Don’t Follow, Be Divergent

Urja Mahesh Karia

Many times we wonder why life is the same every day. Why is it same for everyone. Getting up every day, doing our chores, going to work, be back home and repeat. It is like we are running a race against time. We want things to change. But how do you think you’ll have a life any different than others if you keep following other people, doing what everyone else is doing, not making use of the intelligent mind God gifted you with. “Why is it that we trust other’s opinion better than ours. If we ever knew the kind of ability we have to deal with our lives, we would never dare follow others”.

We have become comfortable in not doing anything about it (not purposely, it happens with time) and just feeling bad for ourselves. Change comes with action. The only thing between you and your dream life is a non-existent story. A story in which only excuses and doubts exists. How will it happen? What if I face problems? Do I even deserve this? Everything will be so much easy when you will understand that you deserve so much better and that the real story will start when you actually go for your dreams.

If you’re not sure you will make the right decision, then how can you even be sure that someone else will make the right ones for you. From the childhood itself, we have been following people. Almost all of us would have experienced this in our lives, “The neighbor’s kid goes to that school, so will you; the long lost cousin is studying to be a CA, so can you, in fact you always had better grades than him; Your uncle was telling me there’s money in corporate sector, go for it, we have his influence, he can get you a job”. Sure your family and loved ones will always want something that’s good for you. they think they have an idea about what’s good for you. And that’s right. They only have an “idea”. So, is your family bad? NO. Not at all. All they want is for you to succeed and so they try and find a easy way out for you, they will tell you to do something which worked for someone else. “Something may be good for someone, it won’t be necessarily good for you too”. And sometimes, people follow others out of their own choice. Why? Has it ever occurred to you that these people do all these things according to their interests and passions? You have to choose your own path. If it’s hard, good. At least then the taste of that success will be sweet enough for your satisfaction.

There are so many celebrated people across the globe. Do you think they followed anyone to get where they are? I don’t. They just did what they had to. When you follow people, you’re just a follower. It is easy to walk on a path already made. But when you make your own path, you become INSPIRATION. If you don’t help yourselves, no one will. They toiled till the work gets done, they helped themselves. And that is how a legacy is created.

As Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”.

(Author may be reached at oorjakaria@gmail.com)