Get, Set and Go

How many of us were able to study the course of our choice in the institute of our preference? How many of us were able to get the job of our liking and were able to marry the sweet heart of ourdream?

Toastmaster of the day, President, fellow members and welcome guests a warm good evening to you all.

How many times in our life do we face such situations, not able to get what we aspirefor and still have to digest what we end up getting. Have we not faced this situation in our life often?Not getting the promotions we think we are worth for, not getting the increment and incentives we feel we are fit for and on a personal note not getting a vacation which is due for? How do we handle this kind of situations, what lessons we can learn from them?

The first and the foremost lesson we need to understand is these are all only temporary setbacks and not final failures. Life goes on and on and on, we also have totravel with the tides of times not getting struck by the smaller turbulences of life. Whatever seems to be biggest problem today looks totally insignificant in the course of time.  In life everything happens for a reason, probably for a much better reason which we are not in a position to understand in such critical times.

The second lesson we need to know is setbacks are a natural part of life; everyone has their own share of setbacks.I do not believe in giving examples from mythology and history but I would like to take the example of a person who lives among us. AmithabBatchan – the uncrowned monarch of Indian cinema. From such a height he fell down because of his commercial ventures – AmithabBactchan Corporation Ltd. He conducted the Miss World contest in India, invested heavily in film and other entertainment industries, which he supposed to have known as the back of his hand. He sustained huge loss and even his house in Malabar Hills, the costliest place in Mumbai was attached by the bankers for not paying the dues in time. Papers started writing the obituary of the emperor. But he did not accept his setbacks as final, be bounced back with the great game show KBC, started endorsing products and he is the living example of a person with unlimited positive attitude. Look around all great people irrespective of age and races, we end up seeing such strong people who swim against the tide and come out victorious.

Please note, I am not using the word failure, but consciously using the word setback because failure is never final till the time we decide to give one more try. It is not the question how many times we have fell down, but the matter is whether we were able to get up just one more time than the number of times we have fell down.

We all know that for all actions there is an equal and opposite reaction. But all actions can give only two reactions – either results as we aspire for or experience. It is never a negative result we get, but only a result for which we are not prepared for or not ready to accept as it is.

Good X Bad, Tall X Short, Beauty X Ugly, Intelligent X Dull, Honest X corrupt – life is full of duality, is it so? We all think that if we throw a stone on a mango tree, either we get a mango or the stone fell down – isn’t it? But trick of nature is it is never binary, but has a lot of surprise options in between. We think either it is black or white – that is our understanding. Because we have been trained to think in that way only, but lives comes always with a shade of grey.

Take example of throwing the stone in the mango tree. What may be the possible results –

We may get a mango as we aspire for, or we may get a bunch of mangoes which is a jackpot, or the stone will fall down without giving any results, or still can hit our own head, creating a problem or still hit the neighbor’s window glass or an another person’s head which is a disaster. Technically all this can happen – do you agree with me or not?

Every problem has a limited life span – look back at your own lives, have we not come across the problem. We are not stuck, live moves on and on and on. Keep moving. Staying static is a sin, like the world we need to be dynamic and keep moving ahead.

Every problem holds a positive possibility, only we need to have that kind of vision to see the hidden message. When everything seems to be lost, remember future that too a bright future remains.

Every problem will change us in numerous ways, only we need to be ready to come out of our comfort zone and ready to pay the price for change.   Keep on renewing yourself.

R        Review your past

E         Examine all the possibilities

N        Name the price you are willing to pay

E         Elect the best possibility no matter what the price

W        Work and wait

Friends, never surrender, never give up open up and see the world as it is and not as we like to see. I truly believe that all roads are paved with gold, only we need to find it and take our share of it.

Over to you toastmaster of the day.