Anarchy to Monarchy

Earlier to the arrival of different types of bureaucracies and government systems in this world the world was divided into kingdoms which were ruled by different individual leaders. The ruler could either be a king or a queen. Different names were attributed to this ruler in different parts of the world. Every ruler was succeeded by his/her heir to the throne. It used to be a family affair of who would rule the kingdom and it was considered as the right that’s received in the blood directly from the God. In fact, the Monarch was considered as equivalent to the God. Such provinces which had a single ruler called as a Monarch ruling his subjects were known to follow the monarchy system of governance. Democracy or communism was not heard of in those days. Irrespective of whether the Monarch was good or bad everything in the state happened as per his orders and regulations. He was solely responsible for keeping up the well-being of his society. In case of battles or wars or unexpected death of the Monarch the next heir used to take the throne to make sure that there is always an authority that is ruling over the kingdom. In case of those situations when there would be no heir to take the Monarch’s position and the existing Monarch was dead there aroused the situation of Anarchy. Anarchy is a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems. As there was no single authority to take care of social harmony or justice evil people used to take advantage of such situations and loot the others. The neighbouring Monarchs saw this as the right time to launch their attack on the civilians and destroy the kingdom to conquer it. Absence of Monarchy used to give rise to such an Anarchy that would eventually destroy the existing civilization itself.

A leader is one who leads oneself and others just follow him. Running a kingdom or a state or a province or a country requires a leader to run it. If the leader is so mighty to be a Monarch to run an entire empire successfully well, then, definitely he must be planning and managing his time perfectly well in order to take care of every aspect of the kingdom really well. Not all of us might be such Monarchs to rule an entire state but each one of us is a Monarch of our own lives. We might not have the insurmountable responsibilities of running a big kingdom consisting of thousands of people and numerous challenges to deal with but each one of us have our own self to take care of. A Monarch might plan the expansion of his kingdom while each one of us needs to plan the growth of our education and career. A Monarch might plan projects to improve the lives of his subjects while we need to plan on how to increase our knowledge and wisdom and develop our skills and talents. A Monarch might plan on how to train his army to defend the country against external attacks and for launching war campaigns while we need to train ourselves both mentally and physically for self-defense and to face unexpected challenges. A Monarch might get busy planning the annual grand festival of his kingdom to entertain his people while each one of us also need to plan on how we would celebrate the special occasions of our lives.

With anarchy in place none of the above-mentioned things can happen in the kingdom. It’s a state of disorder where anything can happen and there is no one to stop the injustice caused to anyone. People suffer as they have no authority to go and seek help from. There is no punishment for criminals as there is no law and order system controller at all. Same shall become the case in our lives when we lose the authority over the time in our life. Losing authority over time means when we are unsure about what we are doing and its deadline. This is the state of Anarchy in our lives. You can find a lot of people around you living such lives. They are either moving through their work slowly or are spending away time as nothing is assigned to them or because they have finished their previous assignment. There are many such individuals who don’t plan what to do next. They just follow a routine of life of waking up in the morning, going to study place or work place because it has got fixed timings and passing time through the day with ongoing processes just waiting for the day to end and reach back their beds to sleep. Such people just wander through life as they don’t affix any goals for their lives. They have dreams but never make an action plan to achieve them within a prescribed time. Such people have differentiation between busy and free time. Their description of free time is the time when they don’t have any work. Only a person who hasn’t set high aspirations in life can get such free time. These are the facets of anarchy that result in a mediocre lifestyle which is not mediocre just in terms of money but mediocre in terms of zeal, happiness, fame, success and all other positive aspects of life.

If you have gone through or even felt any of the states spoken above then it’s time to make the shift from Anarchy to Monarchy. You have to bring back the ruler in you who shall decide the priorities of your life, plan your days, weeks, months and years, gather back your strengths and talents and make you work hard to achieve your goals and targets. Everyone has a Monarch inside them. The more respect you adore him with the better he shall plan and manage your time and help you lead a successful life. You should follow his orders once he has charted out the plan irrespective of what state of mind you’re in. If you disobey his plan he shall subside from his position automatically and Anarchy sets in your life and we better know the sad state of Anarchy in our lives. You become what you plan to become. You can plan voluntarily when you give the reigns of your life in the hands of the Monarch inside you else the environment around you has the capacity to make you feel that you are right by going as per the plan set by it which might not be what you want in your life. If you plan your next one year of life with complete clarity then you are on your way to achieve what you have planned in a year of time. If you have planned the next one month then you know what you are set on for next month. If you have planned next one week then you’re clear about what to do in next 7 days. If you have at least planned for next one day then the Monarch is alive in you for next 24 hours to make sure that you use those hours rightly well. Your plan-span determines the lifespan of the Monarch in you. The kingdom is in under proper governance as long as the Monarch is on the throne. Likewise your life is under your control as long as you know what to do next in the prescribed amount of time. So, plan your time in your life so well that Anarchy shall never surface and Monarchy shall always rule your life towards glory.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 4

