CONTENTMENT IN OUR EFFORTS, NOT RESULTS OF THOSE EFFORTS, SHOULD BE THE REASON FOR OUR HAPPINESS.

It isn't very easy to think of doing something new, to plan how to proceed with it, to work over it spending considerable time and efforts, to execute all the plans to the best of our capabilities, and then end up getting unsatisfactory outcomes leading to loss of time and investment. It is far worse to feel this in reality than to read it in words here. Being successful is also one side of the same coin, which is easy to digest and move on with. Being a failure isn't that simple, it can make us lose confidence in ourselves and may also lead us to depression, rare are those who accept failure and remain strong enough to learn from mistakes of the past and do better in future. Satisfaction for such people resides in the efforts they put in their work, not in the results yielded by those efforts. Such a positive approach to life makes all the difference.

I will start with some of my own examples. I used to be a very intelligent student during my school days and was always in the top 3 ranks in every academic year. With time, my interest towards sports grew larger than that for academics, and my academic scores started coming down slowly. It obviously felt bad not being in the toppers of class, but then being a multitasking individual and bringing laurels in sports compensated with that sense of disappointment and never brought my morale down. Later, I got admission in an engineering college and continued my sports along with the engineering studies. The studies went smooth with just a couple of backlogs throughout the span of 4 years. A few backlogs, or lesser marks than others never made me feel I was less intelligent, I knew how much I was putting in studies and sports and my efforts were the ones deciding my contentment, not the results I was getting with those efforts. I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and threw that black hat high during the convocation, but could not get placed in any company during college placements and even after appearing for many interviews outside. To some extent, it might have been my bad luck, but to a large extent, believe me when I say this, it was my lack of knowledge and understanding about engineering studies due to which I could not clear those interviews. I studied hard during engineering, but not hard enough to absorb everything and not let go. I knew it at that time as well, and I know about it now as well, and I accept it with full responsibility, this is what makes me "ME" and this is what keeps me away from baseless expectations and excuses, thus helping me stay happy in tough times too.

I worked with a number of MNCs on various profiles, but never felt that sense of happiness and contentment which I expected to get out of them. I moved on with other plans, started my own company and felt far better than working as an employee, the revenue was less but satisfaction was far more, and that was what I wanted. In the following year, I started another company and was also able to tie-up with electronic and print media taking the success to an altogether different height. Again, monetary benefits were never large enough but the satisfaction of successfully completing the goals within the committed time could not be matched at all. Throughout the whole journey of studies and jobs and entrepreneurship, one thing which consistently made me feel satisfied was that I always worked to the best of my efforts and never ever gave up on myself. My struggle may sound relatively easy as compared to a lot of people out there, but still, struggling through the rough and surviving the tough is never easy enough to be talked about on a lighter note.

There are a lot of people around who try to be with us, guide us, motivate us and support us throughout life. However, apart from all the guidance and recommendations, we must learn to trust our own instincts as well, instead of relying totally on others' advises, for everyone will come ahead to take credits of success but no one is going to take responsibility of our failures. Eventually, we have to manage and control our life ourselves, and hence, it becomes important to find contentment in our own potential rather than looking for it via others' support and actions.

Let's all give the best shot in everything that we do, instead of worrying about the outcomes. With arms wide open, let's welcome life as it comes and hug it in a joyful manner instead of cribbing about failures and wasting our precious time. Disappointment shall emerge only when we realize that we did not utilize our potential fully; If all our capabilities have been put in with all the strength we have, unexpected results must not destroy our morale, they should rather teach us about the shortcomings which ought to be overcome in the next attempt, as is rightly conveyed by the saying "winning is earning, losing is learning".