We all grow up with some role models in our lives. We dream and aspire for something and most of the time it is driven by the environment around us. I remember I lived in an army campus and then studied in a school located within an Air force station and this made me dream of being an Army officer and then a pilot.

As you grow up these dreams fade away as fast as they first appear in your lives. Although I still admire and salute the Army and Air Force personnel, I moved on to pursue my career as a HR professional. There is nothing right or wrong about these choices in life.

Similarly, we look up to role models in the family and people around us. Sometimes film personalities or even sportspersons inspire us to be like them. We try to make our hairstyle and even dress sense like the role models we admire in life. This is mostly when are transitioning between adolescence and adulthood.

As we become an adult, we realise that there is huge gap between our real world and the illusory world we were dreaming of. Now we suddenly start feeling our feet on the ground and become clearer on what we want to do in life.

Our ability to define our own life becomes more refined. At this stage, we realise that we are fully capable of living our own lives, our own way. However, some of us continue to live in an imaginary world and still try to ape others and want to be like them always.

There may be nothing wrong in admiring the best in class and learning from them in our lives. However there is a subtle difference between learning from the best and just aping their styles. In my view, it is better to live life our way, rather than try to live the life of others.

Our parents, teachers, friends and relatives may help us mould our lives. However, it is for us to cast our own mould and make ourselves fit into that mould. It is perfectly fine to recast the mould from time to time and refine our priorities in life. Nobody else knows us better than ourselves.

However to live and imitate the life of others is a waste of our own time and resources. If we try to imitate others and try to be like them it may be like an illusion. It may be like a mirage, which will disappear sooner than later in our own lives.

Life is like a marathon. We may need to live life one day at a time. Our goals and priorities in life will change with age and our circumstances. This is perfectly human and we need to accept this reality. It is great to look around and learn from the best. But, it may not be a great idea to imitate others.

If we look around the world in any field, the best of people have defined their own lives. They are not bothered of what the world thinks of them, but they make the world think that may want to be like them.

It may be time to live life our way from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

12th March 2023