How often has it happened - that you worked quite hard in your office, happy and sure of that it is the 'right' thing to do, and despising / pitying some others who just did enough to not get fired. And then how often has this happened - that some of the folks you despised/pitied quit their jobs and went for better options leaving you confused that you did everything right, but still this other guy is getting better fruits even after worse "Karmas". Should have happened atleast once right? And you can translate it to different aspects in life.
Now obviously such situations are discomforting. But discomfort is a great teacher too.
The simple explanation is that those folks were always aspiring for a different goal than you. They chose to focus their efforts on achieving those different goals (or times find those different goals), and rather face the criticism in their current situation. They denied to take the current situation as a truth, where as you took it as sacrosanct. So what looked as escapism from your viewpoint, was actually a brave and hope filled effort from theirs. And what's boredom from their viewpoint is just optimism and commitment from yours. In essence, its difficult to observe one from other's viewpoint same as its difficult to take pictures of close up objects with a 50-300 mm camera lens.
Now, why am I talking about it. I think we switch boats all the time because of external factors, and a little bit of perspective might be helpful to steer it in the storm vs long boring days.
When we land up in the escapist type of situation, we face lot of peer and social pressure. The pressure amplifies when the goals are abstract and longer term. In such situations, it becomes very important in this long journey to iterate to ourselves the fact that - the goal you are working towards is not visible to others - and their discouragement hence is not rightly positioned. And when you reach that goal - you will suddenly be re-anointed as successful from lost. On the flip side, if you have stuck too long on hard working / conformist side, don't loose heart if you see somebody successful - who has not followed your 'right' path. Just try to understand that he risked quite a bit to get there & try to put yourself in that boat for once. After all life is all about experiencing the extremes and then attenuate.
Respect both perceptions, and follow the one which your heart tells you !!
Now obviously such situations are discomforting. But discomfort is a great teacher too.
The simple explanation is that those folks were always aspiring for a different goal than you. They chose to focus their efforts on achieving those different goals (or times find those different goals), and rather face the criticism in their current situation. They denied to take the current situation as a truth, where as you took it as sacrosanct. So what looked as escapism from your viewpoint, was actually a brave and hope filled effort from theirs. And what's boredom from their viewpoint is just optimism and commitment from yours. In essence, its difficult to observe one from other's viewpoint same as its difficult to take pictures of close up objects with a 50-300 mm camera lens.
Now, why am I talking about it. I think we switch boats all the time because of external factors, and a little bit of perspective might be helpful to steer it in the storm vs long boring days.
When we land up in the escapist type of situation, we face lot of peer and social pressure. The pressure amplifies when the goals are abstract and longer term. In such situations, it becomes very important in this long journey to iterate to ourselves the fact that - the goal you are working towards is not visible to others - and their discouragement hence is not rightly positioned. And when you reach that goal - you will suddenly be re-anointed as successful from lost. On the flip side, if you have stuck too long on hard working / conformist side, don't loose heart if you see somebody successful - who has not followed your 'right' path. Just try to understand that he risked quite a bit to get there & try to put yourself in that boat for once. After all life is all about experiencing the extremes and then attenuate.
Respect both perceptions, and follow the one which your heart tells you !!
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