“Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the
apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible
then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” ….Franz Kafka
We all get motivated….here and now...
Everyday the Newspaper is full of stories that inspire us such as….
Both sons of a
tea-seller from Jalandhar who cracked the IIT-JEE exams…
The lorry driver who
passed the Indian Administrative Service exams…
The paper boy from Bangalore who
passed the Common Admission Test to get into the IIM…
The daughter of a Mumbai
auto driver who topped the ICAI exam….
The gas station
attendant who went on to build the biggest refinery in the World…
And so on…
The world is not short of Motivational stories and inspirational figures…the
problem lies in converting them to change our own lives…When we read or come
across these inspirational stories , we get moved …our jaws drop…we are
astounded….and then….Voila !!! …. Nothing changes in our own self! The external inspirations wear out very soon…we
think they don’t apply to us as our situation is different….and soon we are
back to sulking at our situation…until of course we hear the next inspirational
story …..
I have been now through this “external motivation” stuff
countless times now…So I tried to figure out how to make inspiration stick !
That is when I came across James Clear . James Clear states that People who have accomplished things
in life , do not wait for inspiration to hit them daily….They just “turn up”
everyday ….
What does turning-up every day mean?
It means to have daily ritual(s) to ACT ….
to act …motivated or not….
to act…whether the day is warm or cold….
to act irrespective of whether the schedule for the day
ahead is light or hard….
As Mason Currey
explains in her book, Daily
Rituals , many of the world’s celebrated artists be it Franz Kafka, Maya Angelou, Pablo Picasso were no different from us…..they
simply figured out ways to overcome the daily obstacles …through simple habits
ranging from waking early to staying late …to have specified nap time….to have specific
creative or practice time…To reiterate, they never waited for inspiration ….they simply
turned up day after day…
So, dear Readers, the question before us is this … “are we
committed enough to indulge in a Daily ritual?”
The answer to that single question holds the key to whether we will
make ever make it to the newspaper headline !
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