“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
―Vivian Greene
LIFE- A very simple, short word of four letters. But the magnitude of this word is so vast that most of the people live their lives and then leave the world even without knowing the actual meaning of it. What is life? Is it all about spending time in hardship and despair, and heading towards the death, or just passing the days emerging in pure happiness, laughter and enjoyment? What if you frequently face various obstacles in almost every steps of your ways of life? Does that mean your life is garbage, or there is nothing to hope, to smile for?
No, never. Always remember, life is like a piano. Happiness, hope, love, success are the white keys on it whereas sorrows, sufferings, failure, hatred are the black ones. You just need to know how to manage the keys both black and white to create the most magical tune for yourself.
In life, everyone wants to reach the point of success of his goal. Goals can differ from person to person, but the elements needed to achieve the desired success are almost same for each case. Dream occupies the first position in the queue because if you don’t dream anything, you can gain nothing. Then you must have determination towards your goal, and hard work to reach the top. We should have a positive attitude towards the obstacles come in the way of our achieving goal. Besides, we obviously need some motivation and inspiration to push ourselves when we feel depressed.
Always remember, no matter what comes in the way of your achieving goal, never leave the path of your dream. You have to dream- that’s the first and most necessary condition of being successful. Don’t forget; success is never a self-invited guest. She will not visit you if you can’t allure her with the strength of your dream, determination, and hard work. Do whatever it needs to please her, one day she’ll be certainly in your door.
Always think positive. Positive thinking does never imply that you should have the attitude to think that there’s nothing negative in the world. All it means is to hold such a mentality that will bring out the good and positive things from every adverse situation. It’s the practice of leading our thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions affirmatively, optimistically.
There is a very well-known example of positive thinking: “Is the glass half empty or half full?” 1 This expression is usually used to test an individual’s point of view. The optimist people who see things positively answer “half full,” whereas the people with pessimistic and adverse attitude define the glass as “half empty.” And here lies the power of positive thinking. Positive minded people will find out the presence of ‘good,’ no matter how trivial, from any situation. They notice the world and life with the glasses of hope and optimism. On the other side, the negative minded people, finding no good and hope in their lives, plunge themselves into the ocean of darkness and despair.
Let me tell an interesting story named “Two Seeds”2….
“Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile soil.
The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me … I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring … I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”
And so she grew…
The second seed said, “Hmm. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts … what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”
And so she waited…
A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.”
As the story shows, thinking negatively can undoubtedly bring no good in anyone’s life. Negative thoughts just swallow all the right things, possibilities, hope, and happiness of our lives. Negative minded people can never make others and even themselves happy. Because in everything they just see ‘nothing.’
Being positive does not only enlighten our path of actions but also help lead a healthy life. According to the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking is linked to a wide range of health benefits including 3
- Longer life span
- Less stress
- Lower rates of depression
- Increased resistance to the common cold
- Better stress management and coping skills
- Lower risk of cardiovascular disease-related death
- Increased physical well-being
- Better psychological health
One study of 1,558 older adults found that positive thinking could also reduce frailty during old age.
By supporting positive attitude so strongly, I am not trying to establish that thinking positively will solve all the life’s problems. But it truly enhances the opportunity to succeed, increases the ability to fight the odds.
You Might Be Interested in Read: Famous Peoples’ Saying on Positive Thinking
At some points, it’s true, life makes us stand before such difficult situations that it becomes hard to hold the positive attitude. Even the most positive thinkers can be on the verge of losing hope, sometimes. But always remember, never dare to lose your hope. As long as you adhere to your hope, anything is possible. Hope has a great power to stimulate you from the within to drive yourself towards your goal. Whenever your mind tells ‘there’s no hope left,’ let your heart utters those inspiring words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” There always await a bright smiling day after the darkness of every night, no matter how long the night is, how immense the darkness is.
I do not deny the fact that sometimes the ups and downs of our lives are such terrible that all our hope, positive attitude and even dream seem just disappear. At these points, what we solely need is someone or something that can inspire us, can motivate us.
Though the best motivation comes from one’s within, sometimes the fear of failure makes us so numb that we are not enough to get rid of such situations. In these times, we need some positive people, some motivating words to stimulate our thoughts, push forward our will power and bring out the best of us.
I know a student, though not a dull one, couldn’t make the desired result in spite of all his hard works and determination. Repeated failures almost won to snatch away all his dreams. He lost his hope. Then one day one of his teachers came to his rescue. He did nothing but told him some motivating words, made him believe that he had the ability to make it. The teacher put his belief in him. The power of those words was such unbelievable that I was just amazed. The student started everything again with new hope, new determination, this time, stronger than before. Such efforts can never go in vain.
Don’t Forget to Check: Best Quotes on Inspiration by Famous People
Like motivation, inspiration is no less necessary to reach our goals. Sometimes we confuse the word ‘motivation’ with ‘inspiration’ though the two terms are not same in any way. Where ‘inspiration’ is a driving force, ‘motivation’ is a pulling force. As I mentioned earlier, motivation is an external force that pulls out our best action from our inside. On the other hand, inspiration is a process that stimulates our inner feelings, makes us think more deeply, more widely.
You might Consider having a look on The best Quotes of Motivation
Sometimes we lost the path of our destination perhaps out of failure, or despair, or weak willpower. Like motivation, inspiration can come forward to aid us here too. The inspiration can be in the form of any famous or ordinary people’s true life story, or shared experience, or quotes, etc. Can you remember the legendary story, “Robert the Bruce and the spider” a small spider inspired four where the defeated and exiled King Robert the Bruce? That little spider with its strong willing power and hard work kindled the light of inspiration in Robert’s heart, which helped him later to defeat his opponents and regain his kingdom.
Thus, where our dream, determination, positive thinking, hard work are not enough alone, we need some motivation and inspiration to speed up the process.
As I said in the very first paragraph of this piece of writing, the real magnitude of life is terrible to understand. We should never underestimate life, a truly magnificent gift by sinking ourselves into frustration and despair, by wasting it thinking ourselves worthless. Every life has a goal- either small or big. Try to set yours. While aiming at your goals never hold the misconception that you have to be incredibly wealthy, or extremely talented. Being successful does not mean you have to be wealthy or at the top position. Being successful means being happy fulfilling owns life goal, achieving what one’s heart wants, no matter what it is. Never bother about what negative people says. Live your life, stick to your dream, hold hope in your heart and move forward with strong determination and hard word, and be the king of your LIFE.
Notes:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
- Original Author/Source is unknown
- http://psychology.about.com/
- http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/