the Pursuit of Happyness - What do you want?

First of all I must congratulate Will Smith for his extraordinary performance in the movie. Secondly, it made to one of my favorite movies of all time.

The movie is not just about everyday struggle of a common man.It's about pursuing somebody's own goal so strongly and persistently that it finally becomes impossible even for God to hold the success back. Brilliant thought!!! "Success is all about Persistence". Not everybody could really rise to the occastion. Many people would still follow a mediocre approach in life, would accept the defeat and crib about their condition. It requires a great willpower and strength of a character to get what you want in life.

Another point is also worth noting in the movie which is commonly known as Murphy's law: " When the going is bad, you end up facing all bad things". To put it in another way, if you are not prepared for the worst, better don't expect the best to happen. The law just helps you to understand if you really have the guts to get the best in life.

Most of all set our goals like: "I want to become a CEO/Doctor/Architect etc etc". But point is how many of us really rise to the occasion to become successful in life. And if at all we become successful, are we happy with that? The hero in this movie had a very simple goal in life: "To make a good living for his wife and kid so that his family can have a happy time like others." That's why probably the movie is named as pursuit of happiness. In the pursuit of his goal, he ended up working harder to succeed in the brokerage firm. There is a saying: "If you want to succeed, you better try harder than the hardest in that field.". Whenever he managed to sell one of his scanners(remember he was originally a sales man!!!), he would enjoy the most with his family. They would go to the best hotel, have best food, etc etc. It's like: "Don't crib, be happy with whatever you have, try more in future, but don't get bogged down by thinking about the future".

The movie ends with he being selected for the job in the brokerage firm. But wait! do you know what happened next? He finally went on and became owner of a brokerage firm. He eventually sold it out for some multimillion dollar deal. Try to see through the lines now. His goal was never to be owner of such a firm. He was just interested in keeping his family happy. But the motivation was so strong that it pushed him to realize his actual capabilities in life. Way to go!!!

Now do you know: What you want in life ???

Swimming, Tennis & Guitar - No matter how much I try...

I have been under coaching in Tennis over 1 year, I learnt swimming some time back and now I am learning Guitar. Well on face of it it looks kewl. I try to ensure that I continue each one of them on a weekly basis. I am an over enthusiastic person when it comes to outdoor activities. To some extent I do well in them as well. But, wait! I don't want to write a blog on what I do and what I don't. Rather I would like to tell something which I have learnt from each one of them.

Each of these requires concentration, mental strength and regular practice. But the right mix of these differs.

Tennis - "Mental Strength" is key here. Anytime I go for a service, I feel as if it won't go to other side (& it does). No matter how well your stamina is built, your mental strength could take you down to loose a game even against a rookie. Self Confidence and Regular Practice are inevitable to do well in Tennis.

Swimming - I am still wondering what my coach taught me. I am still an amateur. There is good amount of "tactics" involved in this game. On face of it it looks simple which actually is not. But once you get to know that tactics, you can swim for even 3km. No big deal. I am still fighting hard inside water.

Guitar - This is probably the toughest one for me. It's all about "concentration" and regular practice. I find it really tough to hold on to my concentration on the tune. But it's fun. Once you know it, nothing like it. You enjoy playing the tune again and again.

But at end of the day, I enjoy all of them.

No Place for Complacency

I saw on news paper today that my favorite player is unable to accept the reality.

I wish I could have made him read my blogs which are mostly devoted to him. At least my name would have been there on news paper by now (Instead of Greg Chappel)……

The point is very simple: For 17 years, I have hardly seen instances where big guns in Cricket have really shown guts to criticize him. Even if he plays badly, they would say “that was just too good a ball to play”. How stupid is that. You are unnecessarily making a person too much complacent of himself and giving him room for failure in future. Now we see the consequences. A player with close to zero confidence and an attitude which is way beyond my comprehension.

My take away is:

“When you grow in a world of complacency with nobody around to criticize, you tend to become superficial. Better have friends around you who point at your mistakes and create room for you to grow.“