choose

Life Choices – Cause and Reaction

/ inSolitude / 4 Comments

How often we have walked a path being sure that is what we want only to discover that it is not the right one. We change course, and this time we are ‘sure’ this is the correct path… and then again, it doesn’t seem right. So we take a completely different ‘obvious’ route and still stumble upon the same dilemma of being completely opposite of ‘being sure’.

What is wrong? Why can’t we get it correct? Are we really unsure or we don’t know?

We have all done puzzles – How do we find the right route through the maze? Do we get it right the first time? We try. We were sure but we were wrong… so we tried again. Unlike puzzles like this, life is not so simple with limited, pre-determined paths to follow. There are many unlimited, undefined, unconditional paths – each, once selected, brings us to the next step of the same routine of ‘choices’. Why are we caught in this maze with no beginning or end? If making the choice does not solve the problem, why then do we make the choice in the first place?

Let’s rewind.

Who are you? What contributed to the current state you are in? What choices you have made gives you the current choice you have in hand to choose? Who and what will you be if a different set of options were offered… and choices made?

Life presents us all with situations, and with it options, and tied to that choices. It is either we get ourselves into that situations or the situations presents themselves. We need to make a call. Not making a choice is like clicking the ‘failure to make a choice’ button by default. Choices are made – either you choose or let it be chosen for you. THAT will define the next series of steps… and that cascades down to what and who we have become now.

We ask ourselves. Could I have become a different person? YES, we would have been… but we may not be asking ourselves that question if we were already a different person who chooses ignorance over the truth of self-doubt.

We make choices. Glad we made those choices to let us move, to learn, to become a better person…. and most importantly, to address the birth of new choices. There is nothing limiting us… if anything it is us who are putting layers and layers of shackles around us. Let’s be free. Let’s make those choices and live life!

Greatness…. we define it.

/ inSolitude / Leave a comment

I like to drink (alcohol of couse) – all the time actually. However I don’t get to do it often. I have a family and as a responsible father who sets an example for his kids, I have to restrain myself. Why do I like to drink? I am not the kind who gets drunk and start becoming rowdy and all. I drink to get high, not drunk. When I am high, I become sober… and more at peace. I find a level of peace and I start to self reflect more when I am high. I will totally agree if I am branded oxymoronic. I like to drink and I am no connaisseur, although I drink with that pretext. I wish not to drink, but I do it now and again – why?

I have not taken drugs, but if you have I guess you will know what I am not talking about. We all want something to give a  sense of ‘purpose’. A moment to be ‘free’… a moment to be what we want to be… a moment to float in the stillness of time. I am in no way advocating drinking or drugs – in fact I totally dispice it. Then again, there is a part of me which just want to live in a subconscious world. A part of me that is weak and falls slave, chained up and confined in the cell that my mind puts me in. I am slave to myself – not to say I have no control over it, but I crave it… I enjoy it. My ‘choice’ of not wanting it does not change the fact that I am still a slave – of my choosing… of my craving. I never really got addicted to any particular evil, even though I tried ‘diligently’, just to experience what is that addiction that destroys a person and his/her life and family in the process. Maybe I am just blessed to be immune to addiction of the ‘dark’ kind, but that does not mean I have completely overcome it. To not allow oneself to be conquered and to have full control over oneself are two different things – one is a state of ‘constant’ and the other a state of ‘completeness’.

Much is expected of those who put themselves on a higher moral pedestal. What is more important is for each one of us to evaluate ourselves with high expectations – to look at ourselves and expect nothing short of greatness. No one is perfect – but each and every one of us strive to be perfect – to overcome our own demons, whichever size or shape they come in. Overcoming our demons is not easy – in fact it is the probably the one thing that is so integrated with us that we might feel lost without it. Such is the power of that leech. That is why greatness is never easy – that is why is called greatness… not good… not very good… not excellent… but greatness!

The biggest hurdle we need to go through to reach a higher state of being, is not out there, but in us. It knows our weakness and it feeds on that. Greatness is never easy. It is not about being capable of greatness, it is about the willingness to be great. Many have told me “Choice does not mean anything. I can choose to be a President but I can never be.” – well that is not choice. Let me share a true story of a famous leader as I have heard it with some enhancements.

The teacher in the class asked the students what they want to be when they grow up. There were some wanting to be a doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers and so on. One kid stood up and said he wanted to be a Prime Minister. The teacher jokingly asked ‘There can be only one (sounds like ‘Highlander’) Prime Minister in this whole country, it is almost impossible. Maybe you might want to be something else’ – to which the student replied ‘There is only one person in this class who wanted to be a Prime Minister’.

You see, we become what we believe in. The believe or the seed of the desire for greatness does not exist in all. The fact that we believe is the step towards greatness.

Greatness is about choice. We choose that. Let’s us take the first step forward.