Lesson 10: Excite your work

 

No matter how many leaves we take from our college or office, ultimately we need to accept the truth of life that we need to work to earn our bread and butter. We need to work to earn our livelihood, we need to work to accomplish our dreams. Ultimately majority of our life is spent only on working because life is just the other name or work and vice versa. As we are aware that we need to work throughout our life, it's mandatory for us to make our work exciting. No one can come and make your work exciting. You've to innovate different ways of exciting your work all by yourself to enjoy doing it day and night.

Lesson 11: Every new skill matters

 

There is no other option but accepting the fact that there are a billion talents and skills existing in this world today. Every skill has its advantages. So no skill is small, no skill is big as long as you know as to when to use it and where to use it. No opportunity comes to us with a pre-invitation. We must be prepared to meet any opportunity whenever it strikes to achieve success. Developing new skills goes into the category of preparation. A new skill which you're interested in may or may not be useful currently in your work but there's no harm in developing it today because it might be of help tomorrow or sometime later. Hence I claim that every new skill matters.

Lesson 12: Surprise the world with something new frequently

 

The world around us and the people in it always like and love surprises. Monotony is ruling the lives of many in current times. People are trying to find solutions to breakthrough the doors of daily work schedule. Unfortunately some are bound by honesty while some others by salary. As a result, they work in spite of all the hard feelings at heart. What brings a fresh feeling in them is that of seeing someone who has broken the shackles of the world, broken some rules, taken some risks to boast of some achievements. When the audience is awaiting, the superstar has to arrive and he cannot repeat monotony. He has to bring something new for every show to entertain the audience . Likewise, each one of us will have to get something new often to surprise the world around us which is waiting for it.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 3

Lesson 7: Capture the collection on the way

 

How many photos have you taken of the street that you travel through everyday? How many photos have you taken separately with each of your friends? Probably the answers for both these questions is very less in number. We go through a lot of things but don't capture them as memories. Sometime, during the course of our journey when we need a collection of all such things we have no clue as to how to build it. Hence it's always advisable to take a photo at a new place where you are the first time on the way to your work. Like this you can have a huge collection of memories stored with you to refer back at any wanted time.

Lesson 8: Categorize your To-Do list

 

Writing down a to-do list is very important for our work to get distributed into a format such that not even one activity escapes our notice. However, putting all the work to be done under just one list gives no priority or consideration exclusivity for any single task. Each item on the to-do list is equivalent to the ten other tasks that exist there. It's just like training a lion and a chicken in the same training room with the same hunter which is totally irrational. Hence we must categorize the tasks on our to-do list so that we can prioritize accordingly and work.

Lesson 9: Targets are the most essential

 

No run can be scored if the crease is not marked at all in cricket; not even a single goal can be scored if the goal post is absent in the football field. Likewise in life nothing can be achieved if we don't have targets to achieve something. Target need not be only what we need to achieve, target should also be the time limit within which we need to achieve what we desire to achieve. Unless our target is time-bound, we will not be able to drive our energy at the highest peaks possible in order to exploit our complete efficiency. Associate your work with a target and enjoy the benefits.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 2

Lesson 4: Wake up, Take up, Dress up, Make up

 

If you've to go up in life, then you have to follow the 4 UPs of life. This was taught to my mentor by his mentor. Here are those 4 powerful UPs which can make us go up and grow up in life. Firstly, it's essential to wake up from our sleep early. Secondly, we must be ready to take up every responsibility that comes our way by seeing it as an opportunity. Thirdly, dressing up to be ready for work is the next UP. The world recognizes you by your dress first than your words. To err is human. So, it's very natural to find mistakes happening and we will have to respect the Murphy's law as well. Finally, we must be ready to make up for all the wrong decisions taken and unanticipated events that take away our intended results from us.

