“Success needs hard work? Or, success depends on luck?" These are your thoughts as you wait at the bus stop for the 9.00 a.m. bus on a Monday morning, all set for your job promotion interview. You are sharply dressed in a crisp white shirt with a tie on, and a pair of black trousers.

“Shall I be successful in the interview today? Will I get the promotion? What can I do to prove my worth?”

You notice a man with the magazine that has “Top 100 Most Influential People” as its lead story.

Will this prompt you to think deeper?

Success, for you, at that moment would be equal to getting the promotion.

However, success is not the matter of one moment. It needs investment in the form of diligence, the way a seed needs constant nurture to grow into a tree.

Think of an individual who is successful according to you, and notice their traits. Do they respond to your question confidently or do they fumble? Do they seem passionate about their life, or do they complain? There are a few traits that are common across all successful individuals:

1. Learn to appreciate yourself and the universe!

What we sow, so shall we reap! This is a universal law known to everyone. Whatever we give to the universe comes back to us in equal proportion.

An animal trapped in a mirror box growls at his own reflection, thinking it to be another animal. Its scorn comes back to it from all sides, multifold. The universe is no different to a mirror box. Learn to appreciate the way you are and learn to respect others.

You decide the way the world treats you!

An individual who understands this law is bound to succeed in life.

2. Open up your mind, be receptive towards others’ views, and take risks!

Listen carefully what people have to offer. The stereotype of staying aloof in order to focus on career and be successful has not led to much success in the real world.

Today, we constantly gather information, but once our minds are full – we stop listening, our mind gets saturated and we suffer from brain fog. It is important for us to empty our minds to enhance creativity. Adequate amount of sleep is one way of providing rest to a tired mind.

Our life revolves around the beliefs and ideas we inculcate. However, being dismissive to new ideas and the risks they bring along is not a good sign.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook once remarked, “…the only strategy guaranteed to fail is not taking risks!”

You need to gear up to take risks in order to grow in life. Fear of stagnancy is much higher than the fear of loss in successful people!

Listen to understand, to gain knowledge, and to achieve wisdom.

3. Focus on daily, short term goals! Start small, and scale them higher with discipline!

Think of your life as a Kids Bank Account. You save little by little hoping to draw a fat saving amount in the future. Focusing on daily goals and working towards them opens the gateway for greater success in life.

However, if you fail in some instances, this should not pull you down. It is immensely important to remain motivated on a regular basis. Remind yourself of your goal every time you seem to lag behind. Action aligned to discipline gives results.

Every day should end analyzing your highs and lows during the day. Achieving daily targets provides the push to move forward towards the larger goal. Spending some time meditating on yourself and seeking some ‘me time’ on a daily basis is a habit to be developed for achieving greater heights.

4. Stay in the present , discarding the junk from the past! Accept your failure, forgive yourself, learn and move on!

When was the last time you felt you’ve conquered the world? Do you remember the feeling of that extreme happiness?

Remember your high points in life and strive every moment to feel the same way. Focusing constantly on aligning yourself to positivity is a way of life for successful people.

Be a wise judge of what to keep and what to discard from past memories, and keep moving ahead in life. Failures are memories to learn from. No one has ever grown in life if he or she decides to stagnate.

As Winston Churchill says “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm…”, accept, forgive yourself, learn and move on!

An eagle can foresee a storm. Instead of hiding away, it flies to a high point, sets its wings in such a way that the winds lift it higher than the storm itself.

Failures are the storms in your life, above which, a successful individual soars like an eagle!

Success in life mandatorily needs clarity of vision, intention and dedication. Elon Musk, CEO of automobile giant Tesla Motors, has a mission to enable global automobile transition towards sustainable energy. Despite numerous challenges, he has begun to live his vision. His mission resonates with the universe, and hence possesses utmost potential for success!

Every successful individual has stories that are stepping stones to his success!

When are you planning to begin writing your own story?

If you want to understand how and where to start, let’s have a conversation.

You are the autobiographer – Create your success story and as you do so, Stay Healthy and Stress-free!

Success, what is it? There is a lot of discussion on the internet about how to succeed in life and what are the key steps that need to be followed to achieve everything that our hearts desire in terms of fame, wealth and glory. Have we ever wondered, what exactly are our dreams, and what exactly does our heart desire? Do we know ourselves well before we embark on this trip towards success?

