Your best time is NOW…

“The person who gets ahead is the one who does more than is necessary – and keeps on doing it.”
– Orison Morden

Your best time is NOW….. Life will never be the same after this, in fact, it will be more generous to you if you choose the path that you actually satisfies you, makes you feel complete. Now days when I move around and meet people I see most of them are happy due to some or other reasons. Newspapers are filled with the board result for students scoring all time high in their board exams relishing the moment as this is the best time of their lives, young couples who lately got married this marriage season are savoring their new life. On the other hand those who are in business or politics are enjoying their success in the recent endeavors. That’s a part of life, some days are good and some are not so good. But the most important point is happiness should not be temporary, in fact, it should be a way of life. One should always be content with everyday life even when there is no big achievement or success in life because happiness based on materialistic things doesn’t last long. World is already full of rich and most unhappy people. However one should focus on growth, peace & a healthy lifestyle and do good deeds each day to live the best time of their life because what we focus on grows manifold. If we focus on emptiness we will invite more of that in our life on the other hand if we focus more on fulfillment we will invite more rejoice in our life.

This reminds me a story of a Rich and Unhappy King….

A King who was very rich and had everything he wanted in life except happiness. After the sadness of several years he asked a priest to help him becoming a happy person. On seeing him sad, after a lot of thinking the priest came with a solution, “My majesty, Look for a happy man who’s happy through and through, and exchange your shirt for his.” That same day the king sent his ambassadors to all part s of the world in search of the happy man. After searching a lot the King found one happy man and immediately asked for his shirt, then the man replied, “Yes, indeed, I have everything anybody could possibly want.  But at the same time I worry because I’ll have to die one day and leave it all.  I can’t sleep at night for worrying about that!” Again King had to face the same embarrassment and return home empty-handed. Finally one day he found one happy person, and the king was ecstatic to know that he couldn’t contain his happiness and the man, “My dear lad, I’ll give you whatever you want!  But give me . . . give me . . .”
“What, Majesty?”
“I’m longing for happiness since years. I’m almost dying living this life full of sadness!  Only you can save me.  Come here!”
The king grabbed him and started unbuttoning the youth’s jacket.  All of a sudden he stopped, and his arms fell to his sides.
The happy man wore no shirt.

In the end the King understood that real happiness is not in running after tangible things in life, it is about living in the PRESENT.

The average person’s life consists of twenty years of having his parents ask where he or she is going, a few decades of having a spouse ask the same question and at the end, the mourners wondering the same thing. There are many people who keep running after things and in doing so they forget to live in the moment, as the late Steve Jobs said, “The journey is the reward,” means one should enjoy each day of life even while pursuing his goals because there is no point reaching at the top of the mountain if you aren’t happy. Abandon yourself to destiny. As Martin Luther King.Jr. said, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. Every person needs a motivating force a reason to live a meaningful life where there is no Ego, no complains, no regrets, no looking back and lead a satisfactory life. To live such a life one should have a compelling career path, like the one chosen out of desire or passion not by accident, the one you really need like a drowning man longing for fresh air. It’s simple in life either you choose how to live or life will keep you inundated with not so important tasks.

Well if you study the life of the ultra rich people in the world you will find that each of them live every moment of life and for them today-present is the best time of their life. They all are early risers; they think how they can make today better than yesterday. They are undeterred and always get up early in the morning, perform their eccentric morning rituals and start their day with the most difficult task to accomplish first.

I am bewitched by their habits of being a person of discipline. If we engender those habits that the successful people have in our life then that will be a sure path to success.

Until the age of fifty, Narendra Modi had never contested even a municipal election and at 63, he became the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world. An unknown boy from the little town of Ranchi, MS Dhoni went on to lift the world cup as the captain of the Indian cricket team through hard work and perseverance. Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) became the youngest billionaire ever in 1987 at age 31. In 2008, Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) reached the youngest billionaire status at age 23.

In medical terms, it’s commonly said that tackling any health issue entails 75 percent correct diagnosis and 25 percent correct treatment. Likewise it is with life. Life gives you much more than you expect only if you know where you are heading and you stick to it for long. On the other hand, I have seen many people who wander from here to there and wait for the best time in their life when they will do that particular thing like buy movie tickets for their parents or go for a long weekend with their family, or live a happy life once they will be rich or in a good physical shape in their life but thinking that way can be deleterious to us. As Steve Jobs said, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Life will give you more and more once you start to feel you are on the right path, although there will be speed breakers, still you will be content in the end.

Five best ways to lead a Happy Life ahead:

1. Set Goals with time Limit : Most people make the mistake of setting goals without fixing the time limit on them and they re-read the same goals for years and keep complaining. But no goal on the earth can be accomplished unless it has certain time limit to achieve it.
2. Learn to say NO: One of the most important traits I learned from Steve Jobs (Apple Founder) is the art of saying NO to those things that don’t fit into his dreams. It helped him focus on his dreams and make Apple a household name in the world, this is why Apple has become the world’s No. 1 smartphone company.
3. Be Ultra-Confident: The reason I added Ultra before confidence is because most people confuse confidence with a daily dose, however, it’s not a pill that you have to gulp daily, it’s a discipline you have to engender instinctively as you breathe without being reminded.
4. Always be a Dreamer: Never stop dreaming, no matter what, because dreams become reality as Picasso observed, “Everything you can imagine is real.” Those who don’t dream don’t live a meaningful life, you can’t find a successful person who doesn’t believe in the power of dreams. Your compelling dreams are the motivating factor behind you which keep you pushing forward even when chips are down.
5. Be Healthy first: As Mahatma Gandhi correctly said, “Health is real wealth.” No man who is unfit can achieve his dreams in the world, all the super successful people know this and that’s why they are as conscious about their health as they are for anything else in this world. Without good health you can’t achieve after certain point in life.

I remember meeting a reputed retired Professor who recently underwent an open heart surgery, he reminisced, “When I was in my 30s I gave all the time in this world to my teaching, it gave me all the pleasure in life because I struggled hard for it and I did achieve what I wanted in life – handsome salary, nice family, great friends, helpful neighbors in fact everything except good health. It was until late 50s when my son took me to hospital in New Delhi for a routine checkup, as I was feeling pain in my chest. Doctor advised to undergo a surgery in a week otherwise it can turn into an terminal disease or may end up killing me. Therefore, I decided to go for it, and today I’m 62, I still feel the pain sometimes late night, I don’t know I’ll wake up tomorrow morning or not, now  I have learnt to live with it. I have no regrets in life but one thing I really regret is to not take my health seriously.”

When you base your life on principles, 99% of your decisions are already made. You never know when an opportunity will strike in front of you but the most important thing is that you must be ready to recognize it and go after it. As it is said, “Most people’s life regrets come from failing to act when they have an opportunity.” If you follow just those 5 points mentioned above you’ll surely be able to deal life opportunities with great zeal.

There are many people in this world who waste the most precious time of their life while chasing other things in life. In retrospect people come to know that while doing so they missed out on the most valuable things in life which they totally ignored, as they say that this very moment is a magical time which is never ever going to come back again, therefore, let’s not take this for granted. Let’s focus on the most positive things in our lives and make it a HAPPY LIFE because your best time is now. As the old Chinese Proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” BOOM…