Thursday, September 6, 2007

We think we are living, and then we meet LIFE.

Psychological Convenience

In the previous post, i had mentioned about sharing my experiences. Experiences, as we all know stem from the attitude with which we approach a situation and then build an impression in our minds about that situation. Its not that the situation is bad or good, its basically our attitude.
Now coming to the point straight away. I decided to write my new post on Psychological Convenience. I had a notion in mind that Human beings are, more often than not, driven by Psychological Convenience (PC). The trigger of this thought was an incident which happened with me a few days back:

Nat west Series Penultimate match - India was chasing a crazy target of 314. I was in my office at that time and was glancing on the score on internet. As fate would have had it, i got a badge with Indian tri-colours lying unclaimed. From the moment I sported it on my shirt, till the time i left for home; it attracted attention of 5 people. As the saying goes - Great minds think alike (read as Fools seldom Differ), all of those 5 remarked - "Independence Day is long gone. why you sporting this badge, now?"

I was thrown into the world of my thoughts and pondered:
Why people are expected to show certain emotions only on an expected date and time, these emotions should be imbibed in us and should be reflected in our actions on a continuous basis? right?

India is free since 60 years. does that mean that we should celebrate Independence only 60 times. We should be celebrating each and every second of it, but that requires effort.

To quote another example, we all go to our 'Place of Worship' to thank God.

Do we actually need an external medium or an Idol to thank God for our existence. Why cant we just close our eyes and say a hearty thanks. But that also requires control on our minds, that requires a thought-less mind. Its not, that when we visit a temple, we are thought less, but it certainly gives us a sense of 'Doing Effort'. We fool ourselves that yes, I have taken the physical pain of visiting a temple, so I can be relieved from my Psychological Effort. a sheer case of Psychological Convenience.

The outcome was a Swirling mind which reached a conclusion that people believe in PC and their every action is governed by this simple logic.

Now the other side of the coin (God is in the Details)

While i was still planning to write my new post and abolish, defame and ridicule this concept of PC, I realized PC is not that bad a thing.

I was watching 'Scent of a Woman' - I heard the Dialogue "The day you stop dreaming Charlie, the day yo Die". i was hearing this dialogue, immortalized by Al Pacino for the nth time. this time round it sounded different. it struck somewhere.

We all are born as mortals and Aspirations keep us alive. These aspirations motivate us to perform various tasks in a single day. We all are in a race against time and we are not capable of doing all the things at the same time but we Aspire to beat time, hence we require crutches. These crutches support us when we are off-balance in life. But what is important is the knowledge about what a crutch is serving, what it is meant for. Why we are leaning on to PC in a situation when ideally we should not. We cannot do away without these crutches. we cannot be Perfect.
Though we should be very careful in what we are choosing, if we choose to lean on to PC in a situation, it better have a low opportunity cost.

Conclusion: Perfection is a trap - if we strive to achieve perfection in everything we do, we would end up spending substantial time in doing that, we just need to make sure that we have that much time to invest or not.

Message: Analyze every second you exist.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good message but a confused comprehension......not as good as first one....but its not your fault...as they say nobody including the creator can match his first masterpiece ......anyway a good effort.....keep going n i'll keep comenting ;)

Anonymous said...

all crap!!

Anonymous said...

i beleive that the post really provoked me to think that y do we have some special days to celebrate occasions ...we dnt knw when is our last day ...last hour or last minute !!! So y should we wait for an occasion to celebrate live every moment of your life as an occasion and celebebrate it in the best possible way...I really appreciate your effort...keep writing this kinda good stuff!!!
alta la vista..baby

Anonymous said...

It's good to write all this. I appreciate your thoughts. Having great thoughts is all fine; converting them into reality is the biggest challenge.

look forward to hear more from you

Cheers

Anonymous said...

I never knew you are such a gud writer, although I have read alot of stuff of yours from so many years....

Amazing man...

Dont have words to describe...

brilliant work.....

Neo said...

Paralyzed by your Analysis. Phew!!!!

V3 said...

Well was expecting a double sixer for your 2nd blog specially after your first six...but i found this second blog a lot confusing specially the second part....Also could not relate on the temple thing...but do agree on the independence thing.........

Anyways expect good stuff from you...
Keep Rocking!!!

Anonymous said...

good job dude...i really apprecite ur ability to understand and explain the situations.
keep it up.....

Darryl Almeida said...

i agree with wat u have said not entirely. we are our own destiny, what we do with our lives, decides whats gonna happen in the future. more that aspirations it is mere existence n sustainment that we have to live everyday for.....aspirations are a lil on the broader sense and to attain them we need to live each day of our lives.

Tushar Dash said...

I really like your write up. You have given nice justification regarding the topic and also with beautiful examples. Keep it up...

Anonymous said...

You have contradicted yourself in the Conclusion and Message - The point is it is not us who need crutches, its what we are taught and do not question why, that causes the problem.

Prashant Karkera said...

You are doing a great job of analysing your experiences and making us think..

Awaiting more such post...

Neo said...

You have been tagged.
http://viralshah.blogspot.com/2007/12/weirdo.html