If there were No Pressures…
…I would have definitely pursued my passion in life, but it could not become possible as I sacrificed myself on the altar of responsibility!!!

By Jyoti K. Singh
Every individual is quite different from the other and so is his/her style of living. Like people’s nature and behaviors vary from one another so do their ways of living. There exist lot many modes of living but the two major ones are – ‘Living by doing SOMETHING’ and ‘Living by doing something we LOVE.’ Now, literally speaking, these two ways have just a difference of two words yet these little two words have the mettle of transforming one’s life for better.

Ask yourself WHY
Most of you are startled every morning by the alarm clock for getting up and going to the college. Now, if I were to question you - why do you do that; the responses would be such that can be broadly categorised into two categories. One major school of thought would opine – we do because we are supposed to; whereas the other one would be – we love college so only we get up to reach it. Most surprisingly, in a sample size of 10,000 students, 90% favored the first option, that is, they just attended college for this is what they are supposed to do.

Does that sound absurd? Yes, to me too it did. But then I interpreted this only to be the major reason of ‘failure’ in life. Success is what every individual wants and strives hard to achieve. Yet most of us complain that ‘SUCCESS’ is what we are not cut out for. But, do we ever analyse our inclinations and ourselves? Probably no – and here is when we give full chance to success to be absconding us.

Analyse yourself
Let us try to do a self-analysis. Let us ask one very straightforward question to our own selves – ‘What do I like doing?’ or ‘What excites me’ or ‘What makes me happy?’ Now, record this answer with sheer honesty. Some of us may like drawing freehand, some may want to design a new brochure; some may want to become a research scholar, while some others may enjoy people management. The only need is to pen your thoughts down on this note and try to fuse your likes and dislikes both. This soul stirring exercise would surely help you to get a one liner – ‘I want to become a ...’ and this would appear like answering one of the most difficult questions in the world. Having researched about what is your passion in life, you can start following it and ‘Success’ would follow definitely.

Set SMALLER Targets
Having found your passion, the next step is a repetitive recall. Just write this one liner and paste it all over your room so that every nook and corner of your personal world reiterates your mission in life. Thereon, try enlisting small objectives that can help you achieve your bigger aim. Suppose, if you want to become a singer; enroll into a good music class, attend the class paying full attention, come back and practice the lessons taught, carry out repeated practice sessions and try to note daily improvements. Set small improvement targets and ensure that you achieve them on a daily basis. If you start playing the notes taught in the last class quite perfectly, this should be treated as a little victory and little victories like these when accumulated on a daily basis – constitute success. In simpler words, success is nothing but a progression of smaller conquests only.

Impediments
Now, there can be lots of hurdles or pressures in your way to following your passion. A married single bread earner for example cannot leave his job to pursue his passion for music owing to his familial obligations. But what can work wonders for such a person is effective time management, which would give him some extra time for his passion thereby making him happier and more content.
But this is easier said than done for there may be times when your zealous spirit would be overpowered by pangs of doubt. In such situations, seek refuge in a step-by-step approach. This can be understood more clearly by the following example. Suppose, you have to take an exam at Delhi and you reside in Greater Noida but do not know the means to reach and the path to be followed – just break down your journey. Both the starting point and the destination is what you know thoroughly. Hence, focus on shorter goals. Just try to figure out the next 500 meters drive, then another 700 meters, and so on. You will gradually be able to cover the intermediating points and the entire path will slowly become clear. Now, apply this simple logic to your life as well. You know your present situation and know what you want to achieve in future that is, your goal. Thus, just focus on the very next little victory and your road to success would start getting unfolded for success is nothing but a progressive comprehension of a laudable goal. So, break down the big puzzle into small blocks and try putting them together.

Goal Sharing
Sharing the goal of our life is a common notion for every student in particular and for every human being in general. And when we are about to reach the phase of goal realisation, it definitely gets shared with our family and/or friends. Everyone as a result offer his/her own set of suggestions/advices. What matters the most on the road to success is – how we perceive these suggestions for they are not always positive. People also give negative suggestions and the key to undaunted success typically lies in managing those negative thoughts to our benefit.

Handling Negativity
Positive feedback is a known harbinger of healthy change and long-lasting success. But the trick lies in handling the negative feedback positively. While a positive suggestion can heighten your level of confidence, a negative one may mar your undying enthusiasm thereby convincing you to put an end to your struggle towards your AIM. Therefore, it is quintessential to scrutinise the negative propositions fully and dismiss the ones that may cause unnecessary hurdles, keeping the rest that may come handy in sharpening the goal achievement process.

Just become a deaf frog to the whimsical negativity of the world if you really want to climb the huge wall of the well. Else you would also come tumbling down if you dare to hear comments like - “Oh, it is way too difficult for you”, “You can NEVER reach the top”, and/or “The height is too much to be climbed!”

Such pessimistic opinions may cast the most adverse effect upon you and can even snatch your most magnificent ideas away from you. They may blemish your very dear dreams – the dreams of your heart!

Call of Conscience
Although it is repeatedly mentioned in most of the motivational books that we must give a deaf ear to negative suggestions from other people but a lot many times our very own conscience starts playing havoc. The voice within us starts talking negative about our own dreams, and it is quite hard to become deaf here. What then?

Filter your thoughts
Putting a filter to your thought process implies thinking what we want and sacking out the unwanted thoughts. If we have a certain goal, we must think of thousands of ways to fulfill it rather than thinking about what all problems can pop up as every human being is what s/he thinks about. Buddha can be rightly quoted here –

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind”.

Not only Buddha but also many more philosophers and writers have similar thoughts on this subject. Henry Ford also once said, “Whether you believe you can or can’t, either way you are right.” Remember, each one of us has but one life. Therefore, it is up to us to decide the way we want to live it. Do we want to switch to ‘doing what we love’ or are we ready to develop a liking for ‘what we are supposed to do?’

“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally”
—David Frost