Life is Beautiful
Adapted from a recent seminar
“Same” is the word so much so very attached with my so called leisurely urban life that each day of my life is attached to a more or less mundane living. I wake up at the same time, use the same paste to brush my teeth, same workouts, same soap, same shampoo, have the same beverage on the breakfast table, same people around, same newspaper with similar category of what they call “fresh” news, same mode of commute, same office, same colleagues, same workstation, same activities, same lunch time, same things on my plate except for a couple of variations and so many same things to such an extent that most of the times I meet same people in public transport and ultimately, same Life overall with no purpose other than just thinking about accumulating more and more wealth (Ironically, wealth is synonymous to money in the standard norms designed and defined by a set of people of which I am a subset)
It is said that not only the life and life-style but also the thoughts cropping out of mind are more or less the same. They say that 96% of the 60000 thoughts crossing the mind each day are the same. Thinking on a positive note, I feel a bit relieved that having said everything is more or less the same in life, I yet get 2400 new thoughts every day and if I can use few of those, I can strive to create a difference.
What makes me live the same life every day? Is it by choice or is it a mandate? If it’s a mandate, does that mean that in reality I want to be different but the circumstances are not allowing me to be so. Well, do all the people who want to be different become one only because all the circumstances were favorable to them?
What do I do if I am stuck somewhere and I feel that there is a no way out? Isn’t it true that in past there were many such occurrences where I must have been stuck and since I am alive and alright today, it certainly proves that I have come out of it some way or the other. That means that whenever I feel in present that there is a no way out, it actually means that the way out may not be visible today but it is just on its way. Hence, there is always a way but it is on the way until it comes along in front of me.
Such an attitude boosts my confidence level and I start striving for the unknown. The mind starts focusing on those 4% of the thoughts and the best example question is – “Don’t I usually auto-suggest when I am heavily stuck that Let me think on some different lines?” This is a more than enough trigger for mind to start working on the stuff that seems impossible at this point in time but taking it up as a practical challenge helps me get through it. Hence, challenging my situation will create an immense scope of doing something which I have always felt it practically difficult to achieve.
Well, not always there are difficult times. If I scan my life, it’s a mix of easy and difficult phases but if I drill further and ask myself, what is it that makes it easy or difficult. For instance, if I set a target of running 100 meters (yes, 100 meters) a day, while setting the target I am very well aware that it’s achievable and I start visualizing the destination. Let me add to more zeroes at the end to my target. What will happen? OMG, I cannot even visualize that how am I going to run 10 freaking kilometers. Well, the simple equation is easier (in the current belief of my capacity) the target, easier the life and smoother the process. However, this results in nothing but a same life each day with same target, same purpose and as a result everything same around me and if I want to come out of the “same” and try different, I need to set targets much higher than my current reach of my visualization and anticipation. Hence, if I set a target that I think can be achieved with not much challenges, I need to re-think on, re-work on and re-define my target if I want to create a difference in my “same” life that I more or less always “crib” about.
Cribbing has become so much a part of life that even in favorable situation, I don’t miss finding some fault or mismatch in it. Let me think of any situation in life and then analyze that how I did I react to it. I am certain to find faults in it. I don’t want to quote any example but am sure that in all the examples, small or big, the mind is so much acclimatized to fault finding that it doesn’t leave any chance to crib in the best of the situations.
What actually is the need of the time is to see happiness in relatively smaller things in life. For instance, if I love to walk and I don’t feel that I find enough time for it, I rather than giving up on walking can find some minutes to take a few little steps and stroll around my apartment and cherish the feeling. Once I start feeling happy about those steps taken, I will strive to discover more time and feel happy about it. Although the sense of achievement may come after a long while, I can always be happy about the milestones that I pass through.
While I penned down the first word in this write-up, I wasn’t quite sure that in less than 30 minutes I could reach word number 984 but since I chose to enjoy each second of writing, I now feel a sense of achievement too. Hence, while I saw happiness in a very small start, I feel successful in something significant that has happened. I coin it as significant because I attempted to come out of my clichéd Sunday afternoon and do something that could get me out of my comfort zone.
Net-Net, striving towards being different and setting higher and much higher goals makes the destination look extremely difficult but the happiness in the process of achieving it while going from one step to the next makes the entire journey happy and a feeling of success occurs at the time when the sense of a “big” and a “different” achievement comes into the play.
When I dwell around the success in small or insignificant looking things which I have always felt are within my reach results in a feeling that – “well, it was not that difficult to achieve and hence neither I enjoyed the journey and nor am I cherishing the destination; I am feeling the same”.
How do I go about the unrealistic looking targets then?
Well, first I need to set one. I need to think about something that is, at this point in time, seemingly far-fetched. The immediate and nearly obvious thought that may crop up is – “How am I going to do this? What if I am stuck at the first step? Will I find a way out?”
There is a way for everything; many a times it may be on the way.
The above statement is bound to generate a spark and develop a solution focusing attitude.
There are usually two ways to look at a challenge. Either believe that there is no solution and adapt to the current situation or look forward to a solution and strive to achieve the same. The latter is the attitude that focuses on the solution.
While it is necessary to have such an approach at the start of working on the solution, it is equally essential to possess an attitude of being happy and spirited throughout the journey.
Seeing and Experiencing Happiness in small things and Success in big ones is the way to go. What this means is Success is made of so many milestones and to enjoy each and every step towards it makes the journey worth an experience. All the small things eventually lead towards a big one and that’s where the Success is relished.
Life is beautiful, simply just beautiful…
