Several years ago I went back to university for a degree. While enjoying every moment of attending lectures, taking notes, reading books, writing research paper, these tasks also enabled me to complete the degree. At that period, I lived every moment to the fullest in the process, yet the very same tasks enable me to achieve the goal of getting the degree.
This experience of doing single task to ‘live today’ and still ‘for a better future’ prompted me to challenge a convention notion that rooted deeply in our culture, i.e. we were taught we have to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.
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The limiting notion
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Objectively, every moments or seconds are the same. As natural phenomena there is no difference between this moment and a particular moment in the future. From a person’s subjective perspective, therefore, a particular second should be as important as the next second. Time is homogeneous.
So why should we sacrifice one for another?
The idea of ‘live now’ or ‘seize the day’, do not have to be in contradiction with ‘working for a better future’. They are not mutually exclusive. The usual misconception is, life is either about ‘live now’ OR about ‘suffer now for a better future’. People swing between the two extremes. Or worse, they simply live in the balance space between the two extreme. They would say, let's strike a balance; let's compromise the two.
I disagree.
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To have both
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Living today and working for a better future are not mutual exclusive. There is no balance to strike; there is no need for compromising. In an ideal situation, when doing a specific task, we can have the 100% “live now” and concurrently preparing for a 100% better future. We do not suffer now for future, as we do not sacrifice future for this moment of pleasure. We can have it both, present and future, at 100% satisfaction.
We spend time in the process of achieving goals. After getting the goals, we spend time enjoying them. With the notion that the importance of every moment in life is equal, we should enjoy the time spent in the process as much as the time spent in ripping the fruit of reaching the goals. The logic of this argument becomes apparent only if we considered from the perspective of “sudden death”.
Let’s say I died before the completion of my degree. Since I enjoyed every moment of returning to school, my satisfaction did not depend on the achievement of goals only. Even though I died and did not finish my degree, the years spent in the process of attaining the degree were not wasted. I lived to the fullest during those years. But if I hated the process of gaining the degree and my satisfaction came only from the achievement, die without attaining the degree means I wasted all my efforts. I had never lived.
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Satisfaction
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One may argues, “If I have extra $100.00, I can only choose either to save now spend later, or spend now with no money later. Yes, I can also strike a balance to spend $50 today and spend $50 tomorrow. But isn’t this compromising. I can’t choose to spend $100 today and spend $100 tomorrow. How about that?”
Let’s admit the fact of life that our physical resources, like money, are limited. It depletes when we utilize it. One of the badly misguided concepts that taught by our Western economists is the infinitely positive relationship of human satisfaction and material consumption. While we cannot deny the importance of money (therefore material consumption) in bringing security, satisfaction and happiness to our life, we also know that there is a limitation of what money could bring. There is a bigger space in our heart and life that money & material consumption could not fill.
We are lucky to live in a society of abundant that our basic needs and wants could be easily fulfilled and that we could ask for more than mere material needs and wants.
So I could decide to use $2.00 to buy myself a cup of coffee and keep the remaining $98.00 in the bank. Sitting outside the cafe right beside a busy street, I take a sip of the aromatic Mocha and think "This is 100% life satisfaction." Or I could decide to keep all $100.00 in the bank instead. Walking pass a beautiful garden, I take a deep breath of the cool morning breeze and think "This is 100% life satisfaction." I could decide to give away the $100.00 to those who is in need. Sitting under the starlight and wondering the mystery of life and universe, I think "This is 100% life satisfaction."
You see, once the basic needs fulfilled, life satisfaction has got nothing to do with the extra $100.00.
To be continue...
on between means and goal
on what constitutes a worth while goal
bcct@yahoo.com
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