A Wise Man will Ask these Questions

Chanakya says “How is this situation, who are my real friends, how is my home’s condition, what’s my earnings and expenditure, what are my talents and weaknesses. These are the questions that a wise man asks himself all the time“.

Those lines from chapter 4 of Chanakya Neeti tells us to think about the outcome before doing anything. You can try the other way, but in that case you won’t reach too far.

Relation Between Your Desires and Your Situation:

It’s good to desire and desires definitely add to the worthiness of your life. The problem arises when your desires and the situation are a mismatch. For example: It is perfectly normal for a billionaire to plan an expensive vacation, but not for a man living on daily wages and without enough savings.

For sure the non-wealthy man has all rights to have such desires. It’s all about waiting for the situation to turn favorable or creating the favorable environment with own efforts. Without any question the second option is more appropriate. Most of the things can be achieved by mixing hard work with smart work. Hard-work alone, might prove insufficient.

* Hard work is necessary, but it must also be a smart work. Abraham Lincoln said that “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe“. Hopefully, you got the point.

Real friends:

It’s a boon to have a true friend in life. The ugly and basic truth is that most of the people in this competitive world envy you. Those who fall in same hierarchy are the ones who envy most.

Everyone tries to excel high in life, but at the same time they (most of them) are ever-ready to pull the leg of anyone trying to do so. A man must have discretion to identify people and their motives.

Also, there are men who promise to help and also there are a few who will really help. The biggest mistake one can do is to depend on help from someone who has nothing more than a promise to offer. I have made such mistakes and most probably you are not an exception.

* Help from others should be considered as an added benefit. You are the only person on whom you can rely most.

* Most of the help is available in the form of mutual benefits. If you don’t have anything better to offer, then why should someone offer you anything? There is a great difference between being good to others and in being useful to others.

If you don’t have a real friend?

If you don’t have one, then nothing much can be done about it. Either you have them or you don’t. Maybe you will get one in the future. At least you can try to maximize the number of your friends (with benefits). In addition to that, you must also work towards reducing the count of your opponents.

* I never asked you to make everyone happy. This goal is second to impossible and usually leads to wastage of efforts, resources, and energy.

Self Evaluation:

It’s very difficult to perform an honest self-evaluation. Most of the times we either overestimate our potential or underestimate it. No one can judge you better than yourself. Do not allow the external factors to guide you.

* Just don’t walk like a sheep following the sheep in front of you.

It’s your duty to:

  • Identify your area or areas of expertise.
  • Evaluate your level of expertise in those areas.
  • Prepare the list of improvements to be done.
  • And to Improve in reality.

* Not your skills, but what matters most are your accomplishments. History  remembers men with great deeds, not those with great skills. Acquisition of skills is important, but is an intermediate step towards achieving something big.

The Time:

Improvement requires a certain amount of time. The required span of time will vary depending on what you are trying to accomplish. The results might not be instantaneous, but provided you do it with proper planning and dedication the situation will change for sure.

For example: There was a time when I had no knowledge about PHP and after a year people were asking about my opinion. The improvements made per day were really insignificant, but it’s really huge in comparison to day-one and today.

The summary: 

  • Have high expectations from life.
  • Identify your strengths and weaknesses.
  • Improve yourself and your skills.
  • Fulfill your dreams by doing hard work in a smart manner.

Thanks for reading. You can suggest improvements in this post by commenting below.


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Comments

3 responses to “A Wise Man will Ask these Questions”

  1. khandelwalsaumya Avatar
    khandelwalsaumya

    Its is nice…..

  2. B. Gopal Avatar
    B. Gopal

    Very useful tips especially for youngsters

  3. Dilip Avatar
    Dilip

    How one can fight with depression and frustration? Any idea you would like to present?

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