How Living Your Bucket List Can Transport You To The Present?

We live in a world where philosophers, motivational speakers, authors and positivity-driven babas constantly look upto one objective and that’s - ‘Do What You Love’. 

You know what? Most of the people love sticking to the above objective, but as ironic as it sounds, they end up ‘Liking What They Do’. 

Which is precisely the opposite or what you call it in layman terms - living someone else’s dreams. 

Damn! Can it get more awful than this? Think about it. What if you just had one week to live? What would you do then? 

You definitely wouldn’t want to continue with your life paying bills and outraging on issues, right? 

Perhaps, any self-respected person in the world would just up their game for that week by marking off the things they always wanted to do. 

But wait, this ‘week-in-the-basket’ or the ‘last days concept’ is also the most negative story ever told. 

Yes. The worst part is we’ve been thinking even a Bucket List is something same. Where one has to dart their list before they actually ‘kick the bucket’.

Again, that’s one cooked up theory we humans have created. Well, in reality, a Bucket List is something that has to be counted as an activity to accomplish in the PRESENT. 

Are you confused? Well, let’s make it simple with a story. 

Once upon a time, there was a man called John who started his career in the 80’s as a copywriter and had slogged all his life living dreams of multiple people. 

Though writing copies were something that he liked, there were other things he could never indulge in. 

But, he never complained. He just lead his life like any common man would do. 

Be it buying groceries in the long queues and dreaming about that heavy compound interest or let’s say dreaming about a future which seems too far to consider. 

He did fairly well in his career. He could dart three promotions at ease and soon, he retired as a manager. 

All his life, he just wrote copies for clients and made some moolah, so that his family could sleep peacefully at the end of the day. 

Apart from being a passionate writer, he also loved sports, hiking, and travelling. But, he had never time for the latter as most of his life was occupied with penning copies. 

By the time John realised what he had lost, it was too late. All these thoughts struck him in his last day at work - the day he retired. 

He packed his bags, took his things and bid a farewell to his colleagues who took away his precious time all these years. 

However, John never gave up. While heading back home, a thought struck him again. This time, it was an idea where he could start his life from the scratch. For him in the head, it still wasn’t too late to make a new beginning. 

As his new idea could take him to a world, where he can be himself. Soon, after reaching home, his family welcomed him with a surprise party. They were eagerly looking forward to celebrating John’s retirement. 

Though John had different plans, he ended the night with a vibrant party and the very next morning, he shared his plan to his wife and his kids. 

The plan was to embark on a world tour for a year and yes, he also wanted to marry his wife again in Paris. Because, it was in the same romantic destination, had he met her for the first time. 

His wife and kids gave him a YES, and the rest, as you can guess, was a story that can be never forgotten. 

He, in fact, marked many things off his Bucket List and found his true self. Or what you can also term it as ‘Being Finally Settled’. 

But you see, not everyone can be as lucky as John. Don’t you think? Well, when I say lucky, I meant TIME. 

Because, no matter how big your dreams are, you need sufficient time to get there. 

AND, for the record, at any point, you need a life that can get BETTER, not BITTER. 

The idea is simple you see. You can’t afford your Bucket List dreams turn into a nightmare. You can’t afford to lose your ‘present’ for an unpredictable ‘future’.

So, take the plunge, dare to be the person you wanted to and live your present life to the fullest. 

#DreamYourBucketList

#BucketListYourDreams

• Vishal Aryan Komara. 

Decoding the meaning of career advice and happiness advice!

Ever heard of this question? Or does it sound like you’ve had enough of it already?

Right from a random schmuck on the street to your retired relative, everyone seems to be interested in your career decisions; right? 

Every tom, dick and, harry seems to feel responsible for your actions. 

If you’re sailing in the same boat, worry not. I’ve been there too. But yeah, I also found a solution to stay away from such bits of advice. 

However, before heading to the solution. I would like to ask you the difference between a career advice and an happiness advice. 

