Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

When I moved to US several years back, I learned two things on the first day of landing here. First one being " Whats up"? It took me sometime to figure that one out. My immediate response was "sky":) The second thing being " America is land of opportunities." Ok that is nice to hear, where is it? 

Despite the doom and gloom in the media about AAA plus downgrade., double dip,  depression and recession, I still think that there are possibilities for us literally everywhere.

We invite opportunities and set the stage for action by our choices, our study, our concentration and commitment. But sometimes, no matter how prepared we are, no matter how much we want something, no matter how much we recognize that this could be our big break, we fail to accept the responsibility before  us, perhaps because we are afraid of rejection or failure.

If you want to make a career as an actor, you cannot get the part if you never audition. Through interaction with really successful people as well as reading their works, I feel that successful people lead a life of no regrets. One of the saddest things that can happen when you are done with our lives and when God gives the DVD of what we have done, we should not give any chance for us to say "Wish I had risked more, loved more, cared more and so forth". It is sad to think what might have been. We must always open doors knowing that there will be great possibilities awaiting us when we do. All experiences deeply lived, no matter how much we struggle, are opportunities to learn. The greatest loss occurs when we don't expose ourselves to opportunities because we may be afraid of failure. Somehow we find inner strength when we persevere courageously. When we don't try, or give up too easily, we're turning our backs on the door that only we can open. I don't believe many of us really know how great we are in potential. We should expect more from ourselves. When we do, we bring out more from the vast reservoir of possibility that is in us all the time.

Our great task as human beings is to grow into fully expressing our powers and capacities. There is always so much more we can draw out of ourselves. There is a tendency among many of us to busy ourselves with  "this and that," to fill our calendar with obligations, and to commit to responsibilities that are not of our choosing that make us believe something, better and more extraordinary is not possible.

I have learned from Shobana to leave time every day to do what you want to do to prepare yourself for great opportunities. Don't hold back, reticent, waiting for extraordinary opportunities. Watch for the little opportunities right now at hand.

Once you start doing little more than Average Joe, you are likely to face disappointments and failures, but you can always be proud that you accepted an opportunity. Take whatever comes to you and make the best, the most good of it. You are accepting the challenge to be all you can be.

"In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity"- Albert Einstein

Reaching out and accepting opportunities is what we're meant to do in order to live well. Accept the gift of opportunity when you find it because opportunities are fleeting and life is short.