THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS IN LIFE

 

                  

Everybody wants to succeed in life. Isn’t it? Student life is said to be the prime time for learning, knowing and understanding many new things. It is also the time to be aware of fundamental values of life. It’s said that well begun is half done. Those students who start their studies well and continue to register regular improvements, it becomes easier for them to perform better in various examinations. Such students firmly believe in the saying that there is no shortcut to success. Hence, they study throughout the year as per the set daily routine and select authentic books for studies so as to have good fundamental knowledge of the subjects. Actually, there is no substitute for the basics.

Do all students follow this idea? 

No, many students don’t like to do this. In fact, they are not serious in the class. They even skip their class to enjoy the time otherwise. At home they unwillingly sit to study due to the pressure of their parents, but they remain mentally engaged somewhere else. So, there is no question of deriving any benefit out of such sittings at home or in the class. Yes, some of them start studying seriously at the eleventh hour when the examination dates are announced. Obviously, within a short period of time, it is not possible to study all the subjects of the syllabus reasonably well. As such, they are forced to depend on some notes prepared by others or on some shortcut ways to score good marks unsuccessfully. It is observed that such students depend on tuition and coaching classes too at the last moment.

Yes, by adopting shortcut methods, it may be possible to score good marks once or twice, if your luck favours. But surely, you can’t have command of the subjects. It being so, such students normally fail to compete in highly competitive national level examinations even after several attempts. 

It is also noticed that some people take unnecessary risks and do something wrong, knowingly or unknowingly by taking the shortcut route at the last moment in order to achieve success. If they get success by chance or due to good luck, they tend to follow this path which becomes their habit in due course of time. And everybody knows that habits die hard. It is needless to emphasise that such people are prone to fatal accidents and are found to be indulged in criminal acts of several kinds.

The pertinent question is why people adopt and practise this shortcut mentality? 

Experts say that those people who are comfort addicted, fun and party loving; they normally avoid doing hard work or taking requisite efforts. They are fearful of facing a problem. When caught doing things in a wrong way, they lie and make excuses of all kinds to befool the parents and law enforcing officials. If they succeed in this manipulative exercise, then they try to continue the same process. Undeniably, in this way their self-confidence dips low and they fail to accept the realities of life and move forward by taking right efforts. 

Just think, did anybody achieve big successes through shortcut methods? Maybe there are few exceptions, but there again the end result is the police custody and/or lots of pain and repentance. If that is so, what is the benefit in wasting your time in unproductive engagements and taking shortcuts which fail to bring expected or desired results? 

Seth Godin rightly says that those who spend most of their efforts in search of shortcuts are often the most disappointed and the least successful.

Precisely speaking, you can’t secure notable positive results through shortcuts. On the contrary, it is guaranteed that through sustained, sincere and suitable efforts you can achieve the desired goal sooner or later. Those people, who subscribe to this view and act accordingly, actually enjoy the taste of real success. They don’t believe in reaching to the top by using a lift or escalator. They reach that point step by step through hard work and honest means. 

The great and wise people of the world rightly say that the real achievers always choose the normal, yet difficult and long path to achieve their goal in order to test their patience, perseverance and the performing capacity and also to increase the level of sincerity and self-confidence. Obviously, they derive inspiration from people like Swami Vivekananda, Dr. C.V. Raman, Dhyan Chand and Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion.  (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)

 # Published in my Sunday Column of "Morning India" daily.                   

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