"Oh, I put in a hundred hours at work last week, it was sooo exhausting, I think these dark circles are going to stay FOREVER!", says my friend when I finally meet her after getting cancelled on almost a hundred times because she is "soooo busyyy". You could get the picture of how busy she has been, with all the extra syllables she put in while sending me TEXTS to let me know she can't make it. Not even phone calls. Because who has the time to make them? She lets out a sigh trying to feign sombreness, but the glint in her eye stinks of pride. Because perhaps dark circles are something to be proud of. Another friend complains that she absolutely abhors her job; but still goes out to do the same thing over and over again Monday to Friday, without even batting an eyelid, as if it was nothing to mull over. As if it was normal to go to a dreary monotonous place and drain your calibre into something you didn't particularly enjoy, something you didn't even particularly know why you had to do, except perhaps to earn money which would be whiled away in the weekends to 'blow off steam' with friends who have a similar kind of work style.
People who don't hate their job are increasingly seen as an atypical tribe, something foreign and almost unattainable. People who have "free time" are considered alien, after all what kind of life are you living if you are not grinding your mind to a state of almost zombie like depletion wherein at the end of the day you don't even have the capacity to think. In a world where dark circles are carried like badges of honour and not having the time to even have breakfast is something people "boast about", one is considered to be a failure if god forbid you work any less than a gazillion hours and almost akin to being a social outcast if you could afford to sleep more than eight hours a day. And dare you go sit at some place alone, without using your phone or your laptop or a bluetooth in your ear, things which give you the airs of a 'busy', important person. You would be branded a weirdo. Don't trust me? I have memes to support my theory! Because who else can sit all alone and all idle, with nothing to give him/her company except just one's thoughts!
But you know who should sit all alone and all idle with nothing to give him/her company except just one's thoughts?
YOU.
Me. All of us. Take a second, or a minute, and if you are lucky enough, maybe even an hour. For just yourself. To think what you want to do. More importantly, to know what you don't want to do. Because someone once told me, "The mark of a successful man is that he knows what he doesn't want, even more than what he wants".
Think. Is it worth it to miss breakfast? Did missing birthdays, anniversaries, important events, not so important events somehow make you more successful?
More importantly, is it what success should feel like?
Stop. Shut your phone. Take off that bluetooth off your ear. Close that laptop. Shut that book. Shut up.
Breathe in.
Think. Or don't think.
Breathe out.
Sigh out.
Smile perhaps? Without any reason? Because why do you need any reason anyway except that right now you are in this moment and you are alive.
Hum a forgotten tune which lingers in your sub-conscience every now and then.
Skip a step. Or may be two.
Or just stay still.
Laugh. Without any reason. Let them think you are nuts.
Stop.
Don't burn out even before you get a chance to shine through.
People who don't hate their job are increasingly seen as an atypical tribe, something foreign and almost unattainable. People who have "free time" are considered alien, after all what kind of life are you living if you are not grinding your mind to a state of almost zombie like depletion wherein at the end of the day you don't even have the capacity to think. In a world where dark circles are carried like badges of honour and not having the time to even have breakfast is something people "boast about", one is considered to be a failure if god forbid you work any less than a gazillion hours and almost akin to being a social outcast if you could afford to sleep more than eight hours a day. And dare you go sit at some place alone, without using your phone or your laptop or a bluetooth in your ear, things which give you the airs of a 'busy', important person. You would be branded a weirdo. Don't trust me? I have memes to support my theory! Because who else can sit all alone and all idle, with nothing to give him/her company except just one's thoughts!
But you know who should sit all alone and all idle with nothing to give him/her company except just one's thoughts?
YOU.
Me. All of us. Take a second, or a minute, and if you are lucky enough, maybe even an hour. For just yourself. To think what you want to do. More importantly, to know what you don't want to do. Because someone once told me, "The mark of a successful man is that he knows what he doesn't want, even more than what he wants".
Think. Is it worth it to miss breakfast? Did missing birthdays, anniversaries, important events, not so important events somehow make you more successful?
More importantly, is it what success should feel like?
Stop. Shut your phone. Take off that bluetooth off your ear. Close that laptop. Shut that book. Shut up.
Breathe in.
Think. Or don't think.
Breathe out.
Sigh out.
Smile perhaps? Without any reason? Because why do you need any reason anyway except that right now you are in this moment and you are alive.
Hum a forgotten tune which lingers in your sub-conscience every now and then.
Skip a step. Or may be two.
Or just stay still.
Laugh. Without any reason. Let them think you are nuts.
Stop.
Don't burn out even before you get a chance to shine through.
