds in getting the most number of gold bars from the two rooms of my palace, would marry my daughter. The only condition is, no one is allowed to enter the palace twice.”

People from many different fields came forward to take part in the offer. Everyone, in his own way, tried to walk out with as many bars with him as he could. Some even tried to tie the bars around their body in order to increase the numbers. Some professional weightlifters had also tried and had managed to get a decent number of bars with them. This way, one after another, everyone tried their best to defeat each other at numbers.

The king, after the competition, realised that there was not much difference among the numbers each participant had obtained. Unsatisfied with the score, the king let the offer remain open.

A few days later, a skinny person came to the palace and participated in the competition and later it was known that he managed to come out with all the gold bars, leaving not a single bar in any of the two rooms. Everyone was curious to know about his strength.

The king asked, “How could you do what no one else succeeded in doing?” He replied, “Your majesty, had this competition been of checking one’s physical strength alone, one could have easily won by this time. The competition required one to prove his both physical and mental ability. I just brought all the bars to the exit gate before throwing them out. I stepped out only when I had thrown the last bar I had brought to the exit gate!” Listening this, the king happily made his intentions clear of marrying his daughter with him.

So we see, even a weak person has the skills to take on the heaviest. If slender people can fall with a lesser force, they are also blessed with the ability to get up faster than plump people.

It is said that everyone is gifted with at least one special distinguishing characteristic, but not many in their lifetime succeed in deciphering it. We slide into the rut of life so easily and comfortably that we hardly give space and time for our talent to show up. We start concentrating on routine and trivial issues so much so that we literally make a life out of them, thus failing to concentrate on wider perspective of life. Oliver Wendall Holmes was right when he echoed, “Most people go to their graves, with music still in them.”

Is Talent Developed or Discovered?

The good thing about talent is that it can be both discovered and developed.

Talent can be developed

Sometimes a consuming passion could allow you to develop your talent.

The origin of microscope

There was an uneducated man, who had a passion for making a perfect lens. So passionate was he that it made him produce more than 400 magnifying lens before giving the world its first “simple microscope” which introduced them to the world of bacteria and viruses hitherto invisible to the naked eye. This man was Anton Van Leeuwenhoek.

Again it was passion which made Thomas Edison, in spite of repeated failures, come up with the world’s first electric bulb. I firmly believe it was not an ordinary success—it was phenomenal. Likewise, many people in their ordinary course of life through perseverance, dedication and a strong desire have turned their ordinary hobby into their talent and later into their profession.

Talent is mostly associated with one’s vision. Setting a goal may not be a talent but deriving a comprehensive way to reach there is.

Talent can be discovered

Talent can be discovered too. If a boy comes in contact with something new and is able to do that thing reasonably well than others, that is his talent, which just needs to be refined and practised.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s lone cricket team captain to have won both 20-20 and one day international World Cup, during his childhood was more interested in football and badminton. He never knew about his potential in cricket, until one day when his physical trainer asked him to play a wicket-keeper in the school cricket team that the transformation happened.

The idea is that the discovery cannot happen unless one comes in contact with the circumstances which let him think and discover more about himself as life is all about making progressive discovery of our own self.

The bottom line is, unless your talent comes in contact with an environment which supports and suits it; which provides it a platform where it can develop and grow, it might just lie dormant inside you forever.

Talent and Success are not Necessarily Synonymous

It is worthwhile to hunt for our individual talent before entering into the rush of life.

A boy grows up and attains a degree without knowing much as to what he will do with that degree, apart from becoming capable to earn money. After he secures a job, he gets into the endless cycle of making a target—to progress and earn more with each passing year—achieving it and again setting a new one. And this cycle goes on until his last breath. If this sense of achievements of targets is talent then I hope everyone can claim to have been talented on many different occasions of their lives. This all can be termed as success but not talent.

Success is not necessarily synonymous with talent. I don’t say that attaining a degree, securing a job, earning money should be avoided but giving them an upper hand is just not fair. They are a part of our life and not our life.

Phenomenal Success Leads to Talent

An ordinary success is more a matter of perseverance and less a matter of talent. Attaining trivial progressive goals is success, whereas attainment of a phenomenal goal is talent.

A professional mountaineer starts his career with a climb of a smaller peak and goes on progressing with each higher peak he climbs, and eventually conquers one of the top known peaks, when other professional mountaineers of his age, with relatively lesser experience have already climbed it. This is an ordinary success as success here is attained by putting in more the resources (including time) than actually required.

The idea is that unless the outcome matches with the input, which means, either the outcome is phenomenal in comparison to input or the input is nominal in comparison to output, success cannot be perceived as a talent.

Mozart and Beethoven

Mozart and Beethoven both have given the world some of the best symphonies. Though Mozart was quicker and also wrote more symphonies in his unusually short career than Beethoven, they both were talented, for what they achieved was phenomenal.

