How to Make our Lives useful?

If you wish to make your life useful, congratulations my brother or sister. You definitely are the rarest of the gems to be found on this earth. You undoubtedly are born with a purpose, to guide others around you and create awareness about the bigger picture of life.

Firstly, we should know why to make our lives useful. I find these two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, very inspiring and it serves as a beacon light for my ship, of which I'm the captain.


A Psalm of Life


Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By The Fireside : The Builders

All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,

Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Else our lives are incomplete,

Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain

To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


Courtesy:  www.poemhunter.com

Now, How to make our lives useful?
It's quite easily done.

DEVELOP AND PRACTICE CHARACTER. Just like Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin listed 13 virtues to empower the self. He made a chart to track his progress.(which is very essential,if not tracked, negativity creeps in)

He practiced them at a rate of one virtue/week and would repeat the process after 13 weeks. He would mark a dot against the virtue he violated that day. In the chart below, he is practicing Temperance for the whole week and on Sunday he is found violating, sincerity twice and order once.  

• Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation. If you provide good and light food to your stomach,your brain functions effectively. I don't need a degree in life sciences to tell this.
• Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversations. As they often lead to destruction of the inner peace. Speech is one of the precious gift we have received from god, just think of those dumb brothers and sisters, you'll realize the power of speech. Use it wisely.
• Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time. Keeping order helps in decluttering your mind and increases your productivity. To have time slots for routine works will help you achieve RHYTHM in life.
• Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. Don't procrastinate, because you'll condition your mind to procrastination and feel incompleteness pricking you often. Just do it, without expecting a reward, give your best.
• Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself i.e. waste nothing. There is a big difference between frugality and stinginess. Only experience gained by practicing this virtue can tell you the difference. Time is money. So don't waste time, spend your energy in doing something good to yourself or others. Respect time and be respected.
• Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut of all unnecessary actions. An empty mind is a devil's workshop.Be conscious of what you are doing every moment; in the beginning it's bit tough but as you practice it regularly, it'll be a walk over the cake. By being conscious you can distinguish between the necessary and unnecessary actions.
• Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly;and,if you speak,speak accordingly. Be truthful. Cheating others is cheating yourself. Say if you copy and paste the answers from your friend's paper in an exam. You get caught and the invigilator debars you from taking this years exam. You don't want your parents to know about this, so you make up stories. Your parents won't stop there, they'll have an inquiry made in the school. You may have to perpetuate the sin of lying or be truthful and admit your mistakes. If latter is what you prefer then study hard and pass on your own effort.
•  Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty. The latter is specifically addressed to some in-disciplined government employees. This injustice is the root cause for corruption, terrorism, poverty,etc.
• Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. If someone is deliberately causing you harm or abusing you without any fault of yours, neither fight with them nor compromise. Refrain from causing harm to him/her and deal with the situation with authority. Use pepper spray only if you have to but do use.
• Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body,clothes or habitation. If your body is clean,your mind is clear, so that you can make proper decisions. If your clothes are clean,you attract admiration from your fellow beings and needless to say that you'll attract stray dogs if your clothes aren't clean. Keep your habitation clean,However small or big it is, so that you love staying there.
• Chastity: Rarely us venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness,weakness or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. All great people mastered the art of SEXUAL TRANSMUTATION. All of us know about the law of conservation of energy but not in terms of sexual energy. Sexual energy is like any other energy, say electrical energy,wind energy etc. Sexual energy can neither be created nor destroyed( so don't try to control your sexual desire,instead transmutate) but can be transmutated to creative works like writing poems,drawing,painting,modelling,tailoring,gardening,cooking,decorating,singing,playing musical instruments,inventing,discovering,etc,which are useful to someone or yourself. You need a strong will power to transmutate the energy, else it'll be dissipated through physical channels. For more on this subject read "Think and Grow rich-chapter 11:The mystery of SeXual Transmutation" by Napoleon hill.
• Tranquility: Be not disturbed by trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. Sometimes it so happens that the Public Bus drivers go on a strike demanding pay hike and We are late to the office. We remember the angry face our boss and start grumbling with ourselves. Just stop and relax. It's not in your hands to end the strike. Next time make sure you vote and vote for the worthy party. Just note down these two important points and cheerfully receive your boss's rantings.
• Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Do something good and get unnoticed. Be grateful for your Teachers,family and Friends, for being with you and sharing your successes and failures;joy and sorrows. Just think will the flower look beautiful if there are no eyes in this world to see and admire it.  

Follow these golden virtues with sincerity and you'll become like Benjamin Franklin and the like. Character is the essence of all Religious scriptures and sacred rituals.


Remember,


If wealth is lost,nothing is lost.


If health is lost,something is lost.


But if Character is lost, Everything is lost my friend.


Until next time,


Love2Live.