To be or not to be..

William Shakespeare begins his tragedy classic “Hamlet” with the Soliloquy “To be or not to be”. Whatever the sense the author used it in, my usage would be for a sole purpose of putting forth the conflict in life, which I guess everyone goes through… to be ambitious or not in life? Or do they? Or am I the only such fish in the whole sea? I don’t know. 

Right from childhood through adolescence to being a man, it is constantly instilled in the mind  that having an ambition in life gives it a sense of purpose. Be it the parents’ ambition that is dumped on the kids’ shoulders, or the kids themselves having a particular passion, it is believed that this is the one single fuel that keeps the engine of your life, going. Yes, it makes lot of sense to be focused in life, about having a single particular goal, and be steadfast in the endeavor to achieve it. But, it takes resolve, dedication, determination and lot of will power to accomplish goals.  And yes, the fruits of the success are well deserved and well worth the effort. But there is always the question, what if we don’t succeed? It’s all good to hear about not thinking about the “unexpected”, but what to do in case of eventuality. Do we gather ourselves all over again and start the journey afresh? Or how long would we be able to get up and live to fight another day in pursuit of that one goal? 

There is a saying which goes like this “Unsuccessful people do what they like, and successful people do what they don’t like”, this truly endorses the ugly truths about hard work, determination and discipline. Say for example, if we have the wish to lose weight, the first question that would come to mind as to why would we want to lose weight? More often than not, it would be for the sole reason of looking hot in that office party over the weekend. To achieve this we would have to do all the opposite things that we did to gain it!! Wake up 6, go for a run or even better go for a swim, have a fat free breakfast, have a light lunch, even lighter dinner and sleep early. The result, in most of the cases, would be that we get that Brad Pitt physique and impress the hot babe in the night club or be that cool dude in the office, who is a James Bond at his work who is master at enjoying the best of both the worlds. But wait, weren’t we supposed to avoid the alcohol and food binge, and hit the bed early to maintain the good physique that we attained after so much pain? :) Bad habits are easy to creep in. The very purpose, for which we wanted to lose weight, is defeated. For all the pleasure that we sacrificed, what is that we achieved? A fit body. But why did we need that fit body in the first place?  Such similar questions about various things in life have made me ponder over and over again about being ambitious or being successful or even having a goal etc, without success. Ok I agree, my analogies may be far from being comparable, but I feel similar is the fate of being ambitious in life. 

For all the perceived lazy ducks in the world, or the easy goers, taking the path of least resistance works out very well. Just floating with the flow, gives the sensitivity to enjoy simple pleasures in life, relishing every minute of life’s blessings. There would be a sense of unhurried charm to life, which gives a sense of tranquility and equilibrium. Why to miss such wonderful gifts of life, in pursuit of the unknown? I am not advocating that we should get rotten sitting idle and doing nothing, but I feel we should never try too hard to achieve something. High performers would chide us for leading a worthless life, aimlessly drifting as the time allows us to do. Is it worth leading a bland life devoid of all the high motivation, energy and intensity? 

We may ponder over this time and again, and yet fail to get the answers. I guess all the behavioral experts and management gurus, make careers out of discussing about this topic, giving thousand options and opinions, bordering on the certainty or the uncertainty about the choice.

  

So the question remains, TO BE OR NOT TO BE?