GOING THE EXTRA-MILE





Dr. Napoleon Hill, in his famous book – ‘The Law of Success’, emphasizes on one important law of personal growth: ‘Going the extra-mile’.


I was about 21 or 22 when I got hold of this book. By then, I had been heavily influenced by Dr. Hill’s most coveted classic – ‘Think & Grow Rich’. The Law of Success, thus, did not have much to contribute to my growth’, even though for millions, worldwide, this voluminous bestseller was ‘the Bible’.


To me, it was ‘Think & Grow Rich’. It still is!


However, even at that young age, the law of ‘Going the extra-mile’ appealed me, instantaneously. I could feel the quiet power concealed in this law. And, I knew, it was the easiest of all other Success laws to follow… As, to go the extra-mile meant: going beyond the call of duty!


All that I had to do was: do the work with my full heart… with all the passion in the world… Do it with love, do with joy… and do it for more hours than expected, do more than what was paid for.


Dr. Stephen Covey, decades later, gave us a very similar law – which he re-named as ‘Habit’ - in his ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ and called it ‘Be Proactive’.


Much, much before that, Ralf Waldo Emerson, in his famous essay – ‘Compensation’, had already unearthed this natural Law of personal growth. Dr. Hill gives immense credit to this immortal teacher, Emerson, and informs us that the Law of ‘Going the extra-mile’ was inspired by the essay ‘Compensation’.

Any work done with the spirit of ‘going the extra-mile’ has to help us build our personal power… It has to build our strength… our character. It has to help us ‘earn interest’, as Emerson reminds us… and, when we keep this habit up, when we keep living this law of working more than what is paid for, working for love and joy and not for money alone – yes, when we keep practicing this law of ‘Going the extra-mile’, the Nature is bound to rewards us with compound interest!


I remember how much I had loved this imagery!


Both, Emerson and Napoleon Hill became my instant ‘heroes’!





The habit of going the extra mile, 


as I said, is the easiest habit to embrace…


 and, yet, it is the most potent one!










Today is Sunday. Jesus Christ’s famous teachings – more than two-thousand years past – haunt me, today. It was He who gave us, first, this Law of ‘Going the extra-mile’. But, it needed a sage-like Emerson to inspire Napoleon Hill… And, it needed a Napoleon Hill to inspire me…


Probably it needs me to remind someone, somewhere…


I think, that’s how it is indented to be!




GERALD D’CUNHA


Pics.: Hariprasad















Comments

Vivek said…
very meaningful blog sir, I can now say that i've learnt a new lesson today
July 22, 2012 at 9:56 PM
Gerald D'Cunha said…
Thanks Vivek. Glad. Love. Sir
July 23, 2012 at 12:18 PM
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