What are we telling our children? Is life just about acquiring tools? What if they spend their whole life acquiring tools, celebrating every acquisition, and soon become sad again, focusing on that one missing tool? Unless they start painting, will they ever feel happy? The moment we start painting, we focus on the tools we have and in 100% cases, we can make something beautiful out of them. We enjoy painting, and tools come to us automatically. Every child is born with an explorative mindset, which is somehow damaged, beyond repair, by fearful and insecure parents. Children explore so many new things by the time they turn 6 years old. They already know walking, talking, and expressing their emotions. As they enter formal schools, they are made to realise by their teachers as well as parents that they run short of tools, and the purpose of life is the acquisition of these tools. They can acquire these tools through education. They can get jobs with fat pay packages, the partner of their choice, and become powerful. Parents of schools hardly ever tell their children to inculcate their passions. What are they going to paint? That's why they focus on those missing tools, and there is a general lack of gratitude and widespread unhappiness in society. That’s why I feel that the best thing the schools and parents can do for their children is to help them discover their passion. They will find ways and means to acquire tools on their own.
Something struck with me today to make me realise that the fundamental reason for unhappiness is a lack of gratitude. When we have gratitude for what we have, we feel happy inside. Otherwise, we feel deprived and unhappy. It is never about what we have or don’t have. We may have 99 out of 100 things we need and yet be happy for the one thing we don’t have.
Unfortunately, the schools as well as parents, believe firmly that we need to feel discontented to be motivated in life. Children are made to feel deprived of money by creating so many false use cases for money and by selling dreams that can be fulfilled with money. They work hard to get admission to a good university and get a placement with a fast pay package. They are made to feel deprived of companionship, and they look desperately for someone with whom they can share and want to marry early. They are made to feel powerless, and they want to acquire power. Basically, the whole motivation system is based on deprivation. We are made to feel deprived so that we may work hard. That’s why we are so used to focusing on that one missing thing rather than the 99 we already have.
If we focus on the 99 things we have, how will we get motivated? It’s very easy. We just need to rethink. If a painter has a few tools required to do the painting, he will start painting and enjoy the same. On the other hand, if he is running short of the tools, he will focus on acquiring those tools. However, if the sole motive of his life is just to acquire the tools and not to paint at all, that's a complete waste of life. He may celebrate occasionally at the acquisition of a tool. Until he starts painting, that celebration is meaningless.
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