Don't Die 'Brand New'
Chose your peak and don’t just die ‘Brand-New’!
MOST people die ‘brand new’. Yes, majority of mankind never try to discover the distant stars or cross the high seas. What is sad is that they don’t even try to experience new things in their paralyzed fear of the unknown and the presumptive belief of failure. Well, failure is not bad. In fact, failure has never been bad. We learn from our failures and mistakes. What is bad is repeating the same mistake and failure again. But, what is worse is not to fail at all!
Erich von Daniken wrote in his book, The Eye of the Sphinx: ‘Some people live so cautiously that they die practically brand new, others use their brain exclusively for reading, never for thinking.’
Thinking is another aspect of life which we most often outsource to the so-called experts, gurus and leaders. These people create consensus and we either support or oppose their views. Most of the mankind hardly spend time for thinking. How could they think? Where is the time to think? Life has become a grand automation process. Humans are on the brink of becoming robots themselves.
Nowadays, a normal life predominantly comprises going to school to get a degree, finding a job to earn a living, marrying someone to start a family and raise a family; in the meantime, always to be suspicious and envious of your neighbors. And whatever idle time is possible that goes in the service of the Idiot Box (which many are trying to rechristen as intelligent box).
The world is a beautiful place but becoming more pathetic every year, in spite of our economic progress. As John Steinbeck once said: ‘I wonder progress look so much like destruction.’
Indeed, we might boost about erecting big dams but at the cost of destroying complete mountain valley ecosystems. We build big cities, but at the cost of destroying the wetlands and rainwater catchment areas. Is
this real progress? What right do we have to say that we are progressing when in truth, we are destroying?
Commerce is the refined word used to hide the plundering we do in the name of progress. In fact we've synonymised commerce with progress. Yes, it is progress; progress towards destruction.
So how do we don’t become a mute spectator of the destructive progress by becoming a robot? In short, how do we don’t die ‘Brand-New’?
Well, it involves three steps. First, think. Don’t just accept or oppose something because others are having strong opinions. You and only you must have control over your thinking.
Second, question more. Merely asking questions will not do any good. Ask the right questions and seek the right answers.
And third, dare to live beyond the realms of average and ordinary. Seek something that you want and not what others want you to achieve. And if that means taking a plunge into the unknown, risking failure, betrayals and heartbreaks; that’s fine. Do it anyway. You get only one shot at life. Make it count!
Failure is good. It sets you up for life. Most often success doesn’t teach us anything. Failure, however, never fails to teach lessons. But that doesn’t mean success is useless. It is for success that we risk failure. Success is the pinnacle but no one has climbed its peak without failures.
Chose your peak and don’t just die ‘Brand-New’!