We either Thrive or Die. There is nothing in between.
In recent days, this has almost become my Mantra. The more I remember this, the more I push myself to do better. But despite the constant reminders, somedays I tell myself:
“It's okay. One day wouldn’t hurt,” and the story continues. Just like a Hamster wheel. Until today…
Like every self-responsible person, I have goals too. Bigger Goals. And I am confident in making every dream a reality. As you might know, standalone confidence can accomplish nothing. It needs its fuel to keep the fire burning.
The Fires like consistency, Intensity and, most essentially, the Will Power to keep doing it especially on the days you don’t feel like it.
I wasn’t a great person to keep up with it.
I am either on the verge of Himalayan Motivation, or I am deep down the sinkhole. There is no in-between. So if you see, though I show up on stories, social media with super optimistic energy — I have my low days too.
And what makes me stand out — and still keep doing it, is the story I tell myself. The story that my Mom reinforced today.
Mom’s Practical Example:
Every day, I have the habit of going to the terrace early in the morning and journalling. I either catch insights, brainstorm, strategise or simply write. Stories, Poems, anything that would make me feel ME. That’s a no-pressure zone for me.
And after that, I water the 48 plants we have on the terrace ranging from vegetation, flowering plants, cactus, climbers etc.
Today, my Mum woke up early and came up to say a relaxed Good Morning. After a few minutes of chitchat, when she was prepared to leave — we had the following conversation:
Mom: “The Drumstick flowers had fallen down. Damn! Every time the flower appears, the wind picks up speed, and the flowers fall. This has become a routine now!”
Me: “Haha, yeah! Maybe we should shift places. I think we should get a Rubber Plant here and shift the Drumstick to the ground.”
Mom: “Rubber plants can’t thrive here. It's a Tree. If you keep it here, it will be good just for a few days; after that, you will see the leaves shrinking and the plant becoming too stringent.”
Me: confused. “Shrinking? But Why? The Rubber plant has broad leaves and is heavy. Why do you think the leaves will shrink?”
Mum: “Have you seen how the Hibiscus plant has grown? Hibiscus always has leaves as broad as your Palm. It has deep roots and grows to be a tall shrub. But now, since we kept it in a pot — see the leaves. It's barely the size of a baby’s palm. And have you noticed how the leaves come in now? They aren’t even spreading. That is what happens when you don’t allow space for the roots to penetrate. The plant adapts to the existing surroundings and never grows beyond. It shrinks its leaves and stops expanding”
Me: Woah, Woah, wait. Wait. Damn! This is it! This is it!
Mom: “What is what?”
Me: “You have no idea! Mom! You are a Genius!”
And as soon as I heard it, loads of realisation struck me.
If you see, the concept is as powerful as it can get.
Living Beings have this unique characteristic where they adapt, evolve and settle in where they think their LIFE ends. It's like how Water spreads all over the space of the container, How air expands when there is space and becomes compressed when there isn’t.
The Laws of the Universe are the same for all entities.
So if you notice, highly creative people, when they realise this is where life is. Or in other words, when they lose hope, they give up. And they shrink their potential to create tiny leaves that wouldn’t need many resources to spread or expand.
This way, they do not need to get out of their comfort zone to fuel their dreams or activities or even make a little effort to get what they dreamt.
This is why the environment you are in and the space you give yourself to grow your roots is essential and plays a vital role in your development and evolution. If you see people who have expanded themselves, it's not that they didn’t have obstacles or were privileged. It's just that they were tough enough to spread their roots deeper and fetch the resources they needed to expand.
Though I always remembered this, Today, I understood what it meant.
You either Expand or you Deteriorate. There is no middle ground for it. There is nothing as staying as it is or stale growth. You either scale or diminish. Now get it through your head and ask yourself.
That’s precisely what I did.
I ask myself, in every activity I do — every hour I spend — am I moving closer to who I wanted to be? Because Now, I know one thing clearly.
If not NOW, then NEVER.
