THE PHILOSOPHICAL BREAKDOWN || SENECA

''We suffer more often in imagination than in reality''

~ SENECA

We appear for our exams but after the exams, a general fear of result keep on frightening us till the time results come. Well, that’s something clearly highlighting our ability to overthink and the psychological fear, embedded in our general programming. We all know the results are nothing but the evaluation of everything we did, still, we get anxious, unable to comprehend the reality, and hence keep on worrying about it. It only brings us sufferings with respect to something that is perhaps or perhaps not gonna happen. Sometimes we even torture ourselves to the extremes for the sake of our futuristic imaginations. The same is beautifully mentioned in the statement by Seneca, " We suffer more often in imagination than in real life". Let's try to understand what Seneca actually wanted to express and what he wanted us to realize.

According to Seneca, we often live in the realm of something yet to come and don't try to accept that the future doesn't exist yet. So, what's the point of thinking and worrying about something that is practically not existing yet. 

We keep on fantasizing about the illusions of the future and hence our inquisition to predict the future increases multiple folds, which ultimately increases our worries and hence our sufferings. 

Oftentimes, we imagine the situation as a catastrophe but in reality, it turns out to be salvatory and pleasurable.

The future isn't something that can be controlled. But in order to fulfill our fantasies of glory and pleasure, we use to try to speculate the future and this speculation in a real sense gives rise to our sufferings. It is our anticipations and fear of failure that is bringing this sense of dejection and that too hypothetically. In a true sense, this simply denotes our inability to accept the truth and facing the reality. We act by avoiding the truth and by ignoring reality. We don't want to face the pain and hence instead of facing the situation, we exaggerate the situation. This exaggeration ultimately turns the pain more painful, which brings nothing but sufferings in the form of imagination, and hence we suffer more in our imagination than in reality. 

Reality of Life

Life is full of hurdles and ups and downs, that we can't even imagine. There is a huge difference between what we expect from life and what we really get. Let's understand a little more about life.

The Expected Unexpectations.

Being a person with the mentality of putting down efforts without much thinking about the results, I believe in not expecting anything from anyone. The only person to be blamed for my all profits, as well as my losses, is me. If I'm the one, who's responsible for my every cause so, what's the fun of expectations? Also, there's a huge difference between expectations and reality so instead of expecting anything, start relishing reality. 

Reality is something, you can't run away from. You have to face it one day or the other. Life isn't poetry or some illusion. You're not living in a delusional world where living in some kind of dream will solve your problems. You have to face your problems, you have to look for solutions and you have to choose the one that is best for you. The blame game or the victim card doesn't gonna work all the time. You have to hold the responsiblity for all your efforts and performances. 

Is life favorable?

Not always, life is favorable only if you take the authority and power into your own hands, otherwise, only others gonna dominate you. Whether money or status, a man can be easily dominated if he is not able to control his emotions. These so-called emotions are one way or the other responsible for making your life favorable and unfavorable as well. 

Time and misfortune.

We usually relate our time and misfortune. ''Bro, we both started together but today he is earning six figures and I'm still at the four-figure salary. He is settled in the States and I'm still rubbing my ass off in this small company''. 

This whole thought process is just giving rise to envy and rage inside you. Being in the situation I mentioned above, there may occur two different situations based on your perspectives. One is either you relate this whole thing to your misfortune and start taking life as it comes, without leaving any chance to curse your life. The other case is you start working harder so that you'd also be able to reach the heights as your so-called friend is. 

Most of us will agree with the second case of working hard instead of cursing life but I have another perspective and that is the way of perceiving the whole situation. You can work hard, instead, you should work hard to achieve those heights but not while looking at your friend or because he is in such a state, you also wanted to be at the same. You work on your own without considering others and without even worrying about the figures. Trust me, perseverance and hard work, these two weapons that can dominate anything in this world.

Either prove or leave!

If you are supporting something and you literally have no logical validations or some experimental and logical data to prove the same, then trust me, no one will give a damn. To prove yourself, you need to prove the thing based on logic and proper validations otherwise, don't expect the results. This is the reality. In this world, no one trusts you until you validate and that's the reality you need to accept. Start accepting this and act wisely.

People will come and criticize you for a number of things for shitty reasons that have no validation in life. Your only job of you is to ignore such shit and keep on doing the same. 

Deception and guilt for the past.

