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Patience boy…patience.   

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I can see your jaw getting stiff…your breathing getting heavier…your chest heaving…your fists tightening up…your arms flexing…your nostrils flaring…your head beginning to ache.

But then I can also see what all is there to lose…what all is there to save…what is at stake.

So stay quiet. Just take a deep breath and swallow the ripples of irritation that you can feel rising towards throat. Start thinking about something else – anything – just don’t react.

I know it is tough. But you always had a chance to walk out of this, yet you chose to stay for reasons which will sound silly to someone else but are important to you.

I can feel that the force is strong enough to make you burst at the seams, but hold on. You have already put in the hard yards…now don’t ruin all the hard work that has gone into it.

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Patience boy…patience; not just because you can’t afford to fail, but also because…this too shall pass.

Absence of bad habits doesn’t make you good; it is the presence of good habits that makes you good!   

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I have seen people who wake up early, but don’t know how to utilize the extra hours they have earned by doing so; or people who never get late, but are seldom well-prepared; or people who don’t hurt anybody, but also can’t motivate anyone either; or people who don’t cut corners, but also can’t prioritize; or people who don’t have any addiction, but also don’t have any direction.

…and then, there are people for whom, all those sentences can be reversed.

Yes! It’s the ‘good’, and not the ‘not bad’, that decides how good you are. And don’t get me wrong! Of course, bad habits are bad; because they hurt the longevity of success and happiness. However, what’s wrong is ‘judging someone’s eligibility for success on the basis of their bad habits’.

So, to all those people who cringe every time they see a ‘morally incorrect’ or a ‘socially deviant’ person achieving success and happiness, I have a request…

“Stop sulking! Just remember, you see the dark spots of moon, because of the brightness it has”. 🙂

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And for those, who still didn’t get the point, here is one of my favorite Zen stories:

A Zen teacher partied with students – drinking sake (a type of alcohol) till late in the night – and then rose next morning before dawn. He got annoyed when students came late for Zazen (a type of meditation).

When students said that the sluggishness was because of the sake, the teacher snapped, “Sake is one thing, and Zazen is another! They have nothing to do with each other!”

🙂 🙂 🙂

Keep increasing the radius of your life. Yet keep yourself not at the circumference but at the centre.    

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We met after years. Our paths had crossed during a course he took from us. Since then, he has come a long way in life, and that too against odds. So there was a lot to talk about.

He talked about the package and the perks, the clients and the connections, the travels and the triumphs, and the brands and the bravado. And then, when I was about to leave, he said “Any words of wisdom Sir?” I looked at him and said “You seriously want to have some?” He said “Yes! Absolutely”

I said “Look I am proud of what you have achieved. You have done a lot for yourself…

…but look at what you have done to yourself!

You look weary, restless… and uneasy – as if something inside you is ticking all the time. You keep glancing at the mobile without any need to do so. You haven’t sat in any one position for more than a minute. You are finding it hard to stick to any one thread of discussion for long. You keep leaving your sentences incomplete and keep throwing ‘wherein’, ‘so as to’, ‘what I mean is that’ in between. And then there are far more cringes and contemptuous one-sided smiles than usual…

…look at what you have done to yourself lad”.

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He knew exactly what I was talking about. And if I had any doubt then it was dispelled by his moist eyes. And as I got up, I said…

…“Go on my boy! You have created a successful life. Now…build a Successful YOU”.

“The experiences that you choose make you a more successful person…and the experiences that you don’t choose make you a more interesting person”.    

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Most of the successful people are pretty boring. The reason is that in the pursuit of their success they become quite self-conscious – more guarded about themselves. On the other hand, the essential quality for being ‘interesting’ is the ability to take oneself lightly and to remain a little ‘wide-eyed’ about one’s success.

But the problem is that these successful people have been so obsessed with traits like ‘focus’, ‘determination’ and ‘discipline’ that they have been regulating the scope of their experiences – keeping it strictly around their choices.

And then there are people who know that their success has been an outcome of many variables ‘beyond their influence’ that came together just at the right time. They also worked hard, and continue to do so. But they remain a bit playful about their life. So they keep looking for and forward-to new experiences, with uncertain outcomes.

In the process, such people ‘learn humility to stay unaffected’ and ‘earn anecdotes to outlast the dessert at a dinner’.    

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In other words, keep becoming successful…but do stay interesting. 🙂