DATED – 16th February 2016

The other day I was talking with my father-in-law. He was mentioning about one of his friends whom he met after 10 years. He seemed to have improved as a communicator, but in terms of business, he was still at same position as he was 10 years ago. After that he said something that caught my attention. He said, “These days, people want a shortcut in everything. They want things to happen fast, by hook or by crook.”

Words of wisdom, I must say. If you look around, that’s the reality, isn’t it? We want to – earn quick money, pass with highest marks studying selected questions just before the exam, run a 21kms marathon without practicing, build great relationships overnight without putting any real efforts and emotions, become a professional with heaps of work within a year of starting practice, command respect on minor achievements, be the best salesman in the organisation despite being lazy, and so on.

I feel we look for shortcuts only when we don’t have the patience and the desire to put consistent efforts. We want small efforts to yield huge results. I feel that the major issue for most of the people living today is – we don’t have a long-term vision. We just look at the immediate result and not think about what it will lead to in the near future. If we can have a few long-term goals in various aspects of our lives, I bet we will want to live our lives differently than what we are currently doing –

• If you don’t wish to die on a hospital bed, going for exercises will never be a struggle
• If you want to build goodwill in your business, selling something just for a few extra bucks will never be your style
• If you wish to have great relations at home, since they will be the people who will stand by you come what may, you will give them quality time without your mobiles and TV
• If you care for your friends, you will stand by them in the toughest of times
• If you want to create your children into amazing citizens of the world, sacrificing your personal preferences / agendas will never be a tough task
• If you keep hopping from one organisation to the other just for a little hike, you will never get a feeling of belonging to an organisation
• If you desire to be respected by people, you will never do a single thing that will make the other person feel disrespected
• If you want people to understand you and explain things to you calmly and patiently, you will never get angry on people. You will be shocked to see that controlling anger is suddenly so easy
• If you wish to mould a person’s behaviour/ character for good, a few unruly instances by them won’t shatter you
• If you want to be an inspirational role model for people, ill-habits rapidly will run away from you

I know that everytime we think of taking the shortcut, we feel excited about it. Sometimes, it may give us instant results also. But take it from me; today or tomorrow we will regret taking that shortcut. Sometimes we get so blinded by the immediate results that we get carried away in the success, thinking this is the right way. Only when our eyes open up later, do we realize the grave mistake we have done. At times, it just might be too late and we might have no time or opportunity for correction. I hope none of you go through this.

Vis-à-vis my life –

As a person, I am someone who always looks at long-term gain and never short-term gain. I might take time to decide on a particular thing, but then the choices are firm and decisive. Once decided I never go back on my commitments to myself.

Most people will live for today and do everything accordingly. If you and me can think of the future, think of long term and then do things, we are set to do something spectacular in this lifetime. Let’s together avoid shortcuts; THINK LONG TERM!