The other day, as I was just lazing around in my house, I just wondered, ‘If I had all the money in the world, what is it that I would truly want to do with my life?’To my horror, I did not have an answer. Then I tried, ‘What is it that would give me real happiness and satisfaction in my life?’ Again, no answer.
Then, I thought of trying this on others, just to figure out if it’s just me. I made a quick phone call to my friend back in India and asked her the same question. She replied ‘ummmm, good question. Let me think about it and call you back.’ She never called back with an answer.
I asked another friend. She went like ‘I really want to do something with my dancing. It’s my passion.’ I said to her ‘then why don’t you? I’ve seen you dancing. You’re awesome at it’. She replied ‘arre, nahi yaar. Dancing mein kuch future, kuch paisa nahi hai!! (no buddy, there’s no future, no money in the dancing).’
Another friend replied ‘I love photography, but I’m not a professional and I’m not very good either.’
This really got me thinking.
In my opinion, the reason for the unhappiness, the frustration and all the chaos around us is twofold-
1. We do not know what will lead us to happiness
2. We do not have the courage to pursue our dreams
Let’s look at them.
Steve jobs once said ‘You’ve got to find what you love.’
This is one of the greatest guiding principles ever. If we do not know what we enjoy doing, what gives us satisfaction or what is it that we want to do with our lives, how on earth are we going to be happy?
Try this exercise. Take a blank sheet of paper. On the front, pen down 10 things that you enjoy doing. It could range from poetry to algebra, from dancing to dissection or from social work to statistics.
Next, work by elimination. Cancel out things that are not as important as the others. Eventually the last one left is something that you truly enjoy doing, Take it up. Pursue it. It’ll take you places.
There may obstacles. Truckloads of them. Your passion may not fetch you enough money, may not sound ambitious to your friends and peers, may not go down well with your family. But, if you’re doing something that you really have your heart and soul in, trust me, you’ll be highly successful in the long run. For instance, if you take up gardening as your career, do not think, ‘what will others think of me? Will they think I’m a loser who has no ambition?’ It is not important what they think. They are not the ones who will live with it for the rest of their lives. It’s important how it makes you feel.
There may be failures in your way. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. You've got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
Think about it.
Ruchika Agrawal
Editor – Dautya (GISO)
Then, I thought of trying this on others, just to figure out if it’s just me. I made a quick phone call to my friend back in India and asked her the same question. She replied ‘ummmm, good question. Let me think about it and call you back.’ She never called back with an answer.
I asked another friend. She went like ‘I really want to do something with my dancing. It’s my passion.’ I said to her ‘then why don’t you? I’ve seen you dancing. You’re awesome at it’. She replied ‘arre, nahi yaar. Dancing mein kuch future, kuch paisa nahi hai!! (no buddy, there’s no future, no money in the dancing).’
Another friend replied ‘I love photography, but I’m not a professional and I’m not very good either.’
This really got me thinking.
In my opinion, the reason for the unhappiness, the frustration and all the chaos around us is twofold-
1. We do not know what will lead us to happiness
2. We do not have the courage to pursue our dreams
Let’s look at them.
Steve jobs once said ‘You’ve got to find what you love.’
This is one of the greatest guiding principles ever. If we do not know what we enjoy doing, what gives us satisfaction or what is it that we want to do with our lives, how on earth are we going to be happy?
Try this exercise. Take a blank sheet of paper. On the front, pen down 10 things that you enjoy doing. It could range from poetry to algebra, from dancing to dissection or from social work to statistics.
Next, work by elimination. Cancel out things that are not as important as the others. Eventually the last one left is something that you truly enjoy doing, Take it up. Pursue it. It’ll take you places.
There may obstacles. Truckloads of them. Your passion may not fetch you enough money, may not sound ambitious to your friends and peers, may not go down well with your family. But, if you’re doing something that you really have your heart and soul in, trust me, you’ll be highly successful in the long run. For instance, if you take up gardening as your career, do not think, ‘what will others think of me? Will they think I’m a loser who has no ambition?’ It is not important what they think. They are not the ones who will live with it for the rest of their lives. It’s important how it makes you feel.
There may be failures in your way. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. You've got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
Think about it.
Ruchika Agrawal
Editor – Dautya (GISO)
3 comments:
I've got "hit in the head with a brick" sooo many times because of my unconventional , often idiotic yet necessary choices, that , I couldn't help but relate to this article... beautiful piece of writing :)!
~ Sandeep Belure
Thanks sandeep!!
oh yes :)
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