Credit cards, iPhones, western toilets – what do they have in common??

Credit cards, orthotic shoes, western toilets, Prime membership, lounge access, gyms and parks, iphones, Audis and Benz’s, vacation at exotic resorts, meetings and deadlines, Netflix and binge watching – why do your lives have to be this complicated? Why don’t you stop burning yourself? Cities make our lives more complicated.

Pause, take a deep breath and realize where you are heading to? A dream car, pent house, luxury vacation suites, children at ICSC schools. Is that all you really want in life? REALLY??!!!

Life is all about choices. You have millions of options to live, endless permutations and combinations to choose from. Life happens whatever way you choose.

Most people do not have guts to make their choices. In my opinion, people are scared about people. Every one pre-sets his/her life based on the fancies of the community and society they live with. People are so much scared of social and status risks. People are scared to stand out from the crowd. People want their lives to be admired by others and set their life goals accordingly, which on the bigger lens is that people tend to live someone’s else’s (meaningless) goals.

Lately, I see a lot of people set goals in line with financial upliftment. No one is ready to give up any money that is about to fall in their plate. Even if you earn in lakhs and lakhs, you’re still not satisfied. Those who crave only for financial upliftment never get satisfied in life. They always want more and spend more. They are scared of spending too much, scared of social prestige, peer upliftment pressure, and scared to stop earning.

The tendency to be richer is often an attention seeking behaviour. You seek attention through the costumes and brands you wear and own. Is it the attention that's given to you or to your things? Not that you are being the brand ambassador, but that you are paying for the products and promoting the brands rather than getting paid for advertising them. All in all, you are tempted to buy them, and you tempt others to buy them, in name of social standards and fashion. On the other side, the brands have their businesses flourished at the cost of your money, labour and life. Rather seek attention through your expertise, dedication, sincerity, hard work and humanity. 

People spend everything they earn purely for businesses to flourish. Birthdays, valentines' day, parties, treats, and in recent times tourism - such events are designed to make you spend. Work hard, earn, spend, repeat - is that all in your life?

You’re not a money vending machine. You have all the liberty in this universe to live however you want. The choice is yours – either you grind yourself like Robert Frost’s Apple Picker or get enlightened, shred off the myths and take a breath of life in you.

Life is not just about getting rich. Of course, I agree there are some financial commitments to everyone. But I strongly say, most of us already earn enough to pay for our necessities. We always strive and earn for luxuries, which are endless. There’s always someone richer than you, there’s always another brand costlier than what you can afford. So, are you gonna chase those until the end of your life? What’s the point in living? Do you want to live or just survive?

My point is not to force you not to earn too much, but to re-confirm what you really want to do with your life. Personally, I have the freedom and guts to do what I want in my life. I am not chained to worldly fancies, luxuries, and social statuses (though my parents feel ashamed of me being like this).

I once worked at a café where I used to take orders, serve bills, and clean tables (Not really for money, I was easily earning 7k working on a web copy for an hour at that time). I thought working there was fun and it was. I have also given English classes at an international college in Thailand. Both the works were fun to me. I have accompanied selling pani puris, cotton candies, popcorns, raw mangoes at the beach along with those vendors – all for an evening each, as a part of getting close with them. I listen to their stories at that time and live their life for one evening. None of these fills my purse, but all of these fill my soul.

People who listen to my stories usually prejudge that I do have financially settled parents who can fill my purse as much as I want and that’s why I quit jobs easily and wander effortlessly. The truth is I do have them, but I have never ever brought a penny from them, right from my college-hood, and it is my strict policy. I did part times and freelance writing since college to pursue my dreams that strengthened my purse and portfolio as well. None of these jobs seemed burdensome to me, but working 2 hours a day at Infosys with monotonous work that benefits no one galls me, and seems burdensome and tiring to me. Luckily, I am a minimalist, so I naturally do not have much spending tendency. So, even a 25k seems enormous to me. I have easily spent 1 lakh rupees in a go and lived with 7k for a month in Pondicherry.

Life is a big canvas. Why do you want to use a single colour of crayon while you have a box of gamut of colours? You choose – either to keep it blank, crush it or fill it with as much colours as you want. Maybe you want to learn to play Violin, or do choreography, or teach poor students, or delve into religion, do astrophysics, write stories, or just listen to stories of other people from different worlds, explore the sea, do farming, or be a saint on top of hills – make your choice and choose your colours. Who’s there to stop you other than your mind? Of course, you will not earn in millions, but you will also not be begging in the streets. Life always gives you a way to earn for your necessity, but earning for luxuries is selling your life for luxuries.

In clear terms, I don’t ask you to come to the streets and sell snacks. But would you still go to work every morning, even if you are not getting paid for it? If you say NO, you should probably reconsider the way you live and it is not too late to start living your life the way you want. Work hard on things you love. Seek answers to all your questions. Have no regrets when you die. As Steve says, "Love what you do and do what you love", be it at Mayavaram, Maldives, or Mars, go for it. 

We only live once. Why waste it just by earning all your life?

Here is Steve Jobs, the most sophisticated philosopher and technology pioneer's Secret of Life.