Enjoying the Passage of Time

‘What is the purpose of Life?‘

It’s a cliche and a trap.

Different people and philosophies have different answers, but I came across one video that made sense to me.

The speaker said, “It’s Enjoying the Passage of Time.“

I found it great because it doesn’t give you any direction about how to live your life and that’s very rare in today’s world.

As I observe famous people, people around me, and also myself, I realize none of us feel complete irrespective of what we have achieved. As Morgan Housel says about money – “If expectations grow faster than income you’ll never be happy with your money. One of the most important financial skills is getting the goalpost to stop moving. It’s also one of the hardest.” (full post here). And it’s also true for everything else in life – status, designation, lifestyle, academic achievements, career progression, etc.

Our programming to always strive for more might have made us the strongest species but it also has a cost that we pay as individuals i.e. compromising our satisfaction.

Don’t worry I am not here to tell you to be happy with what you have and not want more. At least not until I have achieved it myself and currently I am very far from it.

But I did realize one thing in recent years, at least for myself. If I pursue something for its outcome and not for the process, I don’t even enjoy the outcome. If I hate the journey, mostly I don’t even enjoy the destination as much as I expect.

It’s not surprising. Life is made of moments and we spend more moments in the process than the moment of triumph. I am not saying avoid the hard part and choose the easy one. Being easy has nothing to do with enjoyment. A lot of time hard and challenging process may be more enjoyable and rewarding than an easier one. The real question is do I enjoy doing it or am I pursuing it for the money, status, or progression it brings?

This year I picked more things for the joy of doing rather than the outcome.

One such thing, that was a work in progress and I completed this year, was my book – The New Cinderella. (it’s a children’s illustrated book)

As a father of a girl, whenever I used to read a fairy tale to my daughter I always wondered why the only achievement of all these girls is to find a prince. I wanted to change the narrative for my daughter – why should we indirectly put a seed in their minds that a girl’s only ambition is to get married?

I know people think these are innocent stories but I think everything we tell them at an early age forms their worldview. This is my attempt to change the narrative. This Cinderella wants more than a prince. It’s a simple predictable story because the purpose is not to write a new interesting story but to replace the original one.

I had written this story during the pandemic but it sat on my iPad as I was not sure about publishing it. I was not sure how the world would take it. I was not sure if I was qualified to write children’s stories. I was not sure if publishers would accept it.

Due to various reasons, this year I decided – whenever time permits, I will pick up more things that I enjoy doing rather than thinking about the outcome. This book was an easy choice for me because I knew I would enjoy the process.

I focused all of my attention on enjoying the process of creating it. It was the process worth discussing in a separate post with you.

I kept aside who would publish it or who would like it. Since publishing, I haven’t put much effort into publicizing it and that’s intentional. I did it for the joy of doing it and it served that purpose. Now it’s out in the world for its destiny. For me, it served the purpose.

As we enter the next year I wish one thing for myself and you – “May we all have the courage to pursue things for joy of doing rather than achieving. May we all have the blessing of enjoying the passage of time.” It will pass whether enjoy it or not.

Wish you a blessed next year.

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Comment and let me know what you think about this topic.

You can also find me on Sangtani.com, GauravSangtani.com and Sangtani.Substack.com

[All Views in this article and anything I publish, are purely personal in nature and don’t represent the view of any organization I may be associated with]