Paras Kher
Easiest to obtain and easiest to lose material pleasure is the most superficial form of satisfaction, yet its marketed to us 24/7. Marketing isn’t the issue, the fact that we get influenced, that’s an issue.Only by suiting up in Raymond will I be a complete man and my wife doesn’t have any best friends apart from diamonds.Internet and Television Mass Marketing ads try to get our attention to different materialistic things – Exotic vacation, curvy partner, rigged abs, bigger house, softer fabric, etc.This doesn’t stop here, with Facebook and Instagram we have access to the ‘best version of people’s life’. Have you ever seen a picture of a couple fighting while scrolling? Since there are a number of things we can now see and know, there also is an infinite number of ways we can discover that we don’t measure up, that one is not good enough – This feeling rips us apart. Today, more than ever, people are raising concerns over mental health.
The desire for more positive experiences is itself a negative feeling. Paradoxically accepting the negative experiences of life is itself a positive experience. The only thing in life which truly is ours is ‘our attention’ / ‘our time’. Energy flows where attention is!If you constantly keep checking the phone or pursue superficial desires, towards the end of it all you will feel empty. Buying one thing leads to the desire to buy next one. It’s a ‘High’ not the ‘Happiness’. First time drinking is exciting, 100th time fun, 500th a normal weekend and 1000th time boring. Yet a hearty laugh and time spent with a friend never gets old. If one doesn’t have a goal/aim/problem bigger then oneself, he will keep on going to these materialistic desires.
Life is an endless series of problems, the solution to one is creation of another. In beginning of 20th century New York streets were filled with Horse dungs, Automobiles solved this problem. Today we have an even bigger problem of pollution which came from that solution. Plastic was supposed to solve packaging and durability problems – In addition to landfills, it has brought us to a point of extinction of marine life altogether. Mobile phones were introduced to improve productivity and connectivity – We now know better what smart phones do to our productivity and dinner table conversations. Today we are more disconnected within families than ever.This doesn’t mean we stop solving problems; solving a problem brings happiness. The bigger a problem you solve, bigger the happiness. One needs to take this call which problems are worth pursuing. True happiness is in solving problems you like and which matter to you.
Howsoever you are feeling today will not matter in 10 years, but what you are doing today will definitely matter in 10 years from now. To be great at something we need to invest time and energy. Our time is limited, once the clock hits midnight that’s about it, no more no less. Hence it’s imperative to choose what we want to invest our time in, not choosing to act is also choosing.
Google and internet have made accessing information easier. In this age of technology some may debate we don’t need to learn new things it’s all on internet. This is underestimating cognitive abilities of Human Brain. We still need to learn new things. The brain connects the dots, that’s what makes it special. It observes an apple falling to the ground and wonders. So far no software is wondering or dreaming. Dreams drive us! There is no shortcut to learning new things, I wish we had a ‘Matrix’ software to download information into minds, until that sci-fiction comes to reality ‘Books’ are our best bets. Later sharing with others and learning from them.
Once you get started, persist. Learning new things is a messy process! This is because human brains craves for certainty. Anything we are doing for the first time, we don’t have full control or know everything, that makes us nervous. But that’s alright, that’s how it is supposed to be! Remember the first time you rode a bicycle or started learning a new language or a musical instrument – keeping balance and hand movements took so much of conscious focus. Once this process is through you ride with one hand and holding your coffee in another.
The message is not to condemn dreaming about a bigger house or travelling new places. In fact travelling is fantastic learning as it extracts you from your box and shows you another society functioning well, with altogether different beliefs and systems. If one desires a bigger house or Audi it’s alright, but they should be your dreams and not picked up from mass marketing, pop culture or social pressure. More isn’t always better, happiness is in less also. As a matter of fact everything we own or around us is borrowed and one day we will pass this to next generation. Currently we are sharing the ecosystem, hence it’s our responsibility to maintain it together for our next generations. They should see the beautiful marine life and diversity of flora and fauna – It’s our joint responsibility to leave things better than how we found them.
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