May be, you know someone like this too...

We come across different categories of people, and it’s especially interesting for me to silently observe the behaviours of people I meet – not to be judgemental but with an objective of learning and understanding people dynamics… why we do things the way we do and why we say things the way we say… all that slight gradation of behaviours that let out vibrant colours of attributes about the person, as the colours through a prism.

One of the recurring patterns of distinction between some great personalities and some absolutely appalling characters are the method in which they put their energy on observing others, the way in which they focus on others. “What is he/she doing….” is in the top of their agenda all the time!

THE FIRST LEVEL (MY FAVOURITES): I admire these people… the ones whom I keep in the first level…; they have this on top of their agenda, because they want to continuously adapt their formula of success by looking at other successful people and benchmark their attributes and integrate the best of it to their own. That’s a fantastic quality, and it takes crushing of abysmal ego that many of us carry on our shoulders. I like these people. I like to be part of their lives… to be around them so that the shadow of their attributes will fall on me too that would eventually build in me the characteristics of success that made them successful. These are great people who have the desire to improve them, every day.

THE SECOND LEVEL: There is another set of people…. awfully ridiculous. They too have the same question on their agenda “what is he doing..”. The only difference is, their focus is to see what is he doing wrong, and what I can pick from his deeds and words so that I can throw that at him as dirt… with an absolute satisfaction in screaming out loud to say that “see, look, I told you this guy is an absolute s#!t and he knows nothing and he is this or that…”. They may have in their suitcase the certificates of MBA or honors of PhD or whatever from Ivy league universities …. but awfully failed to absorb in them the qualities those very universities were known to be the cradle of.

LEARN FROM ATHLETES: When an athlete walks into his track, his aim is not to ‘defeat’; his aim is to ‘win’. There is a difference. When your focus is to defeat, you generate negative thoughts; your focus is not on your strength but on all the great achievements of your competitor, giving it a negative aura; when your focus is to ‘win’, your focus is on your strength and your vision to achieve – to cross that finishing line ‘first’, and in a graceful manner….so that you can run another lap around the stadium with the bouquet of achievement deeply engraved in you.

In his book “As A Man Thinketh”, James Allen wrote this: “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires”

The people in the first category, they resign to the folds of night with satisfaction in their heart and a hope in their mind for an even better morning.

The people in the second category, they resign to the claws of night with vengeance and hatred fuming in their heart and unfinished strategies for the morning…

I adore the first…

… and I am privileged to have known a few who belongs to this.

I abhor the second…

… and I know at least one for sure whom I got introduced to recently who is a strong contender for this award, who is unfortunately focused on defeating me, and not winning for himself; whose challenges are to uproot me, and not spreading his roots!