Killing yourself for success

Sitting here on the terrace of my home, I am observing the skydiving by egrets. They shoot up to the sky and then, spreading their wings, take a dive into the valley. They seems to enjoy the free falling - entrusting themselves to the winds and free of all cares. There is a peace of mind in entrusting yourself to the wind-blown clouds and losing control.

But that’s not how most of us live. We live to kill ourselves with worries and stress – all in the name of chasing success. Mostly, the stress in our lives is not because of the actual problems we have, but because of our continuous efforts to control things, situations and people around us.

Most of us carry the fearful baggage of our past on our shoulders and become so cautious, that anything that seems not under control looks like a threat or end of the world. ‘Your past is not to live, it is to learn. School teaches you for university, university teaches you for your profession. Once you are in professional life you set your future goals. Everything is a stepping stone,’ including the current problem in hand. No difficulty is there to stay or to take you away from your success; it’s only there to lead you on to it. And it is the law of nature that hard work always pays you off, whether you worry about it or not. As humans we are in love with worries, and will even dig out one on our own if we don’t have any. But like my favorite poet Rumi says:

If I were the plaything of every thought
I'd be a fool, not a wise man.

Bushra

11:36 hours

Saturday 28 January 2012