Enjoyment as criteria
More than half of our lives are filled with chasing goals. We usually make SMART goals and evaluate our activities against the performance criteria. We often ask ourselves ‘Did I give my best?’ for everything we do, without knowing what best means in some cases. Then one fine day we realize that we have not done many things we wanted to do because we want it done perfectly well. Alternatively, what if there are those things in our life that we do for joy? What if we don’t measure these things with performance criteria alone? What if we can ask ourselves ‘Did I enjoy my best?’
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” – Aristotle, Greek philosopher
Midnight rule
Failures and mistakes are hard to deal with. They keep replaying in our minds and our internal critic continues to chastise us even after a considerable time past the event. We seldom realize that it draws away our attention and focus from the present moment when we must deliver our best. I recently came across the midnight rule shared by a soccer coach. It’s simple; win or lose, the players have until midnight to think about it. Once the clock strikes midnight, they only look forward. Dwelling on the past does not allow us to grow and move forward. We would be playing not to make mistakes rather than playing to be successful.
“Take time to deliberate but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go.” – Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader
On his blindness
I read a sonnet ‘On His Blindness’ by John Milton in the tenth grade. A recent event reminded me of this sonnet. It was written after Milton lost his eyesight and he was feeling desperate about how his gift of poetic talent becomes useless without eyesight. Yet towards the end of the sonnet, he reconciles that endurance to deal with hardships is the best way to serve his God. Incidentally, Milton delivered his best work ‘Paradise Lost’ after his blindness. We all have unique gifts that we need to discover and nurture them. Hardships need not stop us from using our gifts.
“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage.”- Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer, journalist, politician, and philosopher