In a crazily busy environment, we would not have the time or the calm-frame-of-mind to examine our spirit to ask ourselves, “Am I am doing what I like to do?” Man, it is a fast life and there is no time to think!! People are easily sucked into the daily grind of mortgages, EMIs, fast food, pills, suitcase-life (travelling) and no-social-life. It is sad to watch people struggle in the fast paced life (A friend of mine travels 25 days a month!!). Oh, they make good money and their career is enviably rocking. It is not that they are desperate for money. It is just that they get sucked into it. One needs a lot of mettle to take the big step of “I quit. I don’t care if the whole world is running after something that is not making any sense.” It is easier said than done. Don’t get me wrong. Money is important, but am I jumping out of my bed in joy every morning to face the world in all aspects of life: God, Health, Family, Passion, Work etc? Whenever I end up having such a conversation with my friends, most of them tell me with a furious face, “What’s wrong with you, man? Are you not happy to see me go on with my life trying so hard not to open my “Pandora’s box”?” Well, I am not an exception, as I am still not out of the woods yet.
Over the past several years, I have been asking myself, “How would I define success in my life?” I had come up with answers many times but, in retrospect, those answers were biased (subconsciously) with worldly priorities and the answers did not survive the throbbing conscience. After having matured through the ups and downs of life (and still much, much more to learn in life), now, I think I seemed to have found the Holy Grail: The ability to be independent from the worldly forces (work, finance) and the capacity to take critical decisions to follow your passions. Well, this idea of independence is not something new to me either. It is a Holy Grail for many too, but thanks to the forces of nature, many of us deviate from the Holy Grail and get sucked into the daily grind. So, what is different and new this time? The conviction has strengthened and the vacation has made a profound impact on how to pursue the Holy Grail.
St. Thomas Church in my native village
And, the other question is “Why do we strive to achieve?” I got a reasonable answer from an unusual source. In the movie, The Blind Side, Michael Oher writes in his article (one of my favorites):
“Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or a mistake, but you are not supposed to question adults or your coach or your teacher. Because they make the rules. Maybe they know the best or maybe they don't. It all depends on who you are and where they come from. Didn’t at least one of the six hundred guys think of giving up and joining with the other side? I mean The Valley of Death! That's pretty salty stuff. That's why courage is tricky; should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you do something. I mean any fool can have courage. But honor, that's the real reason you do something or you don't. It’s who you are and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important then you have both honor and courage and that's pretty good. I think that's what the writer was saying, that you should hope for courage and try for honor and maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some too. “
Yes, don’t we all strive for honor? Well, so far, it has been just text book knowledge to me, as I am not out of the woods yet and I am still trying. Here I go…………..hoping for courage and trying for honor.
