Thursday, November 01, 2007
In retrospect
A friend of mine posed some questioning thoughts to me and i quote her:-
"if u were a few steps ahead...and turned back to see
in retrospect of years in life uve lived..
nd der r tears in ur eyes...
not for what has happend..
but for urself...
what wud u tell urself..
to help u go on..."
i consider her worthy of spending some thought to write for, so here goes. it is important to look back once in a while in retrospect at your past days. it makes a person wiser.
one way to look back is with emotion. that is how i earlier used to look back. like what all stupid things i did in the past, the way i lived my life. why i was not doing all that i should have been doing, why i was the person i was. and if you're not too pleased with the picture you gather, it may sadden you. obviously, this perspective is unproductive and one would be better off not thinking back with this perspective.
now consider an objective and detached way of looking back at your past. when i think of all the things that i feel i should have been doing, i get to identify what i now want to be doing. when i think of the responses i gave to various situations i found myself in from time to time, a lot of them make me feel how stupid i was! but then that also tells me how i should now be dealing with situations in future - having done things the stupid ways, i can only get better. noting sequences of instances in your past, one can actually discover patterns in the ways events have been unfolding. these make you suddently question yourself, as to how a presumably "unpredictable" and "random" life can have so much correlation in events. it makes you think whether they really are brought about by chance or whether you, your thinking and your actions more than anything else are making them manifest as if some script is being played out. you suddenly then look deep within yourself with a critical view. the benefit of it all is that one tends to understand oneself better. it makes one realize that what one is "feeling" might not necessarily be anything absolute. it might simply be an involuntarily response brought about by habit, as a result of a long time of getting conditioned. eventually, one learns to manage oneself better, and live the present in more smart ways. and look forward with an eagerness at the future.
because, to put it very simply, what after all is the point of having been through so much and not using all that experience to live the future in a smart way? the past will surely have times that make you damned proud of yourself. these things are what you should remind yourself of and what should become the reason to base your confidence and belief in life on. other instances that you'd rather not think about, should be left where they lie - in the past. they're not something to be identified yourself with too much, either in your present or future. because if you do, then tomorrow again you're likely to be thinking back at the present day the way you are thinking back at the past today.
experience offers wisdom. but one has to also allow it to benefit oneself. it's a choice, as everything else is:).
"if u were a few steps ahead...and turned back to see
in retrospect of years in life uve lived..
nd der r tears in ur eyes...
not for what has happend..
but for urself...
what wud u tell urself..
to help u go on..."
i consider her worthy of spending some thought to write for, so here goes. it is important to look back once in a while in retrospect at your past days. it makes a person wiser.
one way to look back is with emotion. that is how i earlier used to look back. like what all stupid things i did in the past, the way i lived my life. why i was not doing all that i should have been doing, why i was the person i was. and if you're not too pleased with the picture you gather, it may sadden you. obviously, this perspective is unproductive and one would be better off not thinking back with this perspective.
now consider an objective and detached way of looking back at your past. when i think of all the things that i feel i should have been doing, i get to identify what i now want to be doing. when i think of the responses i gave to various situations i found myself in from time to time, a lot of them make me feel how stupid i was! but then that also tells me how i should now be dealing with situations in future - having done things the stupid ways, i can only get better. noting sequences of instances in your past, one can actually discover patterns in the ways events have been unfolding. these make you suddently question yourself, as to how a presumably "unpredictable" and "random" life can have so much correlation in events. it makes you think whether they really are brought about by chance or whether you, your thinking and your actions more than anything else are making them manifest as if some script is being played out. you suddenly then look deep within yourself with a critical view. the benefit of it all is that one tends to understand oneself better. it makes one realize that what one is "feeling" might not necessarily be anything absolute. it might simply be an involuntarily response brought about by habit, as a result of a long time of getting conditioned. eventually, one learns to manage oneself better, and live the present in more smart ways. and look forward with an eagerness at the future.
because, to put it very simply, what after all is the point of having been through so much and not using all that experience to live the future in a smart way? the past will surely have times that make you damned proud of yourself. these things are what you should remind yourself of and what should become the reason to base your confidence and belief in life on. other instances that you'd rather not think about, should be left where they lie - in the past. they're not something to be identified yourself with too much, either in your present or future. because if you do, then tomorrow again you're likely to be thinking back at the present day the way you are thinking back at the past today.
experience offers wisdom. but one has to also allow it to benefit oneself. it's a choice, as everything else is:).
# posted by Ankur Sakhuja @ 11/01/2007 11:23:00 PM 
