Random Thoughts
I won’t say that today I am a successful person. Neither in the eyes of the world nor in my self’s eyes. But I am headed to be successful, as the world perceives it. However, long ago I have lost track of what would have been a truly successful life/career for me.
As a child I had heard that at anytime in our life there are two voices talking to us, one that of our heart and the other of our brain. I could never comprehend the difference between the two, in fact I never heard any of these voices or so I felt. When I look back I feel that these voices were always there. I couldn’t correlate that these were the same voices that people were referring to.
I think, today I pretty well know what these voices are all about. Here’s how I classify them: in general your heart’s voice is what you intuitively feel about anything around you be it people, events etc. It is the one that suggests you what to do irrespective of the consequences of your stand. It doesn’t take into account what the world would think about it nor does it care about it. On the other hand your brain always advises you to do what would be acceptable in the world. It tries to take into account possible factors, weighs the consequences and then suggests a solution that would involve minimum risk, minimum difference of opinion and would be most beneficial thing to do in the prevalent circumstances.
Going by the above definitions most of us would be inclined to follow what the brain says since it is the most right thing to do. Rather than ‘right’, it is most advantageous to act that way. Whereas listening to your heart involves risk of failure, dread of being ridiculed by people etc. Somehow the heart often suggests things that the world finds difficult to accept. May be the world and our conscience were developed by different Gods.
Coming back to the point, all these years I have been listening to what my brain had to say. I am talking in context of my career decisions. I remember, as a child I never dreamt of getting into the Software world. I had wished that I could do something for my country. Like a normal child even I had my idols who had done their country proud. I either wanted to become a cricketer or join the Indian Army. But my brain told me that the most secure thing to do would be to have a good academic record and then get a job based on that. And I have done that.
I would like to mention that there’s nothing wrong in following the brain. There’s no materialistic loss in it. But I feel like I am lost. I don’t have any aims in life. It’s like I am in a desert where people tell me ‘your next aim should be that particular sand dune’. I don’t understand what’s the big deal; after all even from there I am going to see the same sand all around. The dream of serving the nation is overshadowed by these petty aims.
It’s challenging to conquer newer and higher sand dunes. Performing well at job or making a century both would make me happy. However, it’s my personal opinion that the intensity won’t be the same. Certainly I won’t daydream about how would I do a certain task, the way in cricket I have over and over dreamt about playing an inning, before the actual match. The same way failures won’t haunt me for days altogether. The only advantage of doing a job in software is that I have become more spiritual in the sense that I don’t worry about the results I only perform my deeds.
Practically speaking do these things matter? What difference does it make if I don’t have any aims of my own? There are well wishing who tell me what to do and how to get ahead in life. I don’t think these thoughts are important as long as I don’t have the courage to follow my dreams. Such random thoughts keep coming to our minds what really matters is what you do in life. If thoughts made people I guess we would have had a Sachin Tendulkar in every lane of our country.
(written sometime in Jun '04)
As a child I had heard that at anytime in our life there are two voices talking to us, one that of our heart and the other of our brain. I could never comprehend the difference between the two, in fact I never heard any of these voices or so I felt. When I look back I feel that these voices were always there. I couldn’t correlate that these were the same voices that people were referring to.
I think, today I pretty well know what these voices are all about. Here’s how I classify them: in general your heart’s voice is what you intuitively feel about anything around you be it people, events etc. It is the one that suggests you what to do irrespective of the consequences of your stand. It doesn’t take into account what the world would think about it nor does it care about it. On the other hand your brain always advises you to do what would be acceptable in the world. It tries to take into account possible factors, weighs the consequences and then suggests a solution that would involve minimum risk, minimum difference of opinion and would be most beneficial thing to do in the prevalent circumstances.
Going by the above definitions most of us would be inclined to follow what the brain says since it is the most right thing to do. Rather than ‘right’, it is most advantageous to act that way. Whereas listening to your heart involves risk of failure, dread of being ridiculed by people etc. Somehow the heart often suggests things that the world finds difficult to accept. May be the world and our conscience were developed by different Gods.
Coming back to the point, all these years I have been listening to what my brain had to say. I am talking in context of my career decisions. I remember, as a child I never dreamt of getting into the Software world. I had wished that I could do something for my country. Like a normal child even I had my idols who had done their country proud. I either wanted to become a cricketer or join the Indian Army. But my brain told me that the most secure thing to do would be to have a good academic record and then get a job based on that. And I have done that.
I would like to mention that there’s nothing wrong in following the brain. There’s no materialistic loss in it. But I feel like I am lost. I don’t have any aims in life. It’s like I am in a desert where people tell me ‘your next aim should be that particular sand dune’. I don’t understand what’s the big deal; after all even from there I am going to see the same sand all around. The dream of serving the nation is overshadowed by these petty aims.
It’s challenging to conquer newer and higher sand dunes. Performing well at job or making a century both would make me happy. However, it’s my personal opinion that the intensity won’t be the same. Certainly I won’t daydream about how would I do a certain task, the way in cricket I have over and over dreamt about playing an inning, before the actual match. The same way failures won’t haunt me for days altogether. The only advantage of doing a job in software is that I have become more spiritual in the sense that I don’t worry about the results I only perform my deeds.
Practically speaking do these things matter? What difference does it make if I don’t have any aims of my own? There are well wishing who tell me what to do and how to get ahead in life. I don’t think these thoughts are important as long as I don’t have the courage to follow my dreams. Such random thoughts keep coming to our minds what really matters is what you do in life. If thoughts made people I guess we would have had a Sachin Tendulkar in every lane of our country.
(written sometime in Jun '04)
posted by chega at 1:05 am
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