Success is the sum of small efforts!
By: M Ahmad
Success is the best destination for the mankind but not all people are able to achieve so. In current situation, we want to solve every problem very quickly. Hence, we do everything in stress, hurry and even use shortcuts, which may end us up in failure. We tend to forget that success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going”. One has to keep on moving, planning next actions and acting on them with confidence and persistence. It is not necessary that one has to be intelligent, or speedy in order to succeed. A person who walks towards the right path slowly but steadily, wins the race. Success comes to those who are steady even though they may be slow.
One of the greatest advantages of being slow and steady is that one learns the things in a much better way than one who observes the things in a hurry. If we are going through any process steadily and closely, then we can understand the situation deeply. It gives more time to plan and act strategically. This helps to deal the problem in a far better way than the one who does all the work in a hurry and always misses fine details of any process. Persistent learning always increases your ability to handle situations. Success is a reachable target if we are determined and work towards it regularly. Even a person with average talent can achieve success through persistent efforts. Nobody is born champion. Champions practise hour after hour, day after day, repetition after repetition until they reach their destination. It does not matter if you are slow. What matters the most, is how much you learn and improve upon it. Someone rightly said, “If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” You have to be with strong mind and don’t get shattered with your failures and others’ success, but should focus on constant improvement.
According to Bill Bradley, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” An average person quits after he is rewarded for his short-term efforts because he lacks perseverance. A successful person requires positive energy for consistent work. A consistent action is better than no action. Therefore, you should not be complacent at instant gratification and understand that complete success is a long-term effort. It must be clearly understood that if success were so simple and easy to achieve, then everybody would have been successful today. To sum up, I would like to say that there is no alternate to hard work, dedication and determination. If you do things in a hurry, take shortcuts etc., there is always a chance to miss the train to success. Slow and steady approach is the key to win any race. The story of victory of slow tortoise over fast rabbit is the motivation for all of us.
Modern life is a life of rush and hurries, stress and strain. The world has grown so materialistic that everybody wants to make a quick buck by hook or by crook, even by throwing all norms of truth, sincerity, love, kinship, friendship, etc. to the winds.This, however, cannot be said to be the real way to success. A man who tries to find shortcuts to success ultimately lands himself only in a blind alley. This is where this rat race for money leads us. People gain success if they are slow but steady in their work – even clever people may fail if they work by fits and starts – the truth of the proverb is seen in the story of the hare and the tortoise – nothing is gained by being hasty and careless it results in waste and loss of time – what one needs to succeed is the ability to work hard.
Success comes to those who are slow but steady in their work. It is not necessary to be very clever in order to succeed in life. Even clever people may fail if they work by fits and starts. Take, for example, a clever student who is lazy. He works only now and then. He is never regular at his studies. He might fail his exam. His failure is due to the fact that he did not work slowly and steadily. Nothing is gained by being hasty and careless. It is better to be slow and careful in one’s work. Those who do things hastily sometimes make many mistakes. Then much time is lost as the work has to be done all over again. It is better to be slow and steady. To conclude we might say that what one needs to succeed is the ability to work hard and to do one’s work with patience and perseverance.
This proverb underlines the importance of steadiness in our work. It teaches us that we should not try to accomplish any task in a huff. There should be regularity in our work, however short the amount of the work may be. Instead of completing work in a short period, we should it bit by bit at regular intervals. Any work done hurriedly may lack strength and smoothness. It may have weak foundations and clumsy finishing touches. The human mind can do wonderful things but it has its own limitations. If a man wants to become a scholar, he should study regularly for some time daily. He can’t cram all the facts by studying long for a few days. A tree does not bear fruit all at once. It needs slow but constant labour. At first, it is a seed. Slowly and steadily it grows into a plant and then a tree. It bears blossoms which take time to turn into fruit. In this way, we see that work done with a cool mind lasts long. It proves fruitful.
