This article is influenced by the seminar on "How to Achieve Excellence" that was held in my college (D.J. Sanghvi College of Engineering),the seminar was conducted by Guru Gaur Gopal Das Ji an alumni of C.O.E.P. on August 25th 2015.
This is my own interpretation of what he told along with my own personal thoughts,your thoughts and interpretations may differ.
Everyone wishes to achieve perfection in something or other, perfection is what every human craves for and this thirst for perfection comes out of the desire to achieve 'something' which is reserved for the best of that field! That something is generally Money, fame or respect.
But the harsh truth is that no human being can achieve total perfection. No matter how much closer you may get to being perfect you will never get to touch it... Also there will always be someone else who might claim to be more closer to perfection( human perception and opinions being the factors varying the judgement), yet even he is away from it.
The secret is the 'something' that you wish for is not reserved for the perfect but for the excellent one!
Or relatively the best one..
And surprisingly excellence is what you end up with after the deadly chase for perfection!
If you want to maintain your position of being excellent at something do not quit chasing perfection once you are given the title of excellence because then after some time your excellence while fade away!
If you wish to achieve excellence for your whole lifetime keep running after perfection, the time you stop your journey towards perfection someone else will take away the claim of having achieved excellence.. Of course that is a personal opinion if one wants to continue on achieving excellence the entire life or just be happy having achieved it once :D
So now the question is how would one achieve excellence ?
According to the seminar i had attended the following are the steps to achieve excellence -
1. Be driven by a goal
2. Practice is the key
3. Be meticulous
4. Do not compare
5. Know that you have limited control
Most of you might be aware of these steps as they are quite obvious
The objective nature of this steps maybe the reason why people(myself included) fail notice them unless someone brings them to our attention!
Goal is what drives a human, a person might go insane if he does not have any aim to work after. I personally think that our goal is the thing that keeps us in our sane state!
The thing to talk here is that majority of us have a wrong idea to what a goal is
You might think that your goal is to top in exams,to get a job,to get a promotion or some such thing but they are just for short term and not the ultimate goal of your life. You can brand this things as objectives but not as a goal.
Well that does not mean you don't have a duty to fulfill those objectives, being in a civilized society fulfilling some of these objectives may actually bring you closer to your goal
So then what should be my goal?
It should be something huge, it should be something that makes you question yourself 'How the hell I'm supposed to achieve this!?' The thought of working after it should make you wake up in morning with a smile or sometimes even make you restless to sleep (that can be bad sometimes though).
It shouldn't be a goal just for the sake of keeping a goal, it should give you feels to achieve it badly.
I would say that having a goal is the criteria for achieving excellence, it's never like stumbling open something arbitrary and excelling it!
It can be something like doing bringing a change in the world(doesn't matter if it's small)!
Or it can be something like 'i want to be iron man' only its not fake goal and you are ready to work with devotion for it (if you think it's not achievable Google 'Elon Musk' )
A goal besides money, fame and respect that demands perfection.
No hard feelings if you fail achieving it, here efforts are the ones to be counted towards your excellence!
'Practice makes man perfect' is what you have heard and might have believed till now ,but now after reading this article you come to know that the saying should have been 'Practice makes man excellent'
Practice is just like sharpening a knife. It makes brain sharp and the improves speed along with reduction of errors in whatever we wish to excel.
It is like re-reading the same book just to discover something that we did not notice before.
Practice increases our knowledge and also assists us knowing how that knowledge can be applied in various instances
Do not misunderstand practice as the mugging up thing, your practice should include the so called exploring part!
Practice something that will make you achieve your goal,practice it so often that practicing it becomes a habit,and it becomes a part of your blood,it becomes your identity,it becomes the thing that defines you!
If you think that some person is God gifted and you won't be able to surpass him in that thing, then practice and watch the miracle happen
Never compare with others,comparing with others makes you lose focus of our own path. It leads to jealousy,ego,pride,envy,lust and other such qualities toxic to our mind's peace.
DO NOT mistake this thing as not learning from others who are best at something!
If someone is at the top of the list observe and learn how that person does it but do not get depressed at the fact that he is good and you are not!
Compare only with your own self
.
Believe it or not there exists some force beyond our control,it influences our every action. Call it luck or destiny.I don't think i need to give any instances about it,every one of us has experienced it some time or other.But do not let that depress you,keep moving ahead.Its life :)
So excellence is 99% perspiration and 1% luck
If you have fulfilled your part do not worry about the rest,its god's decision and believe me its always the best one in long run.
A bad luck will just get you down from 100% to a minimum of 90% ,but if you are below 90% then do not blame luck its your own fault.
Similarly if you are waiting that your good luck will grant you 90% while you are totally unprepared i believe that with your good luck at peak you will end up with 50% (Its all my personal opinion it can even be 36% :P)
This is my own interpretation of what he told along with my own personal thoughts,your thoughts and interpretations may differ.
Everyone wishes to achieve perfection in something or other, perfection is what every human craves for and this thirst for perfection comes out of the desire to achieve 'something' which is reserved for the best of that field! That something is generally Money, fame or respect.
But the harsh truth is that no human being can achieve total perfection. No matter how much closer you may get to being perfect you will never get to touch it... Also there will always be someone else who might claim to be more closer to perfection( human perception and opinions being the factors varying the judgement), yet even he is away from it.
