There are a few interesting aspects of life wherein most of us lack clarity. Let me give a few examples. We get carried away by things that are urgent and work on those rather than working on important ones. Have you not come across people when interrupted in their activities ask, “Is it urgent?” and not, “Is it urgent?” Similarly many people are not able to distinguish between ‘good’ people and ‘right’ people.
I have heard some of my juniors telling me, “Sir, he is a good person and hence we will promote him.” To such an interesting list of confusions let me add one more viz. ‘serious’ people vs. ‘sincere’ people.
Possibly from our school days we hear our elders telling us, “Be serious” when we did our pranks. So, it is not surprising that we adopt this as the right approach for the rest of our life. In my opinion, sincerity is the key for success and seriousness may hamper our progress towards a glorious life. Let me explain a few reasons for my preference to being sincere than serious.
First and foremost, when you do anything you love, you will be sincere and not serious. In fact, you will so fulfilled that you become an integral part of what you are doing. I know many singers and dancers become one with the song or dance and that can be classified as only ‘sincerity’ and definitely not ‘seriousness.’ A few days back a compere in a music program of a TV channel told a young girl, “You worked very hard to sing the song.” The spontaneous reply from the artiste was “I sang well because I enjoyed it.” The enjoyment can also be in your occupation when you love what you are doing.
When you are sincere and do anything with passion, your stress level is less. This is very important in the context of today’s high stress levels. Of course, we have discussed many stress management techniques, but my question is, “why create stress by being serious, if you can avoid it?” By being sincere and not serious, you will have peace. You will observe your personal productivity is very high with this approach. In fact, your capacity to learn increases manifold.
If you are serious, many people may avoid you. Ask this simple question to yourself, “Between two cousins of yours- one very serious and the other jovial- with whom you would like to spend your time?” You know the answer and the same thing applies to you. I am sure you will appreciate that getting along well with people is very vital in your journey to be rich.
Some how, I have seen many serious people become desperate in their journey towards success. Possibly, their obsession for results makes them desperate. My Spiritual and Life mentor often says, “When you are desperate, success may not be denied but will be delayed.” This statement is worth reading 100 times at least.
Let me give the live example of a young man of 25 years. He looks casual but his success speaks for his sincerity. He learns instrumental music, sings when time permits, plays cricket once in while and relaxes well in the weekends. He has done well both in academics and career. He is very sincere in his studies and work without any show-off. Our wonderful life provides many more examples to show that to be rich and successful, you need sincerity and not seriousness.
Of course, the In-born quality of an individual can’t be changed overnight. If you are serious by nature, you need to overcome this not by hard work but by an interesting short-cut and that is by using your awareness. You can use your awareness to bring about transformation gradually. You may also take the help of your mentor. In summary, I will be happy if you convince yourself that to be rich and successful, you need sincerity and not seriousness.
Now it is time for the lighter side of life. A very serious young man took over as the manager of a bank in Mumbai. A happy business man came to his office and asked for a loan of Rs. 50,000 with the security of his new BMW car and the manager gladly sanctioned it. After two weeks, the business man repaid the loan together with an interest of Rs. 300. The branch manager politely and hesitantly asked the business man, “From our records, I understand you are a rich person and could not understand the reason for your borrowing such a paltry amount.” The happy business man replied, “Actually my family members and I went on a holiday and we wanted to park our new BMW car in a very safe place. Where else in the city of Mumbai, I could have parked my lovely car for a small sum of Rs. 300?”
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