As an Artist your work begins with a plain canvas and a box of colors. While the world sees a blank page, you see an image full of possibilities. While the world is still wondering what comes next, you have to imagine how it ends. You want to imagine the bigger picture, that is larger than life! But then it is too big to imagine and you begin small. You start with a splash on a canvas and work with different colors, one by one.

Similarly you start with a blank canvas and imagination of the bigger picture in life. You make life larger by starting small but by making things count. For me winning means something like this - you are content in doing small things with vision for the bigger picture.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, " Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony." When we were small we use to sing the nursery rhymes, remembering the prose word by word. We used to feel very happy whenever someone appreciated our efforts. As we grew older we started thinking a lot, we learned many things and we learnt to multitask  but we forgot to be happy like we were in our childhood. Because somewhere while growing up, we learnt to think something, we spoke something different and we do not practice what we preach.

We try to achieve a lot of things in a very less time like the Hare who tried to race a Tortoise. We forgot that in the end it is not the fastest but the patient who wins the race. The Tortoise beats the Hare in his own game.

Life is all about chasing your passion and being steady and consistent in your work. When was the last time you learned a new language? When was the last time you dodged a basket ball? When was the last time you did something outside your normal routine? We see nowadays schools have started teaching activities like Skating, playing Basketball, Swimming etc.  We were not so privileged to get these hobby activities. But then how many of these kids will continue to learn new things as they grow up?

Everyone is running a race, a rat race, defeating each other. But remember even if you win a rat race, you are a still a rat. As Rajesh Khanna says in film Anand, "Babu Mushoy, life should be big ... not long." There is no time limit to make your life interesting. Me and my partner started to learn Salsa, Scuba Diving and bag-packed across cities. We took our journey to meet new people to understand their culture and to try out new cuisines. For me these small things matter most.

"Life is all about story to be told and adventure to be lived not a check box making it a rat race." You don't have to spend a lot to win this way. You can start small, by treating every person with respect. Treat everyone you meet with kindness and goodwill. Strip down your ego and start small. Because every person you meet has some value towards your destiny.

The smaller things you accomplish the more closer you are to make your life large, to winning. All great leaders do the similar thing.  Our education system does not produce leaders. It just trains mindless population that know how to mug, memorize and repeat efficiently. But we forget that there is no rank after the 1st. You diminish your own self by comparing with others.

The world needs poets, thinkers, writers and leaders today. So take the winning in right spirit. Start something small today and maintain it at the tortoise pace. Slowly, steadily make your way towards the winning line, don't rush, enjoy the journey and appreciate everyone you meet on the way. 

After all a master piece does not paint by itself. An Artist somewhere is giving small brush strokes to complete the bigger picture.

Winning is all about that!

This post is written for the "Winning! #Conclave14" by Indiblogger and India Today Conclave.