Success and Achievements

In the recent past, one of my colleagues came to me with a heavy heart and complained that he did not get his due promotion. He also narrated that how one of his own junior got ahead of him in the hierarchy of his company. I just felt writing my personal views about our success efforts and the results we achieve.

"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated." - William James

We crave for success and appreciation. There may be only a few individuals who do not like progress and accolades. Probably they are the persons who renounced normal life. Here I have a doubt whether such a renunciation is not for self-satisfaction? So it is natural to wish for greatness in one's field of action. Greatness, I mean only satisfaction of achievement for self. I believe that if one's ego self is satisfied; one feels the feeling of great success.

Many a times, we feel we are more intelligent and more capable than somebody else who has gone much ahead of us in achievements than we thought. I am writing about genuine achievements. Let us not consider here some indirectly influenced success stories. May be we are intelligent. But when we introspect the situations and compare all our actions with the person who achieved success in that particular field of activity, I am sure you will understand and agree that we lacked focus in our actions. We might have learned so many other things not really necessary for that particular achievement. The successful person would have totally focused all his attention and efforts towards his goal and achievement. This is a major point of difference between an achiever and a non-achiever. Youngsters need to remember this and should focus totally towards their conceived goal.

I request all my friends to look back amongst their own friends for real achievements and their success stories. Sure, we will understand the above point well. By this understanding we will be able to focus our efforts on our goal to become an achiever and a satisfied person. It may be easy for me to suggest this to all of you. In fact I am a non-achiever. Why? I never focused my efforts towards a set goal. It's cheap and easy to learn from others’ experiences. 

You ask yourself, 'what is your goal'? I ask myself this question. True I am not able to bring about a concrete clear line of my goal. If you are able to spell something concrete and specific about this question, it is sure you are on the right line. I am doubtful; I presume most of us do not have clear-cut specific line of goal to pursue. Many may come out with some vague ideas like I want to become rich, great etc. But unless our richness/greatness aim is specified, we are very much in the wilderness. Chances of not achieving the desired level/position are more.

Success, achievement and ideas of greatness vary from person to person. But I feel personally that the reason for non-achievement to all is almost same. It is not from outside. The enemy for non-achievement is the cobweb of varied interests within our own minds. To achieve, it is important to filter out sundry interests tactfully to further the interests of main goal.

Let us see some great examples of exemplary achievements here, so that we all will be really motivated for focusing our efforts for our dream achievements.

1. Warren Buffet: One of the top richest person of the world today, focused all his efforts in a particular field, capital Market, and made all his wealth. Right from his school days, he developed a passion for investment related activities. He just thought of only investments and sharpened his intelligence only about investments. He became the world’s acclaimed investor. He has donated US$ 31 Billions for charity through Melinda Gates Foundation.

2. John Templeton: He passed away at the age of 95. He was admired as the “greatest stock picker of the century". Like Warren Buffet he had his own followers and also gave away most of his wealth for charity. At 24, he set off on a seven-month tour of 35 countries with fellow friend James Inkster. They slept on ship decks, ate vegetable, fruit and old bread to conserve their money. He learned his thrift lessons practically. Templeton attributed much of his success to his ability to maintain an elevated mood, avoid anxiety and stay disciplined.

These two examples are of material prosperity. Let us  take examples of achievers from any field of activity like Religion, Research, Politics, Sports, Service, or any career for that matter. We can easily identify their sincere efforts in the chosen field with complete focus on the line of goal.

For all our failures or non-achievement we have only ourselves to blame if we complain of opportunities and hurdles. Present environment in today's world is laden with plenty of opportunities to identify activities, which can make us happy and keep us move cheerfully. At the same time availability of more opportunities creates confusion in our mind and make us difficult to choose from the options available.

Some of us may be clearer about their goal and more comfortable in the pursuit of it. All of us need to develop a realistic sense of what we need to do to get what we want. It is more important to know how much focus and intensity we need to develop to the pursuit of our goal.

1. It is very important to identify one’s real interests early in life. I underline early in life. After some years of life, knowingly or unknowingly we get ourselves entangled with so many invited/uninvited problems of life and we find really difficult to shake off such problems to concentrate on a selected line of goal.

2. One should experiment with his idea and interests for a brief period to get a foothold on the issues. Need to be get convinced by self that the line of his selection enhances his level of involvement and suits his own temperament. The most important thing is that the selected activity should impart needed joyfulness to one’s craving spirits.

3. Once a person is sure about his selection of activity, he has to develop an inborn passion and fire within himself towards excelling in that field of activity. Just patiently one has to stay put with his sincere efforts on the line of his aim. The rest will follow naturally without asking for it. Success is there to enjoy it. Society also savors your benefits.

Great Career path and Life path. Cheers