“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” -Lao Tzu
This is something we all need to be reminded of more than ever in this fast paced world. We are all caught up in a race. Everything is a competition. Not only does this attitude hardly if ever leads to desired results but also causes a lot of anxiety and unhappiness. Remember the hare and tortoise story? The moral was “slow and steady wins the race”, but the messages from all the childhood stories are forgotten as soon as we enter college and after that it’s one exam after another, one degree after another, one ladder after another, until we forget ourselves. In the hustle of life we never stop and wonder if what we are doing is what we really want or what we could change to get closer to our goals.
The added pressure of winning and only being taught to look at the end goal leads to being overwhelmed, causes burnouts, depression and anxiety. What if you stop and think of only today? What if you forget your long term plan and only stick to what’s happening today? It makes the path much clearer, easier and more importantly, enjoyable. And before you know it, you have already accomplished much. Constantly looking at the horizon of your end goal isn’t going to help you or motivate you with the process. It will only cause worries, only for you to realise that life has passed you by and you didn’t even have a chance to enjoy it. In worrying about making our lives successful, we forget that experiencing life, being mindful of the present and enjoying little moments is actually what constitutes a successful life.
“Life happens when we are busy making plans”- Allen Saunders
Focussing on yourself instead of others
When you are only looking at what others are doing, you are bound to trip and fall. Putting on blinders and focussing on your own steps instead will keep you on track and content. Especially with the dawn of social media, insecurity has become a disease of epidemic proportions. We all have compared our lives to our friends at some point and have felt utterly miserable about it. In doing so, we are doing a great injustice to all the good things, the good people, the good moments in our life. We have forgotten to be grateful. Wanting to get where our freinds are, and wanting to get there fast has completely obscured the importance of due process, of hard work and of well deserved achievemnets. Instead it’s all about short cuts, what looks cool or what would make our friends insecure in return.
Adulthood is not a curse
We know mental health is overlooked a lot of times. But it’s never as overlooked as within oneself. We don’t even realise the mental side effects of running behind success without enjoying the present. All the exhaustion, irritability and anxiety takes over our lives and before we know it, we forget how to be happy . Nostalgia becomes a daily thing instead of a passing feeling. People often confuse this constant discontent with adulthood. Adulthood is hard but it doesn’t lack the potential for happiness. If we take a pause, slow down, take small steps, we may realise that adulthood is not all that bad. We tend to look at adulthood as a burden where we are bogged down by responsibilities, paying bills and the worries of saving for the future. If we looked at adulthood in a different light instead, for instance, where being an adult means having more freedom of thought, freedom of actions, more independence, and more control on ourselves, life would be a bit more enjoyable. In addition, we are doing our mental health a big favour by changing our perspective and meaning of being an adult.
Richness of life
Running constantly like a crazed, ambitious person leads to failure more often than success because no time is being given to thoughtful considerations, contemplations , the big words that came into existence because they lead us to make good or less damaging decisions.
This is not to say , to not be ambitious. Instead, be mindful of how you follow your ambitions. Be aware that you are not losing yourself and your loved ones in the process. Often, when we are busy leaping on the success ladder, 3 steps at a time, our loved ones are left somewhere far behind. We often forget that success does not only mean a great career or lots of money, it also means a healthy and happy life, surrounded by people who love us and enrich our lives in the true sense. There has been an actual study that shows that the secret of a happy and long life is good and warm relationships.
What’s the point of all the success if you didn’t enjoy the process? What’s the point of success if you don’t have anyone to share it with? It’s all about the journey at the end of the day and not the destination. And despite all the advancements, this journey has to be on foot, one step at a time.