THE 'WILL TO DO'... WHAT WE 'WANT TO DO'
Pic.: Chetna Shetty
“A garden
requires patient labor and attention.
Plants do not
grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions…
They thrive
because someone expended effort on them.”
A while ago, I was talking to a group of
five young-men. They wanted me to help them develop their self-confidence;
particularly, they wanted me to help them overcome their self-doubts and anxieties
with regard to speaking in English before an audience. All of them were working young-men.
Along with work, they were doing their post-graduation, too. They had studied through
English mediums schools. But…
They did not speak English…
They did not read English…
They did not write English…
They did not listen to English
speakers…
“Your low-self-confidence
is not due to your poor English,” I told the young-men, “it is due to the poor
self-image you hold.”
The young-men, perhaps, had
not heard of it anytime before, from anyone. So, I continued, “Your desire to
improve your English is like the flame of fire. Presently, you are on a low
flame… Only when you are on a high flame, the burning desire, the improvement
comes.” I, also, told them, “Presently, your commitment is half-hearted. The
change comes when you fully commit… when you pursue it with all your passion
and determination.”
So, what came first:
English or self-confidence?
None. How the young-men saw
themselves in their minds – the self-image they had held – did.
We all want to do well in life… improve
our language, confidence, life-styles, relationships, health or spiritual life… Well, who doesn't want to?
But, then, ‘wanting to’ is
only ‘wishing to’… Yes, they are our good intentions. And, if our good
intentions alone were to make us succeed, then, our gardens would have bloomed
on their own… and, all of us would have been hailed as Good Samaritans’...
But, I want to add this: not only did the
Good Samaritan have the good intentions in his heart and good amount of money in
his bag, he, also, had that one crucial thing, which made all the difference
between him and the rest – the good and the bad… the heaven and the hell. It is
this: the ‘will to do’ what he did!
Our young-men have to do the same: they have
to get up and do something about what they have been wishing and wanting for so
many years. They have to nurture their gardens with love, care and passion…
They have to see themselves among those stars, high up there… That’s the
self-image I have been talking about…
Unless you see yourself there, among the
stars, and unless you get going on that expedition, don’t expect anyone else to
take you there…
Ben Harper
had summed it up, so beautifully:
Probably, now we might understand the
meaning and the mystery hidden in the age-old proverb:
“The
road to hell is paved with good intentions!”
Let’s read it, once again!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Comments