Last week the Australian cricket team was able to teach a lifelong lesson to the whole world. During the ICC Cricket World Cup final, there were nearly hundred and thirty thousand people against them. The stadium was full of blue t-shirts shouting at the top of their voices saying “India, India”. Yet, the Australians turned a blind eye and a deaf ear towards the negative voices. They kept themselves tuned only to one voice and that was their inner voice of winning the World Cup and silencing that massive gathering. That is exactly what they did the other day by defeating India amidst a massive crowd of support. The entire ground became silent as they became the World Cup winners.

This teaches us a strong lesson in life that we should ignore all the voices that speak against us and focus solely on our inner voice which is based on our dreams. J. K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter was rejected not less than twelve times by many publishers as her visualisation was too large for them to fathom. Nevertheless, she constantly believed in her book and strived hard until she found a publisher and went on to become the author of a top selling book in the world. Similarly, I was rejected by many as they hardly saw any good in me. The strange thing is that now some people reject me merely because my transformation is too big for them to fathom. I have understood very well that a tortoise will not believe that an animal known as a cheetah could run at 120 KMPH as the tortoise runs way slower than a cheetah.

There will always be a group of people who will discriminate you, mischaracterise you and try to tear your goodwill into pieces, not because of anything but because you are way better than them. The million dollar question is: which channel would you choose to listen to? Just as there are various FM channels in your radio and it is up to you to decide which one to switch on based on your liking. You and I need to make this decision based on the voices we should be listening to and the voices we should reject, the ones that should be defined as irrelevant. Do not waste your energy on irrelevant battles. Recently, a person called me and said that he is going to compete with me and I just kept quiet as it is I who could decide if I would allow him to become my competitor or just make him irrelevant in my strategic competitor grouping.

You could either choose to fight with the stray dog who is barking at you or you could simply sing a nice song and walk away without giving the slightest attention to them. Just as happiness is a choice so is competition. Every fight should not be fought as there are many who are against our vision. Sometime back a tuk tuk driver overtook me scolding me in raw filth. Yet, I chose to ignore him, as for me he is not a competitor of mine. However, twenty years ago I would have easily got into a serious conflict with him. Twenty years ago, I was a drug addict who was inferior hence ego was my only food.

Now, I am a CEO and confidence is my strength. Inferiority makes you shout but confidence keeps you silent. The dreams of a drug addict and the dreams of a CEO opposes each other. You should ignore every voice that goes against your dreams and aspirations. There will always be opposing conditions when we set a goal to achieve a dream. It is our decision if we want to embrace the negative comments or reject them. You could decide to keep your gate open or shut it. In my life’s history I have got into unnecessary trouble by opening my life gates to unnecessary people who are mere dream thieves and joy killers. With maturity I understood that some voices should be unheard and only few voices are to be heard.

We are so keen on building boundary walls around our houses in order to protect them from thieves and harmful animals. But we are least interested in building a protective wall around our mind in order to safeguard and reject destructive thoughts and voices from entering our minds. That wall should be your vision or purpose in life. Anything which is against your purpose in life should be considered as irrelevant and not worth fighting for. Some kill people for just ten rupees of change. Isn’t life worth more than ten rupees? Some fight over few words of discrimination. Isn’t peace richer than your worthless ego? Ego is a sweet poison which tastes sweet for a moment but it would slowly but certainly kill your vision completely.

The reason that many wars have begun in this world is merely the ego of one single leader. What is more important to you, your worthless ego or your precious peace? If you crave for peace you could enjoy life even with a piece of bread but if you rely on ego you could become as miserable as ever even amidst an international buffet. This is the reason that we should be very careful whilst deciding which voice should be heard and which one should be ignored. As for the Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins, he had made a firm decision to turn a deaf ear to one hundred and thirty thousand voices and listen only to his inner voice. It is saddening to see many focusing on all the external voices roaming around their sphere and ignoring their own voices. That is why many have become so weak that their minds live on external comments and not on the internal voice.

As I have mentioned many times before, the competition is with you and not with anyone else. Therefore, keep training your mind to ignore all the irrelevant noises and listen only to the voices that align with your vision. You are at liberty to decide if it is a noise that should be rejected or a voice that should be heard. We do not have time to uproot the weed of other people’s lands as we should be diligently cultivating in our own lands. Why don’t you enjoy your life’s movie instead of switching it off and going to the balcony to hear the voices of the stray dogs? Many people have become empty lands as their only intention is to live a life that pleases everybody unimportant other than themselves.

Turn off the channels that make useless noises and spend more time listening to your inner voice which is your compass towards peace. Have a laser sharp focus towards your dreams and aspirations. Do not waver the moment you hear any disturbing noises. Be glued to your dreams. Do not be shaken by the external noises rather be driven by the internal voices. People are so blind that they are keener on knowing the material the plate is made of whilst completely ignoring the nutritious food that is on the plate. We are struggling as a country as many focus on the plate instead of the food that is on the plate.

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