Life is no ‘Test Run’

By sheer definition, the terminology ‘Test Run’ is explained as ‘An exercise aimed at putting the object or system concerned through a series of actions under actual or simulated environmental / operating conditions to ascertain its status, reliability or suitability to the task’.

Every word of the above definition compels you to relook at your existence and wonder if your life has just been reduced into an endless series of test runs and practise sessions? Nowadays people constantly complain about how they feel their lives are simply passing them by. That they have been reduced to mere machines that wake up, go about their routine tasks, go to work, handle personal chores, and before they know it, hit the sack, only to restart the entire monotonous cycle all over again. Everyone is waking up to a mounting fear about whether they are really living the life they want. And as the years go by it’s no longer a silent doubt. It’s a stark reality!

Maybe you’re one of the many people who have tried to abort this fear by adding “Live life to the Fullest” in your New Year’s resolution list. And maybe, you’re one of the lucky few who managed to break out this vicious ‘Test Run’ cycle to go follow your dreams. If so, you are the sensible one that got out of this futile labyrinth. Not so easy for the others.

‘Life Is No Test Run’...it’s worth repeating and comprehending the fundamental essence of this phrase, as a majority of the masses live today as though life is a generous practise session. In other words, they act without a sense of urgency to live the life they both desire and were meant to live! Instead of actively working towards pursuing and living their passion, a majority of people stop short of achieving their goal. In other words, they abandon the ‘Dream’.

Most people fool themselves into believing that there’s still a lot of time left to set out and achieve their dreams. That every drudgery filled moment today is just a ‘Test Run’ for attaining their real goals later. Well, here’s the reality check ... the time for practice was long over. Practice time was while you were growing up. Practice time was while you were in school. Consider the practise time given during your college years as the final extra bonus time granted.

Today, you are a full participant in the ‘Game of Life’, and your only opponent is ‘Mediocrity’. In the absence of burning desire, intense effort, intelligent human activity and supreme endurance, the tentacles of failure will move in to destroy your dreams and maybe even that small amount of progress that your efforts had created initially.

No one can afford to wait for that warning bell. A paralytic stroke, the death of a loved one reminding us of our own mortality, the chilled tone of the family doctor spelling out the grim prognosis that one has but a few more weeks to live, that awful fleeting moment when one shockingly wakes up to the bitter truth that you lost your way through the maze of life and have no game plan left, or worse yet, no time left. You simply cannot afford to wait until the last few ticks of the clock to become intense about life’s prospects. Each of us was meant to fully partake of life, to experience the full pageantry that life has to offer from living out our passion. Life is a precious gift granted only once, one that can’t be reduced to a mere ‘Test Run’. Each day used up as a ‘Test Run’ is a day lost. How many such ‘lost’ days you tally in your life is entirely your choice.

If you have to get out of this ‘Test Run’ mode, it becomes essential to challenge yourself every waking minute with a new level of thinking, and drive yourself aggressively towards a new level of accomplishment. You must impose upon yourself a certain discipline and develop a brand new attitude towards life that not only motivates you but also inspires everyone around you. Stop moping and waiting for foolproof opportunities or generous miracles to come your way before you force yourself to get serious. You must identify the current opportunity, albeit limited, and embrace it. It’s vital to breathe your talent and vigour and your newfound sense of urgency into the creation of your dream, and along the way discover the fortitude and genius within.

Risks will always abound when you walk down the solitary path to follow your passion, but you cannot allow yourself to ponder indefinitely upon the risks in every opportunity adopted. Au contraire, you must seize the opportunity inherent in every risk, knowing that you must sometimes run the peril of going too far in order to discover how far you can really go!

Change your life now by developing a newfound sense of urgency. Articulate your inner soul goals, plan out a personal strategy map that can help you reach your goals, live and breathe your passion every single day, and above all, persevere against all odds. Remember, the clock is ticking and your life force is draining away by the minute. You have the ability to achieve whatever your heart desires, but only if you choose to begin the process NOW! The final result of your life will be determined by whether you made too many errors in judgment repeated every day, or whether you threw caution to the wind and lived a purposeful life, each day enthusiastically devoted to the cause of achieving your dream, as though this was no ‘Test Run’.

Time doesn’t know reversal, and your life is no Test Run. Courage encounters many obstacles, yet perseverance serves up many just rewards. But know this, if you choose to ‘go the other way’, to pursue your dreams and live your passion, that is the moment you truly begin living your life. Therefore, make Today the first day of your new life. Listen to your inner voice, remember your lost childhood dreams, and revive your true passion. And then, go all out and just do it. Live boldly, ardently, vividly...as if there truly is no Tomorrow!