India celebrates National Youth day on 12 January to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
He was one of the most influential personalities of our country for his contributions to the field of education and empowerment of the youth of India. There are a lot of things to learn from a personality like Swami Vivekananda who at a young age displayed qualities like courage, focus, hard work, patriotism, etc.
Every aspect of Swami ji’s life had lessons and even after so many decades his teachings continue to stay relevant and inspire so many people from different walks of life. One of the qualities which Swami Vivekananda had emphasized and is very relevant in today’s world where short-form content is taking away all our energies is, Focus.
During his time in the United States, Swami Ji once observed some boys standing on a bridge trying to hit an eggshell in the river with stones. Those boys were failing miserably in the task and nobody was able to hit the eggshell. After observing the boys for some time, Swami Ji approached the boys and offered to try the sport himself.
Swami Vivekananda took multiple shots at the eggshell and every time he was successful to hit the target. The boys were petrified with the level of accuracy Swami Ji possessed. When one of the boys asked Swami Ji about the trick, he very calmly replied, “Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind to it”.
This teaching can be very handy in this content-driven stage of human civilization. The short-form content on social media is pushing our minds to look for something else after a while and we easily get bored with slightly monotonous stuff. This behavior usually transcends content consumption and even impacts our choices in normal life.
For example, the book-reading habit is dying down and people are turning more towards audio-visual content because their mind needs something changing every time to remain in focus. Remember, “Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind to it,” a lesson of Swami Vivekananda and one will realize how magically things can change.
