Lighten Your Baggage

  Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted.  The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. "How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.                                                                  

All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. 

The Power of Acceptance

Very often we find people around us complaining about various things in theirlives. Health challenges, financial difficulties, relationship problems and the list goes on. The only reason they do so is because they do not accept those particular problems or situations and all they do is just complain. Complaining is not going to do any good to the problem but, is only going to make things worse. The law here is simple, "like attracts like", if you are complaining, you are only going to get more of it.

Take a while and think hard. "Problems are only perceived in the mind", if you focus on the problem, you will just aggregate it, but if you focus on a solution to solve it, that is where you choose to be a fighter. Be a solution oriented-person.

But it all starts with one thing, Acceptance. You must first accept a particular situation or problem in your life, this will help you stay calm and get focused on what needs to be done next.

Problems Are a Normal Part of Change

When asked, “How do you develop mental toughness in life?” my response might sound negative at first. I say, “Always be prepared for a surprise. The surprise might be a negative surprise. Something is going to happen in your day, whether you are late because you got stuck behind a train or your car had a flat tire—something is going to happen.

Problems are a normal part of change. Things are changing so rapidly that there are going to be problems you face. So you must look at failure as an event, not as a person. I’m not a failure. Maybe I’ve had a failure or a temporary inconvenience. I’ve had a stumbling block, and the idea is to turn the stumbling block into a steppingstone, and step on it instead of stumble over it. So look at failure as the fertilizer of success.

Fertilizer stinks, it smells. You see that guy putting it on his lawn and you say, “Wow, that guy fertilized his lawn.” You fertilize your mistakes. You don’t wallow in them, lay in them, roll in them; you pick yourself up off your mistakes and learn from them. You try not to repeat that same thing again. But you look at it as a temporary inconvenience, as a detour—a detour in life—not as a failure.


Until Next Time
Vishal D