How To Live Your Life
Ruskin Bond imparts timeless wisdom and life lessons in this insightful collection, offering guidance on navigating the complexities of existence.
| How To Live Your Life |  |
|---|---|
| Genre | Non-Fiction |
| Author | Ruskin Bond |
| Month | Jan-23 |
| Medium | Kindle Ebook |
Overview
Ruskin simplifies life and emphasizes on embracing yourself as a unique individual. He adds:
- Do not force yourself to do what you do not enjoy.
- Define your purpose of existence in the universe. It is for you to discover and follow.
- If you can start the day well, the rest of the day will usually follow in a calm and resolute fashion.
- Enjoy the early morning sun. Grow as many trees as you can.
Learnings & Observations
##1. Starting the Day
By putting down my early morning thoughts, feelings and observations, and in conveying them to you, invisible friend, I am, in some way, asserting my individuality and justifying my existence on this earth. If I did not have this half-hour to myself every morning – this half hour with my writing pad and the sun on my shoulder – I would be a grumpy and dissatisfied man for the rest of the day
##2. Talent
- Do what you are good at. Be whatever you want to be.
- Give it your heart and soul and you will have something made of your life.
- Ability of giving satisfaction, giving pleasure is often a reward of your talent.
##3. Don’t Look Back
- Don’t look back at failure. Face it and put it aside.
- We must face all the problems - big or small - with equanimity.
##4. Finding Nature
- Ruskin has been growing Geraniums and finds them calming and soothing.
- Grow something my friend, take a small part in God’s creations and the rewards will be greater than the effort you have made.
##5. Love
- Two people, whose natures and backgrounds are totally different, are attracted to each other, feel a need for each other, and want to walk hand in hand through the rest of their lives, come what may.
- We love someone tenderly, deeply, selflessly, but our feelings are not reciprocated. The loved one does not feel the same way about us! We are cast aside, left heart-broken. When it happens, do nothing, my friend.
##6. Time and Life
- Time is a great healer. And the human mind is adaptable. The horrible days pass. The lovely weeks pass.
- Chance gives and takes away. And gives again.
- We cannot be at the top all the time. The graph of success reaches a peak, and then it drops – slowly in most cases, but rapidly in others. It’s the rapid decline that is hard to take.
- A healthy body and an enquiring mind are all that most of us need.
- Time passes very swiftly. Don’t allow it to leave you too far behind.
##7. Celebrations
- Celebrations! There is much to celebrate – just being alive, to begin with. Being aware of being alive.
- Celebrate every day along with the rise of sun, chirping of birds and get started with your day.
##8. Ideas
- No two minds are alike. No two roses are alike. No two kisses are the same.
- Nature teaches us Tenacity. The more intimate you are with the natural world - the world that exists without actually having to worry about how to exist - the more we will be able to come to terms with our natures.
- Tenacity is a quality that we all could do with; that is the ability to continue to do something for longer that might be expected. In other words, don’t give up easily.
##9. Life and Luck
- Treat every day as though it’s the most important day of your life. That sounds simple enough but isn’t. This day, today, brings with it the burden of all the days, all the months, all the years that have gone before and you have to carry that burden.
Ruskin adds - When I was fifty, I decided I was a failure. I had made a living, my writings had been published, I was in reasonably good health; but somehow as an author, my career hadn’t really taken off. I was just an “also ran”, and I felt it was better not to run at all than to be an “also ran”.
And then a publisher disinterred an early work of mine, my first novel, and presented it to a new and younger generation, and to my surprise it took off. Pure luck, you could say.
- We all need a little luck. And it will come if we give it a chance. Be an “Also ran” for as long as you have to. And then sprint ahead when you get your second or third wind.
- But life is not a race. The race is not to be won, it’s to be run.
Don’t be afraid of life. It’s yours to do as you wish. Take it. Cherish it.