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| Only a shining light can guide over the path of a fulfilling life |
On a personal level, letter ‘P’ formed an instant bond by leading my elder sister's name, marking a spot for permanent affection since childhood. But, expressing the worth of this shining P is not
the primary aim of the article.
When I look at ‘P’,
I always think about the aspect of ‘personalized approach’. Each one of us is totally
different, while walking over our unique paths to reach the destination. Personalized approach- more or less represents the identity of a person, making him/her unique, yet
one in the society. We all have our own desires, when we think of what we want
in our lives.
No two individuals
can be alike in their course of life. Living as someone’s puppet or following someone’s
advice to the ‘T’ will only transform us into unhappy performances on stage. Everything
looks glamorous as long as we dance as per the expectations of those around. But,
once the sound of claps recede and the lights go off, the performance has to
cease.
If I make an attempt to extrapolate this
aspect in my life journey, I realize it is essential to think about our own
course under an independent light. It does not stand for selfishness or
loneliness. But instead it encourages an independent form of thinking for our
own good. An extremely thin line stands between ‘self-help’ and ‘selfish’,
making it necessary to spot the difference and work towards the goal of
happiness. At times, you must learn to shut the outside noise in order to trust
your own beliefs. So-called notions of ideal life can be traded for the raw
taste of hard work and happiness.
To help me in this
thought of ‘self’ over ‘people’ or ‘personal belief’ over ‘popular opinion’ are
four pillars – priorities, perspective, principles and passion. If you stop for
a while and reflect over their meanings, you will realize that each of these
four aspects are individual-based. Priorities, perspective, principles and
passions are as personal as your identity, making it impossible to copy from
others.
Every now and then,
these aspects may occupy certain common areas. For example, we receive the same
stock of principles from our parents and teachers or our perspective may be universally
blinded by certain unavoidable influences. But at the end of it all, such
common areas are extremely rare or last for a short while.
Each one of us must learn to place these
elements above everything else. Unless, we frame our priorities, choose our
perspective, stand by our principles and work towards our passion – we cannot expect
the joy of a fulfilling life. If you give away any of these aspects for peer
pressure or to be a 'people-pleaser', you will always find yourself drowned in a
pool of disappointment. As much as it is essential to help others, it is also
essential to help yourself. The greatest form of self-help is to be happy and
that can only come from the inner self.
Words of
contemplation are useless unless laced with a frill of practicality. This
brings me to the next section of my article - a practical guide to achieve each
of these four P’s.
1.
Priorities
Every person has
a different set of these. It changes as per age, but at every step along the
ladder, it touches our life in the strongest way. At some point, we all are
guilty of standardizing these priorities based on the acceptable norms of
society. We all tend to have standard calculation for our timeline, inviting
comparison and analysis with others of our age. It is good to motivate
ourselves towards next stages of life, but it is incorrect to do so against our
desires or under force.
-
Frame your goals
-
Supplement it with a time frame
-
Identify the resources needed for their
completion
-
Rank these priorities based on your capability,
purpose and output
-
Make realistic short-term goals and plans
-
Evaluate your performance at timely intervals to
gauge your progress
-
As long as you know it is good for your own
life, there is no point in justifying it to others. Pleasing everyone is not
part of your agenda, but fulfilling your dream definitely is.
2.
Perspective
It stands for how you look at the world or
how you perceive things. Simply put, it is the lens that guides your vision. I
cannot resist but quote the classic example of ‘glass half-empty or half-full’.
Our perspective leads us through the maze of uncertainties. We always have the
option of looking at failure and crying over it or using it an opportunity to help
ourselves. Perspective is unique to our beliefs and experiences. We cannot
enforce them over others, neither can we borrow them from people for a guaranteed
output.
-
Adopt a practical perspective
-
If the experience is good, draw happiness,
celebrate and move on
-
If the experience is undesirable, spot the errors
and stay away from those along the next time
-
Train your mind to find something good in every
situation
-
Quit the ‘I am hurt’ attitude but accept the ‘I
have learned’ mentality
3.
Principles
These are your ‘moral education’ lessons
put to test. As kids we have learned them at school. While at home, they reached
us in the form of good manners and habits. It is easy to stick to those
principles as a carefree child because elders do all the work. One mistake and
you are instantly reminded about it, leaving no scope for irreversible damage.
But the real challenge lies in following those principles at a later stage of
life, when we are on our own as responsible adults.
-
Stand by your words
-
Practice what you preach
-
There is no room for biasness or partiality when
it comes to principles
Have the courage to follow them
-
Do not violate your principles as per the
audience
-
4.
Passion
It is all about your interest, ambition,
dream and desire. No one can help you in your hunt for passion. Family, friends
and folks may be able to assist with their guidance, experiences and advice,
but they cannot possibly gift us a passion. Passion cannot be transferred from
one generation to another as a family heirloom. Neither can it be imitated from
someone else. It may not be possible to succeed in your passion right from day
1. You can always work on it as a side activity, before making it your
full-time job.
-
Passion is linked to joy, hence find your
calling
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Once the passion is identified, study about its
practicality
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Make efforts to go closer to it day by day
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Be ready to take a risk – passion is never easy
-
Gain skills to convert your passion to reality
-
Look at ways to improve, upgrade and bring some
changes to grow with time
Place these P’s at the center of
your course and see the difference. It is impossible to prove yourself to every
person around because we all use different yardsticks for measurement. Talking about
someone and doubting their passion is always easy because we tend to ace at
pointing fingers. But standing firm over our priorities, perspective, principles
and passion is the real task at hand.
P.S: This starts with a ‘P’ too! Anyways, there is no prize
for counting the number of P’s in this article, even if you are as tempted as I
am to do so right away!
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