recette du succès

 Sir Benjamin Franklin once quoted, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” His quote implies that planning is the key to every great thing that is going to shape your future, be it your career, finances, a family, annual vacation just everything and anything in this small world of ours requires planning, effort and a follow through. He is further emphasizing on the fact that if you don't put forth the effort to consider what's to come, have a path to reach your goal, and know ahead of time how you're going to deal with foreseeable challenges on the way, you're leaving yourself subject to the whims of fate. This quote also seems to be dismissing people who are shiftless and short sighted to formulate a plan and an esplanade for their ensuing life.

Planning is the first and the most vital step for pursuing goals, one can say it is the root which is more important and deeper than our imaginations. As children we were always taught to organize, create a timetable for ourselves, write what we want to become when we grow up and it didn’t make any sense then, but today, at this age when our mind is the most vulnerable and does all sorts of things, it is all starting to make sense. Planning is necessary because it aids in organization, helps complete our goals, keeps a good control, facilitates proper coordination, eases the process of decision making, marshals oneself in the right direction and most importantly motivates and increases the self confidence of the person.

I would like to share the story of Miss Bonita Das, aged 17 who lives in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. For a segment in their “College Expedition Series” the producers of a show airing on CW Channel, decided to travel to schools around India and have a dialogue with the students about what they had planned for their life after school. Almost all the students that they spoke with had a specific goal and a career path to follow. But when they met Bonita Das of ‘Tagore International School’, they were tongue-tied. Miss Das didn’t know what career she wanted to pursue, which college she desired to seek admission in, nor did she approximate the percentage of marks she would score in her 10^th grade board examinations. Every student has a brief idea of what they’re going to score but Miss Das was a completely different student. The producers of the show were very invested in Bonita’s story, and it also garnered an amazing response from the audience. Hence after a couple of months, they decided to do a follow through and decided to interview Miss Bonita Das and ask her how much she scored and how her college life is going on. Turns out Miss Das did extremely well in her board examinations, scoring 96.78%, but due to her lack of planning she couldn’t zero in on a college and as the deadline passed away, she wasn’t allotted a college and now works in her father’s interior firm.

The story of Miss Bonita Das is a validation of the fact that planning plays a very vital role in one’s life. According to a recent survey conducted by the ‘Washington Post’, 53% of Americans, 46% of Europeans and 39% of Asians are unsure about what they want to with their lives after school, which is threatening and more steps have to be taken to ensure that students who are the face of the future make decisions that favor the society and help shape their lives.

 I would like to conclude by quoting a few lines by Charles Dickens, “I never could have done what I have done without the habits of planning, punctuality, order, diligence, and the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time”. These are the key ingredients for the ‘success’ recipe.