Lesson 5: Be time conscious

 

Time is eternal and immortal but humans are not the same. Hence, everything that's associated with us has a limited quantity. Likewise even time is a limited resource that God has gifted us of which we must make a wise choice of while using. A penny spent can be earned back but a minute lost can never be regained. That's why it's important for us to keep a check on where our time is being invested in and be totally time conscious.

Lesson 6: Feel the superstar in YOU

 

No matter how much ever one tries, one cannot be exactly like someone else is. Each human being on this planet is unique in himself/herself. Being so, everyone has unique capabilities and the skill levels to excel at them. It's completely up to us to decide how far we want to reach in life. Everyone dreams of being a superstar by mastering certain skillsets. While you dream of becoming a superstar you should feel the superstar in you. You will have to behave as if you've become the best in what you do and that influence itself shall make you a real superstar someday in the eyes of the people around.

Wake UP call - 12 best lessons from my mentor - Part 1

27th July was yet another remarkable day when I went to my mentor, Sujit Lalwani sir with a problem seeking for a solution only to learn that the problem was not the problem at all but there was something beyond that. The discussion started with just a request of one minute to discuss about the plan on work timings but it took an entirely different course as the real reasons for the confusion started unfolding. A one minute intended clarification went on for more than two hours of discussion and some of the best lessons were shared by my mentor. There is no point keeping these 12 powerful lessons with me alone. They've helped me a lot and I wish to share them with my dear readers so that whoever wants to uplift their lives can use them.

 

Lesson 1: Feel your dream

 
All of us have dreams but not all people feel their dreams. The reason you will find people with dreams but no destinations is because they don't cherish the feeling of accomplishment of their dreams even before dreams come true. Only when you can feel the thriving effect while imagining the dream coming true only then will you be able to accomplish the dream with the drive it gives you. Hence it's very important to feel your dreams while working to achieve them.
 

Lesson 2: Reignite your dreams

 
I am sure that you can go back to your past and recollect a lot of dreams that you had in your childhood. As we grow up we tend to forget the dreams and start building new ones. The same process repeats and old dreams are forgotten while new ones are built. There is no point in forgetting a dream once dreamt. Hence it's very essential to reignite our dreams time and again only to not allow them from dying away. There is no point in allowing your dreams to die away because we are alive to realize our dreams in reality.
 

Lesson 3: Even you're a human

 
While working towards multiple accomplishments in life, we tend to get pressurized by the number of tasks on our to-do list/s. Too much of competition from all directions bog us down. At one point, the frustration reaches its peaks and we might even decide to just get away with all the work at hand and not do anything just to attain some bliss in solitude. At such times, it doesn't mean that you're one of those who run away fearing work; it's just a temporary feeling which is very much natural for a human to feel.

The 1 degree difference

Have you played golf? If not have you seen people playing golf? The golf ball is a hard white one which is kept on the ground and the player hits it hard with his golf bat. The ball travels through the air to reach the target hole. In this process if you can trace the path of the ball you can have an arc. When the same shot is repeated by the player if the ball rises at a different angle from the last trial, you can clearly have another arc traced in the air. Just imagine that this difference in the angle between first and second trials can completely change the destinations that the ball reaches. Probably if you have played angry birds you can find this difference but I took the example of golf here because it travels a lot of distance. Our life also is a long journey in itself.

When we are having a destination or a goal in our mind and we work towards it, it is obvious that we come across a lot of challenges and problems. No doubt that we have to deal with each one of them and reach our destination. But are we really travelling towards the destination that we want to reach? If the golf player was an ace player he would have hit the ball keeping the target in the mind. On the other hand if he was an amateur he would have just striked the ball and the ball would have found its destination. Something similar happens with most of us. We are unaware about the clarity of our goals and are just going through life. As a result of this amateurish behaviour we end up reaching wrong destinations or I can say that we don't end up accomplishing our goals. If one can be clearly aware of the goal of his/her life then he/she can take up everyday of life and prioritize only that path which would lead him/her to the target that's set in the mind. We know that when the goal is different the problems that come are also different. So just by choosing the right goal that we intend to reach we can clearly select the problems that we need to face.

When the golf player plays his strikes a difference of just 1 degree can completely change the targets that the ball reaches. In the same way our small difference in action can completely change the goals that we reach in our lives. How well we can define and describe our goals determines the course of action that we will take. Beware and recheck your goals once again else you might be ending up in the wrong place just because of a one degree difference.

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