Why are you running? Wait, relax, take a deep breath. Seriously, don’t just read it off, do it. Think about what you are doing right now. Will it be as important after 5 years? Is that stress worth the impact it has? More often than not, the answer shall be ‘No’. We are all racing but sometimes in the process of running, you forget what you are racing for, and all the focus is on beating the competitor. All of us has a different story, a different starting position, and a different equipment to start with. You cannot compete with a formula-1 car with a bicycle. You need to know you are unique, just because there is someone in the same space and time around you, doesn’t mean you are racing him/her. When you shall know that there are infinite opportunities in the world, there is enough for everyone, you will stop comparing. Relax, life is not all that complex. This is going to be a little bit longer, because it deserves to be and shall probably be the last philosophical posts for a while. Even if no one else reads it, I will because I know this is mostly all I will need to know to live well.

The primary reason I write the post is the motivation to help people deal with all the stress, depression and anxiety. The recent case of one of the famous self-made Bollywood actors whom I admired a lot, has made me express my bit on the issue. I have been fortunate to not be under grave depression alone. There were hard times, times when I had regretted my life, due to the stress a lot of people had due to an incident, I take all the blame for. At the weakest point, if not for the support from my brother, and a couple of very close friends at NITT, I don’t know if I would have surpassed that phase. The time was hard, and my competitive nature had me stressed more than ever before. There were too many things to take at a moment. The power of what a second can do hit hard, a second changed a lot of things. That was something I still feel will matter in the next 50 years to come. The details of it are not important and are personal, but there were a few lessons learnt which I feel I am obliged to share.

1. Tough times don’t last, tough people do.
   The first takeaway is that the time passes. No matter what you do, the time will pass. The things will change. Some things may impact in long term, but most things you worry about on daily routine won’t. You will learn a lot during that phase, but you will only realize it after you are out of it. Just wait for it, do your bit. It’ll pass, nothing is permanent, I promise. The quote is only half right, the second half isn’t. You don’t have to be tough to pass the tough time. Just sit back, do the little you need to do to get a meal a day and that’s the bare minimum you need to do. It is that simple. No pressure, even the ones causing the pressure are not permanent, lol. It’ll pass, relax.

2. It’s not all that complicated, chillax.
   Life is only as complicated as you think it is. You come alone, you go alone, and once you go, that is the end. No one else cares, no one else matters (as long as you don’t hurt them, it is all fine to not care when you cannot). Nothing should be more important to you, than your life. You are here for a very brief time, seeing the current trend, it is at max 100 years. If you are reading this, 1/5th of it is probably done and the next 10 years are already planned for you. Considering that you sleep 8 hours a day and spend 4 hours at minimum in miscellaneous activities required for survival, you only have 35 years to kill. That is very small. It took me some time but now when I feel the need to know the scale, I compare it to the universe. It is billions of years old, and the life as we know it is also a few millions of years old. You do not matter, or you wouldn’t after 200 years from now. It is a very small number compared to the aforementioned numbers. All the stress you go through, it is not worth it. It is one time opportunity, you just have to live it, explore and appreciate the creations around you, find your happiness in things you can control, and that’s all you need to live a good life. It is simple, chillax(Chill and Relax)!

