Running a marathon race is tedious both from a physical and mental angle. Innumerable rough patches catch up with us during a marathon. Many get knocked down right at the early stages while some sustain the pain to reach the final line. Some restrain from participating in the marathon training itself for the fear of experiencing the pain the same causes. Some go ahead through the tough days keeping in mind the final moments post marathon. When we replace the words ‘marathon’ in the earlier lines with ‘Life’, we will realize the similarities between the two. One main differentiator is we have a pre marathon training session that makes us ready to run a successful Marathon. We don’t have any training for life.For most amongst us,life just unfolds in front of us,evading the unprepared mind.
We keep running in life for our sustenance. We keep running the race to be in line with the competition. We continue running the race to prove ourselves. We run to earn our bread and butter. Irrespective of the reason we run for, running remains the inevitable. We take along with us the mental and emotional aspects as we run the life’s race using our physical body. More than the physical fatigue we experience every now and then, the mental trauma we undergo in the process tarnishes us to a great extent. Still, we push ourselves for various reasons and continue running out of force or out of choice. The emotional wear and tear we experience on the way makes our mind yearn for relaxation which we deny to accept, most of the times. Some sort of inherent fear and restlessness pushes us through the track making us run a non-stop race in life. This is when, our physical body and mind starts resisting our activities, pulling us down with health issues. Health issues caused due to over exertion remains just physical for some. Many experience psychological damages related to mental health when the mind’s voice for rest is not heeded to on time.
Why going for your dreams all the time stress you out rather than motivating you?
Happiness in life is mostly dependent on our satisfaction levels. It is good to dream. It is all the more better to go in search of what you dreamt. Some of us may have dreams pertaining to money to build the biggest empire in the world. Some may dream about travelling around the globe to look at the beauty of many places. Many of us dream during the night time in our sleep. Such dreams get lost in the milky-way as soon as we open our eyes in the morning to run a fresh day. Only few among us dream during the day with their eyes wide open. They dream while moving forward physically and mentally towards the same. These are the dreams that act as fire in them pushing them to strive hard every passing moment. These are the dreams that disallow them to eat, sleep or lead a normal life, swallowing every bit of their life alive.
Having dreams that fuel your thirst for living a meaningful life is absolutely adorable. However, allowing the dreams to eat you makes it meaningless. When you come under the control of your dreams it tends to take you out of the realistic world making you travel in fantasy. This ultimately takes you nowhere since you have not taken conscious steps to move towards the same. When you have your dreams under your control, you find ways and means to achieve the same every passing moment. However, everything loses its meaning when you keep chasing your dreams and fail to live your life in the process. Life is for living. We are all born to live life to its fullest before we die. As much as death is inevitable, living life in a meaningful manner is too. When we fail to live life and keep chasing our dreams, our internal systems break down in fatigue and frustration. Just because it is our dream does not give our mind the power to sustain hardships and labour all the time. Our mind needs some relaxation every now and then. If it is made to think and act on things all the time, in undergoes the wear and tear any physical machinery experiences. It is during such times that chasing our dreams get pushed back in our priority list automatically by the mental fatigue we experience in a default manner.
Sometimes we don’t analyze our dreams logically and objectively,we don’t factor in the logistics requirement and time calculation that would be needed in realizing our dreams.Most of us don’t even have the persistence and tolerance to handle the life’s backfires & tests.It is very fascinating to note that all human beings dream of massive achievement and victory but very few objectively break their aim into small tasks and make a real timeline to achieve it.People forget very easily that its the daily discipline that matters,small little things that keeps you going inspite of any difficulties & discouragement.Developing such discipline and conviction is not an easy job,its a habit of the superior mind which is accessible to all but attained by handful.
Is there a need for a break in your schedule? If there is, how do you determine the time frame?
When you plan a schedule to achieve the invaluable dreams you want to achieve, allocate some time for a break in a pragmatic manner. Life is full of issues. We are surrounded by problems of varying sizes and magnitude at all points of time. Those among us who look at problems as challenges keep manoeuvring one after the other in a motivated manner. Those among us who see problems as hurdles stagnate back and become stinking water. Irrespective of whether we look at problems as challenges or hurdles, we are humans made of flesh and blood. Nature has created concepts like sleep and rest since these are one among the regular things like food that our physical body needs regularly. Sleep particularly is highly important since it rejuvenates our mind that feels exhausted over constant thinking about the different aspects of our life. Sleep provides energy to the physical body making it ready to fight the next battle with strength and valour. Having a break from our work schedule helps us enjoy the much needed relaxation that our body and mind yearns for.It has been shown by countless experiments that a break is required at appropriate times to maintain our concentration and focus levels in order to attain deep work in any field.
