Have you ever wondered what resists you from attaining excellence? Have ever pondered about the reasons that keep you behind from others? We have certain emotional resistance like fear, unwillingness to take risk, excuses and blaming others, procrastination, living too much in comfort zones, lack of persistence, competitive spirit, positive attitude and not learning from the past mistakes. These resistances resist us from attaining excellence and achieving our goals.
A couple of weeks back I shared my desire to write an article to publish in the college bulletin to one of my friends. She intimated, “Yes it will be good if you write well but if you do not write well, it will be a shame.” Actually this is not the opinion that I expect from her. This opinion of her is a product of fear. Fear actually is a destroyer of our potential and ability. It is stunting. Different kinds of fear like fear of failure, unknown, being unprepared, rejection etc dominates us. Fear of failure is worse than failure itself.
We are so scared of making mistake(s) that we are not bold enough to take risk. The person who never attempts anything risky makes no mistakes. However not making an attempt is often a bigger mistake than making an attempt and failing. “Once a man asked a farmer if he had planted wheat for the season. The farmer replied, No. I was afraid it would not rain.The man asked, “Did you plant corn?” The farmer said, “No. I was afraid that insects would eat the corn.” Then the man asked, “What did you plant?” the farmer said, “Nothing. I placed it safe”. Don’t keep your potential and ability safe! Make use of it!
Unwillingness to accept failure and blame make us to have the habit of making excuses and blaming others for our failure and for our circumstances. We blame everything and everyone for where we are in life. When we failed, we lament, “Wish I had been taught well in the school by our teachers.” We dispraise that, “The school is weak” or regretted, “Wish I had little more time.” When we ponder upon all these, these are all an excuses. Excuses and blames are self built roadblocks that keep us from achieving what is possible. Procrastination is simply a delaying or postponing of the work that we need to do today for tomorrow. But the sad news I have for everyone is that, “Tomorrow never comes.” When we procrastinate, we put our vision, desires and goals on hold. We end up always waiting for tomorrow, nothing done today. We procrastinate only to regret later.
Living in comfort zone is very comfortable. We enjoy it very much. But we don’t realize that it is a stumbling block towards achieving success and goals. Our comfort zones may be Smartphone, Television, games etc.
Lack of persistence, competitive spirit, positive attitude and not learning from the past mistakes are also some of the factors that are holding us back.
Avoidance of the aforementioned points and doing contrary of them will help us to achieve excellence and succeed our goals.
M. Mashungmi Senapati District.
