Table of Contents Introduction Failure As a Stepping stone Stock Taking and Introspection Spiritual Quotient - SQ Building Bridges and Making Amends Making Changes in Your Lifestyle Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction Most of us are so taken up with the rat race of the 21st-century, that we have forgotten about how to live. We are existing only to pile up more and more material things and thus cluttering up our lives. Just look all around you. The majority of us are so busy earning money and a name for us is that we have forgotten how to make a real life for ourselves. Let us take an example of a man who decides at a very young age to be one of the success stories of the century. He is obsessed with earning money and he works 18 hours out of 24 to achieve that particular goal. And one day, if he is fortunate, his example is going to be set up as an example to be followed by other ambitious young men coming after him. People look at him with envy. He is going to be praised for being a survivor. He may also be considered to be a perfectionist and for being ahead of his times. For nearly a decade or two, he may be tracked by the media dogging his steps to record his every move, hyping up his achievements and applauding his style of functioning in the business world. But what are the side effects and the end result of being such a workaholic? He has now dedicated his life to earning more money, and buying more things to prove to the world that he has reached the zenith of his ambition, and he has no more worlds to conquer. But the media and the people around him are egging him on, because it is now a matter of pride for him to show them what he is capable of doing and achieving. When I was deciding on which career options to follow, in my late teens, someone asked me why I would not want to train to be a doctor. I had the marks, I had the aptitude and I had the ability to become an efficient doctor. In return, I told him that I would be wasting five years of my precious life, in training and internship. That would make me 22 years old. After that I would be training under someone for another 10 to 15 years in order to gain more experience. That would make me around 37 years before I decided to set up my own practice. Another 10 years before the people all around me got to know about me. By the age of 47, I would have been a total burnout working day in day out with absolutely no rest in order to make a name for myself among the cutthroat competition of doctors already present in the city or in the country. I would be suffering from tension, high blood pressure, incipient ulcers, and other stress related problems, because I would always be worried about possible successes and failures, potential malpractice threats and all other perils faced by successful doctors. All this was airy fairy persiflage, said my counselor. A doctor had a very lavish lifestyle, if he was successful. I would have everything I wanted because I had achieved my ambition of becoming a successful doctor and a name in my field. But then, I told him, how much time would I have to enjoy that material success? I would be on call 14 hours out of 24, during the training, with no thanks, except the gaining of experience. When and if I became successful, when would I have the time to enjoy holidays abroad, magnificent homes of my own and the latest stylish souped-up jalopies? I would have absolutely no time for any outside interest, except talking to my friends, where I would possibly boast of my own achievements and the things I had bought, all under the garb of asking their opinion about that particular lavish item.