Your Aspiration And Expectation
To achieve success, learn to operate from commitment and not from complaint. William A Ward said, “The four steps to achievement are to plan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively, and pursue persistently”. You need to learn the joy of going beyond your limits so that you are not limited by your limitation. To make this happen, you have to understand that the mind should come from can and not cannot, for when you think you “can” you create success and when you say you “cannot” you create failure. History is filled with stories of experts who were convinced that the ideas, ambitions, and projects of “others” could never be achieved. But achievers proved them wrong, for achievers came from a mindset that says, “I can make this happen”.
There is a significant distinction between aspiration and expectation. You should have aspiration in life but not expectation. Aspiration seeks to be fulfilled in a creative mode, whereas expectation is part of a begging mode. Aspiration is the basic element for experiencing growth. Expectation is the basic element for embracing sorrow. When you expect, you depend on the other and hence, you are bound by the other. This may sound confusing for those of you who don’t think deeply on the distinction between aspiration and expectation.
Aspiration is our inner nature that is seeking its outer expression. Our life is like a beautiful car, and aspiration is like the key. Aspiration leads to fulfillment. Even if it is not pleasing, still, aspiration is satisfying, whereas expectation is unsatisfying. Expectation is an enemy of life, for it makes you a beggar and not a creator. This may be difficult for you to understand offhand unless you make the effort to comprehend the import of these words. To make it a little more simple, to make it easier for you to digest, let me put it another way. Let the centre of your life be aspiration and let expectation be at the circumference of your life. Whereas for most of us the centre of life is expectation and the circumference is aspiration. This kind of attitude will only create chaos in your life.
Achievement comes when you seize the moment with zeal and clarity. Clarity will help you to study the right things and to learn the right lessons. Carefully assess your present strengths, success achieved so far and then aspire to reach the peak. Don’t whip yourself with negative things of the past that you allow to haunt you. Ralph W Emerson said, “A man is a hero not because he is braver than anyone else; he is a hero because he is brave for ten minutes longer”. People don’t become great because of their knowledge, their good intention or the things they desire. They become achievers when they get things done, and as Emerson said, “they stick with it for ten minutes longer”.
However, usually, what happens is that you don’t stick longer for those extra ten minutes, for you are so impatient and wish to taste success instantly. How does one get to know if you are patient or impatient? The tell-tale sign of impatience is that you don’t enjoy what you are doing. However, each moment is unique and hence it is beautiful in it its own way. If you learn to see the beauty in “what is”, then you are in paradise and you will discover joy in what you are doing. From that space, you will aspire to create and you will be patient to reach the peak.
