How to live the “unpredictable” life?

When you look at your surroundings and really ponder over it, you would come up with a conclusion that of all the things, the most unpredictable, uncertain, is life itself. You never know if you are going to stay alive the next year or the next month or the next day, so and so that you can’t be certain about your chances of being alive the next very moment! A sudden car accident, an unanticipated heart attack or an unexpected fall on the head might be the cause of your death. We never exactly know what might happen. Although, we can predict what we are going to do the next day or week, we might have plans for the next year but those are just our forethoughts, in reality we are as uncertain as anyone could be. Although, not be mistaken, I am a big supporter of future planning, I think its very necessary that we plan ahead of whatever we have in mind and not include ourselves in the, “Lets see what happens” category of people. But, just to give you an idea of the uncertainty of life, according to a statistics, approximately 200,000 athletes die of sudden deaths and in the US, two thirds occur in football and basketball. I am talking about the healthiest of our populations here. Sudden cardiac death in the US (population 300 million) is estimated to occur 180,000 – 250,000 times per year.

So if life is so unpredictable, so unforeseeable, what to do about it?

1. Find your passion.

What is that one thing that you think you are made for and do it! Don’t set out to do something that you are not passionate about. Find something to which you can say out loud, “WOW! This is what I want to do!” If it’s really hard for you to find that thing, keep on working your butt off until you have found it. Once you have discovered that passion, follow it and be master in it. You see, if you are not doing what you would have liked to do, then you are not living, really. To me and to many others, you are dead already. So set out for what you always wanted to do and give your whole time and energy to it. Life is much more than a 9-5 job!

2. Be kind.

Don’t hold grudges against anyone. If you have got a situation where it is very difficult for you to forgive someone, come up with a slightest of an excuse and forgive him/her. Try to be kind and affectionate to everyone. And this goes especially to your family-parents, siblings and close friends. Life is too short to be spent resenting someone. I am going to tell you a short story of one of my friends. This friend of mine didn’t have the greatest of relationships with his father. He had spent most of his life hating him; from the day he was a teenage to his adolescents. Reason? He thought his father was being unkind and mean to him. Until recently when one day, he got the news of his death. Oh boy, you wouldn’t want to see such a sight, he cried and cried until his eyes were swollen and his tears were dried up. During the whole time, he was uttering but one thing, “I wish I had made up with him!”

3. Learn from your mistakes.

As human beings, we are bound to make mistakes and blunders, sometimes we may repeat them, but the sensible thing to do is to learn from them. Take a lesson from your faults and promise yourself not to repeat them again. If you have fought with someone and it is your fault, go and apologize! Don’t wait for the right moment to come along, that is not ever going to happen. You have to make the move and it is better there and then. And please, please! Don’t beat yourself up. Learn from your failures and move on.

4. Have fun!

In the end, life is too short and too unpredictable to be serious all the time. It is wise to have fun and enjoy every moment of it. Go out, have fun, sit on rides, go to adventures, do things, which you were always scared to do. This is life and our job is to have fun!

Why it doesn’t matter to me if Roger Federer doesn’t win another grand slam.

It has been 3 years since his last win at a grand slam event. Many people in the midst of these years started speculating if he had that energy, that athleticism left in him anymore. And many people still have their doubts. Could he win another grand slam? Can he overtake the likes of Rafa, Novak, Murray and the other young bloods once more? Or will the number 17 be his final destination? These are the questions that many have in their minds. But frankly, to me, it doesn’t matter. The thing that mattered or still matters to me even more is his passion for the game and the hard yards that he is still putting day in and day out to compete professionally. The hunger, the desire, the animation that he still has and which he has carried throughout his career is what i salute him for. Consider this very carefully, a man who has already captured the most number of grand slams and has conquered almost every possible record that is out there and for him to be going empty handed without winning a single grand slam title in 3 consecutive years and still being in the top 10 and playing as well as ever he has and that too with the growing age is mesmerizing. Although I’d love to see him putting his hands on more of those grand titles but to be honest even if he doesn’t, his enthusiasm for the game as a whole and not just grand slams and his thirst for winning every single match have won my heart and the hearts of millions.

How to get rid of jealousy?

Enviousness, covetousness, jealousy is the desiring of something belonging to someone else. It could be anything from wealth, status to happiness, love and beauty. The typical jealous mindset says that if someone has something, why doesn’t he have it? why doesn’t he have the Ferrari? why is he not the owner of that big house? why is he not as famous as that actor? or why is he not intelligent as the guy next door? As a result he despises them. He hates the very fact that someone is superior than him. Such people also think that if they can’t have something, others should not have them too. If they can’t afford to buy a farm or be a billionaire my friend or my neighbour shouldn’t be able too. They can’t stand someone owning something that he is unable to.

