“The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.” – Ben Stein

Every day we get to read so many soul stirring thoughts & emotional quotes about life and how to culture “happiness” and feel good while reading them. We feel yes we should and can follow them and improve our lives right away. We seem to understand and realize everything that how different our lives could be once we take care of our own “attitude”. We start seeing the transformation in us and the happy moments that follows. But the moment we lose sight of them we get back to our old self with same set of complaints about life followed by resentment. That is probably because “actions” do not follow the “feel good” moments. Things end at “I shall...”. It does not begin with “I am doing it right away...” Another reason of this could be we are clueless as to how do we start the process of transforming ourselves. We tend to feel awkward at times to do something new. Then how is the transformation actually going to happen! How shall I ever become “happy”?

It was during this confused state of mind that I came across the above quote of Ben Stein and got a clue to the starting point for my journey of transformation. The above quote stirred my thoughts so much that I actually sat down with pen and paper to jot down what I want. And I came out with the following list :-

1. I want to get out of bed before the sun makes way ahead in the morning and take an energizing stroll by the lush green nature listening to the chirping birds, breathing in the fragrant morning flowers and enjoying the cool breeze of fresh air.

Irony: I get out of bed when the sun is already making a 30 degree angle with the horizon :( The nearest access to nature is 3 kilometers away in the form of a non-maintained park with an equally dirty pond that stinks :(

 

2. I want to sip my morning cup of tea with my family, sitting on the balcony overlooking a decent garden that is at least green if not red, yellow, pink and purple.

Irony: My balcony overlooks the bedroom and toilets of a neighboring apartment on the north-west and a mini slum on the north-east :(

 

3. I want to get my child ready for school, pack his tiffin and feed him his breakfast myself.

Irony: I myself need to get ready too at the same time and therefore its the maid who scores over me in attending to my child :(

 

4. I want to have a king-size breakfast. That’s the good word from all health specialists and dieticians.

Irony: I end up having a begger-style breakfast :( due to shortage of time and haste.

 

5. I want to enter office every morning with utmost energy and jest. I want to liven up someone else’s day with my charisma.

Irony: I somehow drag myself to office day after day :( for I do not enjoy the job I am doing and fret over not being able to grab the job of my choice. Leave alone livening up somebody else’s day, I myself struggle hard to smile through the day :(

 

6. I want to have a healthy human work lunch.

Irony: I end up having the fattiest and spiciest menu on earth :( resulting in severe acidity and heart burn an hour or two later.

 

7. I want to become a tea-totaller and cut down the consumption of pastries and patties and eat more fruits and juices.

Irony: I take four cups of tea and another cup of coffee everyday :( and my evening snacks consists of either a pastry or a patty or a samosa or some other deep fries everyday :(

 

8. I want to be back home at a time while my child has the energy to concentrate on his homework so that I may personally supervise him.

Irony: When I return he is as exhausted as I am after the days work :( and the maid is struggling to finish feeding him his dinner in his half-asleep state.

 

9. I want the entire family to gather in the evening for some light chit-chat over a bowl of soup and a little fun before we call it a day.

Irony: By the time my hubby returns from another strenuous day at work, our child is in deep slumber and frown lines get clearly visible on my face :( Exchange of words are minimum and the television does most of the background talking.

 

10. I want to have a light dinner as per the good words of the health specialists once again and to give a time of two hours to the stomach to digest it before I go to sleep.

Irony: The dinner is the heaviest meal of the day :( with rice, dal, two vegetable preparations, one non-veg preparation, papar and sometimes a sweet dish too taken normally after 10 o’clock at night :(

 

11. I want to sleep eight hours at night as advised by doctors, health specialists, beauticians and everybody else. There are people with enough stamina who keep bouncing with just four hours of sleep. I wish to know their secret too. But right now eight hours of sleep is my requirement.

Irony: I go to sleep at not earlier than 12 midnight :( after giving a gap of an hour or so after dinner, and must get up at 6 o’clock in the morning.

 

12. I want to read many books, watch several movies, surf some channels, read the entire newspaper, browse through magazines, write few articles, blog too often and post sensible comments on others blogs quite regularly.

Irony: I am left with just one hour post dinner :( unless I steal another in instalments while at work to do all of these.

 

 

Am I the most unhappy person on earth and going to remain as one then? Tell me its not true ! Well this is only the list of what I want in life and I have to make a decision now and there's no irony about it...