Today as usual I went for a walk in the nearby park with my friend little knowing that Struggle is Happiness will be the mantra today.. She was accompanied by this energetic , enthusiastic and glowing happy guy who gave me a wide smile as soon as he saw me. My freind introduced him as Mukul ( real name withheld on request). I was immediately drawn by his shining eyes and infectious energy. We got talking and he told me that he was in the States for many years where in he developed some app and made big bucks by selling the rights to it.
In fact he said he was a multimillionaire in dollars once upon a time! The once upon a time bit really intrigued me. what happened I asked.
He said he had voluntarily given away all of it keeping really very little for himself, not even enough to sustain him without earning. I was zapped! In the present times everybody is going crazy trying to make big bucks and here was this who had chucked it all!
Seeing my baffled expression Mukul said I chucked it all because I wanted struggle back in my life! He said he was rarely happy after earning sackfuls of money. He wanted those days back where every penny counted and every morning involved carefully thinking about making prudent creative choices because resources were limited. The rush of Adrenalin which came by dreaming about making it big. He was missing it all so he decided to start from the scratch and now he is in India trying to earn his bread through teaching which is his passion. He eyes and face absolutely shined as he said it. By now I was hooked, oh boy! is struggle that important?
I asked him what exactly he missed about struggle?
He said first I feel struggle offers you immense opportunity to grow and progress. And once I had everything I felt I had no great motivation to really grow. From thinking about things and options in a creative way I had moved to simply choosing from a platter and it was not exciting at all. In fact I realised struggle makes you happy by giving you a sense of achievement in small things. I strongly recommend struggle for happiness.
This made sense to me and I said Mukul what else you love about struggle.
He said struggle kept me active and connected. The more I got in material terms more I lost in terms of getting connected to people. Either I did not have time or the inclination or both. In fact I realised beyond a point wealth starts managing you. Instead of wealth serving you, wealth makes you serve it. My entire time was being consumed by managing , worrying and taking care of this wealth. I was not enjoying and frankly I did not know how to enjoy it after I had done the usual shopping, travelling, property, cars, charity and so on. None of it was making me happy anymore.
I realised he had a point, so I asked him what more you learn’t about struggle.
He smiled and said Two things of immense value: Struggle does not allow you to get bored, it is a situation of constant action, maximisation, creativity and friends. Yes real friends who don’t worry about motives because they too don’t have anything. And struggle keeps you healthy and alive with hope! And every little dream fulfilled is like a tasty morsel for the hungry instead of table full of food which you don’t feel like eating!
Finally I asked him do you not ever feel insecure?
He said never because my struggle gives me confidence and self assurance , in fact I was most insecure when I had too much wealth. What if I lost it? What if somebody took advantage of me due to wealth? I did not even enter relationship out of fear. Trust me wealth comes and immediately takes away your peace of mind and instils fear in you. After giving it all up I feel so free, its the ultimate freedom, to not be weighed down by what you have but being full of life everyday to strive for what you can achieve. To be truly free you need to have very little, travel light travel faster. Today I am free to pursue my passion which is teaching kids and being free to decide each day for myself.
Amazing I felt and what could be better to hear it from somebody who has been there , done that. I am so glad I met Mukul and I love my STRUGGLE. I am inspired STRUGGLE IS GOOD ITS GREAT! And I feel this is something we need to ponder upon especially while bringing up our kids. Struggle is Good! Allow kids to struggle and set an example by struggling yourself.
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