Failure is often caused by such factors as haste, thoughtlessness, and over-confidence, for which we are ourselves responsible. Owing to our common tendency to err, failure may not be entirely avoidable. But, with due care and thought in our actions, we can nevertheless, keep clear of failures and achieve success. Though planning and caution may make our activities time-consuming, the help in avoiding mistakes will certainly enable us to fulfil our aims relatively easily. The popular story of the hare and the tortoise is a good example of this fact. In life, success is a destination that not all the people travel and reach successfully. Life is a race, and moving in the right way takes us to the way of success. We all would have the famous story “slow and steady wins the Race”. Any task that we do needs to be finely thought of and we should not do anything in haste. We also should be steady, that is confidence can help us to succeed in life. The saying also means that if we be lazy and stop doing our tasks now and then we cannot win the race of life. So always remember to be steady in every task you perform without haste.
Life is a race that takes lot of confidence and will power to succeed ahead of others. But is success something that we can get with laziness or carelessness? No. We should be very strong in performing our tasks with dedication and sincerity. Yet, the important formula for success to be slow still steady. That is how the famous proverb came into use.There are many people who keep delaying the tasks they are supposed to do for sometime later. This might seem good in the beginning; but towards the end the person has to hurry to reach the goal. There is another famous proverb which brilliantly explains this. Success can be a reachable target if we see things with confidence; without giving up when things are not falling in place and being patient when it takes time to reach the expected destination. We can easily on top of everyone if we do it slowly and steadily. Success comes to those who are slow but steady in their work. It is not necessary to be very clever in order to succeed in life.
We all know the story of the hare and the tortoise. The tortoise maintained a slow and steady pace and won the race against the hare; whereas the hare ran in fits and starts, rested on the way and raced again, and lost the race. One’s pace of working might be slow but a well-controlled and regular application is sure to yield dividends. The little gains made are the stepping stones to further success. For example. a scientist works steadily and makes discoveries in the course of his experiments. If he were to rest on the laurels of his small discoveries, he would not get that insight into his subject which a continuous application helps him to achieve. One discovery is the stepping stone for further research and further discoveries. The lives of great scientists and other great men reveal the tremendous effort continuously put in which enabled them to make their achievements.
Slow and steady work builds confidence for one is sure of what one has achieved and what can further be achieved. For achievement is not a lottery ticket where you either get nothing at all or a gold mine. Working by fits and starts might not yield any dividends at all like the hare who lost the race: but working regularly and steadily is sure to bring one success. Slow and steady work always tends to gather momentum. Our struggle for freedom took one hundred years to achieve, beginning with the Battle of Plassey in 1857. It gradually gathered momentum at a slow and steady pace till it culminated in a determined fight to the death to achieve the goal of independence. If the freedom fighters had rested even for a while even the minor gains would have been lost and we would not have achieved independence even in a hundred years. It is very profitable for that person who works very slow and consistently, and after that, they act very faster rapidly and adequately. It is continuous efforts; even we will be at the languid pace, they also will bring good results. On the other hand, it also overcomes the severe movement and delivers the right efforts in life such as occasional efforts, even at a faster pace, seldom; it produces excellent results.
Some people are working in one place, but there are different things in another kind of individual. In that, there are so many people have some exceptional talent, and it brings failure, but when people do his work gently and ordinary, then they become to succeed in his life always. Therefore, the difference lies in the way of individuals who have worked. If everyone uses his intelligence and abilities in the right direction and place, then they will always be the success. If they take his work gently and lightly, then they will do it by fit and starts. But some people depend upon his merit and failed. The other man worked steadily day in and day out and became successful. Almost, people are attending the shortcut to earn his achievement and success, but it is the wrong method of life. There is no alternative to hard work. There are so many examples in history where the simple and ordinary person became a great person and get high fame in history through the patience of many years.
Therefore, we should work in a methodical manner. Regularity, punctuality and steadfastness bring success. A man who does his work slowly and steadily will not make many mistakes. He remains alert about the mistakes. His work will be superior in quality. Those who do their work in haste commit many mistakes. Haste makes waste. Therefore, we should not do -anything in haste. Only regular and punctual work brings success in life.
Thus, slow and steady wins the race. Regularity and patience are the virtues that should be cultivated and lead one to success in every endeavour.
(M Ahmad is a regular writer for this newspaper and can be reached at [email protected])
Kashmir Images is an English language daily newspaper published from Srinagar (J&K), India. The newspaper is one of the largest circulated English dailies of Kashmir and its hard copies reach every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley besides Jammu and Ladakh region.
