Many of us keep wondering “what” we are doing in life ? We keep asking “Why” we are doing “What we are doing at every stage of our lives. The question before us is which should come first – “Why” or “What” ? This is the million dollar question of our lives.

In my view, it does not matter. We could do “ what” we enjoy in life. Sometimes “what” we do ,may not necessarily answer a “why” ? On the other hand, we may end up doing other things ,since we have specific reasons to do those things.

I would personally spend more time to understand ,what gives me joy in life. Yes sometimes the things which give us joy, may not have any answers to why we do them. But does it matter, as long as we enjoy it.

We need to ask ourselves if we are living first for ourselves, then for others or the other way around. I am not recommending that we lead a selfish life. What I am trying to suggest is that ,we need to live life our way first ,before we live for others.

Many of us spend most of our life time living for others and subsuming ourselves and our own needs, in the process. We may realise this, a bit late in our lives. But it is ok to realise it at any stage and make the mid course corrections.

I would say that we may have some duties, roles and responsibilities in life. This could be for our personal lives ,as well as our work lives. While discharging those roles, we need to do things ,since we know why we need to do those things.

On the other hand, there are many things in life, that we may feel like doing, which may not answer a “why” we do them. In my view, it is perfectly fine ,to do both.

Let me illustrate with some examples. We know why we tutor our kids when they are young, as that is part of our role as parents. However, if we take a long drive to an unknown destination, we may not even know why we are doing it. We do it ,because we enjoy it.

With respect to our roles and responsibilities, we have little choice, but to do them. However, with respect to other things in life, we are answerable only to our own conscience and our hearts. So, it may be worthwhile to listen to our hearts and do what we enjoy most in life.

Many may wonder, if I have had the perfect balance between “what” and “why” in life, so far. The answer is an emphatic “no”. All of us evolve in life and so am I ,trying to evolve. However, one thing I am clear is that life is imperfect for all of us and the joy is to enjoy the imperfections in our lives.

What we do in life and why we do something ,is less important in my book ,to how much we enjoy ,whatever we do in life. This may look impractical but not so. If we are willing to tread our own path ,without worrying about what the world thinks of us, this is possible.

Both “What” and “Why” are incidental and circumstantial. So let us do what we love ,from today. We may sometimes have to do things, which we may not like but those may be our duties and responsibilities in life, which in any case ,we cannot avoid.

Let us learn to weave our lives with all things we enjoy ,without worrying ,what or why about them. Of course, we have to ensure that we do not hurt or harm anyone around us ,while we do them.

Let us do what we enjoy from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

3rd Jan 2024