Design the Life You Love

A guru and his disciple were sitting in the garden and were having a conversation. Suddenly the disciple felt that he was no longer holding the exclusive attention of his guru.

“Guru jee?” he exclaimed.

“Yes,” confirmed the guru. Regarding his disciple with a smile, he said – “Have you ever thought about that one thing which is common between you and that dog?”

“Your life is the most important thing in the world to you,” said the guru. “Same for the dog.”

Hello?

Are you hearing that the life of a human and the life of an animal are of the same value?

Yes, you most certainly are!

The way we want to enjoy life, the way we want to stay alive, the way we cling to our particular level of consciousness – we are very much alike the animals. Who does not wish to enjoy a delicious meal? Who does not want to sleep in a safe, comfortable bed? Student, guru, a rich businessman – or a stray dog – we just want to stay alive.

But maybe as humans we have much greater potential, of course. And that is the reason why ‘your life’ is your most important project.

Design the Life You Love

At this point, when some of you are gearing up to become the next civil servant of our country, and some who have just rang the doorbells of this CSE process, it is important to understand the fundamental rulesthat lead straight to the role that you aspire to play. It is simple.

The rules are easy to understand. You have chances. You can relax. You can breathe. You can pull yourself back up.

BUT – Rules are not easy to apply. Your chances stand subjected to your willpower. You can relax only if you slog hard. You can breathe calmly only if it is guided. And you can pull yourself back up only if you want to.

Death is an inevitable part of this process! But rebirthsare possible.

You, my dear reader, are standing on an intersection of a difficult process and your life.You need to think like a designer or an architect – what a life that you love looks like.

The process called Civil Service Examination, CSE preparation is not an ocean where you can easily get lost. Agreed that from outside it may seem to some of you like a big maze where everybody is madly looking out for turns to win their trophy. For some of you, it may seem like an ocean which has a beginning but no end.

S-T-O-P right there! Take a deep breathe. Relax.

Deconstruct

Yes. Deconstruct. Forget every problem. Forget even that an ocean exists. Stop planning those turns you were about to take in the maze. Forget the trophy. Forget those thoughts that you have always been carrying in your heart. Forget how practical your mind is. Let go the strings attached with the word S-U-C-C-E-S-S. Wonder how strange a word failure is!

Break it. Forget it. Leave it. Throw it. Just D-E-C-O-N-S-T-R-U-C-T in 2 minutes.

Take a pen and a rough paper. Channelize everything that you are forgetting, transfer every emotion, positive or negative in that pen. Just close your eyes and start scribbling slowly and slowly in the rough paper. Scribble all your thoughts, all your worries, all your anxiety away. Scribble so much that your mind finally asks you to stop because of the pain in your hand.

Afterwards, when you open your eyes and you take a deep breath of relief, you would realise that when you let it all go, when you deconstruct something, you cannot get it back. You cannot put it back the way it was before. This blank space is where untapped potential lies hidden. This is the heart of creativity and productivity.

Nobody has a perfect life. The term perfect is alright. It can mean a lot of things. It can give beautiful meaning to something deserving of it. But the application of the term ‘perfect’ has most of the times been misguided. Do not adhere to other’s definition of ‘perfect’.

But you have a chance today to define what ‘perfect’ means to you. What your life means to you. What your CSE preparation should be like.

It’s risky, yes. You will not know how your journey will turn out to be. So, stop playing by the rules. Craft your own!

Why not design your own original life, eh?

With this little seedling in your mind, IASbaba take your leave. You will find me in your inbox on a Monday morning soon. Until then, study well and take good care of yourself.

Your friend, philosopher and guide-IASbaba