Chasing the Shadow
I want you to close your eyes and picture this:
You are packing your bag in a hurry as it’s becoming late to arrive at the school/college/work. You are Checking the time, ‘Oh no I’m late today also.’ Start completing the daily chores and leave.
Now hanging in the metro we will think, How better it might have been if I had done the entire work on time?
Throughout my entire life I have faced situations like this only. How better it would have been if I had arrived here one hour ago, no hustle in terms of travelling or anything. And now I will reach an hour late, obviously, I can’t expect things will turn good for me. I can’t do anything but only think of the image of myself who has arrived here that much earlier and everything is good for him.
We can frequently find ourselves in a situation where we are about to reach somewhere or doing something bounded with the deadline, and due to unwanted factors acting more as the hurdle, we run late. And then surely for at least one second we think that it would have been better if I have arrived here on time or this much time earlier or have finished my work earlier.
How many of you have encountered this kind of circumstances?
Going back in time when I was a kid, I was reading a few good lines that went something like this… ‘The entire human race is running and there is a driving force which is responsible to make them run for the whole course of their life.’ And that time I thought how this DRIVING FORCE looks like?
While I was in the same venture to find the answer, what makes us do anything we do or we tend to do? Like on one account I can ask myself what’s the whole point of engineering that I’m pursuing and let’s say coming office? If I have to die in the end, not only me but no one will stay here for the entire time. Scratching my mind and rising with these questions and doing my academics, I reached my 2nd year of Engineering, I got my answer to this question: ‘What makes us do anything?’
One very fine morning, I was getting ready for school, and I was not this much relaxed as you can hear me now, but in the hurry which I asked you to picture in starting, and my brain filled up with all kind of possible messy thoughts along with all possible excuses that I have to state when I will reach. But yes, somewhere in those thoughts I was also thinking of another version of Anirudh, let’s say Anirudh 2.0, who was always able to make it on time no matter what. That is the perfect version of myself, that is not real but that represents my PERFECT SHADOW, who is ideal in all aspects. And while thinking of that shadow, What I was trying to do is, I was trying to chase him, so that I can achieve all the goals and plans or even small tasks on time.
I moved further to see more vibrant examples to justify the statement I came across, and I was not astonished to find that whatever we people and this world is doing is nothing more than getting synchronized with their respective ideal character, their ideal Shadow.
So, here is the concept of Chasing the Shadow, chasing your own shadow and believing, in that shadow that if you will follow the shadow it would surely take you to somewhere better.
This is totally a hypothetical and virtual concept but one would find it connected to reality too. This concept was built in my mind for some year now and from then, I have always kept on chasing my own shadow.
I actually have imagined another me, and always kept him acting like an ideal Human Being. This way I’m able to compare between the two of us how he is doing everything ideally and how about my progress since we are in the same shoes to achieve what I aimed for, or whatever my desires are.
Since what I targeted is meant to be achieved, I have to make the better tries as we both have to make out for the common goal. And I know my ideal version Anirudh 2.0 will surely achieve it as he is following the best-scheduled planning and now to make it out in the real world I should follow the exact same sequence of plans, which my ideal is following, and in the same way, I rather have to chase him. And as the time has passed, this has become stronger enough. I’m not asking you to follow someone else’s path but I’m asking you to follow the path which your future self has built for you and he has already traveled. I’m asking you to chase your own shadow.
And if you are stuck into this consideration that the shadow is always perfect in the positive sense, sometimes you will find it is not. There exists the other side of this aspect also, you can name it negative, bad or the wrong shadow, and with due hearty feeling without realising we are following that too. Think of the time when you are studying, indulge deeply into a concept that seems to be very beautiful to you, and believe me, it will appear is more beautiful if you have the exam next day, but then you feel those small distractions that make you mind divert from indulging more into this beauty to some other beauty.
For my case, I named it Anirudh 3.0, and this has kept on going like Anirudh 4.0 and Anirudh 5.0. Even Anirudh 5s and Anirudh 5s+. But it’s always you who decides which of your shadows will be proved right to you. Not a negative, wrong, bad or something in the middle aggregate, mediocre shadow but you should always emphasis on Chasing one and only perfect shadow fit for you.
Right from the morning time you wake up until you go to bed, knowingly or unknowingly you are trying to achieve your short-term goals which due to procrastination are chased away because of a single unwanted circumstance you are stuck into which isn’t necessary even. But have you realized that your Shadow is also facing the same trouble, but that is the difference my dear friend, between you and your perfect shadow, your shadow knows how to make it and emerge as a winner.
We realize it sooner or sometimes later but here we have to accept that our life is what I call it not the Game of Thrones but
The game of: CHASING THE Perfect SHADOW’
And as now I’m sharing this idea with you, I would put a stop now and leave you with your thoughts and with your own ideal character, with your own shadow.
I wish, You Chase down your Shadow…
