I came, I saw, I conquered...

I came, I saw , I conquered.. the words by which Julius Caesar succinctly described one of his victories.

I like these words since my early school days when I read about Caesar, in history. Any person may have positive and negative aspects, including Caesar, however, we must be like a sponge and learn and assimilate good and positive from our surrounding and the people and ignore the negatives.

These few words, have helped me learn... to create a path of success for any mission which I choose to undertake...

These few words may mean different things to different people. Conquer is mostly associated with victory @war, and some people may consider that these words depict pride and arrogance. It might seem to them to be words spoken by a monarch. People have various perceptions about things and other people. I respect that, however, here would like to present my version of this statement. The semantics which I attach to this statement.

I came, I saw, I conquered... To me this represents a long voyage of victory. We come to this world, completely innocent; we learn everything slowly and steadily. Have you watched a child growing? For them each day packages a new learning experience. How they learn to walk, taking small steps, falling multiple times before being able to stand up steadily on their feet. Slowly their senses develop, the sense of touch... Its a long, slow but steady process. I feel that exactly is the way we realize our passion, our drive. By being close to our self, we learn what makes us alive, what is the purpose we have on this planet. After this realization, there may be no rosy path to success and achievement in our chosen objective. We need to fall multiple times before we learn to walk, then climb and finally race.

" I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. " ---Edison

Each attempt which turns to fail, enables us to eliminates one possibility towards failure in our mission. It brings us a step closer to success.

This is the " I saw " part of the statement. One thing which really work here is, for whatever purpose you have chosen is: find people who have been successful in similar missions. Find a list of people whom you strongly admire and aspire to be like them. Read about them, find out their core beliefs, try modeling them as a part of you. Trying building those beliefs for yourself.

Then comes the time to take the plunge, infant we are ready to take the plunge. Success requires perspiration, there is no denying that. After all the effort, we must also make the right moves. Life is like a chessboard, we have faithful soldiers at our disposal, an army which is a combination of all strengths required to win; however, the right moves need to be made. Without making any move you cannot win. Ultimately, the reigns of your life is in your hand; come, fulfill your destiny.Make life the masterpiece it deserves to be.

This is the meaning which I attach to this statement. Would love to hear your thoughts/version, do share them.

Struggle: Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn't come before.

Let me tell you a story on Struggle... how struggle makes us only stronger and how sometimes we need to go through tough and rough times in order to emerge more stronger and powerful, with our skills and qualities better sharpened.

Little Ravi and his friends, Kunal and Mohit were playing in the garden. Oops, the ball went into the bushes. Ravi rushed to pick the ball when he sees a green caterpillar on the leaf of a bush. He is fascinated. Wow!!! What a peculiar creature....

He shouts "Kunal, Mohit!!! Come; come fast...See what I have just discovered!!!”

His friends were equally fascinated by the small insect, trying to make its way through the foliage of leaves.

They lifted the leaf carefully, with the caterpillar on it and rushed towards Ravi's home, which was close by; meticulously taking care that the caterpillar doesn't fall off.

Ravi got a small jar and put the caterpillar into it and also put some leaves for the caterpillar to eat. They all used the watch the caterpillar each day, with great excitement.

Ravi's mother explained to the boys how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

They were thrilled. They watched day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge out.

One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out. The boys flocked around it. They watched... the butterfly was struggling to come out of the cocoon. It tired and tried but kept failing.

The boys were very concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress! They wanted to help the butterfly.

Ravi rushed in and brought scissors.

He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly starting emerging...
As the butterfly came out the boys were surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. They to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. They thought that in time the body would also shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand.

Nothing Happened!!!!

The butterfly kept crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It was never able to fly....

The boys were very upset and confused.
Ravi's rushed to his mother and explained the situation to her.

Ravi's mother was a biologist. She explained that butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle.

The restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.

Coal needs to bear high heat and high pressure before becoming a diamond.

Lets not fear struggles. Perhaps it may be God’s way to make us stronger and more powerful.

Make a choice of what FEAR stands for you.

1. Forget Everything And Run
2. Face Everything And Respond.