We only have one life. At least here on earth. And if we do what others want for us, if we do what others think about what's best for us, then we let our own life become theirs.
We might have thought of how
we wanted to live our life before when we were still young and dreamers -
become an actor, a musician, a teacher, a chef, a singer, a dancer, a
basketball player- but our parents, friends, enemies, and even teachers have
brainwashed us and told us their own scripts. Scripts that have been passed by from generations to the next, from
their grandfathers down to you.
Be
aware of this script for it defines what they want (or sometimes what they
think they want), but not really what YOU want in life. Some of them maybe:
"Get
a degree, finish it, and work till you get rich"
"Forget
your passion; you won't get rich by doing that"
"Don't
let anyone get what you are supposed to have, if you need to step on someone to
achieve something, do it",
"Grab
all you can while you can, you only have one life"
If
you're familiar with these lines, then be careful. Maybe the reason why you
aren't happy or you forgot what it is that makes you happy is because you've
been so brainwashed by these scripts, these "traditional mainstream"
scripts that you define your happiness BASED on how they define theirs.
Money
is important and we all know that. But there is a certain point where once we
get the money that we need, that's enough for us to live, we become satisfied
and everything that adds won't add up to our satisfaction. Let me illustrate it
to you.
If you
were in a desert, tired, hungry, and most especially thirsty, wouldn't you want
a glass of water? Now if I give you one, your level of happiness will go up
from -1 to 1. But because you're still thirsty, you still want another one.
Now, if I give you 1 litre of ice cold water, definitely your level of
happiness will go up from 1 to 10. Once your thirst is quenched, your level of
happiness is now at its peak. Even if I give you 1 gallon, or even 1 drum of
water, you won't be happier. You might still want to drink it but your body
won't allow you to. Because that's the work of nature. Nature only gets what it
needs to survive.
Now, if
I give you 10 gallons of water, we both know that you can't drink anymore and
thus won't be happy about it, what will you do? If you have been brainwashed by
our fathers, I tell you what you might do. You might save those gallons of
water so that when you become thirsty again you will have something to drink.
But what if I were with you in that desert and I am also thirsty, what will you
do?
Here's
where the confusion starts.
Your
self, your conscience, the real you, will tell you to give me water to drink.
And when you do, when you tap into that not-so-often-used subconscious mind,
you will feel happier even if your happiness is already at its peak. It is because
this happiness is not physically, it’s spiritually. And spiritual happiness is
contentment, it is joy.
But our
fathers tell us that if we do that "we won't have anything for us
anymore", "we won't be successful", "we won't have water
for us in the future", so instead of giving, we keep the water for
ourselves or for our families because our fathers told us that "that's the
right thing to do". This is where the confusion hits us. When you’re up
there, sitting on millions of gallons of water, people looking at you, admiring
you, telling their kids "You should be like him, he's rich and successful,
he doesn't worry about a thing anymore", handing down their scripts to
their sons and daughters, you might think that you’re done and satisfied - that
you've done the things your fathers want you to do. You are now what your
fathers define as a successful - a very successful person. But in the back of
your head, you feel there's something
missing, you become confused because success is not what it looks like up
there. In fact, it felt pretty lonely up there - alone.
Our
fathers tell us that we WILL be happy - heck everyone else tells us that we
actually WILL be happy about it. But we don't feel like it. In fact, we were
happier when we were drinking that 1 litre of ice cold water than sitting on
gallons of water while looking down at people who are so thirsty and desperate
just to have one glass of it. The
confusion is that we are told that we WILL be happy but the reality strikes
when we are already there.
What we
missed is the act of giving. Not just giving to our families and loved ones (we were brainwashed to help people but only our families and loved ones) but
giving to people in general. We were taught to store and not give, but that's
not how it works.
If you
don't believe in me, try it for yourself.
Inhale
all you want for 10 seconds, just take all that oxygen in and don't breathe
out.
Eat all
you want for 3 days and don't visit the toilet to relieve yourself after that.
What do
you think will happen?
Not letting your riches
flow in and out will soon take its toll on you. Giving is the important part of
the script that our fathers missed.
How
many of those people who pushed you to pursue a degree (that you don't want)
actually finished theirs, became rich, and are happy and contented?
How
many of those people who told you to marry a rich guy/girl so you will be
financially stable and won't have worries anymore actually married one and
aren't regretting his/her life and aren't cheating on his/her spouse?
Find
your passion. Find the things that you want to do in your life without the
influence of our fathers. Jesus found his passion and died for it without any
REGRETS. That’s what will happen to you too. In fact, you won’t find death as
scary as it is when you find your true happiness – when you do what you truly
wanted to do in life.
Find
what makes you happy, pursue it with all your heart and most importantly SHARE
it with others. Let the blessings flow in and out of you.
“Nature
only takes what it needs. The giant redwood doesn't take all the nutrients from the soil, only what it needs. The lion doesn't kill every gazelle, only what it needs. There is
a term in our society that we use when we take more than what we need, it’s
called cancer.” – Tom Shadyac