Each one of us is fighting our own battles constantly. Each one of us deserve some days where we are not confronted with problems of any sort. We need to experience some days in our life where we will not search for any solutions in a stressed out manner. Each one of us requires a break from our regular schedule to reinvent ourselves by breaking away from the clutches of monotony. Each one of us requires some break from our regular life to have a reflective conversation with ourselves. Our mind knows that we are our best friend and so our inner self constantly yearns for us to talk with the same. The child inside us is constantly waiting for us to bring it out and enjoy the moments filled with innocence and bliss. When we accept to pull out the child inside us and pamper the same, we will realize the real potential inside us which we have left untapped till that moment. This realization will be an astonishing one since this is the level of potential we had required for solving many of the problems we had encountered in life till then. This realization will implant in us the confidence that we are capable of winning this world come what may. Remember, to experience this realization, we need to take a break from our routine and run away to utopia that is out of the clutches of the real world.
We may wonder about the length of time we may require to achieve this realization. It is purely dependant on what your dream is all about and the time frame you have fixed yourself for achieving the same. When you have set yourself a realistic target to achieve your dream, you will have time to fuel your mind and soul which will complement your efforts to achieve the same.Remember to factor in the timeline all the promises you have made in all aspects of your life, be it your wife, children, parents, friends and other responsibilities.Everybody matters, everything matters.What if you were too busy to take care of your ailing father? What if too much family responsibilities affects your work and reputation?The answer to all these questions is balance in life. You have to find your own way in creating balance in your life. This is a personal quest and we leave it upon you to find your inner path.
Why should we divert our mind to entertainment for some time? Does it actually help in our productivity?
Most of us who are workaholics for our own reasons find virtue in working and consider taking rest as a vice. Taking rest idling away from being busy is considered as laziness and criminal wastage of time. This mindset disallows us to consider taking a break to provide rest for our physical and mental self. In reality, virtue is found both in work as well as in rest.
One area that relieves mind of all its problems giving it the aloofness it requires is entertainment. Diverting our mind towards entertainment helps it to unplug itself from the monotony. Entertainment has the capacity to switch on the reset button for the human mind. There were times when imaginations were the only options when someone thought about entertaining themselves. Today, we live in a technologically advanced world which makes us experience the overdose of information. Entertainment is not about understanding about existing things or knowing about new things. Entertainment is all about unplugging oneself off to a place where there is no information about anything we are concerned about. Real entertainment is something that must be a devil’s recommendation that would fetch us the best alternative to be away from our focus. Entertainment can be anything that takes you off your regular course distancing you away from the pains that your journey towards your dreams cause. When you learn to entertain yourself with what you like to feel the most, satisfying your full range of emotions, it will appear to be taking you away from your dreams. While this is true, this distancing away is only momentary in nature. The time gap involved will take you so near to your dreams all of a sudden since your productivity levels post the entertainment break would have increased manifolds . If we understand the meaning of productivity in the real sense of the word we will realize how important it is to relax ourselves physically and mentally.
Productivity in reality is actually not about the length of time we spend in activities but the extent of thoughtfulness you are able to invest in the same. It is imprudent if someone says that they will be more productive if there are more than twenty four hours in a day. This will actually ruin the mental and physical state to a great extent causing devastation in every aspect of life. Productivity, as per successful people, has never been an accident. For them, it was the result of their commitment to achieve through unperturbed concentration, focused planning and prudent decision making using the infinite intelligence. Our mind will be able to concentrate on necessary things without getting distracted on unwanted things only when we allow it to remain in a state of peace. It will be able to plan end to end in a focused manner only if it is not disturbed with fatigue and frustration. It will be able to identify the right decision for our situations only when we give it the space and time to chew all alternatives available in front of us. For all this, the mind requires a noiseless space out of the chaotic life situations .So a state of mental peace achieved by limited entertainment would definitely add to the productivity of any individual.Entertainment has to be limited or else you will fly in the world of fantasy and keep flying until you realize that people with hidden agenda’s are pulling the thread of your kite called life.
Is human experience and emotions only quantifiable in terms of success? Why and why not?
Human life is filled with a lot of falsity. What we think is true turns out to be false in reality. That which we drive away as falsity or valueless happens to be the truth and invaluable thing in life. Success, for instance, most of the time acts as failures. Success in reality is something we achieve putting in great deal of effort and time. Success is a destination we reach facing many kinds of hardships during the journey towards the same. Success is considered as the final stage of every effort, the end point. Students who get the top rank in a School or University is termed as successful. Businessmen who rank high in the list of richest entrepreneurs in the world are termed to be successful in their business. Politicians who hold high positions in their field are considered as successful in their field. However, when it boils down to individual lives, success is totally a different ball game.
