Prove or Improve???

When I was a kid, my parents and friends used to tell me “Prove Yourself”. I adhered to this mantra for quite a long time. In fact, it has been a graffito in my room for long.

But after all these years, when I look into this phrase and the way it can affect someone’s thought process, I am not very pleased.

When I say “Prove Yourself”… the question is to prove what? And against what? And to whom?

If the answer to the above questions are –

Prove what I have. Against my peers. And to the people around me.

Then the next question is “Does it solve the purpose- The purpose of my very existence?” If life is all about showing what I already have, against the people who are more or less same to me, to the people who does not mean much to me… I think its no life then. If I waste my whole life in proving what I have, when will I find the time to add into what I already have? That thing, called “Value Addition”, will never happen to me.

There are people in this world who spend their whole life in proving what they can do and in this they loose the opportunity to explore areas.

Hey! If we alter this phrase just a bit, we see a huge-huge difference!!! “When I say to myself “Improve Yourself”, it’s totally a different take on life then. Here, the concept is competing with yourself, for achieving your own benchmarks and, hey, you don’t have to prove things to others but yourself. B’coz when you say “Improved” you already said “I-M-Proved”!!!!!! Isn’t it amazing?

Exploring new universes, reaching out for new stars, and without waiting for the world to acknowledge (b’coz the world takes a lot of time to do that, and you simply can’t wait!!), attaining new heights; that’s how you make a wonderful life, I suppose.