3. Brilliance is to know when to stop.
   I cannot repeat it enough, so here it is, once again. The race you are running, is not a race. There is no race, nothing matters more than happiness. If running gives you happiness or you think will lead to something that will make you happy, go for it. But know when to stop. See if it is worth the efforts and the stress. Look out for what matters. Mostly nothing matters, no one cares. I say it from experience and I can give you a reason to believe it. A gold medal taught me how unimportant it is. Honestly, that wasn’t ever a goal unless I saw that was achievable with a little more effort, and that little more was worth the recognition. But otherwise, it holds not a lot of value to me, certainly zero value to others, ZERO! I loved to learn, to know things, and so I learnt. Medal was just a bonus. I can write about the journey some day later, but what is more important to know is to know when to stop. See if it is worth it, see if it will matter. It is not worth even a thought if the returns are not worth relative to the investment. But this is just the topping.
   This lesson has been with me for much longer than that and has served much more important things. The hard time I mentioned had me overwhelmed. There were weeks when I couldn’t sleep. My words limit me from justifying how broken I felt at that point. There was a lot to think about, 10000 things to regret about, 1000 things could go wrong, 100 things that I could have done differently and situation would have been different, 10 things I could die for, but only 1 thing that I needed to know and think about. I can only control what I can control, other thoughts do not matter, they are just wasting the time and taking away the time from my little lifespan. I knew it was only me who could control how I felt. The decision to not think about other things was hard, but I knew that there were only a few things I can do, I just had to find my focus. Not that it was easy, but it was doable and looking back at it, I am proud of myself that I did it, and I did it well. It all happened when I forced myself to think about what I could do and stopped thinking about the things I couldn’t. Brilliance is to know when to stop!

4. Strike the balance
   You cannot create time, but you can sacrifice. Sacrifice the things and thoughts that take the time, but that don’t lead to happiness that is worth the efforts. It is all about the balance. As I said, tough times don’t last, you can sit at home, relax, do the minimum to survive and wait the tough time out. But what you can also do is, to do what you can, while maintaining the balance. Do what is under your control, no pressure. Just balance it out. Know that life is very brief, and you’ll change how you think about things. Before you realize, you’ll be in your 50’s when you retire. That is when you will not be able to do a lot of things that you can do right now, and you will regret about what you could have done. Regret is the worst punishment you can give yourself. If you do all that you can to solve a problem, you will not regret it irrespective of the result. Best scenarios that most youngsters would relate are the exams. If you spend enough time studying that you are satisfied with your preparations, you will not regret even if you fail it. IIT-JEE was one such exam for me. This probably deserved to be a lesson of its own, but this is wisdom. Do all that you can, and you’ll be happy irrespective of the results. Strike a balance between what it is worth and set out to do it well, no pressure. If you understand its importance, if you know what it is worth, you will be motivated to take the efforts anyway. Leave the rest to luck. I believe in luck, and you can too, if you know you are doing what you can do best at the moment. Do your best, leave the rest to luck.

5. Stop Comparing
   It is worth repeating: When you know there are infinite opportunities in the world, enough for everyone, you’ll start thinking differently. You only lose time when you compare with someone or are worried about someone. The one person or a set of people you are worried about, they aren’t the only ones. There are so many people doing better than you, you cannot worry about each of them. You don’t even know if they are doing better or you are worried for no reason. You are the only one you can control, focus on yourself. Compete with yourself, define your own goals. Define your own limits and keep pushing them when you are in a position to do so. Work on yourself. Do not waste time on watching others, you can only control what you do. Keep learning, be disciplined, keep going. One step at a time and you’ll reach your goal. Take inspirations from others, learn from others. Be the best version of yourself, and that is when you will be the best of all.

Conclusion
Life is short, maximize happiness. You are running a different race than others, you have to only beat yourself. No pressure, do the best you think you can for things you believe in. You do not have to please anyone, your happiness is under your control, it is all about the choice. You do not have to be productive 24*7, don’t fall into the race everyone these days is pushing you to run in. Rather than running on the track, leave your own trail. Keep it simple, no medal counts, no one person counts in the big picture (there are literally billions of them), nothing is worth your life, the happiness you can create for yourself. Lastly, know that suicide is never an option. It only passes the suffering to others, and if that is not worse enough, it multiplies when passed. You can deal with that much easily than others who it is passed to. In the worst case, I look up to becoming a monk. Leave all the problems behind and just relax for life, lol. (I am seriously joking.) Don’t worry, it is all that simple.

"Aal is well."

P.S.: First draft, will see if any edits required. Let me know if you have anything else to add to it.