Passionate Thinking, Listening, And Doing
We make a living by what we get,but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill
Once upon a time a very famous king told a sculptor that he wanted to see how an idol was made from stone. The sculptor started cutting stone from all sides right in fron of the king. After some time the king asked him why was he destroying the stone? “I had asked you to construct an idol and not to destroy the entire piece of stone”, he said. The sculptor replied politely, “Sir, I do not make idols. A beautiful idol is hidden inside this piece of stone. I just have to eliminate the unwanted part of the stone and subsequently the idol will emerge.”
In all my seminars the first question that I ask is—how does change happen? By listening or by thinking or by doing? Most of the participants say by doing. Let us make one thing clear—just by taking actions or making efforts we cannot achieve the target. It will be like a rocking chair. We will act but we will remain in the same place. If listening and thinking are not involved, then making all kinds of efforts will not fetch any results. There are many people who think a lot but never take any action. I have met many people in large cities who were aware of happenings of Russian and Chinese economy but were not aware of the basic needs of their own family. How does it help an individual and a country if this discussion has no impact on their decisions? Unless you keep on thinking, listening, and congruently taking actions, nothing willchange. For shaping your destiny you have to think, listen, and act congruently. Many people spend years in thinking and do not take any actions. Even in the corporate world many companies waste a lot of time and money on meetings but they fail to translate their efforts into reality. In one of my seminars, a very senior executive came up to me and asked, “Can you get me a job where there will be some work to do rather than just attending meetings?” Such people really want to work rather than waste time in gossiping in the name of meeting. Now the question is, who will decide what is opportunity? My father used to say that every individual gets a chance at least once to show his strengths. An opportunity is a chance unless it is converted into luck by some kind of strategy. It never happens unless we start with massive action. At times we have to eliminate something to achieve and shape our destiny. Just look at this story:
This is relevant to our lives also. We also have to weed out our negative thoughts to emerge as a better person. Acting without thinking does not take us to a respectable place. We all know of Michael Jackson, once a millionaire, who died under suspicious circumstances and did not have sufficient money to even support himself during the last days of his life. His health was failing because of his crippling addiction to pain killers and alcohol. Similarly, Mike Tyson, who was once the richest boxer, has no legendry lifestyle now. Many film stars have to resort to substance abuse just because their thinking and acting has no congruency. Once I saw on History Channel that John Belusi had to borrow money from his manager to buy drugs. He was a very successful person who died at a very early age because of drugs. I know many people who take drugs not to enjoy the pleasure, but to avoid pain and lose consciousness.
History is not a slave of any dynasty. History is always considered a respect for an individual. History is created by winning a battle, be it in the battlefield or in any aspect of life. A great thinker, listener and doer always creates history. We all know about the great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, J. F. Kennedy, Karl Marx, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Maharana Pratap, etc.All these persons created history by performing great acts. If you ever get a chance to visit Haldi Ghati in Rajasthan, the statues of Chetak and Maharana Pratap make it clear that history is not made just by winning the battle, history can also be created by making an honest attempt to win the battle.
Trait no. 2 on next Post By PS Rathore
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