You wake up in the morning. You start your day, annoyed by the slightest thought of facing the rest of it. You wonder if you’ve made the right choice by waking up at 6 in the morning and deciding to go to the office while you get dressed and all, giving a number of yawns in the process. You run out of your home without even bothering to have breakfast; you’re late. And there starts your journey; the tiresome journey of your 24/7 week.
Most of our lives are stuck in this miserably busy lifestyle. Although we are tired, we can not get out of this life. This life is costing us everything; our passion, our family, our lifespan: everything we need to care about. The worst part is that we know it; and yet, for the sake of a successful life, we let our lives get the best of us.
But what exactly are we getting out of this scheduled anarchy?
Nothing. In better words, not anything beneficial. In the name of a successful life, all we get is chronic diseases, and wastage of life worth every second gone.
And a whole lot of regret.
We tend to care about ourselves. Even selfless people care about themselves. Our success, our wealth, our status, all of these are precious to us. We all chase these worldly ambitions just to be happy.
We cut out the parts that do not serve the purpose of enhancing our identity and status. But in reality, what we are sacrificing are our own selves, our best selves, the part of ourselves that we truly care about, what gives us true happiness.
We all have passions. We all have hobbies. We all have a part of ourselves which likes to roam around and enjoy the wonders of nature. We all have a poetic and creative side, and a process through which we channel our creativity. But we tend to ignore our creativity. Our excuse is our busy life. Our cause: what good is there in nurturing these talents?
There is some truth to the fact that our talents are quite useless. Particularly when we come to think of the demands of the modern world, and the society’s high expectations set for us so that we can turn into useful members of the society. Having a proper job and earning a sufficient amount of monthly income is indeed the key to a profitable life; Bill Gates isn’t famous for nothing.
But while trying our best to be a useful member of the society, we often forget, or rather choose to forget, that like many useful members of the society who chose to live up to society’s high expectations, talented people who have chosen the unconventional way of success like Leonardo Da Vinci has made groundbreaking contributions in shaping our society. Yes, there is no denial of the necessity of engineers and doctors in our life; indeed, Steve Jobs developed the modern world with his creation of technological advances, but that can never be the reason to ignore the works of talents like William Shakespeare or Francis Bacon.
So there is a use of nurturing our inner potential. I am not talking about the popularity people earned with the help of their talents throughout the course of history; that’s just a by-product, a sheer stroke of good luck. Truth be told, for the most part, the famous artists we get to learn about today, struggled to have a place in society in their times, as they fought against the hatred they faced because of their invol especially from the religious institutions like the church. Vincent Van Gogh did not get to see his fame in his insufferable life. But why, then, did these people choose to do what their heart wants?
Because it made their lives valuable. Their talents cost them a lot, true, but it made their lives worth living.
We’ll still find people who have chosen to make the world a better place with the help of what they have inside of them. These are educated people I’m talking about. They chose to give more importance to their passion, rather than their degrees. Because they know what makes them happy. They know that life is too short to give up on their own selves.
They know that life isn’t fair, but to make living worthwhile is a success on its own.
In this context, a question may arise: how can we make the best use of our talents for our own benefit as well as others?
Well, the following ways can be helpful:
- Believing in yourself: First of all, you should believe that you have the capability to earn profit with your inner potential. It takes a lot of courage to choose what your heart says when you have a society and a family whose expectations and obligations are a must for you. But if you are confident enough that your passion can lead you to success, it will help you to go forward with your dreams without any hesitation.
- Turning your hobbies into your career: While we decide what career we should choose for our future betterment, we often ignore our hobbies. But our hobbies should also be brought into consideration while we choose our career. Because your hobbies can be your profession, and your profession can be your passion.
- Decide what you want from yourself: Are you a high achiever? Do you see yourself achieving success, fame and excellence? Or are you more into having a serene, peaceful life? Deciding this will have a lot of impact on your career choice, as it will help you choose the best option for you and the amount of hard work you should put into your job in accordance with your demand to achieve your desired goal.
- Find out the opportunities and obstacles that affect your present: What are your scopes of reaching your goals? How much is your situation in your favour? Is there any barrier for you to succeed? What are your weaknesses that threaten your success? It is required for you to consider the bests and the worsts while you’re finding how you can succeed. If you have any characteristic flaw, you shall try your best to eradicate that flaw by yourself and turn your flaws into your strengths. And finding your inner talents and working on your talent will help you achieve your goals by turning it in your comfort zone. The resources you will find around you can help you overcome your flaws and improve your strengths.
It takes a lot of effort to stand out amongst the crowd; especially in modern day and age, where it is easy to be wrongfully targeted and cancelled by the people around you. But if you have your mind at the right place, your efforts, your passion and your dreams won’t go in vain. I bid farewell with the hope that one day the sun will shine on you and enlighten your life with success.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island.