Why I Cannot Become An Author, Explained So Well By My Friend?

“You can’t hire someone else to do pushups for you”

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you change yourself.”

Three years ago, I attended the seminar that led me to remember my old dream of writing a book. It also led me to remember my friend’s negative voices, how they ridiculed me, laughed at me when I shared this idea with them.

One of my friends even explained to me that ‘Why I should not write a book’.

I remember his words when he said, Rajat–You are working in a startup, holding the responsible position, and you have no working hours. You need to take care of your spouse, kid, old age parents. Now taking this new commitment will lead you to compromise on your current affairs.

This seminar brought my dream back, and it led me to think about how can I fulfill my old dream, also ensuring it doesn’t affect my office & family matters.

I decided that I will produce one extra hour to achieve this goal and will call this my ‘writing hour’. I started waking up early morning.

It wasn’t easy to create the habit of waking up early morning. Though the dream, the visualisation of holding my book in my hand was so vigorous, that led me to wake up early.

After six months of consistent effort, I created a masterpiece in my book titled ‘Floating Happiness’.

Remember the formulae, Event + Response = Outcome. Life will pass the events to you, the way you respond to them will either bring a positive or negative outcome.

Do you remember the Gujrat earthquake in 2007? Well, I do.

After a few days of the earthquake, I watched the local news channel, which was interviewing people’s community to work.

The earthquake had damaged one major highway that was leading to the city. Traffic was at a standstill and what was normally 30 mins. The drive was now two to three hour’s drive.

The local channel reporter knocked on one of the car’s windows stuck in the traffic & asked the person how he was doing.

He responded angrily, “I hate this place, there are cyclones, floods, earthquakes”. No matter what time you leave in the morning, you can never reach the office on time. I will be late for work, and I don’t believe this.

Then the reporter knocked on the window of the car behind him & asked the second person the same question.

This person was smiling. He replied it’s not a problem. I left my house early morning. I don’t think under these circumstances my boss can ask for more than that. I have lots of music CDs and my ‘Learn Japanese–language podcasts’ with me. I have my phone, tea in my thermos, I have my lunch with me and have also brought a book to read. I am good.

Now if the earthquake or Traffic was the deciding factor to be successful, then everyone should have been angry.

It was thinking of positive thoughts and negative thoughts. Leaving the house unprepared or leaving the house prepared has made the difference. The way you respond to the event has made the difference.

I heard this beautiful story of Monty Roberts, the author of ‘Man who listens to horses’. When Monty was in high school, his teacher gave him the class assignment to write about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Monty wrote that he wanted to own a 200-acre ranch and raise through breed racehorses.

His teacher gave him an ‘F’ and explained that the grade reflected that he deemed his dream unrealistic. No boy who was living in a camper on the backup of a pickup truck could ever amass money to buy a ranch, purchase breeding stock, and pay the salaries. When he offered Monty the chance of rewriting his paper for a higher grade, Monty told him “You keep the F, I am keeping my dream’.

Today Monty Roberts owns a 4000 square foot house on a 200-acre horse ranch and still to this day has the school paper framed over his fireplace.

The bottom line is that you are the one who is creating your life the way it is. 

You are in charge of what you say and what you do. You have the power & you can’t hire someone else to do pushups for you.