What if you had…
A day to live?
… spend it with your loved ones?
… get stone walled drunk?
… get a thrill by doing something reckless?
… putting all your personal matters in order?
A week to live?
… spend it with your loved ones?
… visit all the people you lost touch with?
… travel?
…pursue those hobbies/passions, if only for a little while?
A year to live?
… take a new job?
… pursue your passion?
… travel and see the world?
… meet lots of people?
… go tell each and every person exactly what you feel about them?
A lifetime to live?
…hmmm
Not so easy, now, is it?
If you could answer that question, i.e. you know what you want to do in your lifetime, then congrats… no need to read the next few lines.
But, before you say ‘Yes’ and dismiss this as another ‘self-help’ article, ask yourself this..
Do you REALLY want live your life the way you have though?
Let’s see, a lifetime seems reallllyyyy long, so how can we plan for it?
Well, let’s take a day
Has… 86,400 seconds
A week… 6,04,800 seconds
A year… 3,14,49,600 seconds
An expected lifetime (75 years) 235,87,20,000
Around 235 crore seconds!!! That’s a lot, isn’t it?
NO, it isn’t
If you are 20, you have already spent 62.9 crore seconds
If 30, 94 crore seconds
If 40, 125 crore seconds!!
And each second right now is one more being taken out from your account…
Ok. So, what do you want to do in your life….
Well, if you are in your 20’s, you’d probably say…
I want to be rich
I want to be recognized and appreciated
I want a really great career growth
I want to be CEO/President one day, have a huge mansion and have a Merc
If you’re 30, you’d probably say
All the things listed above
Taking care of your family and their future
Ok. So, that was easy, wasn’t it?
But think about it, all those things which have been listed above… are they really all there is to it in this lifetime?
Let’s look at our parents generation… they were content with what they had; they didn’t need a gazillion gadgets, fancy cars or fancy clothes. And yet, today, I see, at least many of them, to be quite content with what they have.
Now, let us look at our own current working generation, in their 20’s and 30’s.
When was the last time you met someone from school/college after a long time, or by chance? And then you would say… ohhh… you’ve changed a lot. How is your life?
And never mind if this person was your Best Friend Forever in the good old days, now, you have to be more concerned with deadlines, client meetings, monthly targets, month closing, getting the groceries, taking an interest in your kids studies, making time for your better half and parents, paying off EMI’s… those are obviously wayyyyy more important than the smaller pleasures which you used to enjoy.
Think about it? What is a mid-life crisis?
It’s that point in your 40’s when you suddenly realize and the question hits you… what am I doing with my life? Is this the legacy I want to leave behind? Is this how I want to be remembered? Let’s face it, in the grave, we can’t take our money, our possessions or even our emotions. What we can only take is ourselves.
Ohhh…. Here it comes again… the argument that life is short, live it…. Blah, blah, blah.
Yes, I know it sounds clichéd, and I thought about it in the same way for many years as just some ballyhoo which ‘losers’ like to club onto things.
But how many of your friends and colleagues do you see these days who are really ‘happy’ with their work, their boss, their family life and their career? More often than not, we compare salaries, spouses, jobs and love bitching and moaning about what is wrong with our lives…. Ohhhh, how lucky is that guy/girl over there. Why the hell is he earning more than me? Why did he get the promotion?
No, is more often the answer that we are not happy with our lives, and the way it is turning out.
...(continued in Part 2 due to word length restrictions)
