Every day is a battle; we wake up to the shrill sound of the alarm clock, spend the day completing one task after another and go back to bed at night, once again setting up the alarm clock. The day just doesn’t seem enough and life goes by. We win accolades, garner compliments and everyday inch towards a successful tomorrow. All steps are taken to fulfill the dream of the ‘perfect tomorrow’.
As glittery as it appears, has anybody ever lived this perfect tomorrow??
If I could just get that promotion, all will be sorted. Only if I could impress the boss, I’d have better prospects. Let me improve my grades just by a bit and the admissions will be all streamlined. A slightly bigger house, with better closet space will sort it all out. Another couple of kilos gone and I’ll look perfect. One more degree to the portfolio and my practice will flourish. Let me save enough for an international trip and I’ll be happy. Only if I had enough to buy those beautiful earrings.
We all constantly con ourselves with such promises as we live. We continue to convince us that there is a recipe for the perfect life and that concocting the desired ingredients will lead to indefinite happiness. And thus we keep setting up battles for us; a new achievement, a new challenge, a new effort and all will be in place. The desire to win these battles consumes us in entirety, but the ‘perfect tomorrow’, seems to keep drifting away with every win.
Pyrrhic victory – Winning the battle || Losing the war
How is that possible? What kind of an idiot would lose after winning the battle? The king Pyrrhus of Epirus won the battle. He defeated his opponent, however alongside he also lost everybody he loved and trusted. He lost his friends and commanders who helped him win. Though victorious he was battered and was left with no will to continue the journey of life.
Why don’t we stand up to these battles? Why do we keep fighting?
Life doesn’t have to be a defeated war. We keep pushing ourselves with the idea of a better tomorrow, but in the process, we are brutally sacrificing the day that we could have lived.
Instead of cherishing what we have, we are running behind the every next goal. Instead of enjoying a sumptuous home cooked meal with kids today, we are slaving the extra hours, in hopes of a fancy hotel meal in times to come. The fear of missing out on future joys is so enormous that the simple pleasures that we can live today are being brutally sacrificed.
The urge to go on after these endless battles is like an addiction. We fight so much that the whole idea of actually enjoying the fruits of these battles seems intimidating. To ensure that the guarantees of a fulfilled tomorrow never end, we forget to live the beautiful today that we have created.
Life is precious and all we have is now. Stay for a minute and enjoy every shade it offers!!