I was listening to ,one of the world tennis champions ,recently. He said – “ Discipline is the bridge between goals and achievements. This struck a chord with me.

I also believe .that we all need to dream and set stretched goals in life. Then, we need to work meticulously ,to achieve those goals. It may be a good idea to set a long term goal and break them down, into smaller achievable goals in the short and medium term.

A good example could be ,our career and life goals. We could set our career goals as becoming a CEO of a publicly listed company. This means ,we need to develop ourselves as a leader and have all the capabilities, to lead a big enterprise.

This appears a desirable goal and can be achieved. But, what we see in reality is that, many of us falter along the way. The main reason for our failing in achieving, most of our goals in life ,is lack of discipline. We shy away from hard work and also do not break our goals into milestones, to be achieved along the way.

Imagine a marathon runner, who sets the goal of running a marathaon after one year of effort. If the runner thinks he can just plan for it and book his air tickets to the marathon city, the job is done, he may be in for a shock. It requires meticulous planning and seamless execution, to practise every day and achieve a lot of milestones along the way.

The first step could be to run a 100 metres race and check our stamina. Then move from 100 to 200, 400, 800, and so on. It could be a few kilometres of run ,after a month of diligent practise. Then ,aim to run a half marathon ,after six months. We may fail in this process or may not be able to complete the race.

Our ability to continue this journey and not give up ,will lead us ultimately, to run the full marathon after a year of hard work ,if we are disciplined every day of the year ,till we achieve our goal.

Life is no different. We need to set goals and work zealously, toward the sub goals ,along the way and achieve them. We could even celebrate the milestones achieved ,but should not lose our focus ,in continuation of our journey ,till we reach our goal.

Many of us set laudable goals in life. We blink at the slightest distraction and fail in our efforts to achieve our first milestone. If nobody is looking at us or monitoring our progress, we do not move towards our goal.

So, discipline is the differentiator between those who achieve their dream goals in life and those who do not. The tennis great beautifully put it as -“Discipline is the bridge between goals and achievement.”

Our goal is the destination but discipline is the road, which takes us to the destination. Many of us ,do not have self discipline too. We strive hard ,when someone is monitoring us or supervising us. The best of sports persons ,work hard every day ,without anyone watching them over their shoulder.

Let discipline be the road to achieve our goals from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

17th July 2025

All of us face ups and downs in our everyday life. However, when we have not done anything wrong from our side and something unfortunate happens, you wonder -“What wrong did I do ?

It could be ,that you had a great run all through the year and you were expecting a promotion and a leadership role ,but at the end of the year, you are denied the same. You wonder – What wrong did I do ?

I surpassed all my targets, I got positive feedback from my manager and he has assured me that I was grooming well, for the next level role. But, when promotions were announced, my name was missing.

You keep wondering and questioning, your own work. However, the reality is that, you have not got recognised or promoted. You may sometimes wonder ,if it is worth working so hard and exceeding all your targets and displaying your true potential.

The truth is that you feel very hurt. It may take a few weeks or even months to recover from this shock. I have experienced this in my career and hence I understand the impact it has ,on the individual.

However, when you recover and sit back and reflect, you realise that you did your best and deserved the promotion. However, if the leadership team including your manager ,did not see that in the same light – it could mean two things. Either, there was not an appropriate opportunity to accommodate you or you did not project yourself enough to be recognised or somebody more deserving than you may have been promoted.

Again, it becomes challenging ,to accept this reality. But, if you are able to get over this initial disappointment, you realise that it is your duty to do your best and present yourself ,to the best of your ability ,to your seniors. If you do not get recognised, it is more their failure , than yours.

It is like ,a cricketer has the highest average amongst all batters in a team ,but she is not selected in the playing level, for the next match. This cricketer will feel highly disappointed ,for not being selected. But, she has to realise ,that her statistics speak ,for her performance. It is more the failure of the selectors ,than the skills of the cricketer.

Life is no different. We may feel disappointed when we put in hard work and do not get the recognition we deserve. But, we need to realise that ,efforts is always in our hand ,but recognition is beyond our control. The best will never rest. They continue to excel and I can assure you ,that they can never be ignored for long.

We need to work hard and put our best foot forward ,in life or work, and leave the rest ,to the people responsible to recognise us. We know for ourselves ,that we have done our best. Let us leave the rest, to the judges of our destiny. Yes, sometimes, they may err in judgement. But, they are also human and so are we. We could feel bad and they may also realise their mistakes ,before it is too late.

Let us continue to strive for the best, without worrying – “What wrong did I do in life ?

S Ramesh Shankar

2nd Jan 2025

I wrote a blog on “How much money is good enough for being happy in life”. On reading this blog and liking it, one of my ex colleagues asked me ,if I could write on “How to balance ambition and contentment”

In my view, ambition and contentment are like goals and happiness in life. We need to fulfill our goals , but when we get greedy, we lose the race of life. It is like ,a sportsperson realises, when to stop playing actively and retire from an active sport. However, if the sportsperson continues to play even though his body signals to stop, he or she may end up with some avoidable injuries.

Life is no different and neither our career nor business ambitions, are. Let me first illustrate this with a simple incident, I experienced in life. We had a chaat shop in our township, when I worked in a steel plant, at the start of my career. This shop still exists at the same place, even today.

It is very famous for their chaats and gulab jamuns. They open at 6 pm and close at 9 pm sharp. When I visited the shop after about 30 years and enquired why they have not expanded or changed ,the owner gave me a very insightful reply.

There is a huge demand for the chaats and gulab jamuns. Customers queue up even before the shop opens and almost have to be evicted, when they shut down. They have more demand ,than they can cater to. He said he earns enough ,to take care of his family and is very happy with the way his business runs ,and has maintained his quality and service. He does not want to get more greedy and destroy his reputation, built over decades. It was a great lesson on contentment in life.

Our careers have to be evolved this way. We need to ,set a goal for ourselves. We need to work zealously ,to reach that goal post. We could stretch ourselves ,if we think we have not yet realised our potential. But we have to learn not to stretch beyond our limits, as otherwise ,we would break down. It is like stretching the rubber band. By instinct, we know when to stop. If we break a few rubber bands, we learn by our experience and stop at the right time later.

So, whether business or an organisational career, we need to set goals and sub goals and strive our best to achieve them. The day we realise that the rubber band in us ,is fully stretched and may now break, we need to stop. It is like ,when a player retires, everyone asks – “why now?”, rather than “Why not now ?

Life gives us ,a lot of innate warnings. We need to learn, to listen to our own body, mind and soul. The individual is the best judge, as to when to stop. A coach cannot and should not guide a player, to retire from a game. It is the player, who has to realise, when to retire with pride rather than being dropped from the team, unceremoniously.

Ambition takes us where we want to go and contentment teaches us when to stop. Contentment and gratitude keeps us happy in life. So, we need to be ambitious enough to achieve our career goals and stop when we feel content. We also need to be grateful to all the people, who made us achieve our goals in life – parents, teachers, siblings, friends and colleagues.

Let contentment help us balance our ambition in life.

S Ramesh Shankar

27th June 2025