Descent can be painful. Whether in your job, your life, your relationship or your dreams and passion. But once you set the right perspective, you realise that the descent is temporary, and it is only for your good.
A 100 storey building was bustling with people striving to reach the top floor. All you could see was people getting in - and in a hurry. There were no lifts. Stairs was the hard work that you must do to move up each floor. There were more people coming in from the ground floor than there are people moving up the floors. Therefore, the stairs are expectedly congested, as each one tries to overtake their peer to reach the next floor in a bid to get a better quality future. Of course, the assumption is that each higher floor gives you a better feel because there are less people there.
"Ah !! All these folks are trying to reach a destination which has the potential to give a better quality future by reducing their quality of their today, as they get engrossed in this mindless competition." thought Varun
Varun was one person who decided to take a U turn from the 50th floor. He decided he would not climb up anymore. As per him, this mad race is not leading him anywhere. He has tried to be a part of this race for long enough time now.
"They are all trying to reach the top, and they have never seen how the top looks like. Strange, isn't it?" Varun thinks to himself.
Varun starts to descend, against the crowd. The descent is not going to be easy. Absolutely not !!
During the descend, he meets all those people whom he overtook a few years earlier when he was also in a similar mad race. It is not easy to face those people now. They are surprised at Varun's descent, because he always seemed more skillful to climb up the building, right to the top. Varun also realizes that now people with lesser skills will be moving ahead of him. He is soon going to be the odd one out. He is finding it really tough to descend these 50 floors. It is a long tough journey.
"Should he start climbing back upwards? Because that seemed more comfortable and an obvious option? Is he doing something stupid by suddenly deciding to descend downwards?" he thought to himself.
But then, here is what he can visualize. Just adjoining this 100 storey building is a small one floor house. He can see the top of that one floor building, and he can see the sunshine, the roof, the flowers, the nature, the beauty and very very limited people there. He understands that if he has to reach there, he must first climb down to the ground floor and then reach the top of the adjoining building to enjoy his future.
The climb down is slightly easier now. He understands the 'reason' for the descent. He also understands that others will not understand the reason because that is what is rat race all about. They have not visualised what Varun has. If they ever visualize what Varun has, probably many of them will follow suit.
"They all want to move to the top of this 100 storey building even without seeing what is there at the top of the building. They are climbing because that is what everyone seems to be doing around them - so ought to be the only right way to do it." Varun thinks to himself.
By the time he reaches the ground floor from the 50th floor, some of his colleagues and friends have reached the 60th floor overcoming stiff competition and resistance on the way. They are still struggling, while he is breathing fresh air of freedom now, and he swiftly goes and climbs the adjoining building and reaches the top in no time - there was just one floor to climb. This is a building of his passion - something he loves to do. And though he may be on the first floor but he is enjoying, and his friends may have reached the 60th floor - but still striving to reach the top.
And then comes the biggest surprise. There comes an helicopter to pick him up and take it to the greatest heights he could not even have imagined ever. He asks the pilot as to why there is no such helicopter for people who have been struggling through their lives and have still not reached the top, and the reply comes from the pilot,
"I am what you have been searching all along. I sent you here for a purpose - to chase your mission in life. I sent each one of you with a unique mission. I am going to help you if you are doing that. Money, happiness, - nothing will ever be a problem for you if you are chasing your mission - because I asked you to do that. All those who ignored their inner voice, which was actually my voice, and decided to just follow what others are doing, have no choice but to continue to struggle through their lives. They may conveniently blame other people, situations, family, competition..etc..but they may never realise that they have no one but themselves to blame if they are not happy with their lives."
Varun was glad that he descended just at the right time, though it never looked a popular thing to do.
He clearly understood that, The descent was temporary - The ascent now is permanent. !!
Cheers
Manoj Arora
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