Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal absolutely made every Indian ecstatic. Winning feels wonderful! To have your national anthem play at the Olympics makes it so enriching. However, I was also wondering if winning was everything? There are many who are putting in the tremendous effort but fail to make a mark. Are their efforts not efforts? Why are we so obsessed with winning that we undermine the efforts of others who may have just missed. Can we fall in love with the process rather than the results?

What if we fully enjoy the game that we play? Live fully each moment of our lives? Congratulate ourselves on the knowledge gained when we read every day? Give ourselves a pat on the back when we take care of ourselves by eating healthy or exercising? My whole point is that if we can reduce the stress of achieving and just enjoy the process of learning, our lives would be happier.

That said, I just wanted to share that since last year when my mother (and best friend) passed away, I have been planning to dedicate a trophy in her name in the school where she made several students fall in love with Science for a huge part of her life. However, instead of handing over the trophy to the topper of the Science subject, which is a norm, I want to offer it to the child who made maximum efforts. This means it goes to the child who has the maximum difference between marks scored in pre-board and the boards. That talks about effort and not about the born topper. Please let me know your views about this in the comments section below.

Till next time, take care and stay blessed. You can read the previous articles of the series here and here.