Happy new year, folks! It's once again that time of the year when we make resolutions, with full confidence that we are not going to follow any of those through... ;) Just kidding! I hope you are better at pursuing resolutions than I am, cuz I have one resolution to suggest today, in case you might want to take it up.
The resolution I propose is: "Be important". Kinda catchy, isn't it? Let me explain:
I keep feeling that most of us tend to ignore, and therefore fail to use, the wonderful gift of getting a life as a human being. We just try to survive, spending away the precious 70-80 years of our lives in our routine chores. We learn in order to earn, we earn in order to maintain our family (people who will also learn / earn), and by the time we think we've learnt and earned enough, we're done with our quality time on earth. We are no different than ants and pigeons and dogs, who also live lives just around their daily food and instantaneous pleasures / pains.
I think this is a pretty pathetic waste of the opportunity we've been given: to enjoy life as humans. We have been given the awesome power to change the world by using our brains. We know that we will find great pleasure in bringing about that change and seeing people happier, yet we ignore/forget that. We justify not doing this with our limitations of time and money. I see this especially in case of NRIs and professionals: despite their better abilities and financial position, they spend their entire lives in the same old cycle. It's so pathetic that we don't find time to do what we are made to do, what will give us the most happiness - immediately and in the long run.
So, friends, resolve to discover and use the human potential inside yourself. Get up and change the world around you!
You'll have opportunities to make a difference almost everywhere you look, I'm sure. Guide and influence someone's career decision. Change someone's way of thinking. Bring education within reach of someone who can't afford it. Make a product or launch a service that serves an unfulfilled need, or raises our standard of living, even if by a teeny weeny bit. Find ways to utilize hidden or unused potential in people, say housewives and senior citizens. Train people to deserve employment. Agitate to bring about a change in a law. Spread awareness about some good health practices. Help your friends make money in the stock market. Build houses. Solve a family feud. If nothing else, just find time to sit and listen to people who only want your attention once in a while.
Be someone who matters. Don't be yet another ant or pigeon, whose presence or absence will make no difference to the world. Touch and uplift the lives of people around you. Be someone who made the world a richer place. It will make you feel important, one of the feelings humans crave most for, right since infancy. And you will earn lots of good wishes, which I consider as the main raw material for "luck". Most of all, it will give you sustainable satisfaction, for you will be living a meaningful life.
Our days and years are too few and too precious to waste away in daily crises and efforts to survive. Let us resolve to use them to make a difference to the world around us.
Once again, my best wishes for a fun-filled yet meaningful year ahead!
