11

A sincere journey towards the goal
is a greater reward than the goal itself

- Author-

The definition which the world follows for success is based on being better than the next man or an effort that earns money, fame or recognition or reaching a goal.

That is the accepted definition of success.

However, the real definition of success is that effort which helps us to acquire the ABILITY to sincerely work towards a goal.

Real success is the sincere and the whole hearted attempt to reach a goal. Reaching the goal itself is secondary.

The effort will surely make you a better person than what you were, before you made the effort. We would have gained in strength, both mentally and physically during the effort. We would have gained in character and become a better human being. And that is indeed true SUCCESS.

12

No one can hit you harder than life.
And you have to take the hit and
keep moving forward, that's
how winning is done


- Sylvester Stallone -
in Rocky Balboa

This is a quote from the movie Rocky Balboa starring Sylvester Stallone.

This is an iconic quote that pretty much sums up what life is all about.

In spite of all the differences amongst people in terms of social status, wealth, race and creed; life treats everyone the same.

Everyone will have their share of problems and challenges. And those who deal with them and move forward, life rewards them with success and happiness.

And those who avoid the challenges and problems, they end up with an average life. So, if we want to succeed in life, we have to take the hits and keep moving FORWARD. That is the only way to succeed in life.

13

Do not rush things that need time to grow

- Source: Internet -

We should understand the importance of time that is needed for any important change or growth to take place in our life.

There is no ‘get rich quick’ or ‘change overnight’ method that can radically transform our life in a short span of time.

So, it is important to cultivate patience and put in the hard work consistently. And if we keep it up, then the results will gradually start to show.

So, we should be patient before we see the desired results. Do not lose focus on hard work just because we do not see the results quickly.

14

Spirituality is not about God
It is about you

- Author -

The common understanding of spirituality is that it is all about God.

Though, that is true, the real spirituality has more to do with us than with God.

It is about how best we can transform ourselves so that we become eligible to realise the concept of God. It is about practicing what we preach and implementing the concepts that exist in the knowledge plane and convert it into experience.

Knowing is the first step. But becoming is the next step and that is where the real spirituality starts.

15

Embrace pain
that is the only way to grow

- Source: internet -

The building block of any growth process is pain. No growth is ever possible without experiencing pain.

All efforts to grow are bound to cause pain and we should embrace pain in order to grow. The old adage, “there is no gain without pain” also conveys the same spirit of this message.

So, be ready to accept pain while we are pursuing change and growth in our life.

16

Do not try to be better than others
Try to be better than yourself

- William Faulkner -

Faulkner shows us here that, if we have to compare with anyone, then it has to be with ourselves.

Many a times, people tend to do things with the intention of being better than others. While that attitude may help us to reach our goal, it breeds ego and arrogance, and sometimes even belittles the effort of the next man.

So, a better approach would be to make an effort to be better than ourselves, and thus improve ourselves. This leads to self-development and automatically gets us closer to our goals.

So, it is better to compare with oneself than with others.

17

You are free to choose,
but you are not free from the
consequence of your choice.

- Ezra Taft Benson -

Everybody have freedom in making our choices. But along with the freedom, comes the responsibility we have towards our choices.

Once we have made a choice, the choice can have a good or a bad consequence. And that is something we cannot avoid. So, be wise while choosing.

If we have to choose between a pleasant and a good thing, it is always better to go for the good things rather than the pleasant things.

The pleasant things will give short term pleasures that do not last. But the good things may be difficult initially but will bring lasting peace and happiness.

18

Success can make you blind,
since it hides all your flaws from your sight.

- Author -

This quote beautifully highlights the complacency that successful people develop.

Successful people tend to think that they are perfect and there is no more room for development. They think that they have achieved everything in life.

In reality, success is a significant but only a small part of life and it does not constitute the entire life of a human being.

Success is simply a milestone and not the destination. There are many more things to aspire for, and human beings should continue their growth even after they are successful in life.

19

Our habits either make us or break us
We become what we repeatedly do

- Sean Covey -

Sean Covey highlights the importance of our habits.

Every one of us pick up a lot of habits in our life. And most of the habits are picked up randomly and a very few habits are cultivated.

We tend to pick up the bad habits very easily and it is very difficult to get rid of them.

On the contrary, good habits are very difficult to cultivate. But the benefits we derive from good habits are immense.

So, it is important to stay away from bad habits and cultivate good habits in order to live a meaningful life.

20

Every problem is a gift
without problems, we would not grow

- Tony Robbins -

Tony Robbins hits the nail on its head by driving home the point that every problem has the potential to help us grow.

Even though problems drag us out of our comfort zone, they also provide a great opportunity to build our character and strength, and help us to grow into better human beings.

Any encounter with problems is a massive learning curve for us, and if we approach it right, the experience we derive from it will make us a much wiser person. Thus problems play a pivotal role in any human growth process.

With that said, let us take a short break from quotes and take a look at a few other topics.

How we judge a person

The first topic we will look at is, how we judge a person. Normally, when we get an opportunity to live with a person, we get to know a lot about the person and we can judge easily.

But, we can't do that with everyone, and we have to judge people at different occasions in our life. So, it is good to understand the methods that we adopt to judge a person.

The first method of judgement is based on the appearance of a person.

This type of judgement is incorrect ninety percent of the times. But we resort to this method, when we cannot adopt any other method.

The second method of judgement is based on the conversations with the person.

If we spend sufficient time conversing with a person, we will be able to judge a person fairly accurately. But this method is also correct only fifty percent of the times, since people who are very smart and intelligent can fool others with their conversations.

The third method is through intuition.

This method is useful since our gut feeling can guide us better than the first two methods on many occasions. But this method works well only for those who have a healthy body, mind and soul. Intuition works well only in those scenarios.

From a practical standpoint, it is probably a good idea to adopt a combination of methods.

So, it is better to judge a person based on conversations and our intuition. Then, our judgement will be correct in most of the cases.

And when it comes to trusting someone, there are again two ways to go about it.

First method is to trust the person until he proves that he cannot be trusted. This method works well with family members.

The second method is to trust someone only after they have proved that they can be trusted. This method works well with friends and other people.

The next topic is about the Character of man

Character

A human being can be born rich, or he can be born beautiful or he can be born with a lot of talents.

But no human being is born with a great character. Character is something that every human being has to build himself. That is the only thing that a soul can carry with it. None of the other things can the soul take with it.

So, every one of us has to work on building a good character, and that will be the greatest achievement for any human soul!

Those are some important topics that we should be aware of. Now let us return to more wonderful quotes.