desire and goal

Some few years back I got a marriage invitation through a post from my friend with whom I spent few years of my schooling. So, I pinged her immediately out of shock to ask her what made her get married so earlier. I could call up those days when I  was seriously competing for the 1st rank with her. But truly she was an over much competitor that hardly twice I overcame her! Another thing which intended me is that I know how difficult it is to grab a seat in topmost medical college in TN, especially through government quota. And nothing more, I was disquieted with the reply she gave me. She told me that she has got a princely alliance with gilded family so that her mother doesn't want to miss the boat. 

I had nothing to tell rather than to congratulate her for her wedding.

 A few days back, she found me on Facebook and pinged me. 

When I queried about her marriage life, she was unhappy. She told me like she is compelled to quit her studies and emigrate along with her spouse who is working abroad. But she desires to continue her studies. I was in the sorry state of affairs and again I had nothing except my regrets for her. 

I told her, "whenever you feel indecisive, just relax and then rethink & if you just can't get rid of it, share with me, so that it might be halved. 

Everyone has their desires and goals which need to be fed and cultivated frequently.But, the choice is ours and every choice has an end result. Like a debate where we can choose which side of the team we would like to be on and argue for or against, we do have a choice to the next step that we take. But the choice we make has to be in congruence with what we want to achieve in life.

We wish to get motivated for the day by listening to achievers and reading success stories, but we end up spending a lot of time reading sensational crime news which is very often depressing in nature.

We long to feel loved and all it takes is to relate to people in our immediate environment. Instead, we end up relating to the characters from some godforsaken imaginary story on the screen where everyone cheats on the other and imbibe those exaggeratedly negative emotions.

We aim to move up the professional ladder but suck at taking on the responsibilities and pass the buck to another.

 We yearn to drive the swankiest of cars, dine in the classiest of restaurants and long to go for that dream holiday, but it tears us apart to see the temporary dent it causes to our pockets.

We dream of excelling in a sport or an art form but are not willing to subject ourselves to any rigorous discipline.

We want to focus on what we think is of utmost importance to us, but end up saying yes to a dozen other issues that distract us away from our progress.

We hope to be clubbed up with the intellectual lot, but spend all our spare time watching insipid mundane movies where logic is conveniently forgotten.

We seek the centeredness of a Buddha under any circumstance but keep postponing that small period of time for sitting in silence.

We aspire to become a legend but, hesitate to go beyond the finishing line in everything we do.

Are we even aware of that, our desires and goals perpetually fight in our head? Do we have the maturity to choose what is essential for our growth at any point in time, rather than what we desire? Do we have the willpower to feed the one that will take us higher and starve the one that will pull us down?

Is our process in congruence with what we want?

With smiles...

Swathi Mohan

(Investing myself completely in the art of living)