One good New Year Resolution is to plan for reading a number of books, get inspired and inspire others

We celebrate the New Year on 1st January bidding farewell to the year ending on 31 December, almost as a ritual every year, but very few of us actually make some time to think and look at the year just passed by.

While we needn't worry about our past as we can't make changes to it at any cost, we do need to have some sort of introspection and must not lose the sight of our achievements and drawbacks related to those goals that were met and of those that eluded us.

We are all human and are not the perfect beings, but striving for continuous improvement isn't a bad thing either. What we need to really check about ourselves is whether we have made our presence felt to this world, or not!

Again trying to become 100% perfect is just impossible for the human being. Maybe we need to have some mystic powers for it.

The whole scientific world has been believing for many decades that the great eminent scientist Albert Einstein's work about the theory of relativity was just perfect, but the recent experiments tend to find something new which could disprove or might change or correct the same work.

But why Einstein is great is because his work was so genuine and such a benchmark that everyone who worked on the same subject later took it as a standard or a base for their works.

This is more important, the standards we set for others to follow.

And such performances can be made in any profession - be it a sport or a fitness trainer or a massage therapist or a statesman or a leader of a country.

Look at the history of Mahatma Gandhi. He is great today worldwide despite a number of critics in modern India which became an independent country much due to his efforts! Again he might not be a 100% perfect being liked by every Indian as there were differences of opinions between Gandhi and others like Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, etc who were themselves great freedom fighters.

But what made Mahatma Gandhi great is his sound belief on his principles. He developed great qualities in him first and it is said that he never advised anyone about anything which he himself hasn't followed.

Today any Indian politician can't think of attracting public attention without declaring himself to be a Gandhian (who follows his path). It is again the standard set by Gandhi that was great for Indian politicians.

And in the west, there was the great American president Abraham Lincoln who set his standard and has left a permanent mark on USA's next generation of leaders. But his life was full of failures one after the other. He got affected with paralysis also at one stage. With each defeat, he rebounded even higher in terms of determination, and he at last has become the President of one of the greatest democratic countries, the USA which eventually became a super power.

India's former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam has left his mark in contemporary Indian politics as the best president of India which even the children never fail to remember. Being a scientist he proved India's potential to the world with his involvement in National defence systems development.

Coming to iconic Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, we are witnessing his achievements live even today. His world is only Cricket and upholding the honor of India. We all know he made innumerable records in his own style and some of his shots are generally referred to as trademark shots, by the commentators.

All of these above weren't/aren't 100% perfect. They were just as normal as we all are!

The difference between average people and these greats is that they had a different attitude and passion about what they wanted to do. And their goals were not made out of their selfishness. Their goals were just higher and nobler than those of many others.

But they all started off small at the beginning, they were not disturbed by their critics or by the intermediate failures.

So confidence on ourselves, our dreams, and some benchmark is needed for all of us to set such goals and we too can do our bit to contribute to this world's progress in a way to provide a better future for our future generations.

To start with, ViprasCraft recommends to all our readers to start investing on books as such a small investment on leadership books will have a profound effect on our lives!

We can't inspire others unless we feel inspired ourselves.

Check the page on the list of Recommended books by ViprasCraft from the navigation bar. Read the books of great Leadership trainers like Robin Sharma, Stephen Covey, Napoleon Hill, etc.

As Leadership maestro Robin Sharma tells us, "If we breathe Oxygen, we all have the potential to become leaders".

When the whole world is full of genuine leaders, there won't be selfishness and corruption in our societies irrespective of the countries we live in!

Hence our message from ViprasCraft is to request our readers to start thinking about the leadership as the new year resolution.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year 2012!