When the curves were back.....

                           

                                   BEING BETTER THAN YOURSELF

‘Classmates’ from I.T.C is a popular stationary brand in India. Their tag line goes like this ‘ being better than yourself'. Isn’t that a lot to ponder upon? Yes, I was under starvation in terms of ideas to pen down, which is when this struck me. So do not judge me for the borrowed ideas. In my defense I would state that they are purely inspired.

Back to being better than your self, it is a call not a contest. By that I mean, less pressure and more focus. Letting our mind free but being mindful. That calls for fine-tuning our perspectives. Yes, a balance is what is required. It is not just in your work or academics but within one’s self. I have always felt positivity is overrated. My friend once told me, ‘it is real life and you should move with the flow.’ Not everyone can fix a smile and handle all the situations (many may, but I am with the minority). Everyone has the ability to move on and a take on life. It may not always be like those stated in self help books. It is natural to stay calm and then breakdown, again rise from the ashes. It is a circle.

 So being better is not about how successful a person you are but how wholesome your deeds are. That will definitely help you in the long run. How do we make sure that our actions are finer? Harper Lee gives the answer in ‘To kill a mocking bird’, “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. That should help us to think before we act our better selves. It is not always about self-introspection, slightly external too.

For instance, I had a beautiful handwriting that came with a price. I stated the past here because somewhere along the way, I lost the art. The price I invested was the time from my summer vacations took by my grandmother who insisted that I wrote at least a page daily. It was the time you lost contact with pen and paper, as we were more in touch with the ground and games. She had a point, which I never understood then. But I copied many paragraphs when I was not playing and filled in many pages together so that I didn’t have to write daily. Her summer trainings gave me a steady, lovely cursive writing that I was proud of later. Of late, it has been more of typing and less of pen and paper the swiftness and the curves got lost along the way. I felt different on paper. It was something that defined me. So instead of going with the flow I tried to reverse the gear to the copy writing days. I tried to write down whatever I wanted to, before typing which doubled the time and work. That paid off. The curves were back!!!I felt better.

Being better is for yourself, for self-contentment and nothing else. You can move with the flow, but fine-tuning mentioned before could demand you to turn against the flow. It may not always ask you to surrender the principles you hold on to. It just requires refinement so that you are not in a conflict with yourself but hold on to what makes you better.