DATED – 23rd January 2016

While we were having a Lifeschool Sports Convention 2015-16 team meeting at our captain – Aditya Jhunjhunwala’s place, everyone was sharing their views. During my turn, I said, “Being a part of the leading team fills us with pride. But the important question is that are we becoming happy just to be a part of the leading team, or will we individually do enough to ensure that the team is also proud of having us? The team victory is great, but equally important is our contribution in the team’s victory!”

I said that in spur of the moment. While driving back, the thoughts kept running. It struck me that this does not just hold true in our team; it is so relevant in various situations. As you read these few situations, keep answering to yourself how would you feel when –

• A political leader you voted for wins the election
• Indian cricket team wins the world cup
• The organisation you work for just bagged the biggest order in the country
• The company for which you are a distributor / dealer bags – ‘Superbrand’ award
• Your father is a name to reckon with in the social circles
• Your husband is amongst the top businessmen in the city
• The President of United States of America invites your Guru for a session
• A friend who studied with you is the founder of a startup, which is worth a few million dollars today
• Your child tops the abacus exams
• A food joint that you visit often wins ‘Best restaurant award’
• The car you drive wins ‘safest car award’ in the whole country
• Your friend completes a full marathon

I know the answers would be obvious. You will feel excited, happy, and thrilled to know about the achievements. It is a perfectly natural feeling to have. In fact, celebrating others’ success shows that we care for them.

But we need to be aware that though we feel excited when others achieve something, our life still remains the same. Except for getting a ‘high/kick’, nothing about us changes. We tend to get complacent. We loose our focus in life and tend to get carried away, until the reality dawns a few days (if not months) later.

Vis-à-vis my life –

This insight came to me as a jolt. I too was a part of this illusion. When someone else / a larger group gained some achievement, I would get carried away. I would consider it my victory. But now I am realising that it is not the reality. I must carve out my victories without any compromise. Yes, it is worth the celebrations. But along with it, if I can feel inspired and determined to achieve something equally phenomenal then it was all worth it. After all, my victory is my victory!

If we wish to achieve something significant in life, we will have to follow this philosophy. We will have to carve out our success to prove to ourselves that we are capable. It is not worth being a catalyst always. We need to become the main ingredient. Success will be touching our feet very soon if we sincerely work on this thinking – Someone else’s victory is NOT MY VICTORY!