Labelswewear

I met a well-known person yesterday (name hardly matters) whom handed over me his visiting card. When I checked his website later, I saw one word which was written below his profile picture which caught my attention. It said “survivor” besides many others qualifications. Later in the day, I happened to speak with him and casually asked him what this “survivor” meant? He said he clearly set aside his trivial preferences in formative years of his life and focused solely on the things which he like to do. We spoke barely for 2 mins but he said that when you do things in the way you love them to do, you will see success in unexpected hours. Success will follow you and you will not only survive but grow no matter how bad the external situation is.

I think those words really had a profounding effect on me. When I sit back and introspect, I think we seriously don’t set aside our trivial preferences. I mean we spend so much of our energy on worrying what others think of us. We also worry about the petty concerns about our appearance and what brand of clothes we are wearing. I feel we spend so much of our precious time just to bring that hallo effect in order to position ourselves, so that others will feel good about us. We consume our lives on doing things we actually does not interest us and we invariably get involved into drapery conversations which are not of any value. Probably we just try to live someone else’s life without conscious thinking. I think people who do things they like to do work at a very high level of inner consciousness, survive.

Ego has become the driving force of our lives with our self-importance persistently taking the center stage. I seriously think that in our own personal, profession and social life’s, we are unable to make a difference on the larger issues, so we immerse ourselves in our game of ego-sponsored trivial pursuit. When we are not able to do it, we try to poke into others life and gossip about the things which maybe others are doing, without caring anyone. I don’t understand when the day will come, when people will mind their own business. Peer pressure and social media are already playing havoc in our lives. Why I say so is because you see the survey in any country across the world, one will see that only 15-20% of the people read these days. My grandfather always used to tell me that our lives are greatly enriched when we immerse ourselves in reading, not because we are going to be tested, but purely for the sake of personal enrichment. Reading provides a deeper and richer experience of life in all ways. This is particularly gratifying when one is doing it out of choice rather than as an assignment.