Hisham Sarwar
It was a rainy day in 2017, Mark Zuckerberg went back to Harvard to get his degree. It was an honorary Harvard degree after dropping out of college almost a decade back and never going back. In his speech, Mark inspired aspiring Harvard graduates with his amazing speech and selection of words that inculcated his wisdom.
One piece of advice particularly stood out, you just have to get started.
Mark was emphasizing the urge to take action and move beyond thinking and the dreaming stage. If you watch his speech, it’s a perfect reflection of how fate and hard work make you go places and most importantly, make you successful.
Let’s shy away from Mark for a minute and pay heed to the importance of living your life.
Top five regrets of the dying, a famous case study of a nurse recording the regrets of dying patients who were terminally ill had everything one needs to know to get started. She asked terminally ill patients about the biggest regrets of their life.
The regrets included:
- I wish I had not worked so hard in my life.
- I could not express my feelings.
- I wish I could live my life, not the life expected of me by others.
- I wish I had spent time with my friends.
- I wish I had stayed happy.
Each regret or wish is a true expression of how badly we are entangled in the vicious circle of life.
It’s a race against time in a materialistic world. We ignore our loved ones, don’t express our feelings, and forget about living the life we always wanted, just because we did not have the courage to fight our inner fear — constantly telling us ‘you can’t do it, it has never been done before‘.
A major chunk of this fear is injected as we grow older. The naysayers discourage us to break out of the mental barriers and cut free to chase our dreams.
If we look at the characteristics of all successful people, we find that they chased their dreams. They were dreamers, and thinkers and they planned and executed. None of them worried about failure in pursuit of their goals.
Fast forward — You are still alive, and healthy and you can choose. You can choose to break your mental barriers, fight out fear and go after a life you cherished the most.
Get Started, Mark was right, the only person who is stopping you from being your better self is you. The fears and the stumbling blocks are all temporary and can be defeated with courage and the ability to make a decision and stand tall to the challenges.
There would be some setbacks, some failures but at least on a death bed, there won’t be any regret ‘I wish I could live my life the way I wanted to
