A whole host of us (and now I am at my punitive and judgemental worst!!) completely confuse the ME versus I versus WE debate.
As a society its fashionable to hide our own laziness, incompetence and inherent desire for an easy life behind the mask of “work life balance” or “stability” or “sustainable ambition”.
For years, I have been told someday, I shall have to slow down. At college I was told, “wait till you get a job”, at a job I was told “wait till you get married”, when I was seriously ill I was told “slow down now or you will kill yourself” (that was bloody 12 years ago), and then “when you have a kid you shall know what my pressures are”….and the list continues.
I don’t hold my punches on this topic back…... None of this seems to have changed my life…because I think I don’t want to change.
I look at Amitabh Bachan struggling with Cirrhosis for the best part of 25 years and still working 70 hrs week at 72, and tell myself…thats the life I want….here is someone who held his own mirror to himself, who had every reason to stop…and yet he continues pushing himself.
(I don’t admire AB too much for his work in itself….but the above quality is so bloody admirable)
Get the drift? Broken down, we are slinky individual carbon life forms….The I is the most important entity…make the most of it, the rest will fall in place.
(and you don’t have to be as successful as AB, or Ratan Tata….thats a function of timing (luck), capability and energy….. but at the least you should try just as hard!!)
Last note on this topic….my glass half empty prognosis….I believe we are creating a generation of baby boomers….similar to the American generation of last 2 decades…..all belted and fired up….and yet nowhere to go!!