"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

How do you measure your life?

People have asked me "What do you want to be when you grow up?". I always been wary of answering that question promptly. It's a trap if you answer too quickly. They will never remember what you said if you answer that question like you're at a shootout to save not only your life but your entire families' lives as well. (Haha. Forgive me for that analogy. My mind wanders. Attaching each unlikely scenario which pops up in my head with a twist of the old Desi Ekta Kapoor tadka that involves doing something for the family.)

So gist is. They forget. They nod. They hum. If you find a person of an opposite gender asking you that question and listening to you intently then date/marry/befriend/siszone her. (Choose based on how screwed your life is right now)



Okay. So, what's your take on this? Yes, I want to know. What one liner/two liner would you give someone who asked you 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'.  Reply in the comment box. (Yes, this paragraph is to secretly check if you're reading the entire blog post or not. =P

I've had a constant answer since the age of around 12 I think. Before that it was a constant confusion of deciding if I wanted to be an electrician, a plumber, an auto driver, an archaeologist or an astronaut. Yes. Good luck trying to pick one of those eh. 

The constant answer has been something that I'd read or seen somewhere. I'm not sure where or how that sentence got lodged in this tiny part of my head. 


"I want to live to an age of 70 and not look back and wish I'd done things any differently".

For me then, it was something crude and philosophical. To the Gautam then, it was a smart way of not wanting to tell "I swear I have no idea what I wanna do. So take this sentence and respond by saying Oh that's nice"; because honestly even at the age of 12 I knew not a lot of people really cared for what you wanted to be when you grew up. 


To me now, after having said that same sentence in job interviews, volunteer gigs and what not, that sentence helps me decide how I react to situations. Think about it. You don't know if that fight with someone you had could impact your future 70 years from now. It might not for all that's there, but what if that sliver of chance happens to fall onto your plate of life. 

Every major decision that you take, think of that sentence. It might not probably make you the wealthiest person or a powerful person. But, with all due respect to the balance of probability (Mycroft you beauty), you might just end up being the happiest person around most places and no prizes for guessing till you reach the age of 70.

Now, you're churning your brains to think of a scenario where that sentence wouldn't hold good.

There are many scenarios. Indeed. A sickness killing someone early. A terrible accident. 


What I've to tell you now is this. 

The sentence is a trick. 

"I want to live to an age of 70 and not look back and wish I'd done things any differently."

No mortal can make a life (Note the word 'life' and not 'career') without committing a single mistake in his/her life. Immortals can just change locations and get new identities and try that stuff out like they show in those Twilight movies. Haha.

"I want to live to an age of 70 and not look back and wish I'd done things any differently."

Yes, that sentence is a goal that's impossible to achieve. But, I've found that constantly reminding it to myself everyday for every decision that I take; I've sort of have this mental check before taking a decision. And that moment of clarity, just before the decision looms in your head. Yes. That clarity is what the sentence gives to me. 

A goal you cannot achieve helping you to achieve a better rate of success of a goal that was impossible to achieve in the first place. 


Try it once. You wont regret it. 

PS. The age of 70. I like the sound of it and chose it. Feel free to fix your age limit (Pun intended) 


Until another time,


Gautam BK

P.S. Not on Facebook for an indefinite amount of time. Hopefully will end up writing better articles. 



Comments

Unknown said…
To the question posed in the third paragraph: " Let's see" :p
And it's a nice article. My answer to this question now might change :p
Unknown said…
I'd like to know how you create a whole world around a single sentence AND manage to quote Sherlock snippets *clap clap*

It's not the first time I'm reading something like this, but daaamn GomZ u so funni. Keep writiiiiing! I'm one of those readers who read through your entire post. Totally worth it.
Unknown said…
People have often asked me this question, mostly relatives- the elderly kinds. And I have no idea what to tell them so I just say 'lets see how things pan out' and tell them about my present doings; only to get their side of a boring and sometimes, if I get lucky, a funny story. :P
But your one liner really is something. Its deep. Makes you wonder..
Also, I'm glad you're writing again:)
But staying away from fb for a while? Why? :o
Anonymous said…
What do i wanna do? i just want to kick your ass like i usually do!

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