How to disown this hurtful trait?

1.Find a goal:                                                                                                                                                  You would be saying, how come finding a goal is linked to ridding of jealousy. Well, it is very much so. When you find out what you really want to achieve in life, automatically, your whole focus is shifted to achieving that thing and only that thing. You have no time for resentment and enviousness. You don’t bother thinking about your neighbour who recently bought a Rolls Royce. You have got your own target to work towards. So put aside all the discontentments for others and ask yourself, what is my aim? what do i want to achieve in life? what am i so passionate about? what is my obsession? Believe me once you answer these questions you are too occupied to be bothered by others.

2.Change your attitude:
“Your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy.” It is so applicable here if you notice. This neighbour of yours has got a better job than you, he is well off, got a loving family. Now it is totally up to you, either to envy him and wish his job be taken and he leads a miserable life or on the other hand you take inspiration from him and learn from him, notice the good things about him and trying to apply them on yourself. You see, it’s all about attitude. Tell yourself, “if he can do it, so can i, after all he is just a human being as i am.” You just have to have that confidence in you and how sensibly you go about it.

But what about the inborn qualities that people have?

You would be wondering now, ok that is that, but what about the naturally talented people. People who are born intelligent, or beautiful or lucky. First of all does it matter to you? Has it caused you any harm or given you any benefits? No! so why even bother? But you would be saying, you hate them for that very fact that they got something for free and that’s eating you inside. Well, if that is the case, then ask yourself, are there some people who might be saying the same thing about you? And believe me, you would find lots of people who wished they were as privileged as you. It may be the family that you are born into, or the place you belong to, or maybe for some bizarre reason they do find you attractive! Just kidding, but trust me there are people out there. As far as intelligence or luck is concerned, well you tell me, being born genius or fortunate is exciting or working hard and earning it and one day realising, “WOW! I am super smart and fortunate and you know what? I wasn’t born with it but i worked my ass off for it and i am proud of myself!” After all this is what makes life so exciting, having to earn something and being proud of it! Isn’t it? God! Life would so boring if i was gifted with all the life’s fortunes and i didn’t have to reach out for them.

Being jealous of someone isn’t something to be ashamed of. In fact if used in a positive way, it could take us along way. Life isn’t fair, you know it and i know it and this is what makes it exhilarating.

What Do We Mean by “Life Is Short?”

Now there are many ways in which we can comprehend the phrase “Life is too short”. Mostly, people perceive it as “You know what! Screw everything! Life is too brief to be thinking too much. You just straight away do things that you want to do and the way you want to do.” According to them people are insane to be wasting their precious time finding out their so-called ” Passion,” specially in this ever fast-moving world. “They should just right away get on with any thing they like and stick with it, and what is so difficult in finding out a fascination anyways?” They argue that there are so many fields, so many areas of interest, specially now than ever, that you can take on and achieve success and that you have to just pick one and go for it. Their take on this brief duration of time is that it should be fully lived and not wasted looking for a true desire or aim, or trying to find the reason of existence even if such thing exists.

Now the above argument seems pretty reasonable. I mean, we are given just a single life, and that too with its ever rapid speed specially now than ever, our time on this planet has become ephemeral than ever. But doesn’t this very fact of life being brief, makes you want to do something that you desire for? Doesn’t it call you for giving thoughts and considerations prior to taking any major step in life? Doesn’t this bitter reality of getting old someday and having to depend on someone to look after you in some way or the other, makes you realise that you ought to do something you would die for?
I am going to give you a scenario just to clear my whole point here. Suppose you choose engineering for a career, you are like, “This is what I think I like, and I feel I’m pretty good at it.” You don’t look no further, are very optimistic about your success. So you go to college, get a degree, then you get a well paid job or start something on your own. You are pretty happy about it in the end, earning more than most of the people you know at least. Time is passing by and you are going on with your life just fine.
Old and feeble now, you are sitting in one of those rise recliners, and you are examining your inner self. It is one of those days when you want to look back at your whole life and see what you did and what you didn’t, what is left to do, and what could have been better or being thankful for an apparently good thing to have not happened. You are pretty satisfied so far with your soul interrogation until you are like, “Wait a minute, what about my career? I mean did I really have to go for engineering? Was it the only thing that I wanted to do? Or could I have just waited a little longer until I have found my real objective? Suddenly you are in a state of utter confusion and despair.

Did I really live my life? Did I discover the aim, the craze that I was looking for? And did I devote my time to that passion of mine to the utmost of my sincerity? Make sure at the end of this short life, when we are confronted with these crucial questions, we answer them with a genuine smile on our faces.