How do you ensure that you always do what you know needs to be done when it needs to be done? Courtesy ;Rishab Jain

In the great battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna taught Arjuna the Bhagwadgita.

Arjuna:

Hey Krishna, There is some force in Humans that stops us from doing what we know should be done and forces us to do what should not be, even if we know it should not be done.

How can I overcome this force?

How can I do, what I know, I should do?

Krishna answers:

Arjuna, the force that you are talking of, is your experience, your samskara, that you have built over time.

Samskara decides the thoughts in your mind.

And once the samskara creates a thought, it turns into action. You can’t stop yourself from acting once thought is created. Between samskara transforming into thoughts, there is a window of opportunity, focus on it. Take a decision and do what should be done.

Let’s take an example: You’ve decided you’ll wake up at four tomorrow.

The alarm rings and a thought pops into your brain, “four is too early, I can sleep half an hour more”, the thought turns into action.

Krishna says, that there’s a window of opportunity “before” the thought is created, here take a decision, and change the thought.

Now, we need to know what is meant by taking a decision.

Taking a decision does not mean choosing one from many options, it means removing other options altogether.

Steve Jobs said it too: “Focus is not saying yes, it is saying no”

So when the alarm rings, you need to take a decision, to either stay in bed or stand up.

Now, taking a decision does not mean choosing to stand up or sleep, it means removing the possibility of other options altogether.

Replace the rising thought of sleeping half an hour more, change it to “four is too early you can do half an hour exercise”, others should not be an option.

Thought still will transform into action, but results will be different.

When you change your thought according to you, you force samskara to change a bit. And with time samskara adopts a new form.

So How do you ensure that you always do what you know needs to be done?

Krishna tells: take a decision before a thought is created, for the thought will always transform into action. Don’t choose one among many, for that’s not the way decisions are taken, go and rule out other options completely and then do what is left.

Krishna taught Arjuna the Bhagwada Gita, but:

“Why didn’t he teach it to Duryodhana? If he had taught him, the great Mahabharata would never have happened.”

Well, he tried.

Krishna reached Duryodhana and explained, what he is doing is immoral, is adharma, he is doing evil to humanity.

Now what Duryodhana replied is beautiful, he said:

“Krishna, don’t tell me what is right and what is wrong. I know what is dharma and what is adharma.

I know what is dharma but can’t do it, I know what is adharma but can’t stop myself from doing it”

“There is some power in me which makes me do wrong, this is who I am, and I can’t change.”

In the battlefield, Arjuna asked Krishna the same thing:

“Krishna there is some force inside us humans.

It forces us not to do right, even after we know it should be done.

And forces us to do wrong, even after we know it should not be done.

How can I, Krishna, come over this force?”

Similar situations, but there is a subtle difference.

If you notice, Arjuna asked how to overcome this force, how to improve, on the other hand, Duryodhana accepted himself as he was.

Arjuna, as we know, was the hero of Mahabharata and Dhuryodhana the villain.

How to take responsibility, how to overcome this force, what did Krishna answer? Some other day. But for now:

What is a common trait of unsuccessful people?

They don’t ask how to change, and they don’t take responsibility to change, they blame it on situations.