“If you can’t excel with talent, excel with effort. “

—Dave Weinbaum

Talent vis-a-vis success

A talented person will take lesser time to achieve the similar kind of success which another might achieve more out of his hard work, diligence and dedication. Success attained through perseverance is not talent until and unless success is phenomenal. In success, perseverance plays a crucial role, whereas in talent, one’s skill is the dominating factor. Irrespective of their perseverance, the first conquerors of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were surely talented, for the reason, the goal they achieved was phenomenal.

Talent Does Require Perseverance

Our talent is like a plant which, if nurtured and ploughed regularly, will grow up and continue to be a full blossomed potential. Can a world-class singer continue giving his best if he stops practising regularly? Can a player perform his best if he had stopped playing for a while now? No, without perseverance a talent would soon evaporate. Talent is nothing which doesn’t require time and space to show to its full potential.

In a pile of books, arranged vertically, the frequently used ones automatically take the top few slots, whereas, the least used ones automatically fall into the last places.

Similarly, the talented people who regularly use and practise their skills reach up the success ladder, whereas the talented people, who for any reason stop making use of their skills, fall or start going down the ladder.

Talent without Direction Leads You Nowhere

Put your talent to good use

A man wanted to build the highest staircase in order to get his name entered into record books. He succeeded in achieving his dream. Everyone appreciated him for his labour and effort. But did he achieve anything in real? Or, can he be termed as a winner? No, because his labour and effort did not do any good to anyone including himself.

He did all this just to earn his name, which was soon forgotten by almost everyone because no one could associate himself with that man’s name, effort or success and moreover, whenever anyone climbed up his staircase, he felt sorry after realising that the staircase led him nowhere and that he had to get back the same way without achieving anything out of his effort.

Take another man, who also in order to get his name entered into record books, builds a similar staircase of the same size, the only difference was that this one—leads one downwards for water in a well!

So the idea is, humans have unlimited capabilities and potential but only those capabilities count which are not wasted. It’s very important that we channelise our talent and efforts in a positive direction. Many people in their lives fail to capitalise or lose their talent by putting it to negative use or by failing to give it a sense of positive direction, like it has happened with numerous personalities who lost their charm of talent for reasons ranging from substance abuse to controversies to just being unprofessional.

  Diego Maradona, arguably one of the greatest soccer players ever to grace the field, suffered several jolts during his career — all because of his neverending addiction to cocaine. His weakness for banned drugs not only dented his professional career, with repeated failures at drug tests, but also marred his personal health on several accounts.

  Mike Tyson was probably the only boxer who tasted so many highs alongside tasting so many lows in his entire career. His career lows include: was convicted for rape; got disqualified for biting off a part of Holyfield’s (another boxer) ears; got his boxing license temporarily rescinded; was fined; sentenced to imprisonment; asked to perform community service; tested positive for banned substance and had to file for bankruptcy (in spite of earning more than $ 300 million during his career).

How would you perceive these two people’s career, who are still regarded as one of the best in their fields? One is only forced to think about the more glorious career they could have enjoyed had they not stooped so low in their lives.

Showcasing of Talent Requires no Age

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.”

–Mark Twain

What do you call Appa Sherpa whose love and appetite to conquer the highest peak, Mount Everest has increased with his growing age? A 50 plus Sherpa holds the record of conquering the Everest for the most number of times.

We often meet people who are capable of achieving a greater success but have never bothered to make it a reality as they perceive their advancing age to be a deterrent to their efforts. Age is not to be taken as a block to the road ahead. Age may or may not be a sound argument; it all depends upon how you perceive your age.

Look around, you will notice that there is hardly any area of work where advancing age has deterred anyone to enter or perform in that field. In fact, many aged people become more enthusiastic and command a refinement in their work with their each passing year. Derive an inspiration from them and go on to showcase your talent. But of course, you must be surely aware of your strengths and weaknesses before attempting anything new and big. The better is your interest in your life, the lesser you will feel of your mounting age.

When is Your Work Your Talent?

Your talent is your work but not all your work is your talent. Your work will qualify for talent only when you derive satisfaction out of it. It’s sad that many people die doing work which gave them money but not satisfaction. One cannot fail more greatly when one dies unsatisfied. Doing a work which satisfies us and suits our talent is what we should aim for. Without satisfaction, it’s natural not to be able to perform our optimum.

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”

–Buddha

Choose the work of your interest

A person puts in effort to find the work of his interest after which it becomes relatively easy for him to sail, whereas, the person who chooses the work not of his interest, has to work harder to continue maintaining his work. An uninterested work, unlike interested work, will not result in optimum output or achievement. The bottom line is, the lesser the talent and interest, the more the effort required to put in the work-life.

“That is happiness, to be dissolved into something complete and great.”