Single-Mindedness

Single-Mindedness

1986 9 September 15 Single-Mindedness (326) An express train hurtles towards its destination without even in the smallest degree being distracted form its course. On both sides of the track are hills and dales, rivers and fields, lush greenery, eye-catching scenes, but it skims past all of these things as if they did not matter. Peaks and valleys, meadows and lakes, tiny wayside stations do not make an atom of difference to its speed.

A purposeful life is like the career of the express train. A man who has a purpose in life devotes his whole attention to it. He does not waste a single moment of his time in walking aimlessly hither and thither, engaging himself in irrelevant problems. He is like a passenger who wants to go undeviatingly towards his destination. The attractive scenes of the world come to tempt him, but, leaving them behind, he presses on. All kinds of demanding things may block his path, but he sidesteps them so that his time is not wasted in confrontation. Irrespective of the fact that life’s ups and downs run counter to his goal, his determination to proceed does not allow his speed to slacken one white.

One who lacks a sense of direction in life rambles along aimlessly. The life of a purposeful man has, on the contrary, a definite target before him, so that there is no question of his wasting his time in allowing himself to become lost in irrelevancies. He continues in a definite direction by focussing all of his attention on his final objectives until he reaches his destination and his goal is fulfilled.

To make life meaningful it is absolutely necessary that one should have a clearly defined and worthwhile target. It is this consciousness of purpose which distinguish man from animals, and in the absence of which there would be no way of separating man from animals. Full awareness of this adds new dimensions to life and avoids wastage of time in trivialities.