The Defining Moment

Off late, I have been listening to a particular segment of the Himalaya Audio Learning App called “Himalaya stories”, which I found to be interesting as well as inspirational. It features short episodes about world famous personalities and celebrities belonging to different fields, such as Politics, Science, Sports, Entertainment and more. What I found to be specifically appealing about this audio compilation was that it is not like an entire autobiography of a particular person, rather it talked about a particular event or a particular challenging period a person faced and how in the face of such adversities they emerged and became successful. So, this brought me to the realization of a defining moment, in every one’s life which raised them to their current level of greatness.

 

As I further reflected on this idea, I was able to relate it to both real life and reel life.  For instance, every good movie or a novel has a defining moment. If we watch a movie or read a story, we will notice that the story of the lead character, would keep progressing in a normal and comfortable pace, till something drastic or dramatic happens. After that particular moment there is a major mind shift in the person, which completely alters the course of further action, and makes him an altogether different person. This sort of an element is not only necessary to make a story interesting and gripping, but this also seems to be the design of life itself.

 

To illustrate this, let me share a few examples, we can relate to. If you have read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, you would notice that there are many key incidents that happened in Gandhi’s life, but the one moment which we often remember as the defining moment of his life is, when he was thrown off a train at the Pietermaritzburg railway station in South Africa, after a white man objected to him travelling in the first-class coach.

Similarly, when we talk about Gautama Buddha,  though there are so many things to learn from his life and his preaching’s, it is the defining moment of his life that is remembered, wherein he first encounters people who were old, sick and a dead person,  while he goes out of his royal palace. This in turn makes him to go in search of the eternal truth and achieve this Godly status.

 

There is also an interesting story of how Nobel prize was constituted. Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor, and of his many inventions, it is the invention of the dynamite, that made him most famous.  One day, Alfred Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, in the newspaper titled “The merchant of death is dead”. It was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had actually died, and it was a wrong news. Still, this news article shook Nobel and made him ponder about how he would be remembered, after he is dead. This inspired him to donate his entire wealth, to constitute the 5 Nobel prizes, of which one is the Nobel prize for Peace.

 

So, the defining moment is a deep revelation of a hidden truth or brings to awareness something significant, which forces someone to change.  It is often preceded by a period of adversity or a moment of shock. It is how one responds to the adversity, that makes it a defining moment or just another moment.

 

There are many achievers who have found a major breakthrough in their career, through a defining moment, which has catapulted them to great heights, that they have never imagined and once they reach there, there is no looking back. We have often heard of this scenario in the entertainment industry, wherein a person spring to the spotlight and becomes an overnight sensation, after a brilliant performance in a movie or a stage show.

 

It is quite normal, for us to call this luck, but to me it is a result of many years of effort, hard work and struggle that brought them to this moment.  I am fond of this quote, “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity” and quite often the opportunity comes in the disguise of a problem. People who view the problem as a challenge and fight it through seem to find the light at the end of tunnel.

 

So, does everyone find a defining moment in their life?  I am not sure. Probably we might assume, that something significant that already happened in our life, as our defining moment, until something better happens. A defining moment could be an intuitive life calling and we do not really know when it will come. But if we keep doing our work with utmost commitment and if we are sensitive to all that is going around us, someday our defining moment will find us.

D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com