The Promotion of the Dark Forces

Readers Note: The reason for the title is the unexpected turn of my deranged thoughts whilst they tackle first-world problems. I say a lot of stuff, is easily misinterpretable, so kindly read with a perspective which does not propel you towards the darkness.

What’s worse than a miserable life? A happy person living a miserable life. What’s worse than a happy person living a miserable life? A miserable person living a great life.

The worst possible thing to happen to you is your mentality yearning for more while you are given something sumptuously. Call it greed, call it desire, call it the need of the hour. Whatever you call it, you know exactly what I am talking about here. If not, read that again.

I am essentially calling myself out here. Everyone around me might tell me the same thing – to be happy about my grades. But what is there to be happy about? Did you top? No. Did you secure 100%? No. Did you at least meet your expectations? No. Was it worth everything you kept aside? No.

Then let me ask you this again – why the satisfaction?

I could just end this article by saying, “Your marks reflect your work, study more and score more.”

But as quoted by those around me, it is time to “overanalyse”.

 

Why should we study more? When do we know when to stop studying? Where do we draw the line between exemplary performance and a “disgrace to humanity”? Why does any of this matter? Why am I not completing my homework and writing this instead?

 

For the record, all these questions appeared at the same time in my mind. Back-to-back, no gaps at all. And that is not a boast, trust me. But the point I’m trying to make here is the fact that there needs to be a subtle line between excellence and failure. If there is no proper description, of who is “excelling” and who is “meh” and who is “failing”, then how do know how to respond to our results?

This confusion isn’t limited to students, although predominantly found there. Take the example of a crop. A farmer with no monetary aid whatsoever might call a crop which produces enough revenue to feed his family a success. But a rich farmer with a lot of cash in the bank might feel completely anguished getting the same crop, despite his ability to meet his needs.

Some people don’t aspire to the same things as you. Their needs differ and so do yours. One’s parents might be working hard to provide for him but that ungrateful brat might be working hard so he can move out of their house. For his parents, success would be that he achieves what he wants to do. Little do they know or care about his reasons for his aspirations. His success would be to go fly without their weights. Their happiness and success (unfortunately) remain the same.

But if an orphan is watching from the sidewalk, he might ask the man who left his parents’ home, why are you so happy leaving them? For the orphan even having parents is a blessing, and for the man a burden. Their perception of happiness and success are completely different.

So, in such instances, where your opinion and others’ opinions on a topic is hindered by their experiences, and you really don’t know whether you achieved something or not? How do you move forward?

That’s where the concept of greed comes in. Trust me I am making this as I go, coming to conclusions myself. But where my mind took me right now, is to the topic of Greed.

When you treat failure and success alike, good grades and bad grades alike, it clears all the branches that exist.

When perceived the same, the response should be the same. If you are failing, aim to pass. If you are passing, maybe aim to pass with above 80%, then 90%, then 95% and then 100%. And if you do reach the golden 100%, aim to stay there. The greedier you are, the faster your growth will be.

But greed only occurs when something you want is at stake. When you don’t want it, why would you take it? Well, originally that was the case with me. Distracted for nearly four years from my mainstream education, I had no intentions of focusing on education let alone securing good ranks. I was “too good” for the same. So then I channelised the “too good for this” attitude into education itself. “I am too good to fail. I am too good to get the lousy marks that I am getting.”

God. It damaged my conjectural hubris. But to feed that ego, I kept going. That “I am too good to fail” mindset brought me to a substantial level of “meh.” But from here, unless I dedicate every cell in my body to it, I don’t see myself scoring more. And I truly believe that’s how a mindset should work.

“Don’t be miserable. Only you lose value. Be greedy instead, take others' value.”

Darker yet truer words haven’t been spoken yet.

To summarize,

When you know what’s the action step to be taken, bring all your character into it. If your character is like mine, it would have too big of an ego to let go of it without acing it. Don’t get rid of it, but keep it, nourish it and make it worth it. And after you finally develop the need to grow more, stop not and keep going.

Addressing the case in the beginning, you know what’s better than a miserable life? A life with value, with purpose, with ego, demands, greed and desire. (That sounds bad… Its all in good spirit though :)