Written by:
Shemimon Yousef
CEO, Handcraft Business Training (Training Division of ATBC)
It was a regular Sunday and as always, I was planning to laze my day around. But then my wife asked me for a helping hand in her household chores. I was reluctant at first but then I thought of supporting her as I felt my help was indeed required. She had asked me to help her clean the ceiling fans which looked a bit dirty as it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time. She was short in height compared to me, in reaching out to those ceiling fans and me being taller than her was a good deal for her to get things done much more easily.
I got into action right away and had to work out a bit hard which was against my plan for an idle Sunday. And the hard work delighted me, as all ceiling fans were looking neat, though not like a fresh piece but still looked good after being removed from all the dust and dirt. After completing the tasks assigned to me, it was time to get back to my plan for the day.
After switching on the fan, I got amazed as the speed was faster than before and delivered more air. It’s a true delight on a hot summer day. While enjoying those relaxing moments I happen to stumble upon the thoughts of how the fan was delivering more air after being cleaned up and concluded that the weight of dust & dirt was slowing down its speed. On realizing this, I suggested my wife of cleaning it regularly as it not only makes it look good but also delivers the purpose for which it was bought.
It also triggered my thoughts & felt more akin to our life. Just like the weight of dirt was slowing down the performance of the fan, there is dirt in our life which slows down our performance as well. The dirt here is a metaphor for our negative thoughts. We, humans, are born with enormous potential and our mind is one of the most powerful things in this Universe that we have discovered. Many pieces of research in the past few decades have proven that our brain is much more powerful than we can imagine. And it is, as we human beings have been successful in achieving many astonishing feats and will keep on achieving.
A famous quote says ‘We are born to succeed’ and in this case, it is a bit curious why many of us still fail. What makes these successful people, successful? And I had struck the right chord after cleaning the ceiling fan. There is dirt in our mind which becomes our hurdle in delivering better results in life, be it in personal or professional life. And I wonder successful people would be more aware of this dirt and would be cleaning it up regularly. This dirt can be anything in an individual life, it can be fear of failure, lack of self-esteem, lack of confidence, lack of courage, lack of positive outlook & attitude, lack of self-discipline, lack of many such things that add up to success. One can just figure it out by being more aware and conscious about oneself. All these negative kinds of stuff are weighing & slowing us down from delivering what we all are ought to deliver.
It can be very much hard for us to be positive all the time, but it can be easier for us to be aware of our negativity and deal with it in a better way so that we can lead a much more successful life. I realized Self Leadership is the key that can unlock our potential. No one in this world can know us better than ourselves. We have been spending our whole life within our minds and thoughts that we seldom look within and work out on things that need to be worked upon. I realized that I am not so different from those successful people whom I admire but the only difference is in the way that I lead myself.
Some toil outside, to find the drop of luck and some look within & discover the ocean of opportunities. I don’t have control over all the good & bad things happening around the world, which stimulates my thoughts & emotions to respond but I can gain control over my thoughts & inner world and improve my Self Leadership to deliver better results & become more successful.
And just like the fan, I decided to clean up my mind regularly as I strongly believe-We all are born to Succeed.
May God bless you all to lead a successful life.