Life is full of experiences. We learn numerous things every day. We literally keep on learning our whole life, so, there is no big deal if you did something wrong or committed some mistake. The majority of us, once or more are cheated or gone through problems like breakups, etc. These things are normal and they don't deserve your precious time. These all situations are like different chapters of a book. You can't ignore all chapters while focussing on that one chapter. Try to forget the mistakes and act immediately for new beginnings.

Act of Delaying.

The only thing that resists us from achieving anything in our life is our procrastination. We are so much dominated by our laziness that we keep on delaying everything, even after knowing that this gonna hurt us in the future. I know, we all have this tendency, and it's basic human nature. You need not worry but you need to overcome this procrastination. Our procrastination is our biggest enemy so hustle hard and avoid procrastination.

''WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2K21''

Peace!

Dreams vs Reality.

We all work to attain stability in our life. We want to earn well, live well, and spend well. We all wanted a great lifestyle and a full package of fortune. From childhood, we dreamt of having a multi-millionaire or a billionaire lifestyle. We dream of becoming a personality, we got inspired from. Some wish to be a businessman like Mukesh Ambani and some chose to be an entrepreneur like Elon Musk, some dreamt of becoming brilliant minds like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and some wanted to be a great politician like Narendra Modi. These days most of the youth are inspired by movie stars and everyone dream of touching success like Shahrukh Khan but not all end up becoming a star like him. Everyone dreams of Perfection, but even after dreaming, only a few used to reach those heights and most just end up remaining at the same place i.e without fulfillment of their dreams. Can you guess, why?

Well, dreaming of something is a choice. You can dream of anything. The size and the uniqueness of your dreams don't matter but the thing that matters is the reality i.e the efforts and the hard work you put in order to turn your dreams into reality. You are generally criticized by the others for your big dreams by passing on statements like these are too big to achieve, it's not in your hands to make your dreams come true, dream after looking your pockets, etc. but we usually ignore these statements and for us, these statements don't make any sense. Now, let's flip the coin. No doubt, you dreamt of something but what, when that dream doesn't get fulfilled?

What if you're unable to fulfill the dream of becoming a superstar celebrity and instead you became a teacher or some government employee. Does this mean you give up your dream and stop dreaming anymore? 

Now the basic thing we need to understand is the reality. Reality is something that you need to face either you wanted or not. You just can't escape from the reality. So, the thing is you need to dream without ignoring reality. You have to work on your dreams but considering the reality of life as well.

If you have a family to feed and you have a dream of becoming an actor, then you need to realize that feeding the family is the priority and then is the turn for your passion and dreams. You have to accept this reality and need to act likewise. You had to make a regular source of income first and then you have to work for your dream. You can work simultaneously as well but giving your full time to your dream, that isn't even paying you off without caring for the family and ignoring the reality is nothing but absurdity. 

This is the simple thing you need to know, Work for your dreams consistently but without ignoring reality.

Middle-Class Person and dreams;

For a middle-class man, a dream is just like a chapter that a student always found difficult and never even tried to learn. In reality, the chapter isn't that difficult. The only thing is to sort out the way to learn the chapter maybe by practicing more or by spending more time than usual. In the same way, a middle-class man can also work on his dreams without disturbing his other schedule. If you have dedication and seriousness for your dream then no obstacle can act as a barrier in your path.

Bucket of Money;

Everyone knows that the basic obstacle in the path of dreams is the deficiency or the lack of money. Not all have the dream that requires a zero buck investment. Some dreamt of becoming a professional photographer. He may have a spirit to hustle for his dream as well but what about the capital required to purchase the necessary equipment and the instruments. Now keeping this whole thing in mind, one can either consider this situation as a curse and give up his dream and then will be living in regret his whole life, which literally represents failure, or one can choose to search for some job, etc for the source of income and then by saving or by any sort of investments can purchase his photographic instruments and hence can work on his dreams/passion. The second case represents the real example of side-hustle and it's quite important to understand the whole concept of side hustle because, without side hustle, it becomes difficult to fulfill your dreams. The choice is yours how you want to act, by giving up your dreams or by hustling hard in a smart way, living your life without any regret.

Reality and Realisations;

The whole point of writing this blog is to produce a wave of optimism in you, without ignoring the reality. You need to understand that majority of times, you are stuck in such situations, where you either ignore the reality and facts of your life or you ignore your dream life and your passion. You really don't need to ignore any of the two, you can work at the same time, for both the things. You only need to sort out the way how you can work on both. You yourself can sort this problem because no one else would come to help you over. So, start taking actions by holding your responsibilities and working for your dreams but without ignoring the reality.