Three Words for Success

I have always wondered what makes people successful in their lives. Although most of us relate success with only our professional lives. But our lives are a mixture of personal and professional achievements as well as failures. Both of these aspects are so interrelated that it is impossible to prioritize one over the other. There is always a need to see and continuously evaluate an holistic views of our lives. 


All around us are people that we admire for their success. The success is not limited to monetary amounts but includes all possible roles we play during our lifetime. Success is about being a caring parent, an eager student, a loving son, a doting husband, a courteous clerk, a helpful manager, a great dancer, a passionate artist, a hard worker or just about anything we do in our lives. In all of these roles there a few similarities that stand out among other that all these "successful" people share.


So what do all of the successful people share among themselves? There are quite a few qualities but the following three stand out; viz:

• Objectives - All of the successful people have the ability to define the objectives. These are goals or missions which can be accomplished within a certain time frame and are achievable with the current set of resources. In operations research an objective function is a mathematical formulation of an outcome of decision(s) which accomplish something desired by a manager or a decision maker. But there always exists certain constraints which restrict the freedom of resources. But what has this to do with success? Well, it is the heart of success. We live in a very busy world where time is most desirable. We all wish we had more time in our lives. But it is the single most biggest constraint affecting our decisions. Various authors have written on time management skills. But we cannot increase a twenty four hour day by even one second. But we can make most of the time we have; can't we? Objectives help us to do that. We all begin to worry if we don't see a milestone on a freeway on a long journey. But the sight of the next milestone relaxes our mind and we enjoy the journey. This is the power of objective. Even actors are taught to have well described objectives while doing a scene. In one of the interviews actor William H. Macy calls for understanding the objective in it's purest form. Objectives help us to get through the day, the month, the year in the most efficient and relaxed fashion. Of course we can't always define objectives but we can certainly attempt to. Our attempts would help us keep prodding our brains till we get a better picture of our objectives.

• Vision - All of us have various objectives in our lives but usually one of the objective is dearest to us. It could be a dream we had all our lives and it begins to look achievable at certain point in our lifetime. This is the time we have to trust our instincts and take a chance on them. Personally the vision adapts as I mature during my life. The new experiences play an important role in defining a vision. In a further personal note vision is the longterm plan (or place?) which I want to achieve and is very near to my heart. Here too I am heavily influenced by the way an actor sees himself or herself while portraying a character. In one of the interview of Benicio Del Toro talked about the vision he had for the rather small character he played in The Usual Suspects. He talks about how he envisioned the character as a mixture of a Chinese/Harlem-bred/Mexican! Apart from being just a small time criminal he saw the character as a personality shaped by time. So vision gives a personality to our dream(s). It enables us to dream a dream. All successful people have a vision about themselves. It may be a ten year down the line or a retirement dream or a vision for next few months. But they do form a vision for themselves. Unless I cannot visualize what I want to do or the outcome of it I feel I still lack something somewhere.

• Humility - We all pray to God and deeply believe that he is omnipotent, omnipresent, creator & destroyer of worlds, ever gracious etc. And we all believe that we are weak, selfish, foolish and can die anytime. We all pray to Him and ask for his help & forgiveness. Despite being like a twig in a wind we are always filled with a feeling of self-importance in front of Him too. Jagadguru Kripalu Ji Maharaj says the first step for God's grace is surrendering to Him. The first step for surrender starts with दीनता  [deenta] which means humbleness. All of us live in a very selfish & dog-eat-dog world; it is true! But this is a feeling we should cultivate inside of us. It shouldn't be pretentious but a feeling where we feel humility inside us. It is an internal gesture towards God's grace. But what role does it play in our success? It keeps us in touch with our true-self. We all lose touch with ourselves during our life. We begin to think ourselves as rich, poor, stupid, smart, beautiful, ugly etc. But humility rescues us by getting in touch with our consciousness which in turn guides to what is good for us. It also leaves a room for further learning as we don't indulge in a false pride of knowledge, wealth etc we already have.