Both might look similar. What if you give a deep scrutiny? Just try it out. It’s gonna blow up your minds as both are quite different. They don’t attract each other. 

Career advice might perhaps be the best bets for the well-paid counsellors. But in reality, most of the times, they are crap. 

Yes. You read that right. In fact, the counsellors have a greater job satisfaction than the folks who are shooting them questions. 

Think about it. What’s the basic description of Career Advice? 

Or, to explain in the millennial tone, how does an objective of a ‘career advice’ look? 

Maybe, something like this - 

‘Hey. I’m career advice and my only objective is to make people slog so hard that they screw up their health. I also make sure that no one gets time to lead a comfortable personal life’.

Did I say personal? So, this was the solution thing I was talking about. 

Ever stumbled upon a counsellor in a magazine who would preach about living your passion or what you precisely term it as a Happiness Advice. 

No. They don’t bank on such topics. Why may you ask? Because they never had a passion. Period. 

So, people went mad and curious to find out folks who could fetch them some happiness advice. 

Boom! Entered the entrepreneurs-turned authors. The numbers rose and things began to change. 

While counsellors in the magazine spoke about the next software update, the passion-driven ninjas spoke about ideas that could turn toilet papers into gold. 

AND, it began to work. What looked boring in the past became an interesting task in the present. 

So, that’s the difference between an happiness advice and, a career advice. 

Unlike the latter, happiness lectures are exciting and, most importantly, if implemented well, you’ll end up happy forever. 

Just look at some famous people. Right from technology, sports, entertainment and to arts. Most of them are happy and successful only because they could dedicate everything to their passion. 

After all, many are privileged to enjoy the riches; but only a few end up having a Wikipedia page. 

So, it’s all about living and hustling for that one goal you’re looking forward to accomplish. 

Written by Vishal Aryan Komara 

Why is stability the favourite word for Indians?

Have you thought about it? 

Being an Engineer turned writer, at times I don’t have the answer myself. 

Maybe, it was because I took a risk of not following the herd. A herd that would often  boast a group of engineers, doctors, government clerks and other monotonous 9-5 gigs. 

However, before getting further, I’ll start with a small true story. 

During a graduation day, an Indian Harvard professor asked his students about their future plans. 

He asked them whether they desire to become another ‘Jobs’ or become a person who would just dream a secure job. 

While most of the foreigners preferred the former option, the Indian students pondered to the latter. 

Do you want to know who was the professor? Any guesses? Well, it was none other than Dr Subramaniam Swamy. 

But, what surprised me was the answer from the Indian students. 

Why would they do that? It then hit me. It’s not their fault either. It’s the stability stigma that has been brainwashing such people over the years. 

Fortunately, things are now different. Entrepreneurship has changed the perception. In fact, it lead people to ponder deep thinking. 

So, what do you think was the deep thought? 

Simple. People just felt like quitting their jobs to start their own careers with the money left out in their pockets. 

AND, this also became a habit for the freshly graduated teens. Don’t jump into conclusions now! As there are instances where millennials have spun millions out of an idea that was born over a mug of beer. 

Now coming to the big question - Why stability is a favourite word to Indians? 

Well, going by the trend, stability is no more a burden to us. When I say US, it’s about the younger crowd or a bunch of people who’ve lost some hair in what you call an enlightening stressful career. 

People these days don’t fall prey to preachings like - Don’t quit your job, there is time for everything, you can live your passion later or what is known to be a middle-class favourite - RESPONSIBILITIES. 

Don’t you believe it? Just feed some thought. Unlike the folks from the 70s and 80s, people these days are living their passion in their present. 

They could have played like the older ones who would think of their favourite careers only after a retirement. Isn’t it?

But, things are different now. Folks these days are eagerly looking forward to creating a dent in the universe. 

Gone are the days where dreams ended up with questions. 

Gone are the days, where for every solution, there stood a problem. 

At present, it’s about darting a solution at every problem.

So, what do you seek?

Adding life to your years or Adding regret to your life. 

Choose wisely. 

Written by Vishal Aryan Komara