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The way of assured success || Acharya Prashant, IIT Kharagpur session (2020)
16K views
5 years ago
Success
Right Action
Self-knowledge
Decision-making
Goals
Victory
Worthiness
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the question of how to achieve success in any endeavor. He explains that success does not lie in doing any random thing; this is the most important point. The process is not about picking an arbitrary task and then investing oneself fully in it. The crucial question is to know why you are doing a certain thing and to be sure that it is worthy of being done. Success, and indeed immediate success, lies in choosing the right thing to do. You are successful in the very moment of the choice itself, without needing to wait for the outcome. If you have to wait for the outcome to determine your success, you are already unsuccessful. The key is to choose the right option, make the right decision, and fight the right battle. Once this is done, you are already victorious, regardless of the external result. Victory lies in choosing the right path, not in reaching a destination before others, which is a frivolous comparison. The real battle is in the determination of the goal, not its attainment. The speaker asserts that winning a wrong battle is worse than defeat, comparing it to speeding down the wrong road or consuming food the body doesn't need. To make the right decision, one must know their real, inner need. Your decision-making must be aligned with your core self. You must ask, "Who am I when not defined by others or ruled by my animal body?" When you know who you are and what you truly need, that understanding guides your decisions. This is the right decision, and you stand by it because you are choiceless. The game is over once the right choice is made. If you decide rightly, the game is already won; if you decide wrongly, it is already lost. The future holds no significance because, irrespective of the outcome, if the decision is right, you live by it, and that is success. There is no success in chasing and attaining an unworthy goal.