The famous Greek philosopher Socratesonce said, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom”.

It is important for us to realize that knowing ourselves does not necessarily mean knowing our inner selves. The body and the mind are designed to work in collaboration, and hence, knowledge about the mind is exceedingly related to knowledge about the body.

Success Is Knowing Our Body:

Change is inevitable with growing age. Respecting such transformations in your body and keeping a check on your energy levels is important for your inner as well as outer self to function properly.

Let me tell you certain simple questions we should constantly ask ourselves to keep our lives on track and enjoy success at every venture.

1. How are my eating habits? Am I eating wise?

In our hearts, we know which foods suit us. Does the food we eat make us lethargic for the day or does it give us adequate energy? Shouldn’t you avoid a heavy dinner in case you have to go for a run early in the morning the next day? Our experiences have guided us enough about what is healthy and unhealthy for our bodies.

Since each one of our selves is different, there is no one but ourselves who can prioritize our health and keep our eating habits in place.

2. How much rest does my body need?

You might sleep for six hours and feel active, but your friend might need at least eight hours of sleep to get back on track.

We need to figure out how much sleep our body requires, while making sure we do not over-sleep, since the latter not only delays our productivity, but also sends the wrong signal to our brain which in turn affects our body clock.

Do not let your brain make a fool out of you!

3. What kind of physical activity is necessary for my body?

As I mentioned in my previous blog on the importance of exercise in our lives where in the past, my high-pressure job at a bank had gifted me a truck load of stress and extra 15 kgs of weight. I did not realize the importance of exercising for my body until I met a friend who played squash. I started playing the game and cycling on a daily basis, when my physical condition began to improve and I began to enjoy my life! My body needed this kind of physical activity.

Run, stretch out, for your body needs you as much as you need your body!

Success Is Knowing Our Mind And Changing Your Mindset:

Are you extremely irritable? Do you feel angered at even the slightest of traffic on the roads in the morning, or at a tiny inconvenience? How do you tackle negative situations?

As I began my journey of self-transformation, I came across questions about myself at the very first step. I was asked by my mentors, as to what are my strengths and my weaknesses, because until I knew my weaknesses, how could I begin working upon them? Through analyzing my daily routine, and keeping a check on my actions, I began to figure out my high as well as low points. Exercising had become my high point, and stress was my primary weakness!

1. Evaluating your Strengths:

Instances where you feel a rush through your gut and a desire to scream out, ‘this is my moment!’ are those highs you need to live for. You are either born with certain strengths or you choose to inculcate them in the course of your life. It may be the god-gift of a good voice, a knack of delivering a speech on the stage, the trick of making a buyer fall in love with your product, your way of handling stressful situations, your goodwill towards others or physical fitness! Your strength is what keeps you in a high life condition. You need to recognize and cherish your strength and not let any external force doubt your qualities.

Learn to appreciate yourself because it is a pillar for building self-confidence!

2. Evaluating your Weaknesses:

‘I know I can’t handle this situation well. I think it is best for me to escape this kind of stress!’ Do you get such thoughts often? Such a thought may seem extremely negative; however, not realizing where you lack is often worse. An escape in the correct manner is never a negative trait. Your weaknesses are situations where you stoop down to a low life condition, blaming yourself and the others. Best to know your enemy well before you jump into the war zone!

Plan your days in a manner to work towards changing your lows into your highs! This is the best possible way to lead your life!

Richard Bach’s famously illustrated novella ‘Johnathan Livingston Seagull’ tells the life of Johnathan, an ordinary Seagull who goes out of its way to  know more about its desires and ambitions, to learn the mechanics of flight, when his elders always believed that seagulls can never be champions of flight! Johnathan succeeds when he decides to step out of preconceptions and work hard on itself!

Why waste time on the outer world when you can spend time on yourselves, constructively?

When do you plan on working for a healthy physical as well as mental life-state?

If you want to understand how and where to start, let’s have a conversation.

Think about this – introspect and make that resolve and enjoy success. As you exercise this resolve, Stay Healthy & Stress-free!!

Have you ever stopped and wondered how many conflicting thoughts you deal with every day? You want to:

Finish an important report for your office  OR Go for your exercise OR Watch your favourite TV show  OR Finish some house chore...

