New Year - New Life

Happy New Year! But one wonders will it really be a happy new year? It is quite natural to feel certain amount of uncertainty and the fear of the unknown. The problems never change, the prospects look dim and yet, we need a new beginning, a ray of light, a fresh new feeling of hope that all is not yet lost, that, indeed, there is a way to make it. A new year brings to us all that and much more.

The rising sun is a symbolic dividing line between one day and the next. Every day, we begin a new chapter of our lives. The whole day stretches before us, a pristine wonderland of potential, a clean slate unsullied by mistakes, failures and disappointments.

A new year is a chance to reinvent our lives and reinvigorate ourselves. It is like a blank paper given to us, waiting to be filled up. Each day holds its promise, and life's journey begins anew. No matter what we have done or what others have done to us, it is a chance to start afresh.

When we cross out the past year and welcome the new year with open arms, there is the promise of a whole new future awaiting us. Truly, there is something tremendously exciting about new beginnings.

An important part of preparing for a new year is to review the past year and learn from it. The past is gone and cannot be changed but the future holds possibilities. A new year gives us a chance to break through from the habitual and constraining chains of the past and build a better future for ourselves.

The Bible has examples of God giving people second chances. That is exactly the promise God holds forth. We may have been through troubled waters in the past but God offers to us, right now, the exciting promise of a new beginning. And remember, “Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.“ --Buddha

Learn to accept what you can't change

As intellectually evolved beings, we constantly analyze all events and endeavor to identify the underlying likely cause. This obsession for a cause extends even to actions or events of a past birth.

It compels us to look into outer space and implicate the movement of celestial bodies like stars and planets to serve as plausible causes.

Science has, to a large extent, been able to explain physical phenomena. But finding a cause for every mundane facile event might be taking things a bit too far. When the cause of suffering is diagnosed to be a person, it leaves one with a sense of victimhood. And along with it come anguish, resentment and a deep desire for retribution. This process continues unabated and over time becomes a stockpile of hate.

The feeling of hate, initially restricted to the individual, tends to be highly contagious and one day it could acquire epidemic proportions. All violence, racial discord and inter-personal strife are just manifestations of this perceived 'victimisation' that is derived from our obsession to somehow fix the blame.

Can our intellect be diverted towards fixing the problem? Can we, at the apex of the evolutionary pyramid, be redeemed from the curse of this blame game? Can't we accept events as just a pattern emerging in the kaleidoscope of life, the pattern which has no bias or machinations towards any individual being? In reacting lies a sense of insecurity, a sense of threat perception and inevitably a sense of being a victim of conspiracy. This approach only leads to further suffering. Constant threat perception is the genesis of insecurity. Over a period this induces metabolic changes in the body leading to a host of ailments.

We have the choice of continuously resenting whatever comes our way or equanimously accepting the same. Liberation is when we intelligently accept people and circumstances as they come. A state of zero resentment. Rather than asking 'why' it would be more prudent to question ourselves 'how'. How do i fix the problem?

The conspiracy theorists are also egotists because they believe that they are the obsession of the conspirators. Every person is leading his own life and solving his own problems. No one really has the time to target another individual to the exclusion of other activities.

Harbouring bitterness makes the person an eternal sceptic. Regret and unconditional apologies from the perceived perpetrator are celluloid events far from reality. What can be set right is neither the circumstances nor the other person but our (mis)understanding.

Memory is recorded in the dominant temporal lobe, which also houses the limbic system. The limbic system is one of the oldest neurological constructs and is responsible for all interactive behaviour by the organism. It is intricately interwoven with survival and procreation.

The limbic system is responsible for emotional templates as well. So it is possible that every byte of data stored is coupled with an emotional pixel as well. It may have its origins in survival mechanisms. Every person or object is recorded with an element of pleasure or pain to help the organism in future interactions. But then evolution of the frontal lobes in humans makes for finer data processing. It provides for intelligent acceptance of the vagaries of persons and events beyond the binary code of either pleasure or pain.

