When asked what surprised him most about humanity, the Dalai Lama answered.
"We sacrifice our health in order to make wealth, then we sacrifice our wealth in order to get back our health."
We're so anxious on what will happen to our future, that we don't enjoy the present. The result being we don't live in the present or the future. We end up living feeling like we're never going to die and then die never having truly lived.
Ellen Goodman said,
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you're still paying for in order to get to the job that you need to pay for the clothes and car and the home that's empty all day just so you can afford to live in it.
We live in a world where day dreams are more common that dream jobs. Where money clouds our search for meaning in search for profit. We sacrifice our quest for purpose and in pursuit of those paychecks, we give up our passion. We're completely rooted to our routines, we're plagued by our indecision and lack of vision. They say that the most powerful prison is one when you don't even know that you're locked up.
See the suits are our uniforms, our cuff links are the handcuffs , our ties are the chains, our boss is like the guard and the well, our cubicles are our cells. And now I know why they call it the glass ceiling, because it shatters our dreams.
The only thing we excel at is Microsoft, now that's a powerpoint. You know what it's like, we spent our whole day trying to get our work on time, but then spend all of our time thinking about our work. We wish our out of office could be permanent, we wish that our inbox would always remain empty, our LinkedIn resumes are more interesting than our actual jobs. Our profile pictures are the happiest we've been in a long time.
We live for the weekend but then end up feeling weak.Clockwork and monotony, but honestly,
Could Mondays be more meaningful? Could Tuesday be less torture? Could Wednesday be more worth it? Could Thursdays be more transfomative? Could Fridays be more fulfilling?
We count down the next 50 weeks knowing that there's another 50 years. We countdown for the next escape knowing that there really isn't one. Because even when we are away from our desks, our minds are still there with check list in our heads. We stuff our self in our work clothes, then our buses, hen the cars and then our offices only to wait for 5 days to live again. We don't have time to eat dinner together, so we ended up eating out take-away boxes not realizing that the TV box takes a way from our relationships. We eat on the go, meet on the go, we even sleep on the go and then wonder why everyone cheats on the go.
We're told that it is normal to have 9 to 5. I mean, actually, sorry it's a 9 to 9 and it's fine if you don't get enough time with the person you love that took you so long to find. It's normal to work late nights for that next holiday . We work for 11 months in a row and for one month of leave with pay. Hey! who came up with that? It's not normal, we have to reclaim our lives because right now we can barely survive, and because when he/she comes late home from work he/she says,
" You work so hard for a job that would replace you tomorrow if you dropped dead."
and he/she says,
" I don't have time for this right now."
and he/she says
"Nothing ever changes."
We force ourself out of bed to live the same day again and again and call it a life. Imagine this for a moment -
What if Oprah listened to her haters and doubters?
What if Steeve Jobs settled for a real job?
What if the Rock never broke through depression?
What if Ellen never overcame the bullying?
Imagine a world where everyone lived there passion. We'd be better people, we'd be better partners, we'd be better parents. I've never seen a strong person with an easy past. We all have a passion, we have a genius inside us, WE HAVE THAT POTENTIAL.
I know we've all been living in that position feeling confused and seriously lacking mission but then I asked myself- at the end of my life, what will I regret? and the answer is clear. The pain of regret far out weighs the pain of risk. So the next time you're going through challenges, just remember this, A winner is just a loser who tried one more time. All you need is one person to say yes . One moment can change everything. There are decades when nothing happens and there are days where decades happen. A year froM now you would've wish you started today.
PHOTO CREDITS TO:
