Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Day 1 : Road to Success (?)

How to pursue a goal when you never sure that it is definitely what you want in life. Maybe.

They say the successful people are where they are in life because they knew what they wanted and worked tirelessly to get it. I, for one, am very suspicious of that notion. I guess I have no measure of faith in people's will power. Maybe because of the sheer reason that I have such limited inventory of it myself. The same with the people around me. I truly believe that of all the successful people in life, maybe a handful of them can truly say that they always knew what their lives were leading up to. That they definitely knew their product/book/album/app/business was going to be a success. And knowing such a crystal ball has not been invented so far, I am pretty sure even those handful of posers are lying.

No one really knows what life has in store for them. Far fewer know if at all their hopes and dreams would ever come to be. Most of us have those days in life when we wake up in the morning surprised that our dumb behinds even made it to that sunrise. I have very less hope of our species being able to seem many more of these sunrises.

Alright, I just read all that back again. This really does not seem like the happy happy optimistic posts that I do here. Especially this being my first one this year. Oh yeah, Happy New Year!!

Well. What is so happy about it anyway? Don't mean to be a downer. But come on, sit and think with me for a moment. What has changed in the first couple weeks of this year that makes you truly believe that 2017 is going to be any different that the tens of years you have spent on this planet. Life was borderline miserable back then, it is just as miserable now.

Sure there are some  moments of joy. Small tiny specks of them in the raging crap storm called life. These little shiny objects make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You love that feeling. You love having that feeling. But also back there in some dark corner of your mind, sits your very own private Gollum, talking to himself. Rejoicing at that thought that even this moment would pass. This moment of content and bliss would pass and Master would be back feeling sorry for himself. This mind-Gollum feeds off of your misery. The more sad and despondent you are the more the mind-Gollum dances with joy. The more lonely and friendless you are the more the mind-Gollum's eyes light up with excitement.

In everybody's life there comes a span of time where the mind-Gollum is at its strongest. He is plump, and fat, and hearty while you reside at the very rock bottom of your life. Now if a person who has made it big in life has had the premonition of how his life would end up for him, can the same be said for the person haunted by the mind-Gollum? If man has the capability to will himself to success, why would he even make himself to be vulnerable enough to face any sort of hardship in life?

Willing yourself to glory in life is a myth. What mostly happens, is life throws a few curve balls at you. Challenging you at every turn. How your life turns out to be is basically decided upon what you do under that pressure. Do you succumb to the torment, surrendering yourself to sorrow and self loathing? Or do you stand up to life's bullying and make something out of yourself.

Nothing in life is predetermined or predestined. What happens in your life, is not determined by the goals you set for yourself in life. It is decided based on your ability to fight for your own survival and to starve out the mind-Gollum.