Then you decide to settle for watching TV.

At times, you may want to finish some plumbing activity at home but suddenly talking to a friend or watching soccer becomes more important.

You will notice a pattern: Most often you chose a ‘less’ important work.

It is almost like you have two personalities. There is a part in you that wants to proceed as per your beliefs and then there is this other part which asks you to go against these beliefs. It is like if you have Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, both in you.

Two or more conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time creates tension. This tension is directly proportional to the:

1. Importance or attachment to the subject or event
2. The degree of the opposition of your conflicting thought and belief
3. Difficulty to resolve the conflict of thought

Let us look at some real-life situations to understand this a bit more.

Let us say, you are married, and you strongly believe in the institution of marriage. However, you get attracted towards another person in your office then this will create a lot of stress in you, as your belief in the institution of marriage is strong and getting attracted to another person is totally contradicting this belief (nearly a 180-degree turn). As you cannot avoid this person in the office, the chances to resolve this conflict is a challenge. This can result in the failure of your marriage.

Students who know that this is the right time to study but waste it in video games, chats etc. will be a victim of these conflicting thoughts.

You want to quit smoking or control eating fatty foods, but you do exactly the opposite because of your conflicting thoughts.

There will be many instances when you set out to achieve something but fail because of the wrong choices you made. In these cases, you have been a victim of conflicting thoughts.

So, conflict of thoughts is one of the biggest reasons for the failures you have faced since your childhood till now.

Now, how to control your conflicting thoughts?

Awareness development towards that aspect of your life is the only way to resolve the conflict. If you want something in your life, you need to:

1. Be aware of ‘how passionately you desire’ it: Strong willingness to achieve something is the first step towards avoiding conflicting thoughts and takes you closer to success. This is also useful in overriding other conflicting thoughts.
2. Be aware of ‘how much you are ready to change or transform’ for it: This is another aspect you need to be ready for before you start a new endeavour. Every new achievement in your life changes or transforms you. The more significant the achievement, higher is the change or transformation in you. So, you should be ready for changes in your life otherwise this will create conflict in your thoughts and result in failure.
3. Be aware of the process: You need to be aware of the process to achieve what you want. This will help you in your success.
4. Ready to Learn: New endeavours will bring you the possibility where you will need to learn new things and now that you are ready to change, you will need to be ready to learn. Learning brings growth and change.
5. Accept the results: With the approach, you have taken, you need to be very much aware of the shape and form in which your results will appear. You must accept your results as they come, as the process and effort have been done by you. Sometimes your mind dreams of a result without considering the process you have followed, or the detours you have taken in the process. So, accepting the results paves the way for future success.

There was a Fakir (wandering saint) in a city and he was known to be a God-realized soul. There was a man named Nitin who always asked this fakir “When am I going to see God?” or “Show me God please”.

One day the fakir was going to take his bath when Nitin crossed his path and asked the same old question, “Please show me, God”.

The fakir smiled and said, “Come, I will show you, God, today.” Nitin was caught by surprise, but he became excited with the thought of seeing God. He followed the Fakir to the river when the faqir asked him to take a dip in its waters. As Nitin took a dip, the fakir held Nitin’s head and neck with both hands and forced him to stay underwater. Nitin’s first thought was that this might be the process, but when he realized that the fakir is not going to let him come out of the water, he started to struggle with the fakir, so he could come out for some air. After a lot of struggle, the fakir released Nitin and allowed him to take some deep breaths.

Once Nitin felt better, the fakir asked, “How do you feel?”

Nitin got very angry, “Is this a joke? I almost died.”

The fakir asked again, “Answer my question. How did you feel underwater?”

Nitin said, “What do you expect? I felt I would die of suffocation.”

The fakir smiled and said, “This is the kind of desperation you should feel till you see God. A desperate passion, a longing, a sole aim that consumes you day and night. Your mind should not have any conflicting thoughts about other priorities in life. Your focus should be clear. And for this, you need high levels of awareness.”

So, in a nutshell, to avoid failure due to conflicting thoughts you need to be aware of:

1. What it takes to become successful
2. The changes or transformation it brings
3. Learnings it brings in your life
4. Results it can bring to you

Once you commit to the above, you will never face conflicting thoughts on your path to success.

See you next week. Till then, Stay Aware, Stay Healthy and Stress-free!!