The Big Secret to Success

Okay... So the title's probably really got your attention. Good. So let's head off to the big secret, shall we?
But before that:
"There's some good news and some bad news...
The bad news is that there is no good news."
(From the Beau Peep comic strip in The Times of India many months back)
Disappointing for sure, and here's another one:
"The big secret of success is that there's no secret."
(From my crazy mind that's no good at comic strips)

I haven't done anything exceptional or achieved anything wondrous in my life yet. So I am nobody to be giving out success gyaan. But I do have some thoughts on success that I'd like to share. And I hope that one day I will have moved from Dream to Action and be moving from bigger dreams to better action.
That said, let's get back to the big secret, or rather the absence of it.

In whatever little success I have achieved so far, I've realized that it really was a direct result of focus, commitment, and hard work. So, my point in this post is that success isn't really that complicated. We tend to have the expectation of a shortcut, and waste a lot of time trying to find it, whereas the real need is to spend our time doing what we instinctually know. Really, my belief is that the actual basics reside deep within us--again, focus, commitment, hard work, and sometimes practice. And a big one--being consistent around your goals. Along with these, embracing failure as just a step towards success is also crucial. This might go against what we think, but is still a major part of nearly every success story. Unless we look at failure as something that has been sent our way to inflame us even more, we cannot succeed. I hate to use the cliché, but "Failure is the stepping stone to success."
Back to the instincts then: For students nothing is as important as sticking to the right path, and incessantly contributing towards achieving their (academic and other) goals. For a salesperson, I guess the biggest thing is to show empathy for the customer's needs and think from their perspective. And in case of entrepreneurs/managers, probably the biggest tip would be to treat the employees well and try to create a balance between concern for productivity and concern for people.
Nothing new, right? See! That exactly is my point. So, the bottom-line really is that success--personal, organizational, at virtually any level--mostly comes as a direct result of the things we know are its ingredients. And if possible, we need to garnish the dish with smart work (versus hard work), productivity tips, and life hacks. These are supposed to help; they can hardly do much just by themselves.
I hope you find this post inspirational. Hit back with comments sharing your thoughts on this, and your own little formulas for success.

The Pleasure of Discipline

Every time I enter my room, a sign on the door stares me in the face and shouts out loud: "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret." The price of discipline, or rather the reluctance to pay it, is the reason why so many of us do not reach the heights of our potential. Discipline is often the difference between being successful and being regretful.
However, I think a more relevant concept is that of the pleasure of discipline. If that sounds foreign to you, you're not alone. The first time I developed this idea, it took some time to put pleasure and discipline together.

Before getting up this morning I'd been lounging around in bed for some minutes. Then I said to myself, "You have two choices--continue with the bad routine, or get the discipline juices flowing. Put mind over mattress." That was enough to propel me out of bed. I almost sleep-walked to my washroom, and happened to look into the mirror. What I saw was a sleepy face, with a slight hint of reluctance and irritation. I hardly paid any attention and took a shower--something that would ordinarily happen hours later. I cursed myself as the cool water made me shiver. That lasted a couple seconds, and after stepping out, I saw myself in the same mirror again. Spontaneously and impulsively I gave one of my biggest, brightest smiles. It was big and bright and most importantly a genuinely happy smile. I was so happy with myself, feeling utter delight at having snapped out of a bad habit (or at least having started the journey). And the happiness was anything but short-lived.
After getting ready, I went to the Gurdwara, took a walk around the block, and came back home, feeling great. The next few hours were enthusiastically productive--there was some revision to do before I wrote an important exam later in the morning--and I enjoyed the studying way more than ever. Not only that, the exam was great, and now, hours later, I'm still excited and happy (and it's rubbing off on the ones around me), not tired at all, and smiling days worth of smiles sitting here.

AND it doesn't get close to ending here either! Tomorrow morning when I think about how great today was, I'll have another reason to shoot out of bed and give myself the same experience all over again. Again, it doesn't end there. The chain reaction this day will hopefully initiate, will keep getting bigger and better and bring more happiness and contentment into my life!

The moral of the story: Once you overcome the initial resistance of trying out something new, or developing a new habit, or shedding an old one, you can't help thanking yourself for it. The circumstances we've always lived in have a way of trying to pull us back when we try to escape. It's painful to resist, but once you pay the price of discipline and overcome the force of gravity, the investment pays off and the profit is all yours--The Pleasure of Discipline.


* "Put mind over mattress." and "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret." are ideas from Robin Sharma. *