(This is the first among a series of thought waves which, I not only wanted to share with you all, but also wanted to trigger similar thought waves in you – the readers; these articles might be more relevant & interesting to those whose age is around 45 or beyond. Younger readers are welcome though.)
Life in general, and human life in particular, can be described as a richly woven fabric made out of innumerable engagements with the world around us & experiences arising out of them.
In the lives of each one of us, once we cross over the stage of a student to enter the initial stages of our earning life, the prime purpose of life usually hovers around pursuance of professional goals. A general understanding is that these goals in turn, lead to personal growth, financial stability and to some extent, a sense of achievement. Even as we continue to move through this phase, we begin the next stage of life wherein, we build and nurture bonds with family, friends, colleagues, may be neighbours too, and also with some quarters of the social community that happens to be in touch with us. By and large, it is our anticipation that all these bonds & connections will provide support, joy, and meaning to our life. These also give us the duties to be performed & responsibilities that come along with them.
Some of us, who manage to have that extra zeal and energy, manage to engage in activities that bring individualistic joy and relaxation, like reading, sports, music, travel, or any other creative activity that brings joy to the soul. Of late, we have become more health conscious and so, maintaining physical and mental well-being through exercise, healthy eating, mindfulness practices, and may be periodic medical check-ups – all these also occupy a regular part of our life.
Needless to say, each person’s engagements are unique, shaped by their own upbringing, their own interests, duties, responsibilities, and aspirations. But in life, there aren’t just things that are nice to us. You all have experienced the life in no uncertain terms thus far. Life is a journey full of twists and turns, and it’s natural to sometimes feel uncertain about our direction.
Well friends – In this context and with this backdrop, there are few questions that I wish to place before you:
Although we have successfully (or somehow) come thus far in life, (not only in profession but also as an individual human being) – Were you right in all the decisions & actions that you have taken thus far ? Are you thoroughly happy with yourself ?
Duties & Responsibilities (D&R) are dynamic and ever changing in one’s life. In the initial parts of the life, they start to increase till one crosses the typical upper middle age (say 45 to 55). After that, may be for about a decade or so, they do not increase but become static at that peak. Subsequently, one’s D&Rs begin to come down (unless one likes to cling onto them) and over the next decade or so, they come down appreciably. On the whole, D&Rs are dynamic in nature that begin, increase, peak, decrease & cease at some point of our life.
At around the age of 45 or so, the D&Rs are well established and so, there is a very little likelihood of any surprise additions to them. So, as on this day, in whatever stage of life you are currently now, putting aside your already-familiar-D&Rs for a moment, question yourself – has your life aligned with that life which you wanted to lead when you were your younger-self, full of ideals ? How many of you can confidently say ‘YES’ to this self-query ? Are you fully satisfied with what has been achieved so far ?
It’s very important that we need to reflect on where we’ve headed so far. One may be aged anywhere beyond 45, but the fact is that, as on this day, we still have life in us, and we don’t expect to see any big change in our D&Rs in general. So, at this point of time, we should know, what our next goal should be or rather, what should be the Goal of our Life – the Real one & in Entirety.
I am not talking of a goal that is based on monetary gains. I am sure many of you will agree that, at this ‘beyond-the-late-forties’ age, our finances are more or less stabilized at a reasonably-manageable-level; moreover, we are already habituated to the life style associated with it and accepted it too. If you think a little deeper, since we are living, we have D&Rs. But the point to note here is that, we are not living just to fulfill them. Every life must have a higher purpose than just fulfilling D&Rs. And so, money and monetary gain is not all that we need to have in life – particularly beyond a certain age – say 45 !. At best, money can be termed as a temporary ‘prop’ goal of our life thus far.
I am talking of the goal of life as a human being – as a human being that got accommodated on this planet thus far, as a human being on a fairly long journey in this world and having accrued decades of experience in this journey. Do we have a D&R of giving a pay back to this planet and this country too ? Do we have a D&R towards all those who helped us along this long journey ?
To frame what that goal must be, and to answer those questions above, a brief pause here, at this phase of life, is needed. This can help us gain an insight and clarity about our journey thus far. It’s about taking few moments out to think. It’s about pausing our partly-blind rush-forward movements, looking back at our experiences, choices, achievements, and even the setbacks, to understand how those things shaped us. It’s entirely possible in our journey thus far that, our perspectives of life got clouded with ego & prejudiced opinions, which might have kept us away from the reality. Also, in this process, we could have overlooked certain important aspects of life. After all, our experiences, beliefs, and biases have a profound effect on how we perceive the world. As a result, we might have missed out on valuable insights. May be now, it’s good time to introspect, identify and make any amendments and give a better direction to the flow of our life – so that we become more happy and importantly, much more satisfied with our life – and also may be, if possible, help others towards making them happy & satisfied in their lives too.
To come to some kind of a conclusive answer to such self-assessment, trusted friends or mentors might be of help to us; some mindfulness and some meditation may help. It’s really important to recognize our progress, our mistakes, our foolishness and all the lessons we’ve learned along the way – in an entirely unbiased and rightful manner.
So, have you ever taken time to reflect on your journey so far ? Have you thought on where you’re headed now ? If not, can you think about it now…?
Leaving you, hopefully in a serious & thorough introspection on your life so that you can contemplate & conclude on: what-have-you-done, where-are-you-now, what-next-for-you, why-you-are-happy or why-you-are-not-happy with your life, why-you-are-satisfied or why-you-are-not-satisfied in your life, – I will stop here, and we will catch up again.
And yes, you are most welcome to share your views on this article in the comments section below.
Bye.
ఈ వ్యాసాన్ని తెలుగులో చదవాలనుకుంటే ఈ లింకు క్లిక్ చేయండి – https://nvsatish.com/2025/10/02/manam-ekkada-vunnamu/
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My Thoughts on Life and its Philosophy 