VALUE ADDITION

We all want success. Success comes from growth and development and growth and development is achieved by learning. Learning can be only in three areas: knowledge, skill & attitude. We have to keep on learning more and doing more and better in this life so that we are not stagnant. Just as stagnant water gathers moss, we as human beings also become inactive and inert, when we are not learning. Whatever we might have learnt and did could be good but is not enough. We have to keep on learning more and doing more and better to justify our continued existence on this earth.

The process of learning more and doing more and better is called value addition. Value addition makes us valuable. We play many roles in life .We are brothers or sisters, we are sons or daughters, we are parents, we are neighbors, we are citizens of our country, we are associates, colleagues or bosses at work and above all we are human beings. The purpose of life is to have a life with purpose and our purpose is to be effective in all the roles of life. How valuable we are in each role is not decided by us but is dependent on the perception about me by the person with whom we are playing that role e.g. how good a son or daughter we are will be better known by what our parents feel about us. Thus how much valuable we are can not be decided by us and is not in our control. So what is in our control? Value addition i.e. learning more and doing more and better is entirely in my control. We will find our life short if we put in all our time and energy on making value addition to self.

Know Yourself

The journey of Success starts with knowing self, deciding where we wish to take our life and then living the journey. Knowing self means knowing our strengths, knowing areas where we need improvement (not weaknesses - admitting our weaknesses give us a reason not to take responsibility and improve), our capabilities, our potential and our beliefs and paradigms. We shall require constant introspection, analysis and adjustments on course of path taken to achieve aim/goals of our life. That is why it is important to know self before choosing the path on which one wishes to travel.

And how do you choose your path? Perhaps following poem will resolve your dilemma:

The Road Not Taken - Poet: Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Once we have known our self, decided the lakshya and taken a path, we have to move on the chosen course with positive belief and living every moment of the journey, i.e.with energy, passion and enthusiasm and happiness.