Can you find me in the picture above?…………… Don’t waste your time, it is not important.
Important is to know, there are billions of people out there. Going about their business every day.
What are they doing and why, how do they know this is what they are good at and this is what they should be doing? Is there a purpose to this life? When and how to find out what is the purpose in this life.
The universe is a system, a very complex one. There are many parts to this system. Each part has to work as designed for the system to work efficiently. Each wheel in the system must do its part. Via the DNA, we are infused with certain strengths and capabilities, specifically programmed to serve a specific purpose. Over time, with education and experience, the capabilities may get enhanced. But in the end, we belong to the system and play a part in the overall system. All wheels in the machine have a purpose.
There are different shapes and sizes of components in a machine. Each and every one of them has a specific purpose. Some may look small but take a heavy load. Others may look large, and churn slowly. We all may look different, but we are a part of the overall system of this universe
The cog in a mechanical machine is designed and made by a human. In this machine, each wheel has a fixed purpose designed by humans. Whereas our purpose in life is ever-evolving. We are a child, an adolescent, a youth, a father, and a grandfather.
At the beginning of our lifecycle, we are dependent and a consumer, using up resources produced by others. Later on, we become resource providers, and then again, a consumer at the end of our lifecycle. While the machine has a fixed purpose in its lifecycle, in most cases, the human purpose evolves over the lifecycle.
In this society, we need all kinds of people. We need doctors, engineers, designers, developers, builders, mechanics, service designers, deliverers, etc.
When we are growing up, and around the time we are in high school, most of us struggle. “What do I want to be”, and how to find it out?
Many people say, do what you are good at. But this early on in our lifecycle, we have not been exposed to many things yet, thus we do not really know what we are really good at.
Some people may say, life is predestined and you will find your destiny sooner or later. That does not give any assurance. If life is predestined then why should I do anything, right? What is the motivation? Life may be predestined to a point: where, when, and to whom we are born. What we are born with. Are we full-body and functionality, or are we limited in some capacity at birth? We do not have any control over these things. But as we grow older, we start getting some control over what we do, how we do it, whom with we do it, etc.
Each one of us is wired in certain ways. Education and continuous self-evaluation are the processes of finding out what are we good at. There are personality tests out there, that can help narrow it down as well. Over time our gut will guide us, and after narrowing it down, the choice will emerge.
Is it really important to be a strong and important part of the system?
It is all relative, to which cog is the most important in the machine. There are machines where redundancies are built into the system. The more important the part, the higher the chance of building a redundancy. One should not overthink the purpose in life. What feels right, is the purpose today. And the purpose may evolve over time. Life takes its course over time. And one may not always be able to visualize or fathom the long-term future.
Technology changes, the machine that was state of the art yesterday, is eating dust today. And what is the most sought-after machine today, will be out of fashion tomorrow. At times we work on cutting-edge technologies, highly secret at one time. Ten years down, with the advances, that technology is out and no one looks at it anymore. People who were highly sought after at one time, if they stop learning and adapting, soon get out of favor.
Since we are not exactly a machine, we have the potential to continually evolve. One should stay a good student throughout life, maximize the resources made available and be a contributing member of society. Positive contribution to the society that we live in, should be the most important concern than to be the most important cog.
System in the society needs all kinds of players to play their respective roles. At the personal level, how we play that role is much more important than the role itself. My actions alone are going to get imprinted on my soul forever. I will be accountable for how I handled the situations that were handed to me.
The role that I am playing today, may have been played before it came to me, maybe in the same or different context. In this relay, I do my part, and maybe without knowing who I received the batten from and who I will be handing it over to, the batten will get passed on.
When we look at the vastness of this universe, it is very easy to recognize that we are just a cog in the system. We are on earth for a very small journey of 100 years or less. Many came before us and many will come after us in this ever-expanding and self-adaptive, built with many redundancies, universe.
The System was there before me and will be there after I am gone. I recognize that I am just a very small cog in the system of the universe. While we are here, we should try to stay healthy, and self-improve lifelong, so we can be a useful cog in this adaptive system. Our next assignment may depend upon how well we do in this round of lifecycle.