Thursday, September 10, 2015

We are young, we learn by screwing up in everything!

Our generation is becoming the biggest screw ups in human history. We set targets, we dream bigger than reality; in the process loose our brains and get sucked into ourselves. Oh wait, how much brain do we actually have? Yes we all probably have the same amount of brain and intellect the previous generation had, but we live such a fast life that we lose focus; we want to do and want to be good at everything. Can we be good at everything? It’s Mission impossible! Unless we are Tom cruise hanging on to a plane while it really takes off, but even these perfectly heroic characters are not a pro in everything. They definitely screw up in something, otherwise we won't have a movie to watch. Whereas we the non-fictional superheroes of our own lives, dream of accomplishing everything. We have heard so many times that we unconsciously influence our mind through what we see, read and hear.

The digital age is imposing on us tons of videos which show people doing amazing things, that’s great. We should appreciate what these seemingly normal humans do. But what we forget is, we influence our brains that we can also do the same things. Not just imbibing one but trying to do all of them. We humans do compare ourselves with others and this hasn’t been a recent phenomenon. During the absence of digital knowledge, the comparison was only with our neighbors and friends; but now with the whole world! People start professing things about happy life, happy working, happy mind and all those (of course I do as well) but we fail to realize that it’s about some sample subjects somewhere on the planet. We considering ourselves special counter-intuitively should avoid us from falling a prey to generalized ideals and opinions. But we don’t, we think that’s the norm and I should try those things. We try one guidebook/ guide blog at a time and figure out nothing works.

The process of rediscovering oneself can be guided but ideas from around us though books or any other form. But letting us rely completely on one set of principle is like looking at a fish in the ocean and thinking all the fishes do and look exactly the same. The smart world brings in a lot of smart and ‘making us less-smart’ things to the doorsteps of our minds. Be it ‘--- got talent’ shows, ‘Guinness world record’, ‘perfect couple’, ‘survival stunts’, etc; we just can’t do everything; less so being good at them.

There is an amazing list of talks on Ted called, “What is success?” . Especially the one by Alain de Botton  called "A kinder, gentler philosophy of success". We cannot achieve everything; if you want a good relationship may be we need to sacrifice some of our workout time. If we want to achieve something in work, we might have to give up on some time with family. There is always a sacrifice, which we choose to blind fold ourselves from when looking at people who achieved greatness and we just admire the perfection in them. Only when we start to admire successful people along with their imperfections, with their greater sacrifices; we will be able to be happy with our lives and strive for a better life rather than a perfect life. May be this idea will someday reduce the dissatisfaction in our generation and help in improving the quality of our lives. 

Probably sooner the better!

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