Often times, I have asked myself, friends and even colleagues "what really is the best way to live life meaningfully?" The fact that not even one of them has been able to provide a satisfactory answer to the question gets me bothered because of course, they do not know and as such, want answers too.
Day after day, there are a lot of teachings and preachings out there, in our schools, places of worship, workplaces and training centres about fate, faith, failure, success, determination, love, hope, destiny, winning strategies, attitude, creativity, scientific innovations, artistic creation, healthy living, and many more. However, it is baffling that after all these, people are still caught up in the web of confusion about what exactly it means to live meaningfully.
In an effort to provide a standard that people need to follow in order to live a "fulfilled life", a lot of religious institutions have rolled out myriads of doctrines for their members. However, even with these doctrines, the confusion becomes more ntense. Truth is, humans have tried and worked so hard to condition and put a stake on life, forgetting that life itself is so limitless and as such, cannot be controlled by anyone. We have become so glued to rules,regulations and norms to the extent that we let them deternine our fate at every given time. More worrisome is the fact that we have become so feeble and vulnerable to the extent that we let in unhealthy beliefs, assumptions and thoughts into our hearts and minds without scrutiny, possibly because they came from our 'Papas' and 'Mamas,' 'Senior Men and Ladies' among other people who we hold at high esteem.
Some of us have lost our sense of intuition, refusing to question bad and ugly situations, just because we feel it is morally unjust to challenge authorities and call out peoples' wrongdoings. But later, we complain bitterly of the pains and sufferings we go through because of the same evil we refuse to condemn. Who did this to us and how did we get here?
It is no news that so many of us including myself has at one point or the other been brainwashed with a lot of fallacious teachings and assumptions that have ended up affecting our right sense of reasoning. Some of us, in an effort to practice these teachings, ended up ruining our relationships, quitting our jobs, ending our careers and losing our consciousness.
In the end, I dare to ask "what if all these teachings were all a lie? What if all the preachments about Heaven, Hell, Success, Failure, Prosperity, Money, Fame, Wealth, Love, Life and Death were all social constructs fabricated to regulate our thought pattern and control our lives? What If there was really no need for the unnecessary competition and fights that we engage ourselves in just to prove a point? what if there is really no need for all stress we put ourselves through just to create wealth that would end up taking away our peace and creating for us more challenges?what if the meaningful life we seek is non-existent?
I have always believed that there is no one formula for achieving greatness in life because all that we need to survive have been given to us. They are in our hearts and minds; not in the hands of people or making of doctrines. So, if we really want to live meaningfully, then, we have to begin by shunning unhealthy comparisons, following our intuition and prioritising our happiness.