It’s ok to ‘give up’

Are we the ‘success obsessed’ world??…not because all of us really strive hard to succeed…but because we appreciate and applaud the phrase….NEVER GIVE UP…more than anything else! No matter whether it is an online or an offline world, this phrase jumps in front of me every other time in one or the other way.

There are various parents…teachers, children and students…all of whom really insist on the fact that we should never give up, come what may. Is it really really important to never give up? Why?

Definitely, if you really believe in something and you think that it is going to contribute to you and to the world as a whole…then yes, never give up.

But then there is a different story to it as well and it is happening to many around us. We enter the world and observe certain things…based on what we somehow decide to choose a particular career path...or may be we are just suddenly forced on for choosing a particular career path. Now during our course of working towards achieving our goal, we are flooded with different ideas…we are attending different events… we are traveling to different places…we are meeting different people… we are constantly growing…but again, we already have a career goal which we had been following since years.

No matter, whether we have outgrown certain situations…we have surpassed certain thoughts…we have outclassed certain theories…we have to follow our particular goal…because since the day we have entered this planet, we are conditioned in a way so as not to give up on what we had once started to walk on…no matter what happens…no matter even if we don’t believe in it anymore!

At this point of time, many of us either tend to lose interest in what we had once decided to pursue as a career…or we just don’t think that it is the right thing we have chosen for us…or may be we find ourselves keenly involved in another subject. For e.g….while pursuing Architecture as a career…it is quite likely to fall in love with photography…and pursue it in a full-fledged manner.

The world around says…why on earth did you do Architecture for 5 grand years…or why did you waste your parents’ money!!! The answer is quite simple. While we pursue a particular subject or a task or any other thing…we keep our eyes, ears and nose open which help us feel other things as well while we are still alive. So, during the course of pursuing anything in life, there is a high possibility of falling for that particular thing for which we are actually designed for!!!    

Most of our minds are programmed in a way that those who ‘give up’ are failures. There are people who somehow have to give up on certain things and therefore quite conveniently end up being intensely depressive. All because, our minds are wired and rewired with the same thought…never give up.

We are always evolving…at times, giving up might come quite naturally. We must learn to give up…at the right time…for the right thing. Just for the heck of ‘not giving up’, there are millions of people who are just dragging with their ‘once’ chosen career paths. Same follows for the people we choose in life. We must learn to give up on certain people at certain point of time in life…it is afterall for the betterment of everyone.  

At times, the phrase ‘never give up’ sounds like… ‘dude never give up on any damn thing…just hold on tight…cling on…stay stagnant…let the years pass by…get frustrated…get old…gather diseases…stop living…stop laughing…coz you are following a GOOOOAAALL…make sure that burden is always sitting on your head…make sure that people around you stay away from you because of the negative vibes of ‘fake maturity’ and the dumbstruck adamance you throw on them…make sure you always crib about the problems you are facing for not giving up on something you were actually never meant for. ’

So, start giving up on certain things in life…and see how beautiful rest of the life is!

The curse of ‘sense of ownership’!

We love happiness. Who doesn’t!!! Happiness involves ‘good’ character, ‘good’ health and ‘good’ wealth. Happiness can very conveniently be turned into sorrow as we humans tend to replace ‘good’ by ‘more’ – and we assume that wealth can buy everything…even character and health. So, we end up concentrating on ‘more wealth’.

As the parameters of happiness are not ‘fresh air and fresh food’, but just an iPhone(x) or may be an Audi(x). Not only just the brand names, but the value of ‘X’ defines our happiness. So temporary and so superficial!

It takes guts....courage to be happy! Are we courageous enough to be happy? Do we deserve happiness?

I feel that ‘that deep sense of ownership’ is the cure of unhappiness!

We require everything. We require every machine...right from a hair comb to a car.

And then in order to loosen up...we opt for farmhouses on weekends so that we can be away from the ever increasing chaotic hustle bustle of city life. But then, we are only responsible for this ‘hustle bustle’ around us. Once the cities we are living in were also the much desirable spots for farm houses. We are turning every place...every corner on earth in a piece of pollution emitting powerhouse.

Just for one single day, let’s try to consciously spend a machines-less day....shunning away our mobiles, refrigerators, microwaves, televisions, laptops, elevators, cars, and the list is endless. Surely, the experience will be farmhousish...infact much more than that!

All these machines are just making our lives fast. This fastness is gradually turning us into dumb robots from beautiful human beings. And we think that these machines are for our comfort. The catch is here...we experience ‘instant comfort’. The term ‘instant’ is in itself unnatural. Nothing can be instant. Everything has to and should take its time to shape up. The very human intervention is trying to instantanize everything. And we call it ‘perfection’. According to my understanding, it is ‘degradation’. Time is not far when there will be stuffs available in the market for ‘instant orgasm’, ‘instant human formation’...and the terms like ‘foreplay’ ... ‘pregnancy’...will be obsolete.

Everyone wants instantinity...everyone wants to be updated...everyone wants the latest stuff.

Only very few take time and question!!! Does your latest gadget really make you happy...if yes...it is only because you want ‘others to see it’ in your possession. And that sense of ownership of the latest gadget makes you happy. Isn’t it funny and senseless?

Happiness should be...when you have stories to narrate to your friends from your last trip...happiness should be when you know you are going to spend the coming week with your best friend...happiness should be when you realize that you have healthfully spent your last week...happiness should be when you cook delicious food for people around..happiness should be in being slow to the core...in understanding the regular process of life and thereby connecting with it.  

We amass things, thinking that we are doing it for achieving that ‘sense of security’…but in actual… ‘sense of security’ leads to ‘sense of insecurity’. But then, moneyless living is the need of the hour.

Let’s live consciously…minimally. Let’s stay connected to our core…to our very purpose of existence.

Less is more.