Tips for a successful life —- my experiences

I can confidently claim that I have passed a successful life. I thought that it would be beneficial if I shared my way of life and reasons for my success: 

1. Always think positive:

You cannot succeed unless you have a positive thinking. There will always be challenges, ups and downs, success and failures. Remember that life is a package. You cannot always chose the best for you. You should not be disheartened by a failure. Failure is sometimes a blessing. If you succeed in first go, you will never experience and find solutions for difficulties that are associated with that situation. Trying again for success after a failure will make you think and you will find remedies for all possible difficulties. This success will be more solid with a wealth of experience.

As Quaid e Azam said “Hope for the best and be prepared to face the worst”, you should always think about possible failure alongwith optimism for success. You should never be over excited by a success or too depressed by a failure. Enjoy or grieve for that particular day and move on next morning as if nothing had happened.

Your strong faith in Allah (God) will help you.

2. Be honest with yourself and others:

If you are honest with yourself and others, people will trust and respect you. You should be truthful and never try to deceive anybody. If you make it a habit, I can assure you that others will reciprocate. This I have experienced throughout my life and cannot remember a single person who deceived me.

3. Believe in equality of humans:

            All human beings are equal. You should have firm belief in it. Social status is unimportant. Throughout my career, I had exemplary relations with my sub-ordinates including peons, sweepers etc. This is because I genuinely believed that if they had got proper chances, they might have been ahead of me in their achievements.

During conversations, I found most of them to be very intelligent. To this day, we meet each other with same mutual respect. In fact, the respect they give to me is unparalleled and overwhelming.

I have always believed that someone should follow you because of respect, not due to fear. That has been the key to my successful Administrative career. Relationships based on mutual respect are long lasting and satisfying.

A belief in equality of humans also means that you may get impressed by someone but should never be overawed. Nobody is perfect and nobody is superior to you. Learn from others with the belief that they can also learn from you.

4. Be self-confident and work hard:

Always believe in yourself and keep relaxed. You should enter a challenge with total belief that you can meet it, i.e, complete faith in yourself. However, you should be careful in choosing a challenge and weigh it beforehand considering your abilities and limitations, e.g. I have never been good in mathematics so it has never come in my plannings.

Remember that there are no short cuts. You may pass an examination but your knowledge will remain poor. And it is the knowledge that will propel you in future. My father always warned us against short cuts such as guess papers. He said that he was ready to accept our failure in a subject rather than success through these short cuts.

Do not cram …. try to understand the concept. It will make life easy for you and increase your analysing abilities. Throughout my studies, I never studied more than 2-3 hours a day because I developed my concepts. But when I studied, I was always totally focused, so much so that often I forgot to eat or drink. Even before examinations, I used to be so relaxed that everyone wondered.

5. Make punctuality a habit:

            Time is the most precious thing. We should realize it. The biggest punishment is death sentence. What does it mean? Time to live is taken away. All the developed nations have realized the importance of time. I spent five years in Japan. The Japanese do not count distances in kms. They count it in hours and minutes. I remember that my train to University had a one minute stop. During that time, another train also reached the station from the opposite side. In my 3 year stay, it never happened that I did not see that train coming during my one minute stay.

My parents put this habit in me from the very beginning so I had no problem. It has served me brilliantly throughout my career and it is the key reason of my success.

6. Stay ahead of time:

            There are two approaches to accomplish a given task. First is to attend to it just before the deadline. Second is to complete it well before time. I have always followed the second approach. It has several advantages. Firstly, you do not carry the tension throughout the stipulated period. You finish the job early and tension is over. Secondly, it gives you ample time to review and correct the mistakes or add something new. I remember when I was in Japan, my packing was complete one week before home visit and vice versa. 

7. Indulge in hobbies and extra-curricular activities:

Extra- curricular activities and hobbies are as important as your studies and professional activities. And I mean it. If I analyse my past, I have spent much more time on these activities as compared to my studies and professional occupations. I have been a noted cricketer at city level having captained the oldest club for many years. I have great love for traveling and written many travelogues. Beside that I have had hobbies such as stamp collecting and photography. Some of my photographs have won international prizes.

8. Love animals:

Animals share with you what no human can. They have the innocence of 3-4 year old babies but much greater intelligence. Remember that they lead a complete, intelligent life within the parameters defined by nature. Recently, I saw a video of a crane who took hold of a piece of bread at a river bank. Instead of eating it, he used it as bait to catch fish. By using that chunk of bread, he collected 7-8 fish which of course is much superior food, and in abundance.

Throughout my life, I had pet cats and dogs. They have been like family members. Currently, I have a cat named Sweetu. He is my best friend and we spend 2-3 hours daily solely in each other’s company. He understands my every gesture and talk and vice versa. He is a great source of happiness for me.