Life is going to be interesting from here on. Every day almost I get into a discussion with someone on one of these subjects.
It's not popular to be an atheist.
It's not popular to be selfish.
I am both. A selfish atheist.
ha ha! And proud of it! Good luck dude.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Success is happiness!
"My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel tons of pleasure and very little pain"
Anthony Robbins
How do we evaluate the quality of your life? How do we know you are successful or not? What is success?
The other day I woke up thinking about these things. It was a beautiful morning like all early mornings at 5-6 am.
Success for a human being, in my opinion is, his/her HAP- Happiness and Pleasure
The opposite is SAP- Suffering and Pain
Coincidentally, HAP happens to be the first 3 words of the word Happy. And SAP happens to be a verb which means 'to drain energy and vitality!"
Let's not focus on the negative. Lets focus on HAP.
What the heck! I wish I had known this earlier. If I had, life would have been different and I would have taken different decisions. You know, there is a trap many of us get entangled in. It's called the trap of "would have should have could have might have."
Rule number 1: Success is happiness. Amen!
If you are happy, you are successful. If you are not happy, go to rule number 1.
Anthony Robbins
How do we evaluate the quality of your life? How do we know you are successful or not? What is success?
The other day I woke up thinking about these things. It was a beautiful morning like all early mornings at 5-6 am.
Success for a human being, in my opinion is, his/her HAP- Happiness and Pleasure
The opposite is SAP- Suffering and Pain
Coincidentally, HAP happens to be the first 3 words of the word Happy. And SAP happens to be a verb which means 'to drain energy and vitality!"
Let's not focus on the negative. Lets focus on HAP.
What the heck! I wish I had known this earlier. If I had, life would have been different and I would have taken different decisions. You know, there is a trap many of us get entangled in. It's called the trap of "would have should have could have might have."
Rule number 1: Success is happiness. Amen!
If you are happy, you are successful. If you are not happy, go to rule number 1.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Amar on Selfishness!
"My Philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
My idol in writing and life-Ayn Rand
Have you ever heard someone saying to you, "Oh, that's so selfish!" and how did you feel at that comment? Guilty? Guilty of being selfish? Did you say to yourself. "Oh my God, how could I be so selfish," and feel disgusted with yourself?
Let me present an alternate view.
It is good to be selfish. In fact, it is the only way to live life. Saying that what you do, you do for someone else is hypocrisy and sacrificing your own interest causing yourself pain is cowardice.
I wonder what do so many of these God-men mean when they say that selflessness is the key to happiness and a fulfilling life. Hey, who are we fooling?
A couple decides to become parents when they really WANT children. They are doing it for themselves. They want children. They want to raise them and enjoy the pleasure of doing so. They are not doing it for the kids. Of course we love our parents since we exist and become whatever we become because of their love and care. We owe immense love and gratitude to them. But telling your children that whatever you did for them was a favor is wrong. You did it for yourself- for your happiness.
No company is obliging any employee. Companies need productive and useful people. If a company hires an employee, it is doing it for itself. So, next time your boss tell you that the company did this and that for you, you know that they need you and they are not doing you a favor or making a sacrifice! They do it for themselves.
We want to be with people we love. One of the greatest institutions in the world is marriage. There is a bizarre institution called an arranged marriage. 2 people who don't know each other sometimes even at a bare comfort level get into marriage- TO PLEASE THEIR PARENTS. All of these people who say that they married for their parents and sulk for the rest of their lives are cowards. They did it for the holy and sublime principle of SELFLESSNESS because it is a sin to be selfish and demand that we will only marry someone we like and who likes us!!!
So many of us in our society are in jobs and careers we don't like a bit. How did we reach where we are? Someone told you when you were young and naive, "Son, I want you to be doctor/engineer/Pilot/MBA/Lawyer..." You forgot that you enjoyed writing/painting/singing/sports/traveling... and decided to be guided by the compass someone else set for you. You never really found the time to explore who you really are and by the time yo realized, it was too late and had translated into could haves/should haves/would haves/might haves.... After all, all that you were trying to walk on is the heavenly principle of selflessness and sacrifice and somewhere you lost yourselves.
