As I listened to a YouTube clip, the below phrase brought me an awareness I never had before.
“Unless you are devoted to what you are doing, you will never do anything significant.”
Phew… really? I listened a few times to see if I caught it right… reality almost hit me. How many things do we do every day – without absolute devotion? In other words, how many things do we do, with half attention to it? We keep complaining as items are not happening as we expect. Is it because we do things half-hearted? Is this why most of our dreams are still dreams after so many years?
I used to get annoyed as my little child never seemed to acknowledge when called his name, first or second time. I asked him, ‘how come you don’t hear mommy calling you?’. He always answered, ‘mommy, I didn’t hear cos I was painting’. It took me some time to realize that it’s not that he is not giving me attention, but more of he is concentrating on what he was doing, unlike multitasking like we usually do. Maybe he was one person who had a fierce focus, and we lacked it. Today I think I understand he was focusing and devoted to his painting – so obviously, he couldn’t hear any surrounding noises.
How many times do we do things with half devotion? We tend to manage things. But we expect better results because we know we deserve it. We end up getting ordinary results. How many times did we settle for ordinary results when we expected extraordinary results? Did we ever realize why?
How many times are we being told when playing sport- to win by fighting against the other side? Crush them? Essentially you don’t have to fight them- you have to outdo them by paying attention to how you play. You have to keep the ball in the court or push it to score a point. You don’t need to go head-on with them, trying to beat them. It would be best if you outdid them by playing and missing them.
The most significant players ran with the ball, while ordinary others will run in many directions. The most significant players worked on their skills continuously. Skill doesn’t come to you just because you wished for it. Or just because you desired it. It would help if you gained competency over time. You need to believe in yourself, and you need to waste a considerable amount of time to build and master your skill. It would help if you had a devotion to the commitment to master a skill.
There is enough medical evidence that if you are in a ‘pleasant, harmony state of mind, your body and mind works at their best capacity. If you can keep your positive energies of mind, body, emotional actions geared towards a cause you select, stay positive and believe that you will achieve it for a considerable time, it will become successful.
Our mind is a different ball game altogether. It generates thoughts, multiplies thoughts. It tends to multiply ideas when they are negative. It keeps adding to it when it’s negative. It speculates on its own, the worse, keep multiplying the thought generation.
Robin Sharma, in his book ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari’ states,
“In the fable, the garden is a symbol for the mind,” said Julian. “If you care for your mind, if you nurture it and if you cultivate it just like a fertile, rich garden, it will blossom far beyond your expectations. But if you let the weeds take root, lasting peace of mind and deep inner harmony will always elude you”.
“To live life to the fullest, you must stand guard at the gate of your garden and let only the very best information enter. You truly cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought—not even one. The most joyful, dynamic and contented people of this world are no different from you or me regarding their makeup. We are all flesh and bones. We all come from the same universal source. However, those who do more than exist, those who fan the flames of their human potential and truly savour the magical dance of life, do different things than those whose lives are ordinary. Foremost amongst the things they do is adopt a positive paradigm about their world and all that is in it.”
Now you can clearly understand why it is crucial to reduce the negative thoughts from our minds as much as possible. We have to treat our mind as a beautiful, well-kept garden, clean, nicely maintained, beautifully cut and grown.
If you become unnecessarily emotional, it will reduce your body and mind’s fundamental efficiency and effectiveness. It will just become a dream, a wish and never materialize.
Hence,
Keep your mind as fresh and cheerful as it is.
Put the thoughts concerning what you want to achieve. Let it multiply in studies. Devote to it. Don’t question or ask, ‘will it happen?’. It’s not for you to decide on this aspect. Just concentrate and devote yourself to doing the right things, believing that what you want will be achieved.
Hold your mind, body, intellect and emotions towards it unwavering for some time.
See how it slowly becomes a reality – step by step towards its manifestation!
