"keep the spark alive"

I was aimlessly surfing the Net, a few days back, when I came across an article…the title caught my attention, and though fairly long, I proceeded to read it, for I had nothing else to do. It talked of a spark within, that excites us, and enumerated ways and means of keeping it alive and guarding against the various elements that often play a vital hand in dousing it. On finishing reading it, I found it quite enlightening indeed!

There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. For instance, our first day in college – what would the new place be like? How are the new teachers like? How are my new classmates going to be? – there’s so much to be curious and excited about! The article hailed this excitement, this curiosity as constituting the spark within us that makes us feel truly alive sometimes. It is very important to keep that spark shining – being happy most, if not all, of the time.

This spark is inherent in us; we are born with them. Little things, like a swing in the park or a story from his father, get a kid excited! Often, however, this spark fades with age, making us dull, aimless and bitter. This makes it important to have goals and nurture the spark, in an effort to strive, to improve and achieve our full potential.

We are mostly from middle-class families. To us, having material landmarks is a success in life and rightly so….in situations, where money constraints often force everyday choices and decisions, financial freedom are indeed a big achievement. However, that isn’t the purpose of life – striving for the next level is important, because this can make us feel alive and happy to get better from our current levels.

Ensuring balance in life is essential too – health, relationships and mental peace, all in good order establish harmony, without which success in life has no meaning. Reasonable goals, balance, sincerity and not taking life more seriously than actually needed go a long way in nurturing the spark. However, different factors must be guarded against.

Often, our efforts don’t fetch us the expected returns; things don’t go as planned, get stuck and we face failure. We must be careful then not to let disappointment and frustration creep in….we must learn to appreciate the fact that if challenges could always be overcome, then they would cease to be challenges anymore! Merit and hard work are not always linked to success in the short-term, but the long-term correlation is high. Such situations may sometimes be difficult to overcome, but those who do, come out stronger. It is then essential to have pleasurable distractions in life – friends, food and travel can help us overcome it all!