Life's goals - revisited

The Raison d'être of life is to achieve. This might insinuate everyone has to achieve something worthy in his life: I am not denying it; however, I would go further to say one has to keep on achieving in every stage of his life; every year, every month and so on. This brings to an even further important quest: what to achieve; what is the goal.

There are stages in life when the goal is pretty obvious during that phase and hence no intellectual introspection is required for most. This generally applies till one completes his studies; some really excel in this part of life and get to a professional career of choice.

Once into the career which he has painstakingly gotten into after so many years of studies and other related activities, does he really believe whether the career he is into is worthy of all the goals so far in his life? Doubtful. The goals then shift to reaching “a particular level” in the organizational hierarchy, own a house, raise a family, international vacations etc. Depending on multiple variables, all these can be achieved over a period of time as long as he does not fritter away opportunities coming his way and does not keep goals beyond his reach. Now what next?

The next stage is the one where the goal is to look for a goal. Now the person looks beyond him or within him. Some get involved in social activities – not because they become more concerned about the society than before, but just because they need a goal. Some start exploring spiritual thoughts and get lessons like “living in the present” is the key, fitness of the mind and body etc. No complaints, but what is the goal here: the person is trying to find happiness within him in the latter or provide contentment/happiness to others in the former.

In the three broad compartments of life mentioned above, there are three distinct goals, not one of them linked to the other. The above division of life is just an example: a person can have any number of stages in his life and that many different goals. Nonetheless, what strikes me is the huge inconsistency in targets as we move along in life. If anything, I would prefer a single goal to have in life right through. The sub-targets in each stage should lead one step closer to that single goal.

What can be that one thing worthy enough to be a goal? Since it is one’s life in question, the goal should be such that it demands more on moving closer and be a mirage in a positive sense. The goal should be something which upon achieving a portion makes one want more of it. What can be that goal? Two things come to my mind that can fit this description: Money and Happiness.

Remember we are thinking about a goal from childhood to old age. Can money be the goal in the early stages of life: not possible. Hence, the only possible goal to have is happiness. All the achievements we target are tools towards this goal; but in pursuit of the tools, most of us lose sight of the goal. It is time we take efforts to change.

Be happy: that is life’s only worthy goal.

P.S.: This is a repeat of my earlier post

Defeatism - defined

If I have to give an anecdote for defeatism, this should be it:

"And what could man control when he is unable to control his own birth, the starting point of his life? And what could man control when he is unable to control his own death, the ending point of his life? When man is unable to control the beginning point and the ending point, how could he control the in-between, illusory story?"

White Board

When nothing is there on a white board,

it is clean, spotless

When a line of poetry is written,

it is admirable, comprehensible

When a hundred lines are written,

it becomes blurred, hazy

When a hundred thousand lines are written,

it becomes clean, spotless

Life’s goal

The Raison d'être of life is to achieve. This might insinuate everyone has to achieve something worthy in his life: I am not denying it; however, I would go further to say one has to keep on achieving in every stage of his life; every year, every month and so on. This brings to an even further important quest: what to achieve; what is the goal.

There are stages in life when the goal is pretty obvious during that phase and hence no intellectual introspection is required for most. This generally applies till one completes his studies; some really excel in this part of life and get to a professional career of choice.

Once into the career which he has painstakingly gotten into after so many years of studies and other related activities, does he really believe whether the career he is into is worthy of all the goals so far in his life? Doubtful. The goals then shift to reaching “a particular level” in the organizational hierarchy, own a house, raise a family, international vacations etc. Depending on multiple variables, all these can be achieved over a period of time as long as he does not fritter away opportunities coming his way and does not keep goals beyond his reach. Now what next?

The next stage is the one where the goal is to look for a goal. Now the person looks beyond him or within him. Some get involved in social activities – not because they become more concerned about the society than before, but just because they need a goal. Some start exploring spiritual thoughts and get lessons like “living in the present” is the key, fitness of the mind and body etc. No complaints, but what is the goal here: the person is trying to find happiness within him in the latter or provide contentment/happiness to others in the former.

In the three broad compartments of life mentioned above, there are three distinct goals, not one of them linked to the other. The above division of life is just an example: a person can have any number of stages in his life and that many different goals. Nonetheless, what strikes me is the huge inconsistency in targets as we move along in life. If anything, I would prefer a single goal to have in life right through. The sub-targets in each stage should lead one step closer to that single goal.

What can be that one thing worthy enough to be a goal? Since it is one’s life in question, the goal should be such that it demands more on moving closer and be a mirage in a positive sense. The goal should be something which upon achieving a portion makes one want more of it. What can be that goal? Two things come to my mind that can fit this description: Money and Happiness.

Remember we are thinking about a goal from childhood to old age. Can money be the goal in the early stages of life: not possible. Hence, the only possible goal to have is happiness. All the achievements we target are tools towards this goal; but in pursuit of the tools, most of us lose sight of the goal. It is time we take efforts to change.

Be happy: that is life’s only worthy goal.

To be continued.

A Thought

Why do we celebrate 'Patriotism'?

Sometimes I think patriotism is one of the root causes of many evils in the world today.

Quote!

From a forwarded mail:

Easy to think about improving
Difficult to stop thinking and doing it

Ponderings - revisited

In The Fountainhead, the protagonist Howard Roark says, “the last thing I expect for my work is appreciation”. Why can’t we be like that? This “we” surely includes yours truly. Though many of us bark as though we are Roarks, most of us are not. I have not seen a single Roark in my life. After all, The Fountainhead is a work of fiction.

Why do we expect others to evaluate us? Why do we want our works to be recognized by others? Why do we want others to hold us in high esteem? Why we, sometimes, become charlatans? Why do we do things just to impress others, while we ourselves do not like to do them? Why are we not ready to accept others’ superiority over us in some fields? Why we try to ape the ones we consider superior to us? Why many of us do not know what we want out of life?

Questions abound. Answers to each of these questions are available. Some of them told by the Krishnas, some by the Buddhas, some by the Ayn Rands, some in religious scriptures and some even in movies. But the whole issue is why are we not having a lucid understanding of these questions though we have a lot of answers.

Of course, man is a social animal. So he should give due diligence to gregarious commitments. But is it advisable to let those affect or determine his individual character? Yes, societal onus on an individual makes him not to indulge in unlawful/unethical/unhealthy practices “when others are around”. But if such falsity prevails within our self, what benefit we derive from the society’s applause.

Of the above questions, I consider the last one to be the most basic and most important which is being ignored high time by us. Not many of us can visualize our lives ten years down the line – of how we want our lives to be, what(or who) would make us happy. If we know what we want out of life, we can act towards that target – take tiny little steps in that journey, every dawn we move closer to that target...I understand, I am sounding Utopian.

I recently came across an article in wikipedia which discussed about the Seven Cardinal Sins. Though a bit far-fetched, I relate the questions raised above to these seven sins. The seven sins are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Jealousy, Anger and Pride. Please do not ask me, how we could relate each one of these sins to the questions raised. After all, I do not commit any of these seven sins (Sin number 7: Pride)

Quote!

Success comes not from what you can do; it comes from what you do