Good life: Myth, miracle or mindset

The general questioned posed at the new generation is the gut-wrenching question of “what do you want in life?” and a standard answer given by a majority is “to lead a good life”. In reality the question should be, what is a good life?  However the answer for this question leaves many caught in a tight spot as it was always easy to spurt out the standard answer but not to follow it up with facts. 

After seven years in the education sector and addressing undergraduate students across continents when posing students with the question of “why are you in the university?” I get a “duh” look, and they spastically say it’s to get a degree and find a “good job”. 

And I pose them the next teaser – “what is a good job?” The job that pays a good salary is the common answer. Good job – is it not what you would love, or where you can apply one learnings and skills? Or is it the comfort of less effort and more pay? 

Students from Cairo, Kathmandu, Bangalore, Kolkata, Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Dubai, Colombo, Kandy, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Matara and Male gave the same answer, where they stated that it is to “find a good job, be successful and lead a ‘good life’.”

“They perceive the concept of a good life under a materialistic banner, as they believe it is “success, fame, income and recognition” which formulate the components of a good life. I guess it is a fair response as I would have seen it the same way at their age.

Many undergraduates in local universities perceive a good life in a manner based on the targets or more as aspirations they set for themselves in life, starting from the tedious task of passing the Advanced Level examination to toiling in a State university to get a degree, and finally acquiring a “well-paid” job which will incur a large income; this is the concept of a good life that is etched into today’s society. Believing in an illusion that ticking off these set demarcations set about the measurement for a good life under the general purview.

The purpose of getting into a university, commonly to find a good occupation and be financially stable, this has been drilled into their system, they believe that a good job is measured under the salary they earn and not the job satisfaction or pleasure they derive from working. They try to run fast at the beginning but end up burnt out of the race leaving it incomplete.

They fail to understand that career is a marathon, not a 100m dash, hence the race can be run with the pack or behind the pack and eventually in front of the pack. The primary reason to fall out is the lack of energy at the peak, the lack of drive that is required to run the race and this sustained drive should not always be motivated by a fancy salary but the knowledge, pleasure and learning skills one acquires through a good occupation. Inherently being a value addition to one’s life. 

The importance of value addition and self-worth is not often understood in their aspirations of a good life. In a utopian world, self-centeredness would only benefit oneself, however in reality it benefits no one. 

If you pose the simple question of asking someone who believes that success an good life is about having all the things one desires, and ask “if you are the only person on earth with access to all the wealth what would be your value?”, that person may have all the riches in the world but he would be worthless, a king without a kingdom, as one’s self-worth is determined only when there is a living being around him.  The impact one makes upon the lives of others, is the value of one’s life. Good life – is it not making you a worthy human, a man leading a good life?

The education provided today is pretty much a composition of obsolete data inserted into the minds to fill up storage, but the value of such input is worthless. Students drown in a sea of “knowledge” but have not been taught how to swim through the storm, nor have they been thrown a safety line to sustain their existence. Instead they drown and drown and struggle to survive, leading on a miserable existence. 

The flaws within the system compromise their thinking and values in life, it limits the mind to perceive greater opportunities and to witness the greater perhaps. Leaving them stuck in a labyrinth of suffering not knowing the mode of escape from this façade of reality. It under these circumstance the search for good life prevails.  No wonder the undergrads fail to find jobs for they want to join the marathon the halfway, as for them having a certificate form a university is halfway to “good life”.

The reality being the continuous rat race to climb the ladder of what is perceived to be “success”, the ultimate search of “good life,” the final destination of life being the increment of self-value, yet compromising self-worth. People forget what it meant to be happy, they have forgotten the satisfaction one gains through empathy and love, the bliss of making a difference in another’s life are submerged under the over-raging need to succeed and further one’s interest.

The irony of this is that they believe this is the good life, the life worth living and they delve on this satisfaction, a blank space created in the hearts of men who believe that they have escaped the labyrinth of suffering not knowing that they simply get lost deeper within the maze. 

The only form of escape from their reprisal would be to indulge in the pathway of a “good life,” a life that’s not clothed in materialism, self-centred goals and objectives, but a life with a purpose, a life of virtue and self-worth, a life that’s not lived in vain but a life which has benefitted others.

Most aspire to lead a good life but don’t indulge in the tedious path it takes, they fail to look beyond the blinds of the horizon to visualise a life beyond the known waters, and live a life believing that it’s the “good life” they ever dreamt of, failing to understand that it’s not the pathway of escape from the Labyrinth but a breeze of oxygen sustaining their existence.

We fail to see the greater good, and limit ourselves to the known while the disregard the unknown and fear the possibilities of a good life. Caging ourselves up in a comfort zone and refusing to see the light of escape is a common symptom in everyone who fails to embrace the good life yet portray in our mind and to the world that we do in fact lead a good life, failing to understand that a good life isn’t a tangible component, an item at the market, nor the winning prize at the end of a competition but it is the overall award, it is inherently the final destination the final goal or aspiration of an accountable being.