WHAT I 'KNOW'... AND WHAT I 'DO'

We do not need to go out of our ways to feel confident about ourselves. 

One of the easiest and surest ways to feel confident is: by making a promise and keeping it!

Last evening, we had a Workshop on 'Values and conflicts'. Mr. Ram Mohan was conducting this Workshop. At one point, during the Workshop, he was talking about living with integrity. "When we 'do' what we 'know'," he said, "we live life with integrity."

Yes, when there is a ‘gap’ between what I ‘know’ and what I ‘do’… I have a problem of integrity. And, this gap is responsible for my loss of self-confidence. The lesser the gap, the better. The more the gap… and, more the areas where the gap is seen… the lower I would feel about myself.

“How can we reduce this gap, sir?” a participant asked Mr. Ram Mohan.

“The best way is,” Mr. Ram Mohan replied, “By making a small promise and keeping it!”

“Wow!” I exclaimed in my heart, “how simple!”

It is as simple as that. But, tough to carry out, almost for all of us.

I thought of myself:

My food habits, exercise to my body, my emotional outbursts, my sulking and being careless about my finances – these are some of the areas I have made countless small promises to myself, and failed to keep them. 

Well, I can keep consoling myself saying, “Hey, It is okay… You are just human!”

But, the more I make promises to myself 

in the areas that concern me…and fail, 

I lose my self-confidence… 

My well-being, definitely, rests on

how effectively I keep my private promises…

 

So, when the question was asked: “How can we reduce this gap, sir?”… I jumped in my mind, “Hey, I ‘know’ the answer. Like a small kid, instinctively, I felt like raising my hand in the class room, last evening, to reply to that participant. But, quickly, I heard my heart reminding me: “Hold on, buddy… 'Knowing' is not the answer...' Doing' is!”

I, once again, made a small private-promise, then and there… Yes, to ‘write’ about what I went through my mind, last evening…

And, this evening, I have been able to ‘keep’ it!

I feel good about myself… I feel confident…

And yes, I did not have to go ‘out of my way’ to do it!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Raj Dhage Wai