Life is a long journey and learning is a perpetual affair. But we often become complacent with what we have and what we possess. We never try to venture out, beyond the probable and learn new things. The world has got so much to offer but we seldom show the presence of mind to take it. When this becomes a regular phenomenon, we slip into a routinised life, never really growing beyond our desks. The intellect is a very intriguing thing. We need to consistently feed it to keep it satisfied and satiated. And the only way to accomplish that is by learning new things and exploring the unknown.

Why are our birthdays celebrated? How much have we changed for the better since our last birthday? What have we done to deserve a celebration? In fact, more than our birthdays, every conscious effort that we make to better ourselves need to be celebrated. Every step that we take towards knowledge upgradation and expanding our learning horizon should be celebrated. And every dream that we could convert into reality needs to be rejoiced. If we happen to write our life's memoir, no one would be interested in knowing the number of birthdays that we celebrated but they would be far more interested in knowing about the repertoire of divergent experiences and achievements that we had in our life time. And experiences happen when we try out new things and reach out to the world.

The legendary vocalist Kishore Kumar was first auditioned as an actor. But he went on to become one of the best singers that our country has ever produced. John McEnroe, the flamboyant tennis player of yester years, used to be a ball boy at the Wimbledon. But later on he surpassed the iconic Bjorn Borg to win many grand slams. J K Rowling shot to fame from motherhood with just one book on "Harry Potter", which she wrote for her children. All these people, who were otherwise leading normal lives, tasted phenomenal success just because they showed the mentality to take a detour and try out new things. This made it possible for them to grow beyond the regular humdrum of their day to day activities and make life far more interesting. "We don't have to achieve something to be happy. We just need to be happy to achieve something."

We might have made many New Year Resolutions this year. But in 10 days, we may have forgotten many. In another 20 days, we may seriously think of aborting the whole plan and start afresh next year. But again next year is not going to be any different. In all probability, we may still flout and flunk the ubiquitous list of our New Year propositions. But, right now, at this moment we have an option to change our lives. To decide and do something different from what we did last year. It can be anything from weight reduction to learning a new skill. But we do have the liberty to stick on to our resolutions and make them come true.

Think differently. Live dynamically. This will add more color to the vast canvas of our lives.

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