Looking at life with a different set of glasses

This year has filled me with a brand new obsession. And it’s getting stronger as the days go by. There is a driving, all-consuming need in me to break away from the world as I have always known it and discover a different way of looking at it. I think I need to move away from stereotypes, from age old perceptions and from the very concept of right and wrong. It’s way too subjective and driven by belief systems that we had no contribution in.

It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten to think for ourselves. Our idea of what is beautiful is defined by the beauty and healthcare industry. Our idea of what is good for us is defined by our family and friends. Our idea of relationships is defined by candy floss romance on television. Our idea of weddings is defined by Karan Johar’s movies. Our idea of success is defined by tales of glorification that sometimes completely skip the struggle that must have gone into reaching the pinnacle described. The following words by Alain De Botton describe it spot on:

“One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.”

It’s time to break norms. And not in the traditional sense - with tattoos and piercings and looking fierce – unfortunately even misfits are predictable now. Break norms not to “be different” or “standout” but to align ourselves with the universe and train our thoughts to break out of their age old, boring pattern.