How do you want to be remembered ?
(By A.Shanmugasundaram)
Many people wake up in the morning
with the greeting of newspaper. For some, it is very difficult to manage the
morning, if there is delay in supply of newspaper. Each one has a different
taste. Each one rush to a particular section of the newspaper, according to
their taste. Many youngsters search for the sports column and movie world news.
Some go through the political news.
But, some really go straight to
the obituary column. They wanted to know who have left the world. They
carefully read the messages. Especially some old men have the habit of reading
the obituaries first. Each obituary has carefully defined wordings about the
person. A person is described in short only in obituary. Some have died at the young age, some in the
middle age and some in old age. Funerals and prayer services make us sad for
obvious reasons, but also because we wonder if those who’ve died ever received
these tributes of their impact while they lived.
Just hold your breath for the question I am
placing before you.
If you are asked to write your own
obituary, how will you write and what will you write.
This is not negative thinking. Whoever
comes to the world has to leave it one day. But in between what we do, is the
matter. What adjectives you can add to your name ? What specific factors you can add to your name ? How your life is
fulfilled ?
Throughout our life we are busy for some
reasons. May be doing our business, doing our official works or honouring our
home commitments, we are running around throughout. We don’t have time to think about those things.
Why can’t we make our life a meaningful ?
Why can’t we live a life we want ?
Why can’t we live a life for others ?
Life is too short. Nobody knows what will
happen tomorrow. Whatever the role given to us in this world, why we can’t do
it in such a way that we will be remembered by everybody even after
our death.
May be we have not thought of it all along.
Just I am kindling that part to think it over.
What is a well-lived life?
How do you measure those
who have lived beautifully? Is it their bank account? Their collectibles? Their
charitable offerings? Is it their public acclaim? Their fame? Is it their
travels? Who they knew? If you say you do not know, look back. What has touched
you most deeply through the life of someone you’ve loved? Whatever it is, this
is your underground criteria for happiness and whole-hearted living.
Life is all about relationship. How much love you have expressed
in your life time ? The more you express the more you get, then you get
happiness, inexplicable joy.
If you are starved for love, it is not because enough people do
not love you; but it is because you are not expressing your love to enough
people. Love is love only when it respects the feelings of others. Love others,
not for what they are, but, what you are, when you are with them.
In the family, between husband and wife, instead of sharing more
love, only one to one seminar is happening.
Old people needs your caring eyes, your confident touch (confirming ‘I
am here for you’)
and ears willing to listen.
May be some things might have been left out or kept postponed.
Dig it out and do it right now.
Maybe
it’s time to honour your friends, family or even brief acquaintances by
acknowledging their contributions to making life better, in big ways and small.
Consider
the following:
1. Send a birthday card or wedding anniversary card and tell them about
your favorite memory of them or an admirable quality that they have. Do not
send by email or whatsapp. Use a postal cover with a stamp, and mail it. They
will probably save that card forever.
2. Send
an unexpected thank you note to a friend or colleague who helped you out.
3. Make
it a weekly habit.
4. Remember
and honour great customer service when someone makes an extra effort at a
store, restaurant, or other business. Fill out the comment card, or send a note
to the manager.
5. Use
Face book or a group email to sing someone’s praises.
6. Ask
for advice from someone you admire. People are often flattered and very willing
to share their insights. You honour them by your desire to learn.
Let us not live a life which has some in the list
of ‘things to be done later’. Don’t wait for the appropriate time to praise or
compliment. Pass it on right now.
Let our Life be a fulfilled one. Even in the last
day of our life, we can feel happy that we have our best in our life.
“Being
the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me…Going to bed at night
saying we’ve done something wonderful–that’s what matters.” Steve Jobs
(The author is a Psychologist/Corporate Trainer. Email: vptraining@yahoo.com
Cell 98404 85595)
