Road to Success

Life is full of question marks??? What profession should I take up? Will and How my business be successful? Should I get married, have family? Will I be able to pass the test? How to build and maintain relationships? And many more such questions keep going on and on in our mind. Many a times we don’t know how to be successful, how to proceed ahead in life; we are confused, we are not able to understand the problem and solution to it.

Today I am going to talk about success: success in profession, accomplishments in life by overcoming tough circumstances, having a successful career and being happy and triumphant.

I would like to begin with my story, different phases in my life where I had to choose, make a decision, overcome a situation etc.

My struggle began as a student, when I had to choose between different streams of courses; Selection of subject and college, post-graduation courses etc. After the student phase, came career life: which organisation to join, which post to take up, how to build and maintain professional relations, how to get promotions based on performance etc. Along with career, came a new phase in life: married life followed by motherhood, being in and occupied with home and family and plethora of work which was rather confusing, laborious and at times exhausting. At every step of life, I had to take decisions: tough or soft; but the most important thing is that till date I do not regret any of my decisions. For me this is a great achievement, not having regrets.

For me success is not only monetary, it also means being victorious in unfavourable circumstances, it also means being victorious in relationships, being triumphant in career, winning in life and not lamenting.

Apart from being focussed, committed, honest, having positive attitude, perseverance, there is one main key ingredient for successful life: Clarity of Mind. So, now I am going to share my formula of success:

• Clarity of thought with self-introspection: Indecisiveness and inability to reach to a conclusion is the biggest hurdle in being successful. The problem does not arise when there is only one option in hand, but in life usually there are multiple options available and you have to choose one. At this point, what is required is clarity of your mind. You can get this clarity by the process of elimination of possibilities (rule out possibilities that you are sure you will not go ahead with), clarity of thought by listening to your heart (it is very difficult but possible and very effective) and doing comparative analysis of the alternatives available.

It is very crucial that your mind is very clear on what you want to do, only then you can move ahead with the question; how to do. Only when sky is clear and ocean is calm, ships reach destination peacefully, similarly when our mind is calm and clear we can reach our destination.

• Unperturbed by an External influence: Sometimes external factors influence and effect your decision. As a person most of the times we have to make compromises and make a decision which is against our desire. Once a decision is made, if you keep looking back and keep thinking about other alternatives, then the end result will be vague and doubtful.

External factors like family and peer pressure, financial pressure, lack of resources creates chaos in mind and we don’t know how to proceed ahead. I would like to re-emphasise that clarity is required which can be achieved by the process of self-introspection (S), elimination (E), and comparative analysis (C) of the options available. I call this methodology as SEC. Undisturbed and untroubled mind leads to happiness and success.

• Having clutter-free mind: Have you realised what happens when a room is cluttered? To find a specific thing, it takes a long time and sometimes you have to return empty handed. Similarly, it is with our mind; having too many options running, having multiple thoughts going around clutters our mind and therefore reaching to a conclusion becomes very difficult. In such a situation, I suggest we should again follow SEC method (at least that’s what I do) for a successful outcome.

• Too many cooks spoil the broth: According to me, this phrase is perfect obstacle in the path to success. The reason I am saying this is because:

1. If you take too many suggestions in career, in business or in any other profession, it jumbles your mind leading to confusion and indecisiveness.
2. Too many people involved in the completion of a task leads to clashes and thus delay and uncertainty of the project.
3. In an unforeseen situation if you take too many opinions, it leads to disarrangement of thoughts and then again chaos in mind.

In no way I say that one should not take suggestions, the point I am making is: too many opinions leads to a mess in mind which hampers success. In my personal experience whenever I have taken multiple recommendations for any decision, I have been totally confused and a chaotic disordered mind cannot help in the right decision. It is better to take few opinions from the people you trust the most and follow the process of SEC.

In my view road to success with components like hard work, team work, perseverance and focus will only work when there is clarity of mind. Once the mind is free of ambiguity then only the above elements can function correctly and the outcome will be blissful, successful, victorious and unregretful life. The road can have twists and turns, blocks and bumps but the driver, your mind has to be clear.

NOW THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: WHAT IF THE DECISION TURNS OUT TO BE INCORRECT?

I would say it’s Okay, an incorrect decision is not equal to an unsuccessful life, but with perseverance and clarity of mind, one can choose a new path to success. After all, if you take a wrong turn, GPS does re-route you to a different path to your destination.