Real Value
I have always been wondering.
I have always wondered about the meaning, the purpose and the value of everything I came across. I have always wondered about humans, collectively as beings. They truly fascinate me. Every single one of them is distinct in a way or another. And every one of them is -either through action or words- influencing the others. The concept of influence, and affecting people in a way that would have not otherwise happened can be deceiving. And as a child, I grew obsessed with the concept of influence. It has taken me into a deep dark hole.
As children, we were told stories and glories of iconic figures in history; Scientists, explorers, military leaders, writers, you name it. The stories that made our eyes glitter and evoked us with the awe of achievement. It triggered the aspiration of being a remarkable influencer in the story of humanity. As delightful as achievements can be, this narrative was immature and unrealistic. We romanticized the image of the genius obsessive scientist, who’s awake in the middle of the night, and hasn’t slept for days, because he is working tirelessly to finally introduce humanity to the next big thing. We should realize how ridiculously unrealistic, unhealthy, and problematic this image is. And how awful and miserable someone like that would be. Every human is a product of their environment, and those iconic figures are no exception.
If Thomas Edison failed to invent the light bulb, another person – sooner rather than later- would have found a way to artificial lighting. If Graham Bell couldn’t make the first telephone, someone else in that time period would have figured out the way for humans to communicate in a similar way to the way telephones allow us. That of course doesn’t take away anything from these brilliant people and their inventions. But we must remind ourselves that their achievements are products of their work and knowledge at the time, thus it was meant to happen eventually out of this environment and the need.
I know such words may sound like a discouragement to strive to achieve. But what they really aim for, is to liberate us from the burden of wanting to achieve a meaningful accomplishment, that otherwise would have never existed, and have our names associated with it. These words encourage the enjoyment of the process to strive for achievement, and lessens how failings echo with our psychologies.
We should keep striving for the next biggest accomplishments, but it is essential that we alter our appreciation of the achievement, and appreciate the experience and the process itself instead. Our failure is more possible than our success, and if our sole focus is the achievement, we will shortly cease to try. Our experiences are the most valuable and beautiful things in life. In fact, it is what defines life and makes us who we are. It is what makes everyone unique. One’s life is one’s experience.
The human experience is unique to every single individual that has ever existed, and is yet to exist. The human experience is an overwhelmingly wide concept. My human experience is every thought that has passed through my mind, every film that I watched, every song that I listened to, every emotion that I ever felt, every conversation that I engaged in and so much more. It is so wide, and it is beyond my mind to comprehend it all at once, but it is what makes me; Me.
We feel most alive when we experience something for the first time. These are the moments when our minds and emotions are worked to their maximum trying to react to this situation and learn from it, and we are reminded that are not mechanical.
That’s why a wiser approach to life is to seek the most of the possible experiences, and abandoning the attachment of happiness to achieving.
The wise ones will enrich their human experience with the most variety of possible situations, and appreciate each of them for their own. The wise ones will work different jobs, that require different sets of skills. Live in different geographical, cultural, and economic conditions. Surround themselves with different people with different identities and connect genuinely with them, see the lives of the others through their stories, views, and experiences.
And remind themselves that they only live as much as they experience.
The wise ones will put themselves in situations where they will be evoked with emotions they never had before. They will seek to encounter problems they never faced. They will taste the different food, from all the possible cuisines, and it might be awful, but they have experienced it, and now they know for a fact that it is not for them. They will change the way they dress from time to time, as they have grown by experiencing new things, and the way they want to represent themselves has changed. They will not indulge in endless daydreams on the possible outcomes, they instead plan on exploring these outcomes at the right time.
You only live once, and you only live as much as you experience.
