Man is a speculative species. He likes to speculate , predict and build expectations. This nature of man is compounded by his social environment which will continue to populate his mind with various norms and common-sensical facts. For example, one of the most used facts by parents is that if you study hard and get into good institute then you will lead a great life. And thus, you must work hard today to have a better tomorrow. Thus, the child is always under pressure to do good today so as to get better tomorrow. Often, some of these facts get so stretched that a person feels that pursuit of one single thing can give him all other things. So, for example , if you become great i.e. rich or powerful , everything great will follow you. So, just try to be great and stop worrying about other things(family, friends, relationships) because once you become great other things are no more a problem.

The unilinear mindset of our society is biggest impediment to its growth. And by growth, I don’t mean money ,I mean happiness. Happiness in life is fortunately more a function of one’s own mindset rather than external factors. Further, personal happiness is very different from professional happiness and physical happiness is very different from emotional happiness. Happiness doesn’t come from future and past but from the present. People become unhappy when they see their past failure and become hopeless of good future. Similarly, those who have had happy life , expect every thing to remain sunny. The fact is that future is not past and will never repeat itself in same fashion. Every moment is different and only those who realize this fact can appreciate the value of the present.

The cycle of life is full of ups and downs. Impeccable relationships can go wrong on trivial things, brilliant people can lose track of their things and average people can rejuvenate their life through awakening. Everything is possible and all the options always remain open. Yes, one can talk that probability of going right or wrong varies from case to case but still probability remains merely a probability. As Murphy’s law states that if anything can go wrong will go wrong ,similarly, if things have to go right they will go right. The bottom line is that one must not build over expectation of future and similarly one must not get too demoralized to discount the future. One must simply do what is required to be done today.

The more we get older, more we need to remember the child inside us. When we are children we dream big and dream regularly. As we grow older , we get tempered by realism. While realism helps us to avoid unnecessary risk, it also diminishes the man’s animal spirit to learn , experiment and forget. The monotony trap weighs heavily on adulthood whereas as child we all are always exploring. A child listens to stories of how things can become wonderful and starts working towards them as if they are achievable where as adult starts discussing whether it is achievable or not. The level of hope distinguishes a child from the adult. Fact is no one knows what will be achieved and what will be not. Man will touch Mars , Tesla stock will become rocket high ,Yogi adityanath or kejriwal will become CM were all speculations at one time and reality at another point of time.

The first lesson in any class from where the learning starts should be to discuss ‘uncertainty’. ‘Uncertainty’ is the most certain thing in life and a man’s behavior towards uncertainty decides the fate of the man. Those who marry uncertainty divorce the stress and those who divorce uncertainty ,marry the stress. The increasing stress in today’s world is a direct result of a man’s marriage with speculation and prediction. Brilliant people grapple to handle surprises and generally that particular moment starts weighing heavily on their mind. The idea of forgetting the incident and not the lesson is still naïve in today’s world. People generally forget the lesson and remember the incident. Such a mindset requires change and the change is exactly what our mind needs to accept. The best thing we can do in today’s stressful world is create wider acceptance of uncertain nature of life and establishing that man’s goal is to experience the life and not to predict it.

Leaving readers with one of my best songs: