Everytime we step out of our houses, the mind senses a bizzare euphoria. Each step forward… and the burden of expectations keeps increasing. If it’s a walk towards temple, the expectation to commit less sins increases. If it’s a walk to the park, the expectation to stay fit increases. If it’s a walk towards our work places, the expectation to achieve better results increases. If it’s a walk towards meeting our friends and families, the expectation to make them feel special increases. And so on… But I always hunt for an answer, how much do we strive hard to keep fulfilling our expectations.

“Fulfilling expectations is not just about achieving targets. It’s more about mastering the art of balancing the many facets of day-to-day activities. It is more like walking across the Niagra falls on a thin rope with a pole stick of expectations in hand. The finishing end depicts the goals while the rock deep bottom depict the people or elements that want to pit you down.” – (ref. The Pink Slip)

While writing this blog I came across two particular words that got etched in my memory. “Passion” and “Compassion”. The meaning between both these words are miles apart but somewhere down the line they are interconnected.

“Shower your compassion with passion and follow your passion with compassion.” – (ref. The Pink Slip)

If I have to choose the best line I may have written or the best lesson that I have learnt till date then the above statement tops my charts. Consider the following scenarios to justify my statement.

Shower your compassion with passion.

There are people in our lives whom we love more than ourselves. We categorize them into family, friends and lovers. It’s natural that we shower our affection and love for them till fullest. But to be honest enough, our affection and love for them lasts only till they live upto our expectations. And to be more honest, we raise our bars of expectations from them skywards with every passing time. But the flaw is that the compassion, the affection and the love fizzles out with them being unable to live upto it.

Consider this: A parent showers compassion generously on its child by giving materialistic gifts, worldly pleasures, etc. with a hope that the child will study well, get good marks, top the grades, studying in IIMs and IITs, etc. But once the child fails to carry the burden, the compassion turns into hatred, agony, angst and many degrading emotions. A sportsman wins sports, wins laurels for the country, becomes an idol for his/her country fellows and carries a burden of expectations of billions of people. Suddenly, he/she hits the rough patch. His admirers turn into the people who loathe him/her. And soon, the national hero turns into a villain.

The result: The child lacks motivation during his/her testing times and loses the way. The sportsman’s life goes haywire. Negativity engulfs the child and the sportsman. And the rest is history.

What needs to be done is being passionate above motivating the child. What needs to be done is being passionate about stemming the faith in the sportsman to hit the purple patch.

I am glad to see parents and sports coaches who say, “I am proud of my child/student even though he has failed. Atleast he/she has given me a proof that he/she has tried.” Success and Failure are temporary. Attitude is permanent.”

Follow your passion with compassion.

Let us be honest to ourselves, most of us feel about being at a wrong place at a wrong time. Most of us are trapped in doing wrong jobs for the wrong people. We work as a slave of money. Instead of treating money as an incentive, we treat money as a motive. At some point of time, we get exhausted and we realise that we lacked passion in our work. Sometimes being over passionate backfires. They say too much is too bad, being too much passionate leads to obsession and fatal finale. It is better to keep our passions into check.

Consider this:It is my personal experience. For me, doing business was an incentive but writing was a passion. But juggling between both the activities took a toll on my health. I became over passionate to earn enough bucks as fast as possible. At the same time, I became over passionate to churn out articles, poems, stories as fast as possible.

The result: I couldn’t achieve my business targets. My graph as a writer went downwards. And I hit a recession and a writer’s-bloc almost at the same time. I lacked passion in expanding business. I lacked passion in writing again. The reason… For being over passionate and mainly for turning passion into obsession.

It’s three years since I got out of my worst phase. I am thankful for my failures. It taught me some valuable lessons. It taught me how haste is waste. It taught me how jack of all traders makes master of none.

One simple way of beating the worst phase is TAKE A BREAK. If you know you cannot do it, just don’t do it. Like our body, our soul too needs a break. STAY SILENT AND CALM. Like sportsmen say, form is temporary but class is permanent. Don’t feel ashamed of failing. Feel proud of not giving up.

I hope these candles of passion and compassion stay lit forever in your lives.