It’s a Friday afternoon, and time is far spent. I’m sitting here thinking of what to give you, yes you my reader.
But never mind; it is part of my job. Well, thanks to my editor who brought to my attention a great article on businessinsider.com called “7 Hard Truths About Life That People Don’t Like To Admit,” I have something for you to think about as you head into the new week. Relax your nerves as you digest these facts. You might want to reject some of them on impulse; in fact, I’ve only included 5 out of the 7. But here is my advice — Don’t be quick to judge. Think through them and see how relevant they are and can be to your life.
Ok, before you read any further, a little exercise for you. Take three minutes and think of some hard truths that you might not want to accept and list them down. You may find one or two below. Now, read on.
1.Success doesn’t happen overnight.
Quora user Samyadeep Basu writes, “Most successes happen in small steps and take a long time.” Many people in life wish to be like that successful guy or girl they see on TV, but I am sorry to tell you that shortcuts will not get you there. In fact, it’s quite possible that you’ll never get there at all. But you’re much less likely to get there if you don’t work hard. It is the hard work you put in today that will pay off months, if not years, down the road. So be prepared to work hard and be patient.
2.Life is precious.
Everybody, no matter their status, educational background or religious affiliation, will die. We don’t know when. It could be fifty years from now, it could be five years from now, it could be later today. While we all know we’ll die one day, we tend to forget about it or pretend that death doesn’t exist. As Quora user Mohit Sharma put it: “It’s not like they don’t believe it; they just ignore the fragility of life.” And by ignoring that you could die any time, you fail to maximize the time that you have left.
3.There is no such thing as a soul mate.
Mazumdar on Quora says that searching for your “one, true love” is a silly pursuit. “There are millions who would satisfy your criteria of Ms. Right and Mr. Perfect. It is just coincidence that you found one of them and were acquainted to him or her and now consider them your soul mate.” It’s not a very romantic way of looking at love and life, but you have to admit that Mazumdar has a point. Think about all the times you were over-the-moon in love with someone, convinced that this was the ONLY person you could ever fully love, sure that this was the person you were destined to be with, only to have it not work out and to feel like life couldn’t possibly go on. But what happened? It did go on, and you may have already found someone else that you’re now over-the-moon for. It’s not everyone that we can love, and it is fewer still that we can actually live with. But THEY do exist. And when you find someone like that, it doesn’t matter that there may be someone else that you could be just as happy with; what matters is that you put your all into the relationship to make it last forever.
4.Looks matter.
O, how many times have we convinced ourselves that looks don’t count, probably because we’re not particularly blessed in that department or we don’t want to depend on them that much. Well, the truth is that looks DO matter. It’s nice to believe that if you work hard and are a good person that good things will happen to you, but Quora user Dania Faruqui points out that good things tend to happen a lot more to good-looking people than to those who are, well, let’s just say not as good-looking. We can deny it all we want. We see this unfortunate truth around us every day. “Research reveals that attractive people make more money and are perceived as smarter and more reliable than people who aren’t so alluring.” Hey, I didn’t say it. Businessinsider did!
5.No one is truly altruistic.
Suraj Agarwal writes that “We are all self-centric; it’s just the radius that varies,” which is to say that everyone is selfish. The only difference is in HOW selfish people are. Ramachandra Bhakta takes this idea a step further by quoting the Indian philosopher Chanakya: “There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.” If there was no reason for you liking someone, you would like everyone equally. But you can’t, so you like those people the most who make you feel good in some way. If and when they stop making you feel good, it’s usually only a matter of time before the friendship ends. And for those of you who consider yourselves to be just darned good people with no ulterior motives behind the good things you do for other people, think about if you’d still do them if doing those things didn’t make YOU feel good about yourself for doing them. Self-satisfaction or worse, wanting to be perceived a certain way, are not true forms of altruism, no matter how much we insist that they are.
So I guess it’s up to you to ponder, judge and decide for yourself which of the above uncomfortable truths you agree or do not agree with. Don’t hesitate to continue the list, and don’t hesitate to tell me how wrong Businessinsider is, because remember, it’s their list not mine.
(Via Infobox daily)
