Burning Desire to Achieve
Once a man asked Dr. Carl Menninger, “What would you advise a person to do, if he felt he was having a nervous breakdown was coming in?”
The people around him looked at him expectantly. Many expected him to ask the man to consult a psychiatrist. To their astonishment, he replied, “He should lock up his house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need and do something to help that person.”
Ernest Shackleton was looking around for a crew that would sail with him to the South Pole. He put an advertisement in the London Times that read: ‘Men wanted for hazardous journey, low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness, safe return doubtful, and honour and recognition in the event of success.”
More than 5000 men lined up the next day hoping to be selected. This shows that most people desire to achieve even when odds are stacked against them.
Desires can be compared to fire. Any amount of fuel we give to the fire will not satisfy it. The more we feed it, the more its appetite will increase. If a person’s desire is to have adventure, no one can stop him from having one. He will go anywhere, put up with any kind of circumstances, whatever be the consequences.
There are many people who aspired to conquer Mount Everest, who ended up with frost-bite. Many have had to get their legs amputated but despite all this, they still had no regrets. Remember that there are no Oscars or gold medals for leading one’s day-to-day life but one cannot exchange it for a chunk of gold or silver.
When you overcome obstacles in life, you will experience success. It is like a drug. It could be intoxicating leaving you wanting for more.
When you know that there is enough out there for you and you can get it anytime, you would never think of doing things like breaking ranks or overdoing things, or grabbing things. You will automatically relax and wait for your turn.
There are countless ways of attaining greatness. There are innumerable ways of attaining a celebrity status but any road that helps you to reach your maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of commitment to excellence and rejection of mediocrity.