New Year thoughts

Even though sad to think that the New Year makes one older by a year, it is nevertheless good to have feelings and expectations that the bad days are gone and one may yet see one's hopes and aspirations coming true.

I received a message wishing me a new turn in life that could be, in a way, reward for all my hard work for decades without much in return. One hopes that happens, and yet one could be better off expecting nothing spectacular happening.

I am a fan of John Keats, and used to memories his beautiful poetic lines during my college days. One of his poems is emphatic on not to expect anything in life until it happens. “Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.“

So, that is that. My New Year resolutions have this point clearly drawn. Work hard, even madly, but never expect that great returns will come your way. If they come in course of time, fine; otherwise one need not bother much. The very fact that you have worked hard and sincerely will give you peace of mind and happiness. You will have sound sleep and good health too. What else does one need?

One more thing that experience teaches is that one does not make full use of all the opportunities that comes one's way. Even if one grabs 50 pc of these opportunities, one would have been miles ahead in terms of achievements. What I see is that we lack the strength to make sound judgments, and don't pursue our goals all the way.

We are too lazy and give up too easily. Nothing is impossible, only that we make it so by our thoughts and actions not being in tandem. Also, one must value time and must never let it go wasted. Shakespeare reminds us how we while away out life: “... we play the fool with time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.“

Perils of over-confidence

Confidence is good, but overconfidence is not. When you become overconfident, you tend to take great risks. If you fail, that might pull you down as it is not in your capacity to overcome such problems. It is like fighting against the laws of nature.

Why does a person become overconfident? The reason lies in over-assessment of his capabilities. Sometimes people over-assess their competence and jump into situations that are beyond their control.

Napoleon Bonaparte who became emperor of France, would say that the word 'impossible' was current only amongst fools. The overconfident Napolean invaded Russia in the winter of 1812. Although the Russian army at that time was not very strong, the severe cold proved to be fatal for Napoleon's army – it was caught in a hailstorm and because of this most of his army personnel perished before even entering Moscow.

Most leaders and generals who have either lost their ability to lead or win came to that state on account of over confidence. Overconfidence generally leads people into misadventures, jeopardising their prospects.

According to the divine scheme of life, any achievement is a result of two factors – one's personal planning and support from the external world. The share of personal planning is less than 50 percent while the share of outside factors is more than 50 percent. It is this fact which makes overconfidence untenable in this world. People, thanks to their obsessions, take into account only their planning, generally ignoring external factors. They become unable to foresee future developments. Hence the great risk of failure.

I know an educated person who was in a government job then. But because of his political ambitions, he resigned from service and threw himself into the arena of politics. This political adventure proved to be beyond his grasp and he was defeated in the elections. He lost both his job in the government as well as the assembly seat he was contesting for.

Then there is the question: of how one can manage overconfidence. The formula is very simple. Before taking a decision, discuss the matter with other informed people with an objective mind and when it is proved that you are about to go off the path, accept reality and say without delay: "I was wrong."

Overconfidence is a flaw characterizing such people as lack the virtue of modesty. Modesty makes you a realist; you become a person who is cut to size. People of this kind become very cautious; before taking an action they assess the whole situation. They adopt a realistic approach. They are able to discover their own shortcomings. This psyche serves as a self-controlling element in their lives, enabling them to save themselves from untoward happenings.

Overconfident people live within their own thoughts. They know themselves but they are unaware of others. Living inside their own cell; they are unable to make use of the experiences of others. This kind of habit is highly damaging to all concerned, disastrous for all men and women.

There is a saying that the young man sees the rule and the old man sees the exception. With a slight change, I would like to say that the overconfident person sees the rule and the confident person sees the exception. Overconfident people always live in risks. It is said that taking risks is good. They say: no risk, no gain. But risk must be a well-calculated risk otherwise risk becomes very dangerous.