19 February 2008

And my previous post meant...

Some seemed baffled by the little riddle in the previous post. In reality, it's not a riddle. It's all about our life, and it affects us all.

All i'm saying is, you might be stuck in a mundane life revolving around your job. You might hate your job because you have too much work to do (or too little), or if the work is too difficult (or too easy). You might hate your life because you feel that you're not contributing anything, that you're just wasting away, doing nothing useful for yourself or for mankind. You always wanted to be great when you were younger, and now you've grown up and realized this isn't the reality you envisioned. You're stuck in a routine of life, day in, day out, and life somehow became tasteless.

But this isn't a dead end. No. Life doesn't have to hold you back from your dreams, from doing what you want, from feeling useful, from feeling great. It won't be easy, but achiveing it is very, very possible. You have the choice, either to get up off your ass and move out of your comfort zone, your regular routine that, although tasteless, tiring and mundane, is safe and is what you're used to. It's tough to shake that off.

Society dictates that we have to have a specific type of job, to get a specific type of title, make a specific amount of money, and so on. But when you look around you, are these really the rules we have to follow?

I'll give examples. Once I met a street painter; she worked on the side of a busy road in Boston, and we had a little chat. Turns out she has a law degree from a highly reputed university, used to work in a big shot company, had the classy apartment, the fancy car and so on. But somehow, she wasn't happy, and something was missing. A few years of stress and unhappiness later, she decided to quit her job, give up the fancy life, sell the car and move into a tiny apartment. Why? She wanted to do what she loved for a living; painting. Although her life was completely changed, she couldn't have been happier, and the sparkle in her eyes proved it.

Another example; a friend of mine was a big shot supervisor in a company; he recieved a pretty good salary, but was always under stress, and was at work most of his day. Responsibilities to take care of one day, business flight here, meeting to catch there, etc etc. The depression showed on his face whenever we would see him (which was rarely), and he didn't look happy at all. One day, all of a sudden, he made the decision to quit, started working a job which paid a little under half his previous salary, but with much easier timing, and hardly any stress. We see him more nowadays, and he's happy. He does a lot of charity work, too, and has joined a number of voluntary organizations. He loves life, he has time to do the things he enjoys, and he has time to spend with the people he wants to be around.

I'm sure the decision for both the above cases was not easy. Far from it. But the result was joy and satisfaction. All i'm saying is, you weigh out your options, you figure what you want from life, you make the choice.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Two tumbs up !"

I'm totaly agree with you

rosh said...

THIS - by far is your best post yet. I can so very much relate to every word, every sentiment you've written.

Quite honestly, I've been going thru this phase for couple of years now and personally, my state, sort of falls in between story 1 and story 2.

We live only once - and it is quite important to the soul and well being, to have done something worth while in life.

beaverboosh said...

Top man. Top message! May we all find our paths to happines! BB

Maya // مايا said...

What choice do you make?

Anonymous said...

Your right! been in the same situation, made a few major decisions, changed my attitude, & all I want now is to keep going down that road & never look back!

It's amazing how one can make a huge difference sometimes. We have more power than we think we do! We just have to make a choice!

Great topic :D

Anonymous said...

Your right! been in the same situation, made a few major decisions, changed my attitude, & all I want now is to keep going down that road & never look back!

It's amazing how one can make a huge difference sometimes. We have more power than we think we do! We just have to make a choice!

Great topic :D

Woozie said...

Would have been better to provide someone with an artsy job they hated for the second example toprovide balance in your argument.

Rhetoric Jew.

Woozie said...

*to provide. "Toprovide" is not a word.

Shoush said...

Yes, of course ppl shud choose the lifestyle that makes them the happiest. Wat's the use of having the salary of one's dreams yet literally taring oneself off of the bed each morning to go to a dreadful job that makes u unhappy. As my advertising professor advised us (students), he said when choosing a job don't follow ur mind. Follow ur heart. Ur gut feeling about it, because only when u're happy with wat ur doing is when u are able to excel in it and become satisfied. But still, one mustn't be stupid. There r life circumstances that stop ppl from pursuing their dream (of being a painter, for example) such as one's financial status, responsibilities (family to support), etc.

I hav another example, different from the one's u mentioned. My photography professor once told me, never make ur passion ur job cuz bil3arabi.. maywakil 5obiz. He gave up things to become a photographer, and now he's an middle-aged man in debt, teaching photography at a university, almost broke.. not the life he pictured.

We shud be reasonable with our decisions.

Taqo said...

Aw man. That was beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Mmm nice post, I totally agree. For the first time in a long time I feel I am in charge of my life (even if there are some hmm misshaps every now and then). It is really all about making a choice..
Life is short...too short

Dr. Shale bin Agnon said...

I started a part time job as a barman yesterday. I am living you dream, eh?

On another note, did you know Google require six interviews before they will give you a job? Who the fuck would want to work for people who were willing to take up at least six days of your time and not pay you? (my friend knows a girl who didn't get the job after all six interviews)

paz y amor said...

I couldn't agree with you more. I have a theory that people actually create their own unhappiness deliberately due to their actions/inactions.

vampyress said...

Oprah should invite you to her show :P

I totally agree..do what you really want in life..not what others want for you.

layal said...

هذا ما اوجهه بالضبط الان
يعتقد البعض ان وجودك تحت ظل اسم ملمع في الصحف والجرائد انك في نعمه محسود عليها والحقيقه هو ليس الا اسم

انت ما فتحت المواجع -لانها من غير شي مفتوحه
I will send ur post to some staff around here :-)

KJ said...

It is an inspiring piece of writing my friend. I myself am close to quitting, but not at the moment. "just a little more".

I actually just posted about this phenomena, you can read it here if you want.