Are You Comfortable?

The importance of effort and hard work in life is well understood. We work hard to get good education, build up a career, family and home. However, there comes a stage when we get a feeling that 'we have arrived', and this leads to gradual settling down in our comfort zone. As we begin to feel comfortable, it takes away intensity from our efforts. If we want to fly higher and achieve more, we should learn to recognize our comfort zones and should come out of them quickly. Do not stop learning, trying, growing.. ever. Here is a beautiful story sent by Pratha that illustrates this point very well.

King Chandragupt received a gift of two magnificent falcons from a court visitor. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to Mahendra, his bird keeper and asked him to train them.

Months passed, and one day Mahendra informed Chandragupt that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

He asked his court members to try and help the bird fly, but as he looked through the palace window day after day, the bird still did not move from its perch. The king was getting curious now. He summoned healers and sorcerers from everywhere to cure the falcon, but no one could understand the ailment of the bird and make it fly.

Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, “May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem.” So he cried out to his court, “Go and get a farmer.” He showed the bird to the farmer and described the problem to him.

"Do you know what's wrong with this bird? Can you help fix it?", asked the king.

"Maharaj, I will give it a try. I think I understand the problem.", said the farmer.

Next morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, “Bring me the doer of this miracle.” The court members quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king.

The king asked him, “How did you make the falcon fly?”

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, “It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting.”

There is a great lesson in this story for us. We are all made to fly high — to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But at times we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us, our comfort zones. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, and the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.

Let us learn to recognize the branch of our own comfort zone that we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight!


लोग यौं ही हैं झिझकते सोचते, जबकि उनको छोड़ना पड़ता है घर 
किन्तु घर का छोड़ना अक्सर उन्हें, बूँद लौं कुछ और ही देता है कर !

Think carefully, "Are you comfortable?"

A Password with Meaning

I was deeply depressed after a recent bitter fight with my close friend Deepak. I thought all day long about how badly he had treated me. I was filled with a lot of hurt and unhappiness within me. I knew that the right way to move forward is to forgive him, but it looked impossible to get myself to forgive.

I was still trying to recover from it, when I sat down at my desk and stared at the laptop screen. “Your password has expired, please change it”, a message flashed on the screen. In my company, we have to change our password every month. I remembered a tip I’d heard from a colleague, that we should try to choose a password that has some meaning. That way, it will be easy to remember, and we will repeat the meaningful phrase every time we unlock the screen.

So, I chose to go for a password with meaning. I was finding it impossible to concentrate on my work due to my painful memories. I decided to pick a password that will remind me that I should stop being a victim of my emotions, and be strong enough to handle them with maturity. I came up with the password – Forgive@him. I had to type this password several times a day, whenever my computer screen got locked. Every time I came back from lunch, I wrote ‘forgive him’. This simple action changed the way I looked at Deepak. That constant reminder of reconciliation led me to accept the way things happened and helped me deal with my mood.

By the time the computer asked me to change the password again the following month, I already felt liberated from the feeling of hurt. I thought of what is the next important thing I want to do in life, and I picked up the password – Reduce#weight. By repeating it many times a day, I gradually found myself being more conscious of my diet and regular in my exercise program, and that helped in reducing my weight.

Next I chose Save&invest, as I was not good in financial matters. In next couple of months, I could improve on that front as well. I made it a habit to pick a meaningful password – a phrase that will constantly remind me about an important goal I want to achieve. These daily reminders kept me motivated and excited about my goal and helped me realize it.

This simple practice of using a password with meaning has changed my life for better. Why not try it and see what it can do for you?

After a couple of years, I changed my password to *LifeIsBeautiful*.