What kind of life do you aspire to live? This is a question that has many different answers, most of which are very generic and idealistic in their nature. Some try to convince us that life is too short and so it should be enjoyed to its fullest while other answers seek to give us the ever so elusive ‘motivation’ by continuing to work hard every day. If you have ever pondered over this question in the past as well, I am sure you have come across both of such responses and maybe even found them both to be true at different times in life. Perhaps you are more inclined towards the former than the latter or vice versa. But, the fact remains that none of these answers perfectly suit your life as you cannot just stay at one extreme forever. A better approach would be to regress towards the mean and find a balance between the two choices. Yes, you should work hard to achieve your goal and you should be productive to get things done but, if you are not properly balancing this work with another fun activity then you are fighting an uphill battle. One that you are bound to lose sooner or later no matter how much you struggle. Now I am not trying to stop you from working hard or even suggesting that you work for half the time and then take half the time off. In order to keep yourself fresh, you do not need the same amount of rest. That is why it is said that ‘laughter is an instant vacation’. Some people can recover much faster than others but everyone does need some form of leisure in their life to actually enjoy their success. Even if you are forcing yourself to work hard, your results can diminish rather than increase constantly because you are trying to cut with a knife without sharpening it from time to time.
Everything in life can be seen as following the same law of equivalent exchange. In order to get something, you have to lose something in return. if you are waiting for Christmas holidays then you will no longer have access to the days before it once you do arrive at the holidays. This might not seem like an equivalent exchange at first, but do remember that everyone lives for a finite amount of time and there are only so many Christmas holidays that any one person can experience. In life, you will always want or need something and you will always have to put in the work to achieve that. We cannot change that but the best we can do is to give something in return that we are bound to lose anyway. The most common example of this is time. You can give up your next three months to learn a new skill or you can do nothing. The three months will pass just the same.
Another thing to consider here is the case where you decide to work hard for 10-20 years of your life to make the rest of your life easier. This seems like a perfectly logical thing to do and I also think that you have to work hard to enjoy later. But, consider that working hard for 10-20 years to enjoy the rest of your life is still balanced as you are still making an equivalent exchange. That is because a day of your youth cannot be compared to a day of when you are older. If you do not think of this first then you might have unrealistic expectations for when you do stop working to enjoy life. You are bound to age and things will not always be the same. And so, some people may find it better to take some breaks here and there rather than working continuously through a period of time. Of course, this comes down to your personal choice. My goal is to just make you aware f the fact that everything is bound by the equivalent exchange principle.
An interesting food for thought that I would like to give you at the end is to stop trying to chase happiness or avoid sadness. Try to lead a life of satisfaction rather than pleasure. This means that you should not try to look for things that make you happy all the time as this should not be your goal. Instead, you should try to find peace in whatever situation you find yourself in. Of course, you are always going to strive to make improvements and reach new heights in your life. Just because you adopt this approach to live in content, it does not mean that there will never be happiness or sadness in your life as they both are fundamental parts of our lives. What we have changed is just our priorities and how much we let them both affect ourselves. Hopefully, it gives you a better appreciation of your time and your life so you can make the best possible choice, Good luck!
