Day: January 8, 2012

This is the season for making resolutions. Everyone is making them. As I make up my mind about what resolution I should make, a little voice tells me that in order for me to achieve what I set out to; I must do what is practical and what is realistic. Being practical is defined as “likely to succeed or be effective in real circumstances; feasible.” Being realistic is defined as “expressing an awareness of things as they really are.” The pay off for doing what is likely to succeed and as close to the way they really are is the best way to make sure that your resolution will not raise any eyebrows. It will be a safe option.When Dr Devi Shetty, dreamt of making sophisticated healthcare available to all irrespective of their economic situation or geographic location, it would have been an impractical and unrealistic idea. Today it does not sound so farfetched. Today his network of hospitals performs 32 heart surgeries a day and sixty percent of the treatments are provided below cost or for free.When someone sets up a company to explore renewable sources of energy based on a sustainable development model for alleviation of poverty, creating new employment opportunities and reducing green house gases, the idea seems too big for someone to go after. Especially when you learn that Kumar Ankit is a 24 years old MBA who could have chosen to be in a high paying job instead of sweating it out in the rural areas. His dream sounds so impractical and unrealistic. Breakthrough ideas will always start off being impractical and unrealistic.What comes in the way of dreaming big? It is the fear of failure. Psychologists tell us that when we miss a goal by a whisker, the regret that we experience is deeper than what we feel when we miss a goal by a wide margin. So why not leverage this opportunity to dream on a large canvas. At worst, we will miss it and not have much regret since it was too lofty to begin with.Your dream must be unrealistic and impractical. Only then will it be lofty enough to inspire. Look around and you will see that there are people who are dreaming of audacious goals that are way too complicated to be done in a lifetime. They don’t care about how difficult it will be to achieve their dream.When someone dreams of raising money to run schools for slum dwellers, it instantly smacks of being unrealistic and impractical. So is the desire to find a cure for a disease that kills our loved ones. It could be a dream of finding something to conquer inside of us – learning to fight our own monsters. Learning to challenge our own abilities and what we think of as our limits can be the most impractical and unrealistic wish we may set out to fulfill.Let this be the year when you dreamt of something impossible. You know you will falter as you chase this dream. Let me tell you that impractical and unrealistic people are not deterred by setbacks. They develop the ability to pick themselves up and go right back to where they had left. A dream that is unreal and impractical has the ability to generate resilience like nothing else. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life said Sophia Loren. I would wholeheartedly endorse that philosophy. Let the fear of not achieving the dream not come in the way of our desire to dream of something grand.This year why don’t we all do something that is impractical and unrealistic? Think about it.——————Here is the audio version of this article. You can download it or play it right here. Go ahead, try itLatest Podcast by AbhijitBhaduri