Are You A Worrier or A Warrior?
View(s):As a youngster I used to constantly worry about my future, as I hardly possessed anything to start a life of my own. Down the line I began to understand that the days I spent worrying had only gifted me with nothing but emptiness, there has been no progress at all in my life during those days. Staring at a sick child and grumbling without taking him to the doctor is more or less similar to what you do when you are worried. Crying over a sick child saying “Oh! My son is sick, oh! My son is sick” is not going to heal him. It would rather worsen his sickness, as he is not treated for his sickness. Worrying about tomorrow destroys “Now” many a times. If you do not act now you would be left with nothing to take for tomorrow.
For instance, think of two people who have been given two identical plots of land, both of which are covered with weed and heaps of litter. One person looks at it in a pessimistic mind set, and worries night and day about the futility of the land, caused by the weed and litter. He does not think of an alternative to declutter the land. On the other hand, the other person takes an optimistic outlook on the land and starts redoing the soil by removing the weed and decluttering the litter. He plants vegetable plants, waters them, fertilisers them and treats them on time. In a couple of months, the person who kept worrying, was still left with the same land, even worse than earlier. The other person who chose to become a warrior over worrying about the situation is reaping his abundant harvest. The warrior transformed a futile land into a fertile land. Whereas the worrier retrograded the futile land into an even worse one. That is exactly what would happen to you, if you constantly keep worrying about the future simply because your present situation – “Now” is rough and challenging.
A day spent worrying is much difficult than a hard-working day. Working hard will result in a plentiful harvest, yet a day spent worrying will leave you with nothing but devastation. Are you a ‘worrier’ who endlessly worries about what you do not have and what you have lost in the past or are you a ‘warrior’ who steps forward with the little possession you have, amidst the many challenges you may have to face? None of us have the ability to predict what will happen tomorrow. A good friend of mine from Galle shared a real life experience he had during the Tsunami. While they were rescuing people who were trapped in the houses, they have found a man lying dead on a bed, between the top and bottom layers of his mattress there have been layers of Rs. 5000/- notes. Unfortunately he could not live a gratifying life with his possessions, he had to leave behind everything due to his worries about the future. It took almost a year for the world to discover a vaccine against COVID-19, yet the fear of death has never been like this before. Therefore, why not live this moment of time to its maximum by committing yourself to the moment, so that you could be a warrior than being a worrier.
Carrying forward the guilt of the past will not do any good for your future. Worrying about a child you lost two years ago will only destroy the future of the child who is remaining with you. If you fulfil your daily tasks, you can be assured to become a warrior instead of a worrier. On the flipside, if you do not fulfil what you can do today, then the only thing you can do is to worry today about not doing anything yesterday. A worrisome person is a person who is awaiting until a gem falls down on him from heaven. Many people are eager to buy lotteries rather than working their way towards victory. I never buy lotteries as I feel less of a man to rely on my luck, I would rather respect my abilities. According to myself and my wife, we feel that buying a lottery is as though a man whose belief is to win life by getting married to a rich woman with an enormous dowry, without committing himself to do his very best today.
Your worries about tomorrow will not reduce the troubles of the future, what it actually does is that it reduces the strength you possess to face tomorrow. Think for a moment, what would happen if you do not use your lawnmower continuously for two years? It will surely not have the same sharpness it had two years ago, simply because it was not used to fulfil the purpose it is built for. Similarly worrying will make you blunt and decrease your physical and mental capacity making you a blunt person. If you become a warrior you will be able to witness the victorious end of a battle, by using whatever the armory you have, without quitting the challenge down the line. You may collapse many a times or even hurt yourself severely during the battle, yet the spirit is to remain in the battlefield until the end, as well as to bounce back at every fall and fight until the end. If you do so you will be known as a warrior by your generations.
A warrior is unique in his own sphere, he accepts himself as he is and he always competes for what he believes is right. As I mentioned earlier troubles and challenges will always show up, but a warrior will protectively achieve his aspirations with his laser sharp focus. There is an inaccurate saying that ‘warriors don’t cry’, it is meaningless, because laughter and tears are part and parcel of human beings. A warrior may rest his sword on the ground for a moment to shed a tear but he will surely pick up the sword and go to the battlefield even stronger than before and fight till the end of the battle. Possessing an attitude of never giving up is the key ingredient to be moulded into a warrior. Likewise, the most dangerous attitude is to easily give up. Your decision to give up or to not give up will make you either a worrier or a warrior. Therefore learn to train yourself to stand between life’s challenges and your dreams. There is no other way to achieve your dreams than to demolish the barriers between you and your dreams.
In reality life is purely a war and you cannot escape that reality however much you may dislike it. Being a worrier will submerge you in misery whilst the desire to become a warrior compels you to live every moment of your life to the fullest. As my very first article of this series states “Your Greatest Enemy is You”, the harshest battle you will have to face is to overcome you. Once you have mastered the ability to overcome yourself, overcoming the challenges from others will become swift and easy. Just as every situation has two sides, so does yourself. There are two personalities within you. The personality that thrives to become a warrior and the other personality who wants to simply give up. The second personality is the one that is mostly fed. If your mum has been feeding you rice from your early childhood until 17 years or so, you become a rice eater. In the case of your mum feeding you pasta, then you become a pasta eater. You become what you feed yourself with. You are not just something that happened to you, you are what you chose to become. Twenty years ago I used to smoke over 20 cigarettes a day on top of the daily dose of dangerous heroine. But today I do not even need to chew a piece of betel. Think for a moment. During the last few years what have you been feeding yourself? Did you feed yourself worries about things that happened to you? Or did you feed yourself optimistic thoughts that can challenge the challenges in becoming a warrior? Take strong decisions, do not waver. You are born to become a Warrior and not a Worrier.
For comments: e-mail: philipnehri@chandanalepa.lk / voice: 0779526496