are you HAPPY now??

This post has been sitting there in the "Drafts" section for over a year now. I was confused about the topic when I started writing it. I think I've finally had the closure to write it completely. Enjoy!!

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If you ever face a life or death situation, and if in such a situation, if the chances of you surviving depends on correctly identifying the being in front of you as human or not, by asking it just one question, ask it,

"Are you satisfied with your life?"

If the answer is NO, then its human.

Of course, you could have asked it "Are you human?" and got a straight forward answer, but then this example won't help me prove the basic point I'm trying to make. This is on top of the fact that we are ignoring one of the most basic, universal traits in humans - the tendency to not say the truth.

But we are digressing. I intended to let you see the point that us humans are never satisfied with what we have. I had always thought so, but over the past few weeks, I got more examples depicting this and defecting from this.

Here I give you the three kinds of Humans, according to me.

** I have not used any name for the characters here. These are my close friends. I don't want to unnecessarily drag them into this topic. Whatever levels of apparent satisfaction I derive for them from their actions are arbitrary, and only for giving you an example. I'm not advocating that their actions are good or bad. **

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The Go-Getter

This friend of mine comes from my own college, has worked at a reputed company, did an MBA from a distinguished college and is now working for huge bucks at another reputed company. Each of those four achievements would have individually ticked off the ambitions of many an individual. But this person goes one step ahead and is now preparing for the administrative services.

That's all you need to know about that person. Now, consider a person in a category like this. With each subsequent step, they try to go one up. Their drive has to be acknowledged and appreciated, but I have a nagging feeling that if you continue in this trend, you'll never be satisfied with what you've achieved. And as long as you are not satisfied, you may not be happy. Do note that I'm working on a lot of ifs, buts and maybes; and that it might be the case that this person wanted to be an IAS officer from a young age, but had to go through this route for some reason.

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The Happy-go-Lucky

And there are people who do not know what they want from life, but are comfortable enough to let destiny/fate dictate the terms in which they live their lives. They would like to try different things, but are too lazy to do so. They are the sort of people who would start their reply with a "ehhh.." if you ask them what they want to be doing in 5 years.

Nothing much to say about these kind of people. External forces, call it Fate/Destiny/Peer or Parental Pressure, decides their life for them. I was one among them, then I changed to the next type in the series.

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The Content Man

There is this other friend of mine from college. He first decided to work; then decided to try his hand at the GATE for an M.Tech degree; then decided to bell the CAT for an MBA degree; finally cursed the Indian reservation system, and moved on to try his hand at GRE for an MS degree. He applied at many colleges and for their related scholarships. It was at this moment that he got a call for an interview from a reputed government organization, based on IES exam he had cleared nearly two years before.

And, against his current dream, he aced the interview, much to the comfort of his ego. Two months after he joined there, he got an admission with scholarship offer from a German university, which was his dream 3 months before.

And then, he decided not to go for his dream. His reasons were “The new work is okay. People are impressed that I work here. My friends are here, family is near. I know my dream is doing an MS, but then I’m doing good over here. Why change? Even if I want I can go next year.” And he made a decision to stay at his job for at least one more year in June 2013.

But now, he would be reading this post from Germany, where he is acing his classes for his M.S. degree. He felt he was being more "Happy-go-Lucky" in sticking to his job here. He wanted to be the content man. So, he took the "Leap of Faith" in July 2013 by going for his MS degree.

Now, think about this guy. Due to a multitude of reasons (none his own), he kept changing his dreams because he wasn’t able to achieve the one before. But he always had an aim - in this person's case, to study. That's the hallmark of a content man. He has an aim. And he strives only to achieve that.

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Now you have seen the three categories of people - one who keeps chasing dream after dream; another who has an aim and goes for it; and another kind, who'll just go along with the flow.

Everyone will go through being each of those at a different points in their life. Like that person I mentioned above, you'll always have a choice to change from one to another. And what you do with that choice, coupled with your circumstances that define the choice, will determine how happy you are with your life.

So, which kind are you know? The go-getter, the content man or the happy-go-lucky guy? And which kind do you want to be?

If you ask me the latter question, the answer would be The Content Man.

I've grown tired of doing what life tells me to do, but I don't want to live my life chasing one dream after another. I want to have an aim in my life, and I want to stop answering to "where do you want to be in 5 years?" with a "ehh..".

And more than anything, I want to achieve that aim - the aim of being a content man.