FIRST BLOG POST 2012 - MY RESOLUTION FOR THE NEW YEAR

FIRST BLOG POST 2012

New Year's Resolution

MY RESOLUTION FOR THE NEW YEAR

By

VIKRAM KARVE

At the outset let me wish you a very Happy New Year and tell you one of my favourite teaching stories – a popular inspirational tale titled THE CRACKED POT 

THE STORY OF THE CRACKED POT

A water bearer had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. 

One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. 

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot always arrived only half full. 

For two years this went on daily, with the water bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. 

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, fulfilled in the design for which it was made.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was unable to accomplish what it had been made to do.

After two years of enduring this bitter shame, the contrite cracked pot spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream, “I am ashamed of myself and I apologize to you.”

“Why are you feeling so guilty, so penitent, so repentant …?” the water bearer asked the sad cracked pot, “Tell me, dear pot, what is it that you are so ashamed of…?”

“I feel sorry that for these past two years I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do extra work and you don't get full value from your efforts,” the pot said full of remorse.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and was consoled somewhat.

But at the end of the trail, the cracked pot still felt remorse, shame and a feeling of guilt because it had leaked out half its water load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the cracked pot, “Did you not notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, and not on the other pot's side…? That is because I have always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we've walked back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty, these lovely flowers, to grace his house.”

MORAL OF THE STORY 

The Obvious Moral of the Story is:

There are no winners and there are no losers – everyone is a winner in his or her own way.

Each of us has our own unique flaws.

We are all cracked pots.

But it is the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what and who they are, and look for the good in them – most importantly, we must look for the winner within us, maybe hiding deep inside our own selves.

If you introspect you will realize that you are a winner in your own way so don’t compare with others and don’t pay too much heed to what other people say.

This message is for parents, teachers, mentors – especially those who want to achieve their unfulfilled, unrealised and unrealistic ambitions vicariously through their children and protégés, and hence, they put a lot of pressure and drive their poor kids and students and overwhelm them with high expectations. Yes, all parents wants their children to stand first. In today’s competitive world the maxim is:

Winner takes All and the Loser is left standing Small

This story is for you and me, for all of us, who want to be “winners” little realising that for you to be a winner someone else has to be a loser too.

Also, this story has an important message for those perfectionists, at the workplace and at home, who expect everyone to be perfect like themselves and this quest for perfection makes everyone’s life hell (including their own).

HIDDEN MESSAGE IN THE STORY

However as I let this story of The Cracked Pot perambulate in my mind, and read between the lines and delve a bit deeper, I infer another message hidden in this story:

This story tells us to BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS and FORGET ABOUT YOUR WEAKNESSES

Most of us seem too self-conscious about our weaknesses and spend too much energy and resources in the process of trying to correct our imperfections and we tend to take for granted our good qualities, our plus points and postitive features, our skills and talents, our forte and strong points, and we hence neglect our strength while focussing on improving our weaknesses and shortcomings.

Why not forget our weaknesses, our imperfections, and why not focus all our resources on improving our strong points…?

If you study the biographies of great persons you will realize that this had been their leitmotif.

They just ignored their frailties and concentrated all their efforts on enhancing and bettering their strong points. They focussed on their forte and achieved great heights and did not fritter away all their energies on trying to rectify their weaknesses.

This gives us a clue that the way to achieving excellence is: nourish your qualities and ignore your weaknesses and be a winner. I have experimented and tried this simple formula. It works. You can take my word for it. Now I am going to implement this modus operandi in the New Year 2012. Why don’t you too make this a New Year Resolution?

Constantly worrying about your faults and weaknesses and expending your internal resources and focussing your entire effort trying to rectify your shortcomings will physically sap you, drain your emotional energy and demoralize you since you will never be able to achieve the desired results.

On the other hand, working on improving your strengths and focusing on boosting up your positive points will give you a great fillip of zest and enthusiasm since you will always enjoy working on something you are good at and something you like doing. Hence, even the results are sure to be encouraging and this will further raise your morale, fill you with cheer and boost you with added fillip.

One always enjoys doing what one is good at and the results will be excellent too.

On the contrary you are likely to become fatigued and disheartened doing something you are not good at and, especially, doing something that you do not like doing. Hence, in such cases the results you will achieve will not be commensurate with the efforts you put in and resources you expend in doing these things that you do not like and which are not your true metier.

First, introspect and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Second, just forget about your weaknesses, your faults, your frailties – just get them out of your mind.

That is the key – you must accept your weaknesses as they are and forget about them. Do not waste your efforts, your resources and your energy on trying to overcome your shortcomings.

Finally, you must concentrate all your efforts on reinforcing, enhancing and building up on your strengths.

It is not worth it to waste your energies and deplete your resources on your shortcomings. Instead, it would be much better to direct all your efforts and apply your resources on further enhancing your plus points.

Try it this approach. Just focus on your strengths and forget about your weaknesses and see the results for yourself. You can be a winner, as you are, wherever you are, with whatever qualities you have got.

So here is a good New Year Resolution for 2012:

BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS and FORGET ABOUT YOUR WEAKNESSES

I am going to try following this. Why don’t you try it too? And then, at the end of the year 2012, let us compare the results.

All the Best. Wish You a Very Happy New Year 2012.

VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2011
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Did you like this blog post?
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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and he is currently working on his novel. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles in magazines and journals for many years before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for almost 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts. 

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com        

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.