I wish, oh how I wish, people had understood Ayn Rand when she wrote the Fountainhead, The Atlas Shrugged or the Virtue of Selfishness. The world would have been a better place.
No, don't tell me about exceptions. Don't tell me that you could shoot and kill people if that made you happy. That's bizarre and abnormal.I am talking about a commoner who is just trying his best to juggle up life and balance the demands of others with the demands his soul places on him.
So here I am telling you to be selfish. Who will take care of you if you don't? Who will think about your happiness? You are the only one who can do it. You are the only one who is responsible.
Love people because YOU WANT to love them not because you are doing it for them. Be honest to your work because YOU WANT to do your best not because you are doing your company a favor. Do it for yourselves and for a change, feel good about it.
Be selfish I say....and don't be guilty about it. Be proud.
My idol in writing and life-Ayn Rand
Have you ever heard someone saying to you, "Oh, that's so selfish!" and how did you feel at that comment? Guilty? Guilty of being selfish? Did you say to yourself. "Oh my God, how could I be so selfish," and feel disgusted with yourself?
Let me present an alternate view.
It is good to be selfish. In fact, it is the only way to live life. Saying that what you do, you do for someone else is hypocrisy and sacrificing your own interest causing yourself pain is cowardice.
I wonder what do so many of these God-men mean when they say that selflessness is the key to happiness and a fulfilling life. Hey, who are we fooling?
A couple decides to become parents when they really WANT children. They are doing it for themselves. They want children. They want to raise them and enjoy the pleasure of doing so. They are not doing it for the kids. Of course we love our parents since we exist and become whatever we become because of their love and care. We owe immense love and gratitude to them. But telling your children that whatever you did for them was a favor is wrong. You did it for yourself- for your happiness.
No company is obliging any employee. Companies need productive and useful people. If a company hires an employee, it is doing it for itself. So, next time your boss tell you that the company did this and that for you, you know that they need you and they are not doing you a favor or making a sacrifice! They do it for themselves.
We want to be with people we love. One of the greatest institutions in the world is marriage. There is a bizarre institution called an arranged marriage. 2 people who don't know each other sometimes even at a bare comfort level get into marriage- TO PLEASE THEIR PARENTS. All of these people who say that they married for their parents and sulk for the rest of their lives are cowards. They did it for the holy and sublime principle of SELFLESSNESS because it is a sin to be selfish and demand that we will only marry someone we like and who likes us!!!
So many of us in our society are in jobs and careers we don't like a bit. How did we reach where we are? Someone told you when you were young and naive, "Son, I want you to be doctor/engineer/Pilot/MBA/Lawyer..." You forgot that you enjoyed writing/painting/singing/sports/traveling... and decided to be guided by the compass someone else set for you. You never really found the time to explore who you really are and by the time yo realized, it was too late and had translated into could haves/should haves/would haves/might haves.... After all, all that you were trying to walk on is the heavenly principle of selflessness and sacrifice and somewhere you lost yourselves.
I wish, oh how I wish, people had understood Ayn Rand when she wrote the Fountainhead, The Atlas Shrugged or the Virtue of Selfishness. The world would have been a better place.
No, don't tell me about exceptions. Don't tell me that you could shoot and kill people if that made you happy. That's bizarre and abnormal.I am talking about a commoner who is just trying his best to juggle up life and balance the demands of others with the demands his soul places on him.
So here I am telling you to be selfish. Who will take care of you if you don't? Who will think about your happiness? You are the only one who can do it. You are the only one who is responsible.
Love people because YOU WANT to love them not because you are doing it for them. Be honest to your work because YOU WANT to do your best not because you are doing your company a favor. Do it for yourselves and for a change, feel good about it.
Be selfish I say....and don't be guilty about it. Be proud.
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