{"id":441,"date":"2016-06-23T11:20:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T16:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/?p=441"},"modified":"2017-04-19T14:48:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T19:48:00","slug":"why-want-everything-when-you-can-have-one-key-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/2016\/06\/why-want-everything-when-you-can-have-one-key-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why want everything when you can have one key thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h1>\n

I stood behind a long frozen queue of heads rocking my newborn.\u00a0 When my turn came, the lady on the other side of the glass glanced through my pile of official papers with keen dexterity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that all you have?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 I nodded with another question, \u201cWhat more do you need?\u00a0 Answer-less, she pointed me towards a seat propelling me into an endless abyss of wait.\u00a0 In the shadow of hours that floated by, whispers rose to higher pitch.\u00a0 People began to march to the window, furious, some sufficing with fuming looks, others roaring at the young lady.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just doing my job\u201d she would respond timidly.<\/p>\n

Finally when my turn came, a male officer stood beside the young lady, sifting through my papers-birth certificates, school-leaving certificates, the only remnants of my childhood scribbled in ink on paper.\u00a0 He was still dissatisfied as though not seeing what he desired to give me his stamp of approval.\u00a0 He asked me a series of questions, in response to which I pulled out yet another certificate of my grades from high school.\u00a0 With a perplexed look, he asked, \u201cwhy didn\u2019t you provide this before?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you asked for \u2018all I have\u2019 and I didn\u2019t know what that meant!\u201d I let my stare meet his.<\/p>\n

Why couldn\u2019t the Consulate where I had spent an entire day just give me a list of documents they needed?\u00a0 This outward experience of mine propelled me into an inward tirade of thoughts about my own desires over the span of my life.<\/p>\n

Aren\u2019t we all, to some degree, similar in wanting everything?\u00a0 We want it all in our lives, career, family\/friends, house, etc.\u00a0 And in obtaining everything, who knows, we may get the one thing we truly desire!<\/p>\n

Truth be told, there is always something missing, for a working woman on an overseas trip, she may carry the trepidation of the welfare of her kids hidden in her heart.\u00a0 Or the thorn that pricks a homemaker\u2019s heart is one of a career abandoned, even if for the time being.\u00a0 That is the harsh reality of our worlds, for every achievement there is always a road that\u2019s left behind.\u00a0 That is what everything entails \u2013 things we have, and things we do not.<\/p>\n

But how do you realize what you really want in life?\u00a0 Especially, when wanting \u201ceverything\u201d is cluttered with so many conflicting desires.\u00a0 And, how important is it to siphon it out?<\/p>\n

My experience taught me a lesson that I hold dear.\u00a0 Wanting everything can be misleading, even to your own heart.\u00a0 Focusing on one or two ambitions is the key to success.\u00a0 That helps you to cherish what you are pursuing and \u201cgive the moment at hand\u201d your very best, remorse free.\u00a0 It helps you to look ahead instead of pandering to every road not taken.\u00a0 It de-clutters your chest of desires so only the important few remain.\u00a0 And, it gets simpler to grasp the chosen few without risk of distractions from the unimportant wants.<\/p>\n

What often needed is a reset.\u00a0 The following habits can help.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Take a break
    \n<\/strong>It was a crisp day in March.\u00a0 At lunch time, a bunch of us sat enjoying the warmth of precious winter sun in outside patio.\u00a0 It also happened to be my first day at the job.\u00a0 A fellow colleague sat next to me.\u00a0 That day happened to be his last at the company.\u00a0 When I asked him where he was headed to next, I fully expected a response one where he would tell me the name of the new company or try to hide it.\u00a0 But I was not prepared for the response.
    \n\u201cNowhere; Just taking a break.\u201d he responded calmly.
    \nI reconfirmed just to be sure.\u00a0 His confidence unsettled me.\u00a0 He was doing something I could never get my dutiful mind to do.\u00a0 I lived my life by the book-go to college, get your degree and job, get married-you know how the story goes.\u00a0 I charred in silent envy for I lacked the courage to reset my life.A break necessarily does not have to involve quitting your job, it could be a long vacation; it could be things you do in a day.\u00a0 For instance, within the boundaries of a day, a break may be spending alone time at a lake watching the water shimmer away.
    \n<\/span>
    \nIn my last semester in college, heavy in debt and income-less, my aim was very clear.\u00a0 My aim was to become debt-free, to be in a position where I paid my bills on time never having to worry at the first of the month if my rent check would bounce again.\u00a0 When our survivor instincts are high, it is easy to see what you want.We live in a perfect society where we are pressured to be perfect parents, be perfect partners, etc.\u00a0 Sometimes it takes losing the anchors we put in for ourselves and let ourselves free fall to meet our inner self again, which takes me to point number 2:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Allow Failure
      \n<\/strong>A friend of mine, a hard worker, fresh out of college landed herself a contract as a techie at a small telecom company. She felt lost at the job, the environment was hostile.\u00a0 A couple of months later they let her go.\u00a0 She described that day with painful precision of how she was escorted out of the building in a matter of minutes.\u00a0 Knowing her, despite being unhappy at the job she would have never left by herself.\u00a0 In hindsight, the\u00a0company letting her go was the best thing that could have happened to her.\u00a0 It gave her downtime to reflect on what she really wanted in her life.\u00a0 And, she came out of it stronger and happier.\u00a0 The experience taught her it is OK to say no to certain jobs, that she can choose even if it takes time.\u00a0 She went on to make great strides in her career since.<\/li>\n
    2. Persist
      \n<\/strong>Once you do pick a road, stay on it.\u00a0 It is easy to keep resetting your life again and again especially when you successfully kill the fear of failure from your heart.\u00a0 You learn from your mistakes and pivot but do not give up on your dream.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      So, to my fellow human beings, life-long dreamers, good luck in finding your true desires and be fearless in the journey to pursue them.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I stood behind a long frozen queue of heads rocking my newborn.\u00a0 When my turn came, the lady on the other side of the glass glanced through my pile of official papers with keen dexterity. \u201cIs that all you have?\u201d she asked.\u00a0 I nodded with another question, \u201cWhat more do you need?\u00a0 Answer-less, she pointed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,44],"tags":[45,28,46],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kaFb-77","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookofdreams.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}