Our life is a result of the choices we make. When we look around in the world and observe people, we notice most people run towards immediate pleasures or the instant happiness which often does not endure for long. They indulge in short-term pleasures and in due course experience long-term discomfort in their lives.

You must be familiar with the saying that short term gain is long term pain. For example, whenever we take a shortcut we may get instant results, but the pain we experience later is very disturbing. Take the example of a criminal who cheats people. The gain is immediate but when he is caught and put behind the bars he is marred for life and that pain is very distressing. A short-term gain but a long-term pain.

Take the example of a business enterprise. A lot of people use shortcuts to climb up the corporate ladder faster. The faster they rise for short term comfort, the faster they fall down to an unpleasant, long term pain. When we use alternative ways to reach the top we do receive short term gain but it results into long term pain.

There are many actors who reach overnight stardom. They are tremendously happy and joyous at that time. But when the fame disappears they are unable to face those situations. This of course does not apply to actors who have spent years

and years in practice and gradually get fame. One such actor that comes to my mind is Hrithik Roshan who put in a lot of effort in bagging his fi rst hit. When interviewed he was asked, ‘How do you feel, becoming an overnight celebrity?’

He replied saying that ‘This is not a dream come true overnight. What you see is the outcome of years and years of practice which has made me famous today’.

Life is not about shortcuts. Life is about taking the long route consistently with perseverance. It may be painful and disquieting in the beginning but you will undoubtedly fi nd rewards at the end.

Food and Exercise

Let us take food for example – people love to eat fried and junk food. It is very pleasurable but over a period of time it causes numerous problems to the digestive system resulting in ill health. Everybody desires the instant coffee. Consuming it gives considerable amounts of momentary enjoyment.

Let’s take drinking and smoking for instance. They give instantaneous pleasure but the damaging consequences faced by the body are known to all.

No one loves to exercise early in the morning. But many people take that effort of exercising every day, realizing that in the long term results are worth hundredfold.

Many people ask me ‘What is the pleasure in getting up early every morning?’ But later on they realize its value as age catches up on them. I was one of those people. In the first 25 years of my life, I used to think why trouble the body so much? Reminiscing about my foolishness at that time, I realize, now I am compensating for it. If we take the quick and shortcut way, we have to pay the price in the longer run. If we grow gradually, day by day it will reap benefits in the long term.

All Super Leaders work on themselves, every day, every week, every month, and every year. One quality we find in all Leaders is consistency and perseverance. They always choose short term discomfort to receive long term comfort.

Nourishing Relationships

Take relationships also in this context. People want love instantly, but building a relationship is a process. It requires attention, energy and care. Just like a plant requires day to day water, manure, sunlight; similarly, relationships require day to day nurturing. Anyone who wants a healthy relationship needs to work on it consistently. The same goes in the case of a marriage, the husband and wife both have to work on it consistently on a day to day basis.

My master Shree Rishi Prabhakarji has developed the SSY programme as a gift to humanity. Under this umbrella programme, many sub-programmes have been developed eg. for married couples a programme called ‘Magic of Marriage’ (MOM), for the Parent and Child relationship a programme called ‘Infant SSY Programme’ (ISP) and a few others.

With this experience and understanding we have developed a disciplined habit called – ‘LiYA 1 hour’. This includes reading the vision book, setting our dreams and goals, being in gratitude, meditating and planning our day on a daily basis. It is a disciplined way which will pay rich dividends in the long run. But many people don’t follow it simply because of sheer laziness or procrastination. The ones who follow it may experience short term discomfort but defi nitely achieve long term comfort and fulfi llment.

We invite you to inculcate this principle of some short term efforts to reap long term benefi ts; short term discomfort to receive long term comfort; short term pains to experience long term joy.

A Super Leader shuns short-term temptations and puts this principle of delayed gratifi cation to total use.