The need for adopting Road Signs as our Role Models
r
All phrases are made up by virtue of hard experiences in the past and hardly its meanings are changed even for uncountable number of years. The same are prevalent all times to come without making any change in its meaning and wording.
I recollect that one of my friend who was very lazy to get up early in the morning and for fun sake, he changed the phrase “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” to “Late to bed and late to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and status wise”.
To be successful in life, it is normally said that one should have role model in his life who is a person whose behavior or success can be emulated by others especially by younger people. The term ‘role model’ is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who coined the phrase during his career. Merton hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires. An example being the way young fans will idolize and imitate professional athletes or entertainment artists.
Although the term “role model” has been criticized more recently as “outdated”, the term and its associated responsibility remains prominent in the public consciousness as a commonly used phrase, and a “powerful presence” in the entertainment industry and media.
A person’s chosen role models may have a considerable impact on his or her career opportunities and choices but the suitability of a role model depends, in part, on the admirer’s perceived commonality with the model, who should provide an image of an ambitious yet realistic goal.
Community role models are often overlooked and scarce. Teachers and parents fill this gap and are considered a central influence to a child’s upbringing and future success. Teachers, because of the large amount of time spent with children, have such a huge impact on children that they are being advised to be likeable in order to build strong emotional relationships with children.
Research has shown that role models as teachers and doctors encourage people’s support for tobacco ban more effectively and directly than policy promotion.
At the same time, the discipline and control shown continuously by sportspeople on the field leads to a belief from viewers that these same qualities are continuously shown off the field.
There are number of role models in every field who are tried both by young and old for follow up during their life time.
Frankly speaking, there is hardly anyone, who don’t need some sort of inspiration during hard times and a glimpse into the roller coaster journey of a successful person, might just do the trick. It fills us with empowering self-motivation. Hardly there is anything which cannot achieve in our life provided we have a little guidance and firm determination.
But the other day, when I was sitting with the senior officer –Mr.Kaplish, the word role model cropped during the course of discussions. While everyone agreed that one should have role models in his life like – Abdul Kalam, Verghese Kurien, Capt Prem Mathur, Parkash Amte, Rabinder Nath Tagore, Mother Teressa and so on – but he advocated that role models are after all human-beings whose behavior can be changed with the passage of time and circumstances.
However, he substantiated his idea with new concept that instead of prominent personalities or celebrities as role models, we should make the ‘road signs’ as our ‘role models’ to save the thousands of lives who die in road accidents. Everyone present in the discussion appreciated the idea of adopting the road signs as role models in our life as they will help to guide you about the journey of life which has no shortcuts.
