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This is an excerpt from the book 'Manuscript in Accra', by Paulo Coelho. People are asking questions here, answers to which is being explained by the Copt (a learned character in the book). A merchant asks him, ‘Describe the defeated ones’, and the Copt replies. The snippet in the image is a part of that answer. I loved this part because it essentially focuses on having expectations. Yes, like all other traits of a valiant, having expectations is also one of them. It might make us disappointed when something does not come as expected. But to stop expecting in the next go is like letting go off the spark from our lives. Having expectations is like carrying the spark, the purpose within ourselves. And I believe it defines characteristics of a human. Why are we so determined to turn inhuman? Why are we so determined to let go off all the expectations? Just because we don’t wish to get hurt?
Getting hurt, nursing ourselves, and getting back into the battle should be the spirit of our lives. When expectations break it is a defeat. But it can also be a failure by our choice. Failure does not allow us to expect again. We should know that defeat is a part of our lives. Only the defeated know love. Only the defeated ones will know the honor of losing and the joy of winning.
‘Be who you are…’ I have come across this as a teaching in many books, numerous articles on the internet about self-improvement, as well as in the movies. I have no doubt on this that it is an instinct which successful ones had in them. Even in the book ‘The Winner Stands Alone’ by Paulo Coelho, the message has been delivered to stick to the original in you and you will stand away from the crowd but on the right track towards success. And this notion somewhere suffice to comply as a trait and add up with many other traits that a winner possess.
But I seldom confuse myself. This may be because of not having much experience in life, or may be because I am not able to understand the message in the aforesaid line completely. I confuse whether the statement is conditional. Secondly, I don’t doubt on the statement but I perceive that the statement alone is not solely correct. I believe that I need to look into priorities, I need to judge what is right and what is not, and I need to foresee the outcome of my actions before I apply ‘To be who I am.’
Our mind is a factory of thoughts. Many thoughts produced go overlooked while many others make us contemplate. And I contemplate and I find I cannot be entirely who I am at all instances. I need to look if my team-mates are not being offended as a result of my strict nature towards achieving quality performance. I need to get a bit flexible to allow everyone to perform together, happily. I don't like to talk much, but when I am on the job as a salesman I need to be expressive, patient, and talkative. Stupid examples they may sound, but to me they are like few of instances out of many where I cannot be simply who I am. I need to look into other parameters like my priority, foreseen outcome of my actions, or to be say simply in a profitable position. To be who a drug dealer is, or a criminal mastermind to be what he is, that’s completely wrong and that cannot be preached. Wrong doing and right doing, and our ability to judge them, drives what we want to be and what we should be. The statement ‘To be yourself’ is a culmination of attributes that blend our stand in our lives. It stands above all in the hierarchy of self-improvement traits. When all traits below have been considered, then only the top one can be fetched, and that adds a whole lot of meaning to the statement itself.
Life is not entirely about me and myself. I am just one of the person on this planet, which is just one of the planet of this unfathomable universe. To the life as I see, I don’t find there is anything that lies at the elemental level solely with all the importance. Life is all about totality, various constituents of it combining together to form a meaning. You add two independent things and we get a meaningful thing, you add two meaningful things and that would yield a third meaningful thing. Likewise, to be who I am, that signifies to its truest meaning when all forms of traits combine together. All those traits together would define me what truly I am, or what I choose to be.
