Quote Challenge- Day 1

I was nominated for 3 Day Quote Challenge more than a month ago. Thank you Gary for giving me a way to keep myself motivated to get back to my blog after being dormant for a while.

Rules of the Challenge:

• Post 1-3 quotes for three days
• Nominate three other wonderful bloggers to the challenge
• Thank your nominator

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of my all time favorites. This book never fails to raise my spirits after an unexpected failure or hopelessness. I planned on writing about few favorite lines from the book through the three day quote challenge.

Everybody has dreams and aspirations, but not everyone achieves them. What could make the difference? There might be ‘n’ number of factors that drive success/ failure, but the most important of them all lies within us. Our ‘psyche’ or the mind is the true culprit. As I keep citing at every opportunity possible about the greatness or the incompetency of the human mind, this is no different. This quote from the Alchemist refreshes on reminding us, that we may eventually become our own hindrance in our path to success.

The fear of failure is dangerous than the failure itself! When we have ambitions that appear or sound impossible, it is quite hard to progress towards achieving them with a doubtful, fearful mind. While the fear may be an outcome of evaluation of the risks involved, it can definitely make us lose the motivation to achieve. The ‘What-if’ phenomena never stops haunting us, if it is a dream involving lot of risks and liabilities. Plan B may not always be the solution, hence the fear of failure. But this fear impairs our true potential and holds us back from moving forward towards our goals.

“Do your duty and never bother about the result.”- Bhagawad Gita

One way to handle the fear of failure, is to follow the above principle as cited in the Bhagawad Gita, a sacred text for the Hindus. To achieve a goal, the right amount of hard work needs to be invested without thinking about the results. Thus diminishing the fear of failing, as we work without being conscious of the outcome. If the result is positive or a success- Well! The determination and hard work paid off! But if it is on the contrary, there is something lacking in the amount of work needed. Trying again with the same or much higher amount of work, is definitely hard for most of us to do. This is where the difference comes. Success does not come in a day, nor does failure last forever. Working and struggling each and every time with the same and escalating amount of motivation, irrespective of the result drives way to success eventually.

“I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”- Thomas Edison

Thank goodness, this great man, never feared failure! Else, we would’ve been living ignorantly in the dark!