Sunday 19 March 2017

Get Engaged to Your Dreams





Get Engaged to Your Dreams



Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam once said: “Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep.” When eyes are closed, dreams are mere illusions. They are made of unreal stuff. They are our disguised wish-fulfillment. The dreams which we see with our waking eyes are, in fact, our goal, aim or target. They are our vision. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty and truth of their dreams. If you have dreams in your eyes and courage in your heart, the sky is the limit for you. Chase your dreams. Go confidently and relentlessly in the direction of your dream. Like Arjuna, you have to hit the eye of the revolving fish. Patience, perseverance and perspiration are the three arrows in the quiver of a veteran archer. So dream big. See lofty dreams. We need dreamers. But we need such dreamers who are also doers. Dreams, if not translated into reality, will be mere castles in the air. Desiring to get the moon is one thing and getting the moon is another thing. Hence, give a strong foundation of hard work to your dream-building. Otherwise it will crumble like a house of cards with the slightest gust of wind. All dreamers are not achievers but all achievers are great dreamers. As you dream, so you become. Memories take us back. Dreams take us forward. Novelist Longston Hughes had this to say: “Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” So, love your dreams, get engaged to your dreams and marry your dreams.

Sunday 5 March 2017

Come Out of Your Comfort Zone


Come Out of Your Comfort Zone

Difficulties defeat the weak. The brave emerge stronger in odd circumstances. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said: “Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you. They come to help you to realize your hidden potential and power. Let difficulties know you too are difficult.” Paper boats drown; wooden boats sail. Adversity awakens you. It makes you realize your dormant strength. If difficulty is a mountain, you have to be Dasrath Manjhi. If it is a dancing floor, you have to be Sudha  Chandran. Books are replete with thousands of examples of people who have excelled in life despite great difficulties, disabilities and deformities. Like Shakespear’s Caesar, you have to proclaim: “Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he. We are two lions littered in one day and I the elder and more terrible.”

So, do not fear dangers and difficulties. They are like sand paper. They scratch you and hurt you. But, in the end, you get polished. Come out of your comfort zone, dare and defeat difficulties. The harder is the conflict, the more glorious is the triumph. There is an old saying that a pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity but an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. Easy times do not make you better. Hard times test your mettle. Pressure enhances your performance. “A diamond is merely a lump of coal that has transformed itself under pressure.” What a brilliant idea for achievers, winners and victors!