I remember when I was in primary school coming first in class was success for me, that is what I was told to me by my parents and teachers and that is what I assumed to be right. When I came in 10th, getting good percentage in board exam was success for me. After passing 10th getting into IIT or similar good institution was success for me and thus getting high rank in competitive exams like IIT, AIEEE was success for me. After getting a sufficiently good rank in AIEEE and getting into a good college, getting a good job became success for me. To achieve that success I spent 4 years in college studying all those subjects which I was NOT willing to study! Similar was the case in my primary, secondary and during the preparation for competitive exams, I was not really willing to study all those subjects which I studied. To study all those I had to mug, I had to go against my willingness, I had to suffer, I had to struggle, but since I had assumed something as success so I could not be happy until I achieve it. I completed my B.Tech and got sufficiently good job. I am successful as per my previous definitions of success, now what? Is this sufficient? do I want something more than this? But NO! When I see around me I find there are still some other notions of success. Getting up into corporate ladder is Success, doing MBA and getting a much high paying job is Success, getting ahead of others and coming on the top is success and there are many more!
When I see all this I find that I am not happy in the process of achieving the success which I have assumed to be success and by the time I achieve what I had assumed to be success, my notions of success are changed and I am still running! They say “Success is a journey and not a destination”, but am I happy in the journey? Is there any end to this race? Is there any absolute success or it is always relative? If success is relative then will I ever be successful? Is there happiness in process of achieving success or even after having achieved what I have assumed as success? Is there any definition of Success without Happiness? Why do I want to become successful?
When I ask these questions to myself, I realize that I want to become successful to be happy. Happiness is the main purpose. If the main purpose is not being fulfilled in the course of achieving success or even after having achieved success then what is meaning of becoming successful? There is no definition of success without understanding Happiness i.e. what is happiness? and how can I achieve it?
In current scenario or current notions of success are not able to make us happy and will not be able to make us happy, this is clear, but if not this then what will? This is the very basic question. I have talked to many people who are successful in current notions of success and I realized that they are still not happy, they want something “more” than that, but what is that “more” they do not exactly know!
There are two main questions which a human being has in his life.
1. What do I want to achieve?
2. How can I achieve it?
To analyze first question, if we make a list of all our desires and think more on them then we can identify what we really want to achieve. If I ask myself this question then answer which comes to me is, I want
Happiness + Prosperity + Relationships + Continuity of all 3.
Others can also ponder over this and can verify this if they find this true for themselves or not.
I want Happiness continuously, always, I want to “feel” Prosperity always, I want to live with feeling of relationships with others around me always. There is never a time when I desire for unhappiness, there is never a time when I desire for deprivation, there is never a time when I desire for opposition with anybody.
Now second questions which comes is, How can I achieve it?
Answer of this question can be taken as a proposal,
I can achieve Happiness + Prosperity + Relationships + Continuity of 3, by Understanding. By Understanding of what Happiness is? by Understanding of what Prosperity is? by Understanding of what Relationships are? In total by increasing my Knowledge at the level of
1. Self
2. Family
3. Society
4. Nature
Tribulations of A Fledgling Mind 
This is exactly what was running in my mind from abt an Year. Do i seriously want to go for a higher degree just because i want to get a higher pay ? Or i can stay back and be happy with what i have and spend quality time with my family and friends for life !!!
@Maruti:
I am happy to see your comment. In fact it is good that you at least thought on those aspects. People spend their entire life sleep walking through their lives. I have seen that most of us do what the majority of people are doing around us, what the current trends are, what will be more appreciated by most people around us, but the basic question remains, is it going to give me what I really want continuously?
I have found that in South India higher studies like MS, PhD has become a trend and in North MBA is trend after BE, B.Tech etc. and the we never ask, what am I doing? Do I really want to do all this? Will I be happy in doing all this? Even if I do this, what change is it going to bring into my life?
pretty long comment ::
not to belittle u but i have observed this at the begining yr in IIIT (now u know y my academics were so poor (:D))
probably b’cause of the numerous courses in the 1st yr. i some how dint knew y i should study.
just saw it like a bunch of Q&A ‘s to mug for exams.
Only now did i get a bigger picture of y to do a certain course. though i wondered why we should learn all those newtonian n other methods to solve a same question.
read in kamals interview in MAG that subjects like physics and maths are for improving thinking ability in students.
but i hardly see that in practice. almost everyone tries to get some questions from prev yrs and mug the solutions if not understand them at best which hardly improves ur thinking ability or problem solving skills. instead adding a pure aptitude course would help i guess. hope that i am wrong n that they know the best about what they r doing.
these proffs should come out of their conventional thinking. we know our academic structure is highly simulated from the western universities but the thing is students there almost all have a big picture and are also good at english, also the interactive education and things like that which makes education an experience.
discussed the same topic with proff jayanthi through mail too and she agreed to the fact that our education system has become nothing but number crunchin n mugging.
anyhow after btech atleast i know what i want from life and how to contain myself in criticical situations.
irony is that now i am ready for further studies.:D
its all about perspective…u know it.
advice::
may be u should read “what should i do with my life”. i think its for guys like us who r lost. hope it helps u find a new begining.
P.S.:: good post !!
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