STOP!!! This will change your life

You disappoint me if you are reading this post because you found the title catchy and interesting. I am sorry. Anyways, titles are meant to draw people to whatever they reflect. So I guess, the job is done. This one is written more for my own understanding and to reflect upon opinions. Have a close look at the web shot and if to see in precisely what the smaller text reads, enlarge the image in a new window. By sheer coincidence I happened to bump into this particular web page 'Expert of Persuasion'. Trust me it was a pure accident. I couldn't stop laughing for while and slowly it started sickening me.

Oh wait a minute! I am being conned by my family and friends. Everyone who talks to me wants to get something out of me and they do so without my knowledge.

Is that what these guys expect me to say? Sick!

I mean, let me look at it logically. If I am aware of the fact that people talk to me and get things done by me which they want me to do, then how on earth are they able to do it without my knowledge. My awareness is my knowledge. I am sure, any tom, dick and harry would agree with me. So how could I possibly know that someone is conning me without my knowledge of it and still be aware of that some one's existence and the fact that they are conning me?

I remember having read a strip, where Calvin is telling Hobbes that the best way to make money is to write a book on 'How to write a Self Improvement book'. Of course, it was Bill Watterson behind the child's brain. The bottom line is, the statement made a whole lot of sense. When I walk into any bookstore, I see at least 10% of the prime stacks or rows of books dedicated exclusively to 'Self Improvement'. It is just one of the myriad number of words or rather, phrase used for signifying something that has been so cleanly devised and whose sole purpose is to make the thoughts of the people who read such books even more convoluted. Eventually people who get into reading one of the zillions of books available in this genre, end up in a vicious cycle and they cannot live without such books. People call tobacco an addiction. I don't think there is anything more implicating an addiction than getting into the loop of 'Self Improvement'.

Let's get back to the web shot. It says, "Yes I am serious about improving my life and I am willing to learn new things". Holy mother! I ask myself, whether I want to improve my life. Pat comes the reply, "grass is always greener on the other side". Next I ask myself, whether I am willing to learn new things. Heck yes! I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to? Life is all about learning new things all the time, isn't it?

That is just my opinion. For my own sanity and clarity, I want to elucidate on why I feel so. Firstly, what does one define as a 'good life'? Today I would say that having a job good enough to get me two square meals a day, is what would make me feel that I am having a good life. A short while later, my thoughts run and I feel that I need to have good clothes to wear. Even before I am done consolidating my thoughts, my mind says that I need to have a house of my own and eventually a good car, a better job, hefty pay packet, beautiful wife, obedient and smart kids, industries, more money, one more house, ability to travel around the world... SHUT UP! Phew... Sorry for that. Sometimes my mind becomes a bit unruly. Never mind. Well, that was the materialistic part. On a different front, one can start thinking about the spiritual and moral aspects of life. I cannot really delve more into the nuances of those, as I feel that I myself am not really clear about life's meaning on those fronts. My point being, there is no end to what you want out of life. There is always scope for better things, in whatever context they be. Hence improvement is dynamic and is merely a state of definition. It varies for every person and is a perpetual one. PERENNIAL. Period. Perpetual, Perennial, Period... P for Plagiarism. Never mind. Period.

In one of the chats that I was having with my friend in the recent past, I happened to say that an artist's life would be the most peaceful and the best one. I went to the extent of saying that I would kill for an artist's life. My perception of such a life was quite rosy I would say. I thought that artist's do things at their own pace and only to their liking. They have no inhibitions about their work. And since the majority of the artists I have seen are not really materialistic in nature, and those who do possess materialistic things, have them not because they want them, but because their position and ability has provided them with it. What can be more enticing a life than living it by doing only the things that you love? My friend warned me and gave me a brief on something called as 'artist's block'. Only when I was able to understand what he was trying to tell me did I figure out that an artist's life could be hell and worse.

Is life all about wanting better things in life all the time? Or is it making the best of the things available? I guess the best solution to such questions would be to leave them as questions. Reflecting on these in solitude, and speculating are the best answers to the problems posed. Whatever it be, thinking that my friends and family are working their way about getting me do the things they want me to do for them would be the last thing I would want to do as a human. Disgusting! I hope, at the end of the post, I have not become one of those who con people into reading their stuff. Even if I have, heck, I don't care. I got my thoughts all sorted out now.