The Treasure in Words

Newton’s third law states that for every action/force in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The parallel with Newton’s statements to words in our lives is quite conspicuous: words are a force that can build hope, people, dreams, goals, relationships, success and nations but with equal force, words can castigate or destroy someone if not used in the right manner.
Case in point: picture yourself as a parent. Your child scored a perfect 10% in his or her math test. What would you say to this child? It may look very trivial, but your response can either dent your child’s potential or inspire potential change.
In similar fashion, picture yourself as a boss of a big multi-national company. You received interns the previous week. As a means to relate with one of them, you request them to print a document urgently and email it to you. An hour later, you stumble across the intern having a meal laughing with one of the assistants at the cafeteria having forgotten the work assigned to him/her. How would you react? With equanimity or the “cocktail” of words would leave the young intern staggering in disbelief?
The ebb and flow of life is manifested through our seasons of life. All of us are going through our separate yet interwoven journeys in life. Someone is busy working out a major boardroom deal, a young student is dreaming of making it in life, a young lady is envisioning herself as the CEO of a blue-chip corporate and in a different state, someone is mourning the loss of a loved one.
I find myself in plateaus in between my life seasons. In my short yet seemingly long life, plateaus that I have gone through are marked with instances of lazy feelings, reduced energies, mixed reactions, reduced enthusiasm, blurred hope and other symptoms depending on the circumstance at hand. Whenever, I find myself binged on a series endlessly, checking my social media pages every now and then or feeling uninspired to wake up “early”, or avoiding meet-ups with friends or potential friends, I have come to learn that it marks a plateau phase in my life.
I am a big fan of Jay Shetty. My attempt in comedy would define him as a revamped King Solomon version just with a recession in terms of wives/concubines since he chose the monk life at some point but maintained the wisdom. However, my equipoise attempt places him as a refreshing breathe in terms of wisdom and he shares useful tips based on various topics using my favourite approach in life, that is WORDS. (Some of his videos are shared at the end of the article). I digress….
If am a device that accomplishes tasks based on my battery levels, then I consider the plateau stage as a “low battery” stage. As reinforced by Jay Shetty, we of the technological era are great at charging our phones but rarely recharge our personal batteries, hence we die slowly due to overused mental batteries.
In a bid to avoid death through an uninspired life, I have learnt to leverage the wise words and sayings through quotes from different authors as a way of recharging my life cells. Below is a snippet of quotes that I have found quite helpful in my different plateaus thus far:
The Lord can fill our vessels only to the extent that we empty them. — Can’t remember the book 😦
“Nothing will fill your heart with a greater sense of regret than lying on your deathbed knowing that you did not live your life and do your dreams.” — Robin Sharma
“Exceptional success requires exceptional circumstances.” — Wayne Smith.
“It’s better to have a thousand enemies outside the tent than one inside the tent.”
“We remain young to the degree that our ambitions are greater than our memories.” — Dan Sullivan.
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” — Peter Drucker
“I’m looking forward to the future, and feeling grateful for the past.” — Mike Rowe
“Success can be a catalyst for failure.” — Greg McKeown.
“Your personality isn’t what shapes your behavior. Your behavior is what shapes your personality. Change your behavior, change your personality.” — Benjamin Hardy.
“If you have more than 3 priorities, you have none” — Jim Collins
“Our path is not about what we have done or where we have been; it is about where we are going and what we are becoming, in unity.” — Reyna Aburto.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln.
“How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?” — Peter Thiel
“Busyness is usually the opposite of being productive. It’s about appearing to be moving — though without much regard for the direction you’re going.This is a fundamental irony of most people’s lives. They don’t quite know what they want to do with their lives. Yet they are very active.” — Ryan Holiday
The fastest way to move forward in life is not doing more. It starts with stopping the behaviors holding you back.
“I have so much to do today that I’m going to need to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done.” — Martin Luther.
“You have to believe your best work is ahead of you. If I believed my best song was already written, I wouldn’t keep writing.” — Alice Cooper.
“How much you truly “believe” in something can be manifested only through what you are willing to risk for it.” — Nicholas Taleb.
“What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.” — Nicholas Taleb.
“Alexander, Caesar , Charlemagne and Napoleon founded empires — but upon what did they rest the creations of their genius — upon force . Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love and at this hour millions of men would die for Him” — Napoleon Bonaparte.
Waiting to be happy until something external changes in our lives is a self-imposed handicap.
The future is unwritten and uncertain, and when we hang on to how we think it should be, we get in the way of how it could be.
sometimes you have to let go of the people who are anchors to find the ones who give you wings.
All of us want to be great but the first step in greatness involves conquering and mastering self. In your non-alcoholic highs and your unbent lows. So what quotes keep you pushing through life?

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Cheers Baba.