Work to be you not to be someone else…..

You ask anyone irrespective of their age, stature or the job they are committed to, ‘How’s life going? and invariably the response, with minor variations here and there is ‘Going good, but busy, hardly getting anytime for self’. Why is it so? Are you busy because you want to be busy or is someone or something beyond your control keeping you busy? Are you busy because that is the only way it is supposed to be, or can what keeps you busy be handled in a different way to help you get more time for yourself? The problem is it is not anyone else but me who is keeping me busy because I believe that is the only way to achieve success.

It all starts from our homes and schools where it is ingrained in the young minds that ‘Nothing comes easy’; students must study hours to achieve a 90 plus score in exams. Children/ students are busy major part of the day with studies, homework, and revisions. Who has laid down this yardstick? Some incompetent teacher or a mediocre parent, I am sure, and all of us have followed it blindly over years.? Who are the teachers, and parents to decide how many hours a child must study to achieve what he/ she wants and who has decided getting above 90 % score to be the benchmark of doing success?

The love for late night work, running against time to complete assignments continues after the child passes out of the college and joins a job. Does all this guarantee success, a permanent place, a happy family, and peace of mind? Generally, not, as most are working late nights not because they want but to satisfy their bosses, or to be like their bosses. Working hard to be ‘you’ is well understood but losing sleep trying to be someone else is certainly unwarranted. Most do not have clearly defined goals and end up wasting time getting confused between the process and the desired end result. Life is not a hundred metre dash but a marathon to be run at one’s own pace; you cannot allow someone else to dictate your pace if you want to be the winner.

One got to decide his or her own goal of life, set the priorities and formulate the process to achieve it. The aim should be to outlast the competition with a good game plan rather than dashing hard to cross every other participant.

Everyone got to have his or her own definition of success; on this definition will depend the outcome of life. Do you relate success to money, appointment you hold, or do you relate it to leading a satisfied life which includes a reasonably good bank balance, peace of mind and a well- set family?

Set your own benchmark, losing one’s own identity in pursuit of an undefined goal is certainly not warranted, it is better to live to be ‘you’ then to die as a poor copy of someone else.