DON'T MISS THAT SHINING THING OUT THE CORNER OF YOUR EYE











Pic.: Manjeet Singh Kukreja

“If you focus too far in front of you,
you won’t see the shining thing out the corner of your eye…
Right?”

- Tim Minchin

Kinski, who lives in Melbourne, sent me a link yesterday. It was the address to the graduating students of University of Western Australia by (UWA) by Tim Minchin, the acclaimed comedian, actor, singer, composer, lyricist and, yes, an inspiring speaker. Ever since Steve Jobs made his speech to Stanford graduating-students famous, I have heard scores of them… And, yes, all of them are very inspiring and interesting. Frankly, I am never tired of listening to them… They help; because, they come from the ‘horse's mouth’!

So, when a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jim Carrey, Tim Minchin or our own Ratan Tata or Azim Premji speak to young-ones about life… success, happiness and right attitude, I urge myself to shut everything else and listen to them. These achievers have loads of experience and wisdom… They give it, here, all free… It is an authentic ‘Master Class’!

So, in this speech, Tim Minchin, in his own inimitable style, offers to the fresh graduates what he calls ‘Nine life-lessons’.

The first one made me think very hard… Here it is:

You Don’t Have To Have A Dream
“Americans, on talent shows, always talk about their dreams. Fine, if you have something that you've always dreamed of, like, in your heart, go for it! After all, it’s something to do with your time… chasing a dream. And if it’s a big enough one, it’ll take you most of your life to achieve, so by the time you get to it and are staring into the abyss of the meaninglessness of your achievement, you’ll be almost dead…So, it won’t matter.
I never really had one of these big dreams. And so, I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals. Be micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you… you never know where you might end up. Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery. Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won’t see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye. Right? Good. Advice. Metaphor. Look at me go.”

This is the first of the nine important lessons Tim wants the young graduates to remember as they are about to embark upon their own journey towards a successful life.  Asking them to ‘dream big’ and ‘dream high’ is common, fashionable. But, asking them never to lose sight of the immediate task in hand – their short-term goals – is something most of us are not used to hearing. Yes, it is not at all fashionable.

Tim, from his own experience, distills the wisdom in those words:
“If you focus too far in front of you,
you won’t see the shining thing out the corner of your eye…
Right?”






It is a big. bad, mad world out there. Yes, is a big rat-race… everyone wants to have a ‘big bite’ of the ‘success pie'… It is easy to get into the temptation of making it big at one go… In one big bang!

To me, what Tim Minchin is trying to tell the university fresh-graduates resonates a lot with Cardinal Newman’s moving prayer:

“Lead, kindly Light, amidst the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet, I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.”

A fresh breeze for the fresh graduates, that is…


GERALD D’CUNHA

 Video: YouTube




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