Tuesday, July 15, 2008

So how is life?

Hello everyone,
Long since i wrote a blog. Was so pre-occupied with the happenings in my own life that I did not find time to analyse what was happening and express myself here. But now I found time because I recently read a short passage while going through an aptitude paper. Usually such passages never influence people because it is read on only one purpose which is mechanical- to score more marks. But somehow I was influenced by this and suddenly the way I look at myself and my life changed.

This was the first line of the passage..
Goethe, a German philosopher once had mentioned that one should not do what he does not like and must try hard to succeed in life doing what he really wanted to do. Otherwise there is no meaning in life doing things for others' happiness.

I was exactly having the same opinion and was really obsessed with thoughts that I was not doing what I really liked. This made me read the passage with interest rather than with purpose. But the following lines of the passage was a turning point. The author who had mentioned Goethe was actually opposing it. He wanted to convey that you should start liking what you do. Well... I really thought it was nonsense. But i couldn't help circumspecting this fact. We usually don't end up easily doing what we like and that is practically not possible as soon as you wish. It really takes a hell lot of time to fullfill your desires.

In the meantime, if you start worrying about the truth that "This is not what I always wanted", life becomes miserable and I personally faced it. But what if I started to like what I do.. Won't I be happier than what I was? This is what the author concluded. Though he did not like doing certain things in life and was compelled to do it several times as a routine, he had started to like doing them and the result was his own happiness. I had to agree with him and I did not have a choice.

A few days later there was a quote from another big philosopher which supported the author's argument. In Aristotle's words- "Start loving your work. You will never have to work again in your lifetime". This is the sense of practicality. This actually changed the way I looked at my life before reading the passage. Now I feel much happier and peaceful than before.

But this does not mean that one has to stop his journey towards one's desires. Looking this way will only make you optimistic towards your ambitions. When you are happy doing whatever you did not like, then imagine the bliss you would get out of doing what you like. Looking at life from this perspective makes the world a beautiful place to live in.