SMART goals - यथाशक्ति चिकीर्षन्ति

people with wisdom wish to do (projects) as per their ability, execute as per their ability and do not consider anything small or trivial (don't disrespect any task).

यथाशक्ति चिकीर्षन्ति यथाशक्ति च कुर्वते ।
न किञ्चिदवमन्यन्ति नराः पण्डितबुद्धयः ॥ 1-26

yathA-shakti chikIrShanti, yathA-shakti cha kurvate |
na kinchidavamanyanti, narAH paNDita-buddhayaH ||

this is 26th shloka from chapter 1 of vidura-neeti, an excellent, stand alone section of the grand epic mahAbhArata. in this the great emperor dhRitarAShTra - whose sons were the villains making life miserable for their cousins pANDavas - is extremely restless about tomorrow's court appearance of the messenger, sanjaya, who brought the message from pANDava side.

a disturbed emperor calls for his wise minister and brother vidura at late hours and asks for words of wisdom regarding dharma (right conduct) and artha (politics).

the wise vidura bares all his wisdom for the benefit of the emperor, but sadly, to no avail, as the deadly war does take place.



in this shloka vidura says that the wise person wishes, thinks up projects only according to his abilities. if one wishes to do something beyond one's capabilities then it merely leads to frustrations. so if in the planning phase itself, we keep in mind our capacity and plan accordingly, we will have an 'achievable' goal! in modern management SMART goals are a big buzz. it has been adviced 2500 years ago!


after having decided upon a project according to capability, the wise person then gives 100% - according to ones capability, as was documented in the project details.

and lastly, nothing is too trivial for the wise to not account for in the plan or execution of the plan. once decided, all aspects of the project have to be finished.


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and now the language aspects of the shloka -

yathA-shakti = as per (yathA) power (shakti), capability
chikIrShanti = wish to do (plural, third person)
yathA-shakti = as per (yathA) power (shakti), capability
cha = and
kurvate = (actually) do
na = not
kinchidavamanyanti = kinchit + avamanyanti
kinchit = anything
avamanyanti = (they) disrespect, trivialize (plural, third person)
narAH = men (people)
paNDita-buddhayaH = those with wise intellect.


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