What should we do?
I am a software engineer living in Bangalore, the so-called Silicon Valley of India. I live in the country where three of the few things are very common : rat race, crime and corruption. I have grown up watching these things closely, and which I am still experiencing. Any Indian can relate to these words. If you throw a stone at a group of people, chances are very good that it will hit an engineer or going-to-be-engineer, an MBA aspirant or an IAS aspirant and if it’s Bangalore it may also be an Entrepreneur. There is a good percentage of current youth who has been told what to do and when they wanted to do something of their own their wings were ripped off, their legs were pulled and they couldn’t help but follow orders willingly or unwillingly. In most of the cases, the main reason behind this rat race is the lack of exposure given to them when they were kids . This becomes more problematic when they are not given enough freedom to try new things, rather parents care about reputation or what kids of their neighbors and relatives are doing. Yes, it happens and it’s been prevalent for a long time.
It’s very basic rule of nature that
any organic particle depends on its surrounding during its growth,
if we don’t climb the stairs further
we don’t try to walk further,
if we don’t see multiple paths
bells don’t ring in our head
and we don’t even think about them.
Due to the lack of exposure and lack of freedom, most of the people just choose career opportunities whatever seem feasible and apt within the scope, which mostly is not the field he/she loves. In some cases, the person may not be fully aware of what he/she wants to do so they choose anything they are told or whatever their friends are doing. They may not love getting involved or doing anything in that field. Sometimes people just choose what their parents decide, they don’t know what they should do. And this is the million dollar question which should be answered every time. Many people spend a lot of time figuring out the answer for this question; some gets the answer very soon, some takes a bit longer and rest just goes with the flow. This, by nature, is a very tricky question and whenever we think about what should we do, what we end up having is a lot of options and with a great lot of options, comes greater confusion.
On few occasions we picked out the best options in accordance to our preferences, sometimes we buy ourselves time, while rest of the time we just remain confused- spinning around or just streaming with the flow. A year back, there were group of 20 odds people just brainstorming ideas and things popping in their heads, I was also one of them. I presented a question to the group: “Where do you see yourself in ten years?”
I got few answers where people were saying what they had planned for their career, some didn’t have any answers. All of them seemed above 20 and the question was just my way to know how people define their future. One from the group objected with the answers given by others and said “You don’t know what may change your plans or thoughts in next few years. Something may change next day, next week, next month or next year. You never know.” It was all making sense, we can’t say what or where or how we would be in next 10 years; our preferences may change, we may find interest in something else which don’t even tickle our minds now. We are very rarely the same people what we were five years ago or even a year back. If we find the interest which we want to pursue, we should give our full dedication and concentration to it. When we don’t, we should try to see ourselves 10 years ahead and then foresee 6 (any number which we think we are comfortable with, I call it experimental delta) months ahead where do we stand? If our 6 months standing doesn’t line up with the 10 years foresee then we are doing something wrong or even if we are doing right thing, we are doing it wrong way. The experimental delta helps us breaking our big goals into smaller ones, thus making things easier. It also helps people trying new things and switching to different fields if they feel change of interest, I call it exploring options if you don’t know where you are headed. Take small risk for small period of time, either you will make big consolidated risk or learn where not to look at; only you will be benefited in longer run. But in these cases, we have to shred off the fear and the excuses we keep telling ourselves not to bring out the small change. What if we weren’t afraid? We would have done a lot of things that we are thinking to do but are not doing. Get your stuff together, throw your garbage of thoughts and start moving inch by inch because there won’t be any right time if not today. I think this is what we should do if we don’t exactly know what we should do?
Today people are really changing, they are taking risks and going after what they want — whether it’s a startup, writing a book or joining a band. I took a small step, bought a domain so that I can get serious with my writing and the habit of writing; whether I succeed or fail I don’t know but all I could do is give it a shot. Things are different from what they used to be 4–5 years ago. People are taking steps forward to change their path, they are realizing that they are master of their own choices, it’s just they have to show courage and get rid of their fears. If you are getting fed up of your current state , take some steps and start doing what you want to do or if you don’t really have a clear picture of what to do, just keep exploring until you know what you want to because if you don’t start, you will remain at the place where you know you don’t want to be at.
