Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Life Paradox - To Want More Yet To Be Content

This is a paradox that life throws at you. You will not get more if you do not desire it passionately and work for it. If you do nothing, you always feel like you have missed on something that should have been rightfully yours (even if you have done nothing!).

Some start desiring things passionately and then after a while look back and say 'see, nothing happened' (as if the world should get up and clap, it's not for them stupid). Some do nothing and wonder at how others who appear to do nothing are getting much more than their share of the reward (I am smarter than them, then show it). What does one do, desire or not? Work or not?

Wanting more perhaps means really wanting something honestly. Not because someone else also has it or because Shahrukh Khan says it in a cola ad. It must be a want that you would genuinely desire and enjoy, as you would your favourite toy, your love. This is a want that involves sacrifice, has value and you appreciate it. Many wants in your list may not be stuff you really appreciate. For example, a 100 crore, in my bank! Now, if you really did get a cheque for 100 crore now, would you know what to do with it? Chances are that you would not know how to lovingly take care of your 100 crore gift. In some mad fashion you would spend, invest and lose it all in a few years. Similarly you would lose many things that you desire and possess and if you do not value or respect it, it goes away.

The other method is to be content, and be open. (This is a state where being content does not mean that you have given up on everything.) Being content only means that you are not constantly agitating about not-having-enough (a state they saw, that will surely ensure that you will not have enough). If anything, you should be looking constantly at ways to make more, while being grateful to what you have! A peaceful, stress-free, positive and constructive state-of-mind would you not say?

Being open, on the other hand indicates that you remove all barriers like criticism, resentment, unforgiveness, self-pity, guilt, jealousy, anger, frustration (basically all negative emotions that take away the focus from what you really want) and just be open. You can picture yourself standing in a state of gratitude, looking at what you really want that you would love to have in your world! But if you can only find the negative emotions coming up, however much you think of what you want, be grateful that you have got what you wanted i.e. the negative emotions. That is what you really want!

If you genuinely want something, desire it with full focus, minus the negative emotions, prepare to enjoy it when it comes and voila, it is yours!

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