“Every child
comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”
Rabindranath Tagore
This quote by a great Indian poet shows you the power you
have within yourself to lead a life of Greatness. As children we are often
excited about life, constantly questioning beliefs, cheery, joyful and always
full of life. Everyday is a new beginning and a fresh start for a child. The
wonder that you see in a child’s eye about the infinite possibilities of the
day ahead is indeed magical.
Rabindranath Tagore
It is interesting to understand the working of a growing
child’s mind. As the child grows up he enters School. He now becomes a student.
Suddenly there are expectations of him to score well at school, to stand first
in class, to dress well, to eat well among many other great expectations. Children
may then start comparing themselves with other children and then competition
drives their behavior and actions and not love and passion. Some children then
become part of a race to be better than every other person they see in
everything that they do. This habit to become good at everything that we do
continues well into high school and college. But some other children, create
and carve out a path of their own, and focus on becoming better than themselves
by becoming an expert in only one thing they are truly passionate about. It is
the latter that the Student must choose to design the great life they
deserve to live
Now the next obvious question may be how do you
find out what you are passionate about or how do you find out the one single
thing you must become an expert in. To answer this we now take a journey back
to your childhood again. As you grew up where there certain things you would do
for long periods of time that you enjoyed thoroughly. Was there a time when you
were so indulged in what you were doing that hours and hours passed by, but you
never realized so. As you went to school, what would you spend most of your
free time doing. In short was there some skill or some task that you often did
as you grew up that you really enjoyed a lot.
This may take some time. Some children have
already figured out what they are passionate about. The others are still in
search for answers. But even if you have not yet found what you are passionate
about, it is important you keep looking and trying a variety of different
things until you find the answers you are looking for. You do this again not to
compete with anybody else, but you do this to find the best in yourself. This
is the secret of the most successful people in the world. They are not trying
to blend in with the crowd and be part of a rat race. Rather they are in search
of a life where they get the opportunity to do what they love and in the
process make the world a better place to be in. The best generosity you can
give to the world is to be the best you.
Once you have found out what you are passionate
about, you must then become so good at what you do that when people talk about
you and your passion, they say that this person is ‘Best in the World’ at what
he or she does. They say this not because you are constantly competing with
others but in turn because you are constantly raising your own standards. You
have now reached a point where your goals and aspirations have exceeded those
of many others in the same field. This has happened because you focused on
improving the on thing you can improve which is yourself.
The next step to finding the Greatness within is
to develop your passion so that you can use your passion to contribute
positively to the world. You can use this by applying the Greatness Mantra to
your life, which has three simple steps. The three simple steps are to model
the best, to read and learn, and finally to put in 10,000 hours of practice.
Firstly you have to model the best. Once you have
found out what you are passionate about, you find out who is the best in the
world at that task or skill. If it is cricket you study the lives and work of
the great cricketers of the world like Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane
Warne. If it is literature you are interested in, you study the work of
Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf and more. It is the same for
every other field. Here you try to understand what these individuals did right
from their childhood till the present to become so good at what they do. Again
here you are not competing with them, but rather by learning from their
experiences you are creating new high standards for yourself and this will help
you in finding the Greatness in yourself in your specific field. Thus focus on
learning from the best and using what they know to become not only the best in
your city or your country, but the best in the world.
Secondly you must read and learn. Now many fortunate
children get to choose courses at the high school and college level that
further develop their passions. Some are not so lucky but these children to
have the opportunity to work on their passion. Reading as many books on the
field as you can is one way. Anthony Robbins read over 700 books related to his field
before he became a world famous human potential expert and motivational
speaker. Thus find out what the best and most informative books in your field
are and read them. For a few other fields, where you need you need actual
practice like cricket and music, you can talk to fellow and accomplished
musicians who you have access to and learn from their experiences. Today we are
part of an Information Age and all the information you need to become an expert
in your field is available out there. You can attend seminars about your field,
research on the internet through blogs, websites and social networking, attend
talks by accomplished individuals in your field, or simply choose a course at
the high school or college level that would further develop your passion.
(Tony Robbins, the world famous human potential expert and speaker read 700 books related to his field in his youth)
Thirdly and most importantly is to put in your 10,000 hours
of practice in the field of your choice. Malcolm Gladwell in the book
‘Outliers: The Story of Success’ mentions two wonderful examples of this
10,000-hour rule. Bill gates created his first computer program at the age of
13 in 1968. He spent all his free time at the computer center in Washington in
1971. He also worked as a programmer during high school. Thus when he dropped
out of Harvard to create Microsoft he was way beyond his 10,000 hours of
practice in computer programming. The Beatles met in 1957. In 1960 they went to
Hamburg, Germany and played at clubs over there for four months for five hours
every day. For the next four years till 1964 they kept playing at various clubs
and their first burst of success came after 1,200 shows which is more than 10,000
hours of live musical performance.
In both these cases, the individuals that found the
greatness within them and created situations for themselves to spend 10,000 hours
perfecting their craft, before making it big in the world. This is what the
students must focus on. First to find what they are passionate about
and then focus on creating an environment that will allow them to practice and
master their craft for 10,000 hours.
(Individuals that applied the 10,000 hour rule to their lives)
(The Beatles putting in their 10,000 hours in Hamburg, Germany)
(Bill Gate never lost a chance to become better at programming and took every opportunity he got)
Do not change the world, just leave it a little better than
you found it. You can do this by becoming really good and passionate about
whatever you do and then finding out how you can use your skills for the
benefit of many others.
Remember that you matter, that you are special and that you
are a missing piece of a huge jigsaw puzzle of the world. Help yourself find
the Greatness you deserve in your life. Make the Greatness Mantra part of your
life and understand that if you love what you do and in the process help make
the world a better place to be in, you are Great.
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