WE work best if we are reminded repeatedly about the transience of life. We are at our best if pushed against the wall. In other words, adversity is an opportunity as far as personal growth is concerned. Opportunities are like seeds. They sprout only on the soil that has been prepared properly. Soil that has been nicely dug up, fertilized and watered is the seeds' paradise for growth. So we have to be ready to receive opportunity whenever it knocks at our door. If we remain unprepared, we will miss it, because, as they say, opportunity only knocks once. With regard to the seed that sprouts, it has to lose its previous identity and become a young plant while the process of growth occurs. Similarly, while we grow in our life, we continuously shed our previous beliefs and forms. Our transformation leads to the consistency of our success. A flowing river is beautiful and alive. When the water is still as in a pond, it rots and stinks. It is, in other words, dead. If we feel dejected for any reason, we have to put ourselves to the following test. We should assume this is the last week of our life. Then we can easily decide upon priorities. The urgent and important things are to be done immediately. Urgent but not important work can be delegated. Not urgent but important tasks can be postponed to the near future. Not urgent and not important tasks can be ruled out completely. In this way, we will realize that the most taxing thoughts are often those of the last category - not urgent and not important – and these can be left to rest for the time being. Mark Twain once said: "I have gone through many disasters in my life, most of them never really happened!" Many a time our thought process converts itself into a giant devil that scares us. Instead we need to befriend ourselves. We are and will be our only true friend. No one else can be responsible for our own happiness. Only we can decide to be and remain inspired and in high spirits. Many times we feel disheartened by the attitude of our loved ones. Something that someone says irks us. It should be kept in mind that nobody and nothing outside us can keep us inspired always. The attitude of deriving solace from anything beyond us is that of a beggar, a parasite. Just think about all the things we see and hear. Are they being seen and heard outside of us? Not really. The voices that we hear on the phone are falling on our tympanic membranes. The signals are then transmitted to the brain and the higher centers therein analyze them and we derive meaning out of them. All of this process is occurring within us. Only the production of the sounds we hear is not in our control. So just control whatever is in our capacity and our response and our attitude to any irritable sound will change. We do not have to worry about the utterance of these words as this is not in our hands. But the processing of the information after our tympanic membranes sense them is under our control. If that is not possible then probably we have a problem - the problem of being a slave of our senses and not their master. At any moment of our life we confront two choices. Right now, we have the choice of being happy, inspired and outgoing or of feeling discouraged. Many a time it's not the discouragement that chooses us. It's we who choose discouragement. Whatever may happen the freedom of remaining calm and equal irrespective of the stimulus the outer world is providing us with remains with us. So why not choose to remain inspired? Happiness and remaining inspired are not always the ends of success. Many a time they are the means to obtaining and maintaining success. The world does not owe us anything so we should not expect it to give us inspiration in times of trouble. We were born in a world that existed before us and it will remain after we leave it. We are the only persons affected by and responsible for our own state of mind. Many labels will be thrown at us during our journey in the ocean of life. But we should believe only those that empower our conscience and reject anything abstract that creates a negative impression in our mind. The art of self-suggestion lies in willfully accepting only the thoughts that empower us as real and true. Anything that makes us weak is to be regarded as an illusion. The knack of keeping ourselves inspired is a continuous assertion of our goodness and excellence in our chosen field. Any negative or discouraging idea about us should be shunned. We should willfully accept the choice of our image in our mind as the most positive at any point of time. Anything at present that seems like taking us closer to our chosen goal is real. Anything that diverts us from the path of success is unreal. Work toward success with a real intention to embrace positivity and no one can stop it from coming. One antagonist of inspiration that is often ignored is anger. Anger like fear is one of the most crippling emotions. If anyone makes us angry, we should not respond for 24 hours. Most decisions taken when we are angry are later regretted. After 24 hours, we can usually find a creative solution to deal with the situation. While the immediate eye-for-an-eye reaction may seem satisfying temporarily, in the end we always regret it. And thus starts the vicious cycle of remorse and further dejection. The only solution is to have patience and not to decide upon anything when we are angry. The art of consistent success lies in patience. The amount of patience and persistence we can have in making our choices as to how to live in the present moment decides how inspired we are in the next moment and also in our remaining life.
