3 Powerful things to do that would bring you closer to your dreams

I hope you are in high spirits with a sound physical, emotional and spiritual health. One of the best complements I received from a friend in recent times is “Narendra, you are so happy all the time and your smile is so honest and contagious.” Friends, alongside Leadership, one of the mottos of my life is ‘to become so happy that whoever sees me also becomes happy.’ There is so much power in smiling and which is the simplest and profound formula for happiness and living a fulfilled life. You should smile for no reason and give someone a reason to smile. Friends, keep smiling irrespective of the upsets in your life, and one day life will get tired of upsetting you.

Today, I want to share three powerful strategies that would bring you closer to your dreams. I have always maintained awareness is the first step to your growth. If you are aware of your shortcomings and strength areas, it is most probable you will be in a right position to take the right decisions, walk faster and even run towards your dreams. I started my blog ‘Mai Narendra…..’ with the prime intent of discovering, ‘Who am I?’ as an individual and grow that self-awareness within me. You cannot give what you don’t have. So in order to add value to others, adding value to myself was and is the foremost important thing. I hope my today’s writing regurgitates those values which most of you probably know but somehow, and somewhere they are in slumber deep within you.

1.  Don’t dwell on the thoughts of your critics. Either ignore your critics or take them lightly.
2. Spend your time with positive people. Be very selective about friends you spend your most time with.
3. Watch the words you speak. Use a world class vocabulary of positive words. 

Don’t dwell on the thoughts of your critics. Either ignore your critics or take them lightly.

“Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it”   

                                                                  

One of my favorites, the above quote comes from the famous French philosopher and mathematician, Rene Descartes, also known as the Father of modern philosophy.  Friends, as I am amping up my game becoming better in my craft every single day, and as I am becoming more selective about the people I spend time with, the books that I read, the programs I watch, the words I speak, my critics are growing and they are growing like never before. While many talk at my back, one of my critics came out publicly writing some filthy words about me on a social platform.  Now this is the critic I don’t know or have not even talked to properly.  He does not even hold waters to stand and talk for a minute in front of me. Such people are hollow from inside filled with lot of hatred, rudeness and anger for others. Rather than focusing on their own dreams, they spend time criticizing and pulling others down.  This so called critic of mine later got senses to delete his comments which I had so generously left for public reading :)

Friends, at this point I would like to quote words of wisdom from one of my favorite author, speaker and pastor of America’s largest church, Joel Osteen. I often read and listen to his words, which instill so much courage and strength inside me in my times of adversity. I hope it would help you as well. My deepest sense of gratitude to Joel for his words of healing and inspiration. 

“Sometimes the nicer you are the more people are going to talk about you. It’s because the good in you will stir the bad in them. They will feel convicted by the purity of your heart. The best thing that you can do is just to shake that off and move forward. Some people are just slingers; they don’t know what they should do to be their best self so they feel like they need to tear others down to satisfy their critical and rude spirit. When you hear those negative comments and false accusations, your attitude should be ‘no big deal just another slinger’. You should not waste even 5 seconds of your emotional energy trying to figure out why somebody said something or what they meant. These are distractions trying to keep you from focusing on your most important dreams.”                                                                    

 (Courtesy: Joel Osteen sermons)

Friends, you cannot control what people say about you in this world of so much negativity. They have their right to say and you have your right not to listen and merely ignore such trash. Yes, simply ignore these distractions and follow your dreams. I recall one of the quotes from Winston Churchill –“you will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”  Reading or listening to my critics excites me and reminds me I am on the right path to my higher self.  My strength of character and the value system I have received from my parents are most genuine, authentic, truthful, rock solid and firm like a mountain and such filthy comments from one or even thousands cannot budge me from my path of goodness, positivity and helpfulness.  I love my self and I am my proud and happy self.

 

Be very selective about your friends you spend your most time with.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”   – Jim Rohn 

I cannot agree more on the above lines from Jim Rohn, one of the best author, speaker, and human being who lived on earth. Another meaningful quote reads ‘Show me your friends and I will show you your future’. Friends, it’s been almost 8 months in Dublin and most humbly I say that I know more people in Dublin than probably many who have been here for over 8 years. The reason being I am open to people.  However, I am very selective about the kind of people I spend my most time with.  Like positivity, negativity is also contagious. If you stay with positive people, the ones who boost you up, who see an opportunity in every adversity, who always smile, these positive vibes and virtues rubs off on you and you will start feeling the difference. Similarly if you spend most of your time with people with gloomy and negative attitude, you will become one without even realizing. So friends, today I encourage you to be very specific about your company. If you want to be a lion, you must train with lions. Surround yourself with dreamers and the doers, the believers and thinkers, the optimists and the people with positive energy, the ones who force you to do better, but most of all surround yourself with those who see greatness within you even when you don’t see it yourself.

Watch the words you speak. Use a world class vocabulary of positive words.

‘By words the mind is winged’   - Aristophanes.

Friends, this is very critical in your path to success.  Along with the type of people you spend time with, you should also be very selective about the words you speak.  The demeaning words my critic used describes his standard, the kind of upbringing he has received and the society he has been brought up in. Negative words create negative emotions and if you don’t trust me, please speak out 10 negative words loudly while you read me and start observing your emotions, without a doubt you will feel negative and disgusted. Conversely, if you speak positive words you will be in a different state of mind and emotion. You will feel good, happy and delighted. Such is the power of words. It is simply not possible that you smile, you laugh, you speak positive words and you feel bad at the same time. The positive hormones, dopamine generated as a result of positive actions will rule out any negative feeling inside you. 

My Final Words:

‘I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up!’    – Ingrid Bergman

Osho, once said “the greatest fear in the world is the opinion of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.”  Friends, as I have been telling in my previous blogs, you must have the guts to be different from the crowd. It is absolutely okay to stand tall and firm with your idea, your point, even when no one is on your side. Most people want to hide themselves in the herd of average, they lack the GRIT which is so indispensable if you want to live your dreams in this life.  You are a lion and the lions must not concern themselves with opinions of lambs and dogs.  Always keep your head up and your heart strong. 

So friends take away from today’s blog: 1. Don’t dwell on the thoughts of your critics, naysayers and slingers. 2. Surround yourself with positive people and the people who are dreamers, believers and optimists and lastly 3. Be very selective about the words you speak. Speak words that build people up, the words that reflect positivity and helpfulness, use more Thank you’s and Please’s and build your own world class vocabulary. I thank you for reading me and hope this was of value for your time.

My Best Wishes in your journey to greatness

Narendra Gupta