The secret is the 'something' that you wish for is not reserved for the perfect but for the excellent one!
Or relatively the best one..
And surprisingly excellence is what you end up with after the deadly chase for perfection!
If you want to maintain your position of being excellent at something do not quit chasing perfection once you are given the title of excellence because then after some time your excellence while fade away!
If you wish to achieve excellence for your whole lifetime keep running after perfection, the time you stop your journey towards perfection someone else will take away the claim of having achieved excellence.. Of course that is a personal opinion if one wants to continue on achieving excellence the entire life or just be happy having achieved it once :D
So now the question is how would one achieve excellence ?
According to the seminar i had attended the following are the steps to achieve excellence -
1. Be driven by a goal
2. Practice is the key
3. Be meticulous
4. Do not compare
5. Know that you have limited control
Most of you might be aware of these steps as they are quite obvious
The objective nature of this steps maybe the reason why people(myself included) fail notice them unless someone brings them to our attention!
1. Be driven by a goal
Goal is what drives a human, a person might go insane if he does not have any aim to work after. I personally think that our goal is the thing that keeps us in our sane state!
The thing to talk here is that majority of us have a wrong idea to what a goal is
You might think that your goal is to top in exams,to get a job,to get a promotion or some such thing but they are just for short term and not the ultimate goal of your life. You can brand this things as objectives but not as a goal.
Well that does not mean you don't have a duty to fulfill those objectives, being in a civilized society fulfilling some of these objectives may actually bring you closer to your goal
So then what should be my goal?
It should be something huge, it should be something that makes you question yourself 'How the hell I'm supposed to achieve this!?' The thought of working after it should make you wake up in morning with a smile or sometimes even make you restless to sleep (that can be bad sometimes though).
It shouldn't be a goal just for the sake of keeping a goal, it should give you feels to achieve it badly.
I would say that having a goal is the criteria for achieving excellence, it's never like stumbling open something arbitrary and excelling it!
It can be something like doing bringing a change in the world(doesn't matter if it's small)!
Or it can be something like 'i want to be iron man' only its not fake goal and you are ready to work with devotion for it (if you think it's not achievable Google 'Elon Musk' )
A goal besides money, fame and respect that demands perfection.
No hard feelings if you fail achieving it, here efforts are the ones to be counted towards your excellence!
I would like to share a story:
A young man asked Socrates the secret to success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him towards the river. When the water got up to their neck, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socrates pulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. Socrates asked, ‘What did you want the most when you were there?” The boy replied, “Air.” Socrates said, “That is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it.” There is no other secret.
Moral of the story -A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results.
2.Practice is the key
'Practice makes man perfect' is what you have heard and might have believed till now ,but now after reading this article you come to know that the saying should have been 'Practice makes man excellent'
Practice is just like sharpening a knife. It makes brain sharp and the improves speed along with reduction of errors in whatever we wish to excel.
It is like re-reading the same book just to discover something that we did not notice before.
Practice increases our knowledge and also assists us knowing how that knowledge can be applied in various instances
Do not misunderstand practice as the mugging up thing, your practice should include the so called exploring part!
Practice something that will make you achieve your goal,practice it so often that practicing it becomes a habit,and it becomes a part of your blood,it becomes your identity,it becomes the thing that defines you!
If you think that some person is God gifted and you won't be able to surpass him in that thing, then practice and watch the miracle happen
3. Be meticulous
This is the step which we usually fail to notice and sometimes aren't even aware of.
The step of being meticulous is for setting our mentality and giving our consciousness the habit of being disciplined in some sense.
Being meticulous is what will step you above mediocre thinking
What exactly does being meticulous mean?
Being meticulous means paying attention to every smallest detail in every aspect of daily life be it dressing up or speaking or carrying out even any seemingly trivial job!
It should not be like no one is watching so why should i do that!
Because it's not the matter of impressing someone but changing the way you think, improving the way in which you behave, and work around with situations.
Meticulousness is simply the show of excellent detailing to everything you are involved with.
4.Do not compare
Never compare with others,comparing with others makes you lose focus of our own path. It leads to jealousy,ego,pride,envy,lust and other such qualities toxic to our mind's peace.
DO NOT mistake this thing as not learning from others who are best at something!
If someone is at the top of the list observe and learn how that person does it but do not get depressed at the fact that he is good and you are not!
Compare only with your own self
5.Know that you have limited control
Believe it or not there exists some force beyond our control,it influences our every action. Call it luck or destiny.I don't think i need to give any instances about it,every one of us has experienced it some time or other.But do not let that depress you,keep moving ahead.Its life :)
So excellence is 99% perspiration and 1% luck
If you have fulfilled your part do not worry about the rest,its god's decision and believe me its always the best one in long run.
A bad luck will just get you down from 100% to a minimum of 90% ,but if you are below 90% then do not blame luck its your own fault.
Similarly if you are waiting that your good luck will grant you 90% while you are totally unprepared i believe that with your good luck at peak you will end up with 50% (Its all my personal opinion it can even be 36% :P)
Conclusions-
Having a goal is criteria,practice does 99% of the thing,being meticulous and not comparing with others sets up a healthy mental environment,luck is the rest 1%
In the end being happy is what matters,so don't do anything with a frown on your face.
Reviews and your own thoughts are welcome!
Damn TRUE!
ReplyDeleteyep it is !
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