Put on those Blinkers

Monotonous. The word in itself sounds like a suffering. Like it is sad to sound the way it does. But what does it really imply in life? Is monotonous good or bad? Some say monotonous is good, it means you are settled, you have a fixed routine, you know what is to be done, how it is to be done and when it needs to be done. You are sorted in a way. No room for surprises, no space for the universe to throw a curve ball, no scope for life to turn out to be a roller coaster ride. It’s all laid out, the steps, the procedure, the methodology. Let’s see the other side now. Let’s say you are living an exhilarating life. An exciting, lively and enthralling life. You don’t plan much and just go with the flow. Waiting for new opportunities to challenge you and force you to think out of the box. Always waiting for the next surprise to come your way. Contrary to a settled monotonous life, you are living a constantly on the move life with no time to take a break because there is so much more to do and anything can happen any second, anything can change your entire life and make you rethink which direction you want to head towards.

Now if you sit and take a moment and think about it, we very casually use these terminologies to address people and their lives, basis our quick observation! We judge, form our opinions and disregard the way someone chooses to live their life. Some of us get to hear aren’t you bored of such a monotonous life and the rest – don’t you want to settle down at one place and relax. We are so ignorant of each others circumstances and do not take a second before imposing our thought process on their lifestyle choices. We think these decisions are made just by this person we are addressing, we conveniently ignore what background would have shaped up these decisions. What is the reason they maybe a misfit and still struggling hard to fit in or what is it that makes someone believe in their passion so much that they risk everything to follow it even after repeated failures only to one day achieve what they always knew they deserved. What makes one settle and what makes the other struggle? And how do you know if settling or struggling is worth it, is it for your good or is it going to deprive you of anything else that comes your way? It happens once in a while, when life seems monotonous, something pops up suddenly and shakes you from your very core, making you question every decision you ever made, the way you live your life, the path you chose to follow for a lifetime. You had accustomed yourself to a lifestyle you deemed fit for you and then everything comes to a stand still. You can either fight back and survive this or you get pulled down.

What really pulls us down? Is it our high expectations or the disappointments, is it us when we give up or the people around us who didn’t believe in us? Or is it our issues? Coming to “issues”. Do we really have issues or do we like to think we have issues? It does not even sound like a word anymore. Seems like more of an excuse that we carry around. Our issues are what we blame when we do not know how to respond to a particular situation. We use it as a shield to protect ourselves at times. Can we try to move past our issues? Accepting we have issues and reiterating that will not really get us anywhere, will it? So who is going to help us get over these issues? Are we waiting for someone to help us out of it or are we going to do something about it ourselves? You can pray when you can’t seem to make sense out of things, ask for help when in trouble, get support when needed. Chances are while they try to help you out of your situation they will influence you intentionally/unintentionally. And in those vulnerable moments you tend to get carried away and make decisions based on their suggestions and not your aspirations. 

So what is the trick? How do you decide what life do you want for yourself? Chances are even after you decide what you want, after you know what you want to fight for and what you want to settle for, life will find a way to surprise you and bring forth a situation you weren’t prepared for. You will feel stuck in a phase not knowing whether you want to take a step back or move forward, directionless, clueless, waiting to figure what you need to do. So next time you feel stuck, take a step back, rethink everything, as many times as you need to and then step up for yourself. Give yourself time, get over your issues and decide for yourself what is the life you want to head towards now. And once you know where you want to go, gather all your courage, chin up, look straight and…

Put on those blinkers!!