29th November 2010
I learned that the only way you're going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete, or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win. If you don't you won't.
Success is not an accident. It is a result of systematic application of efforts aimed towards a predetermined goal. Unless and until we accept this principle, we are not going to make it to our dream goal. We may have every resource we need, we may be very clear in our goal, we may be gifted with all the talents and skills required to reach our goal, we may have the support of all the people who will extend all the cooperation and we may be at the right time and place. But the most important question is: are we working hard enough?
If the answer to the above question is `no', we are not going to succeed, period!
To dream is a pleasant experience. But to work may not be pleasant. In fact hard work will be even more painful. Hard work involves determination, focus, self discipline, commitment and a willingness to sacrifice temporary comfort for long term happiness. Many people are not willing to do this and that is why many people are not succeeding. There is no substitute for hard work and it is a simple common sense. Sometime back I wrote about the concept of Deliberate Practice, which was the subject matter of a paper presentation by Dr. Anders Ericsson. This concept says that anyone can become a genius in a chosen field if one is prepared to put in 10, 000 hours of systematic practice in a period of 10 years. This amount of focussed work is not impossible, but very difficult. That is why very few people reach to the level of global excellence.
Before going to bed tonight, ask yourself a frank question and answer frankly: what's my chosen field, what's my dream goal? Am I working sufficiently hard at it?
N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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