Success must not be considered as an end point of efforts and time. True winning is success and it involves every step you take during the journey and not the final one alone. When someone succeeds in achieving their financial goal compromising on their values, the success is no more appreciable. When a student passes his college education with flying colours but by buying the question papers with money, it is rather loss of knowledge than success in gaining a degree. Success is not in dreaming about a thing but doing it practically in the manner you enjoy doing the same. Success lies in the journey rather than achieving what you dreamt of. Success is not the huge thing that others believed you to have achieved but the satisfaction you have derived all through your journey to achieve the same. Real success is when you feel the satisfaction about the time and efforts you have put in and not what others feel you have achieved.
The emotions you feel when you are termed as successful are not the end of the journey when you have loftier dreams to achieve. Lofty dreams do not allow you to sleep or eat till you are convinced that you have started the journey towards the same. It is you who have to feel convinced that tomorrow is certainly going to be better than your today and that you are capable of making this happen. When you have this faith in you, you will treat every problem that comes your way as a challenge finding ways to win over the same. You will travel from one failure to another towards success in a nonstop manner without losing an iota of enthusiasm. No emotion of yours will act as a hurdle on your journey towards success since you will decide when to be ruled by what emotion. This is when you will live life in its truest meaning experiencing only positivity all around you. You will feel success in every step you take rather than waiting for many years to taste the same. Every moment of your journey towards success will be an enriching experience enhancing your knowledge and grooming your personality in amazing ways. You will feel lost in search of time to celebrate the feeling of success you experience every passing moment. At the time when the whole world applauds you on your success, the secret smile at your face will be the expression of your inner self which knows that this was yet another one.
What do you actually mean by enjoying the journey or enjoying the process to your dreams?
Enjoying the journey towards success is more important than success itself. Many of us focus so strongly on the finish line all through our life that we fail to notice that our life is slipping from our hands every passing moment. Sacrificing our life to achieve success in our endeavours is not a prudent thing to do. While destination is important and probably our dream, what is the use when achieving the same results in missing life and all the wonderful things it offers to us for experience? This is what happens when we fail to enjoy our journey towards the final destination. Looking at it from another angle, enjoying the journey towards success is important since without this travel the final destination will remain unreachable and even if you reach at the destination somehow you will not have any good memories to remember and cherish, which might break your soul in the long run.
Learning to be grateful is one of the qualities that will help us enjoy the journey towards our dream destination. We must learn to feel proud of the distance we have travelled in the past overcoming all difficulties that came our way. If we keep worrying about the pot holes in our journey towards success, we will only be focusing on the same losing sight of the destination we must reach. Walk towards your destination one step at a time and relish every step you take as though it is the first one. For a child, any activity that he does gives him a new feeling and he reacts in a joyful mood. Every time he fails in an activity, he gets back with the same enthusiasm he exhibited the previous time. He refuses to give up till he is able to do what he wanted to do. This is the amazing quality that makes every child learn many basic things of life quicker than adults. As adults, we get mentally distracted from our goals and dreams. We call these distractions as problems of life. We remain stagnated in pot holes life creates in our journey towards success.
Like children, if we learn to enjoy every bit of life travelling in its own course, the final success will be just another one since we would have already tasted thousands of them during our journey towards the same. Living in the present is one of the most important things required to enjoy our journey towards success. We must learn to live in the present clearing all those beliefs that act as our mind blocks. While enjoying the current moment thoroughly, we must still have a stiff hold on our dreams that we aspire to achieve. With unshakeable trust in our capability to achieve the dreams and undaunted faith in the path we plan to travel, we must keep moving forward one step at a time towards our final destination. This will not only help us reach the final destination we planned for in appropriate time but also give us the satisfaction that the complete journey was an enjoyable one.
There is no doubt that life is a journey for all of us in which the final destination is the one we choose to reach. Each one of us will be forced to face problems during this journey. Remember, it is these problems that make our life interesting. Imagine a life without problems and it will be like eating the raw grass three times a day. The problems we face in life are the ones that teach us valuable lessons required to groom ourselves so we can taste success of highest levels. The struggles of our life make us strong to push ourselves towards our dreams with increased vigour. When we refuse to give up to the bitter experiences, such struggles make us go through, we remain positive at all points of time. This positivity will help us achieve what we wanted to achieve with an accelerated pace that we never anticipated from us. Feeling the journey with the same levels of passion you have for your ultimate destination is important. When you fail to enjoy your journey towards success, the success loses all its meaning. Shed all your concerns about reaching the destination you long for. Allow yourself to enjoy the journey thoroughly.
Written & edited by SiteMaster
