A New Year Gift from me!

Happy New Year!

It is that time of the year again, when we find time to wish the long forgotten friends and potential friends alike! It is also the time when we form new resolutions, to be forgotten soon in many cases.

I wish all my readers a very healthy, peaceful, happy and contended year ahead!  

I have stopped making New Year resolutions since long.  Instead, I just remind me my commitment to certain core principles that I follow in my life, and reaffirm my gratitude to the wise ones (in most cases unknown) who gave me those pearls of wisdom to be adopted in life.

These pearls of wisdom have stood by me and guided me all through the tribulations and celebrations. Some of them are with me for years, and one just got added in the last week. Most of these pearls have changed shape from the original, and someone who is already familiar with might find them not matching the original ones. My apologies to the creators, but this is the way they got etched in my mind!

On this New Year, let me gift these pearls to you:

 v  Diamond is just another piece of coal that stood well, under pressure!

What better words can motivate us to withstand all the pressures that this life offers to us so that we can excel like diamonds, in whatever that we undertake! It also helps us in making an informed choice, whether we want to undergo all the pressures and become diamonds or just relax and be contended with being coal. After all, diamonds can’t replace coals in what they do!

 v  Never sell your eyes to buy a painting, howsoever beautiful it may be!

There are many beautiful paintings that keep tempting us in our lives. We do get attracted to some of them at some stage of our life. It is only natural to get so attracted. However, should we sell our eyes to buy them and make them our own? Isn’t the answer only too obvious? The success is in identifying what is core to us and holding on to it, even while facing the highest temptations in our lives. If we keep this simple point in our mind, then the life becomes much less complicated.

 

 v  Two men looked out of prison bars; one saw the mud, other saw stars!

Even in the worst of situations, this great saying helps me keep my perspective right. It is not the situation per se but the way we prefer to look at it. We can lament being an Indian living in the current India by citing various negatives of our nation, yet we have so many factors that we can be proud of about this great country. What we choose is more about us than about the country, or any situation for that matter. Every situation presents an opportunity for us to grab and make use of. However, to make that happen we need to appreciate the opportunity, instead of wasting our energy in negative thoughts.

 v  Don’t try to fly even at the pinnacle of your success, for we shall still be humans!

In other words, no matter how big our success is we should still keep our feet to the ground. If we forget what we are and let any success get into our heads then, the only thing that is assured is our fall.

On this New Year, I leave these thoughts with you. You may adopt and use them in your life or just discard them like so many of those New Year resolutions. However, let me assure you from my own experience, internalizing these simple truths helps us to face life in a much more relaxed and contended manner.

Once again wishing you a great year ahead!