By John Tan
Somewhere between
childhood and adulthood, we had to stop dreaming and grow up to meet the
standards expected of us. We get bombarded with questions like “When are you
getting your own property?”, “When are you buying a car?”, “When are you
getting married?”, “Why aren’t you earning big salaries?”. These
questions keep replaying like a broken record player and don’t seem to stop.
In this 21st
century, we have become enslaved to our works despite not loving what we do.
Most of the times, people work just because they have to make a living. So it’s not
uncommon to find that many are not satisfied and content with their own lives.
But why is this so? Are we really merely existing and not living our lives?
Business studies
students will be familiar with Maslow’s theory when they study about
motivation. His theory suggested that should these deficiencies– self-actualization, esteem, love, safety, and physiological needs if not met,
individuals will feel anxious and tensed which then leads to unhappiness. In
short, if people are not inspired then they are not able to reach their full
potentials in life. It makes sense.
Thomas Edison
was an American inventor who became successful through his invention of the electrical
light bulb. It wasn’t until the 1000th time that he managed to get
it to work. Mother Teresa was the recipient of the Noble Peace Prize award and her charity
was world-wide recognized. She had the privilege of meeting with Princess Diana
and Ronald Reagan. Late Premier Lee Kuan Yew who successfully lead the 3rd
world country to become the 1st world Singapore we know today and
Mark Zuckerberg who became the first world youngest billionaire with his
Facebook page.
Although
the figures mentioned are in different fields, they are each successful in what
they do. They showed us what it’s like to be inspired and to do great things. They
had dreams and worked their ways towards them.
While inspiration can come from different sources – love, faith, or desire to
connect the people, as long as one is inspired, he will be able to reach his
full potential.
There is a saying that goes “just because you are an adult, it does not mean that your
whole life should revolve around your work, life is more than that’”. While
making a living is important, we do not have to give up on our dreams. We can
still do the things we love. Happiness is different for everyone. You
can make a child happy by giving him ice cream, make a hungry man happy by
cooking his meals and make a girl’s day by giving her a flower.
Even if you have
not to figure out what you want, you can always start simply by having a bucket
list. The satisfaction that you get accomplishing something is what makes life
worth the challenges. It’s never too late to start looking for special
things in life that makes us who we are. As for me, I think I better start practicing on my guitar before my memory fails me.
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