I just entered home and my 5 year old niece came running to me with a scenery picture and a paint box asking me to teach her to paint. I was very happy that she had the hope that I knew to paint. As I settled down to with her and opened the picture her questions started flowing out. For each colour I suggested her, there was a series of “whats” ,“whys” & “Hows” some of them are: “How is it possible for the mountain-top to have snow? Why shouldn’t pink colour be given to the lawn fence? Why should the bird be painted with black only? Can’t it be a parrot! What is the man doing near the river? etc…
After trying to answer all her whats, whys & hows I only got one question in my mind . “Why” is that I have stopped asking questions for all that I do after I grew in age? The three main Questions which is essential for all actions and thought processes we undergo “What”, “Why” and “How”. “What” is the most basic question that just describes something. It provides a raw form of knowledge. “Why” is the source of understanding and is the one which can quench the knowledge thirst. “How” normally crops up when we are convinced to implement or improvise something based on our knowledge of “What” and “Why”.
If only these questions are to be applied to all that we do in life… It would be: what am I doing? Why do I do this? And how can I achieve that? Or how well can I do this? At any point of time, trying to answer these questions pertaining to our thoughts and actions in our life can change the perspective of our life and give us a purpose for living. I had once read an article that stimulated my thinking with regards to answering the question of “What” and “Why” of life. It stated that “To find out your goal in life, think about what action /deed of yours can make you happy to the extent that you would love to do it anytime, even without a pay, where actually it can be paid for”. By knowing the answer for this, the question of “How” to get to it can be automatically pondered upon. This invoked my thought. Each and every person will have something close to their heart; something that they love deeply or something that they have a passion for. If only they give importance to this conscious thought, they can shine through their life.
One of my friends was working in a BPO firm, realized that her life was getting painful day by day. I then asked her to think on these lines. She told that she loved teaching. She wanted to see new people day by day. She joined in a training institute and now that she has started a training consultancy and is earning thrice as much as she was earning before in a happy way. Another friend of mine was a homemaker. However she felt that her life was too empty the whole day. I asked her the same question. She told she loved babies. Now that she has started a crèche and is leading a happy life. Another friend of mine had a passion to make money. Though his job did not suffice that, he had started on hobbies like share market and other out-door marketing. Similarly each of us will have a passion deep inside us which is left idle and we keep doing things that we perceive to bring happiness and prosperity to us. There should be one fine day when we question ourselves on all our actions and thoughts. This would awaken our passion and open our blindfold to a better sight of life. We have live examples of people who have proved to be shining stars taking their career as per their passion. We have Good singers, dancers, actors, writers, sportsperson, entrepreneurs and many more eminent people in the field of cooking, painting, aircraft, mountaineering and many more.
When questioning ourselves on our thoughts and actions can make our life better, questioning ourselves on the perspective of others can help us solve our problems and improve our relationships. Normally when someone hurts us, we immediately get offended by the words they use/ the way they hurt us instead of questioning ourselves as “What is that leading this situation? “ “Why is the person acting this way?” By knowing the answer for these, we would automatically work find out “How to resolve it?” Again this can also be observed in a child. When a child is scolded or beaten for something she is sure that she is right, she immediately asks “Why are you beating me?” or “what is the cause for your anger?” and that little mind will work on the “How to correct it?” factor immediately when it is satisfied with the answers for its “What’ and “Why” questions. So lets bring into play that quality of asking questions we possessed since childhood that had helped us grow this long, with the hope that it is going to help us even better in future. Let us start to explore ourselves for a better living with better relationships!!!
