The Dichotomy Of Life
The constant struggle between the inner and outer realities
I recently came across a question that made me think about what it means to be happy and successful. It went something like this:
Would you rather be happy in a slum or miserable in a palace?
I know what you’re thinking, you’d rather be in a palace. But is getting everything you want and still being miserable a happy life?
The two realities
We’ve got two realities in life, the first one is the inner reality which consists of our thoughts, emotions, and mental well-being. The other is the outer reality, which consists of all the materialistic things we want in life.
For most of our lives, we only focus on the outer reality. We study hard to get good grades, then apply to the best colleges, and work 15 hours a day to afford a house to live in.
Once we buy the house, we work even harder to pay its mortgage and fill it up with things we barely use. At the end of all of it, once we accumulate enough stuff we call it a successful life.
But is this what success is?
I know it sounds fancy when you say things like, ‘I’m miserable but at least I have a Ferrari to cry in’, but if think about it, there is…
