What Is Worth It?
I had written something a few days ago. I was talking about the human equivalent of judgement day, the fundamental question we all ask at the end of our lives: Is it worth it?
If the answer to that question is yes, then we see very happy old adults, who aspire to leave the world a better place than they found it. And if it’s no, we see some of the most bitter humans ever found on the face of the earth.
I was having a conversation with someone the other day. I was meeting this person after a while, and I noticed that they looked a little more soulless than the last time we met, kind of gray. I could see how the feeling of giving up was slowly taking over their body, little by little.
That was the moment I thought to myself: it doesn’t happen only at the end when you’re old. It happens on a daily basis, so consistently that you don’t even realize it. Every time you compromise on the worth-it thing you should have done, and instead go for the other choice, it takes away a piece of your soul. Just a little. Then one day, when you’re old, it all hits you at once. That’s it.
Then I was reminded of the army man I met on the train when I was coming back from Himachal. He was nearly 34, but didn’t look a day older than 22. He had a glow to his entire body, especially in his eyes. Was it because his diet and exercise regime are on a level we civilians can’t even imagine? Yes. But where does he get the willpower to go on every day? If you look at it, that’s the only difference between us and him, that he shows up every single day without fail. I think he sleeps each night with the feeling that the day he has lived was worth it.
So what do we do to feel the same way? I know we all can’t go to the border and do what he does, and we don’t need to. Everybody has a different answer to the question: What is worth it?
We just need to sit with ourselves, have an honest conversation, and do what feels worth it, unapologetically. Because at the end, we have to live with ourselves. We might as well make it worth it.
