LIVING DELIBERATELY

“"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life”

                          -      Henry David Thoreau

Nothing had moved me more than this phrase from the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’. It sounded as if Thoreau was pleading us to live deep, live deliberate and live rich. To achieve great things (things which are not materialistic). To be excellent. To be really there.

Maybe that’s why Thoreau went to live in the woods. To understand what existence is really all about, live without its current array of distractions, to learn to live in the moment.

What does it even mean? Live deliberately.

Maybe it means not just going sloppily through life but actually being aware of living

Maybe it means knowing each moment, each action, each feeling and sensation

Maybe it means just being in that moment – not in the past, not in the future, not somewhere else, but here

Maybe it means totally concentrating in doing what you are doing, thinking what you are thinking and feeling what you are feeling

Maybe it means living life to the fullest, without fears, worries and cares.

I do not know much about these things. But I do know that most of us are not living deliberately. We just get by each moments, days and years. No wonder time seems to fly away. Why is it that there are so many stories, incidents and memories from our childhood time and so few from our adult years? A friend once told me that’s because while we grow up, lesser number of novel and interesting experiences happen to us. We have already seen so much. Since we are doing so many things, very little catches our attention for long enough to register as something to be remembered.

So while a child could be very excited about flying a kite or going to the zoo, we find these activities quite regular – something we wouldn’t really bother doing till we get a payoff for it.

I seem to have wandered off from what I wanted to speak about. Let me try to get back to where I started. Take a typical day. When I drive to work, am I really only driving or also thinking about the impending meeting? In the meeting am I completely listening and contributing or actually thinking about that scratch on my car received while driving to work or thinking about the interview I have to give in the afternoon? While preparing for the interview – am I truly concentrating on it or wondering about how much I need the promotion, will the promotion come through at all and what will happen if it doesn’t? During the interview am I just answering the questions or thinking about the panelist – what impressions they have about me, etc.

Most of the time, I am in the past or the future. We spend too much of our time and effort either listening or battling that voice in our head which persists on living in the past or the future, but rarely in the present. Despite the fact that this is the only moment we actually have - as said by Master Ugway in the movie ‘ Kung fu Panda’.

Very rarely are you doing only what you are doing – but during those rare moments your work would have turned out to be excellent. It is true. I am sure, everyone remembers those particular moments, when we have been so deeply engrossed in some activity, that we never noticed time flying by, couldn’t get distracted by anything and come back to reality only when the activity is completed to find that we have done a phenomenal job of it. I believe most athletes and sportsmen achieve these moments when they have done their best.

I am reminded of this film ‘ Peaceful Warrior’, where a mentor helps a gymnast learn that by being in that moment only, being that moment, brings out the best in you.

This is something which would take a lot of practice, but I believe this is the path to excellence and living life to the fullest.