Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow them.
– Louisa May Alcott
Sitting in the midst of a family get-together walks in a young boy of five years. I ask the young boy, what do you want to become? In delight, he answers, “I want to become a doctor”. Everyone is amused while the mother with great happiness shares on how the kitchen has been invaded by the toddler to posture with spoons and her stole. The big aspiration of the little feet.The child who aspires to make it big in films travels all the distance to watch the cricket match, only to meet and get an autograph from his hero.
Aspirations are universal, the key to one’s goals and achievements. When we have ambitions in life, unlike desire, we try to build a guiding strategy or path that directs us to that goal.These aspiration may be within us, called as intrinsic. We want to develop meaningful relationships, achieve personal growth, and to contribute to our community. When our aspirations are in the external sphere, called extrinsic aspirations, we focus on amassing wealth, fame, and a name. Our aspirations are often an extension or reflection of the desire to become like someone whom we consider as our role model, a person whom we admire and would want to imitate. We internalised the behaviours and try to incorporate them in our own psyche. It becomes ‘us’ overtime; we make efforts todevelopas self-reliant.
Motivation, the key to achievement, often stems from our aspirations or our desire to achieve something in life. Throughout our life our teachers, parents, employers and so on have motivated us to achieve in life. When our aspiration is strong, the motivation comes from our internal resource. When the force works on our aspiration to motivate us, it is easier to energise, mobilise effort and drive performance. The external rewards such as grades and increments come much easily when our aspiration and effort move in the same direction and work on each other. The challenge is when there is a mismatch between our aspirations and what we are currently doing. The very foundation that drives achievement- passion, desire and force -may be eclipsed. For many, extrinsic goals such as financial success, appearance, and popularity/fame play a greater role while for others, intrinsic goals such as community, close relationships, and personal growth are important. Unwarranted dependence on extrinsic goals may be considered as a sign of success in the external work, however, it is more likely to be associated with lower wellness and greater ill-being.
Mahatma Gandhi once said “Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from indomitable will “. Ira Singhal, a woman having Scoliosis ( a spine-related disorder which disturbs her arm movement ) from the age of 6 years has proven this. She created history by topping the UPSC Civil Services Examination on July 4,2015, not an easy challenge when one is disabled. She had cleared the UPSC Examination in 2010; she was refused to be accepted by Department of Personnel and Training. She had to fight her battle at the CAT. After getting the judgement she was allotted to Indian Revenue Service and posted as Assistant Commissioner, Customs & Excise in December, 2014. She did not give up, she topped the UPSC list fighting with determination and proved that success comes to those who dream with determination whatever block comes your way. This is not an easy achievement; she made her childhood aspiration live with courage & perseverance. She was privileged to have the support of her parents, husband and other loves ones who made the achievement a reality. Her achievement is the transformative culmination of aspirations, passion and efforts – the intrinsic motives and the familial support and favourable court ruling in the external world – the extrinsic forces.Her achievement is a clarion call to all those who dream especially those in disadvantaged position and often think of giving up. Her call is ours: The power of WE CAN.
Aspirations are relative; a person in a disadvantaged position may feel that her social and cultural environment does not allow her to aspire and emerge. Often we forget that these factors can play in opposite ways in different people; for some it facilitates and for others it undermines sense of volition and initiative. The way one allows the environment to act on oneself decides the sense of wellbeing and quality of performance.
Cultivating a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness fosters greater volition and motivation. Engaging in growth enhancing activities helps us to develop opportunities that nurture achievement and experience; increasing one’s skills enhances our performance. We are active and dynamic organisms who move towards growth, mastery and exploring new experiences; it is only when we or those around us thwart our progress and in the process give up, the challenges set in. However, to facilitate growth one needs to be consciously moving towards growth enhancing social nutriments and supports, thus finding catalyst that overpowers the negative forces that act on us. Being related or developing and maintaining close relationships with friends, having intimate partners and belonging to a social circle cultivates and enhances adjustment and wellbeing and provides us social satisfaction. When the well-motivated person builds quality personal relationship, it supports autonomy, competence and social belongingness needs that in turn enhance achievement of aspirations.
Researches have examined a plethora of processes and phenomena integral to personality growth, effective functioning and well-being. People with personal passions can act in opposite ways: become obsessive or work in harmony depending on the mindfulness in regulating behaviour and building awareness. When one’s ego is involved or self-esteem is dependent on external forces, the motivation one holds gets controlled or operated through one’s self-regulation and this that can hamper the sense of personal mental and personal wellness. Work on vitality, an indicator of both mental and physical wellness, has uncovered the remarkable positive impact of the experience of nature on well-being. Research has shown that supportive environments can impact functioning and wellness as well as increase performance and persistence. Autonomy in the individual is generated when the environment is supportive rather than controlling. Supportive environments that encourage relatedness and competence become interactive and increase volitional support. This in turn fosters engagement and value that leads to developing goals and ways of communicating our beliefs, preferences, and capacities with others about our future.
William James says-Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them. If Ira Singhal could do it, WE CAN. Let’s get our aspiration take us through the paths that we want. Let our positive approach and our relatedness show us the path that we should take. Let us get our passion and efforts help us move in the path we desire and let success be our mantra of life.
About the Author
Dr. Anita Rego is head, health programs at Effective Intervention, Hyderabd, India, a UK based charity, that works towards reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and child education in the most under-privileged communities in India, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia, in partnership with a NGO partner and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Rego followed up her MSW from Roshni Nilaya, Mangaluru, with an M.Phil from NIMHANS, Bangalore and a Ph.D from TISS, Mumbai. Dr. Rego has focused on providing a rights and a gender perspective to the programs through the promotion of empowerment and equity.
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