There obviously are two sides to a coin, but we see only what we want to see. And in doing so, we lose clarity.
If you broaden it up, there are two approaches to life. In the first one, you challenge yourself to become better. This includes: being ambitious, making long-term plans and undertaking activities that stimulate some form of growth. All of which are aimed at making the next few years of your life more desirable and satisfactory.
In the second perspective, you live. In the true sense of the word, and in contrary to the first perspective. You squeeze happiness out of a rather dull day and craft memories as if all you had was one last day to smash the life out of every moment. This perspective includes everything along the lines of being truly alive.
Now, why did I say we lose clarity?
Well, for one, the answer seems straightforward enough. Because we get consumed, utterly and completely. Think about thousands of people having dozens of goals, striving for survival, competing, working hard, succeeding, some failing and giving up, some dashing towards a better life. They’re unwittingly stuck in the first perspective. Maybe they don’t have a choice. Maybe they’ve gotten too involved in making their future liveable that they’ve forgotten what living feels like. Think about some of the first thoughts we get after waking up and just lying in bed. Aren’t they always about the past, an imagined future, or a fantasy? Don’t these all have the concept of longing in common?
If you were to connect it, being totally absorbed in the first perspective leads to the fact that we stop seeing the other perspective at all. We throw the present tense straight out the window, and that is why we lose clarity.
Slow time down and think of all the activities we do in a day, there are things we have to do, and things that make us upset, and other things in the same category which kill our happy time, and thus, we never get to do the things we’d rather be doing. As humans, we’re designed to get bundled up in routine activities. To get consumed. To keep giving and giving. But time flies. And so does life.
The big picture of life might just need a balance of both perspectives. Wherein we do things that are necessary, but also keep the dopamine rolling. Wherein we respect the present, because there’s a reason we live in it.
We keep longing for happiness, assuming it’s eventually coming up. Without realizing it’s there. In every single day. All we need is a balance of both perspectives.
“People aren’t happy because they win. They win ‘cause they’re happy.” — Stargirl
Till soon,
Adi :)
