I believe we can blame the principles of meritocracy to the stress and anxiety people feel these days. The value system especially applicable to the urban areas is lopsided towards how we are doing professionally and what it means is someone else will be ahead of you. It is a race after all. What it further means is that you are constantly told that any failure can be ascribed to the talent level you possess or in harsher terms you are assigned to the level of your incompetence or stupidity.
In our lives meaning of self is derived from work, there is no wonder then there is stress, anxiety with respect to future outcomes. Success becomes necessary, people have amazing illusions about themselves which act as a self defence mechanism which make you feel better, there is politics, people resort to crab mentality pulling each other down to death. Once that self defence breaks in case of a little self aware person he or she cries in agony. Agony of truth of her stupidity or talent level. After all someone will overtake and that means you are good enough. Agony of the fact that this is it there is no going up further, you have hit your highest points and your friends, peers, colleagues till now your equals have still a few more miles to go.
This reality makes you feel inadequate, a failure and will put you in constant stress about future, you may just get anxious about the fact if you will ever be able to come up? Such questions can bother and pull you further down.
Alas this is what meritocracy does to you, raises you makes you a hero but only to a certain point. How do we get out of this, can we not believe that self worth is not equal to the designation or success at each activity we undertake. Not everyone can come first. Some are more talented, put in a lot more effort, sacrifice everything else to get ahead in the rat race. Not all can be equal in a race. So what is the alternative we can develop? What is the world view we need to develop?
We need to not define ourselves with the race we keep running, we need not define ourselves with what we have been acquiring and where we stand when compared with others. Peace, happiness, stress free is a result of immersing oneself in the moment, taking one step at a point to your best capability. It is knowing that we are not falling back from where we are even if it means you cant move ahead, it is about learning and enjoying the current moment. It is a race with your self, to move ahead from wherever you are.
More than that perhaps it is not even about this race, life is a lot more there are plenty of miserable people. Pain, failure, suffering, misfortune is all around. If you look around you will realize how lucky you have been. What really matters is you feel grateful, each day a little gratitude to all the positives which are there in your life can help you cultivate positivity and train your mind to look at what is happening in your life and not what constantly crib about what is not happening.
Hope everyone feels the peace, happiness, gratitude before death takes this life away. Hope everyone learn to appreciate the good and not crib about the bad, hope all cultivate the mind to see the glass half full and not half empty. Life is beautiful and life is also ugly it all depends where you want to look. I prefer to look at the beautiful and be aware that there is some ugliness not to feel scared but to appreciate the beauty even more.
