Virtues of life – Part 3

Hope you must be enjoying and learning the virtues till here. Let’s move to 3^rd part now.

The next Virtue is the “Power of Discipline”.

When I was in school, our teacher and school administrator always emphasized on disciplined life. Frankly, I never understood the importance and always thinks to live life freestyle. But now I can understand that for any success you have to follow a good routine/practice, for healthy life you have to follow a strict diet and daily physical activity.

 “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn

In simple words, discipline is small habits built up over time. They may seem small but they serve a big purpose. You need to engage in acts of courage, but this has to be ensured that you dedicate and follow it every day. The more you cultivate self-discipline, the more it will mature. The most important thing is willpower, if you are not applying willpower, you may lose it in middle and you won’t get the benefits. For example, you need to discipline yourself to go to the gym, run every day, or read good books for 30min. Most often people live disordered life due to a lack of willpower. So willpower drives your discipline life.  So we can say that willpower is the essential virtue of an actualized life. So develop your willpower by practicing self-discipline and setting up systems in your life.

The next Virtue would be “Respect your time”.

You know the biggest asset in our life is “Time”. We came to earth and we are taking breaths till we are alive. The time between birth and death is the actual period we have. Time is nothing but valuing what we are achieving in life, be its money, respect, or peace. We all have twenty-four hours in a day, and effective usage by setting up your priorities will decide whether you will be successful or live a mediocre life. Time is constantly moving and will not wait for us. We have to understand the importance of it and see whether we can use it productively. Time is like a river that continuously flows and time mastery will eventually be a life mastery. Consider ‘time’ as a ‘train’ and your life as a journey. The train keeps moving towards its destination and one day when the train will reach its destination i.e. the day when you are going to take your last breath. Imagine you are on a deathbed and thinking that whether you have done meaningful for the world. Whether you are satisfied or regretting that you had wasted precious time on the deathbed. Therefore, please rethink whether you are understanding the importance of time and utilizing it every moment you have in your life.

Utilizing time does not mean not taking rest or enjoying life. For good health, we need 6-7 hours of sleep where the body maintains and recharge itself. All it means is to utilize it in the right way to do effective tasks and need to set priorities according. The best way is to start your day with the sun. You will get maximum benefit in the morning and your body is also charged enough to do much faster compared to the evening. So all high priorities tasks should be done in the morning and the remaining we can keep for the afternoon or evening.

The sixth virtue is “Selflessly Serve Others”

Helping others selflessly means we do not ask for anything in return. God has made humans so that they can grow and helps others to grow. This will give you eternal peace and you always feel good. “We should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing”. At the end of the day, what matters most is what we are contributing to serve society and help mankind.  Your kindness will give you satisfaction, internal peace, sense of responsibility towards others. Responsibility has to own, no one gives you. When you serve others you will make yourself responsible.

“There is always a little fragrance remaining in the hand of those who give flowers to others.”

We know Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, and Vivekananda, we all remember their contribution and we are thankful for the path they showed to us.  No one gave any responsibility to them, rather they took the responsibility and share their learning. By elevating others, you will elevate yourself. Always think about how you can encourage, inspire and motivate others. Helping needy people and spreading love in the environment.

This has to be practiced with gratitude at every opportunity. Celebrate other success as if this belongs to you. The bottom line is showing kindness to others will bring you happiness and you will feel divine energy.

Guys, we have completed six virtues so far, I know this is just a summary and a lot is there to talk about in detail and several examples I could quote for each virtue. I hope at least you are getting an idea of these virtues and you can try to practice these virtues in your life. In the last section where I will cover one more virtue and conclude this series. So let us move to the next and final part.