How Trivial The Things We Want So Passionately Are
How trivial the things we want so passionately are - Marcus Aurelius
Back in the days, after graduating from college, I started my first job at Webaroo. The rule was that employees would get a laptop only after they complete six months with the company. Till then, they need to work on a desktop computer.
It was 2006. Laptops were not all that new, but I had never owned a laptop until that point. I desired that Dell Inspiron 15” Laptop so passionately. I imagined that if I had one, it would boost my productivity; I could work from anywhere - from home or a cafe instead of being stuck in the office. I was envious of the folks who had it. I wrote lengthy emails to HR complaining about how the rule was so unfair. I even told my manager how it was the single biggest thing hurting employee productivity and morale (in reality, it wasn’t).
And then, one day, I completed six months, and I got the laptop. The clouds parted, the angels sang. For a brief time, I was the happiest man on the planet. And then?
Nothing.
From being an absolute necessity in my life, very quickly, it moved on to become just another thing. I realized that working from a cafe was not as much fun as I thought; the internet there was terrible, and it was too noisy to focus properly on work. For a brief time, it led to another passionate dream - what if I had noise cancellation headphones?
This happens all this time.
Whether it’s the cool new gadget, a bike or a car, the big bonus, the flashy job title, or anything else. Once we have it, we don’t necessarily feel the everlasting happiness that we earlier imagined. Only in hindsight do we realize the triviality of such ambitions.
I have come to realize that inside the mind of each one of us, there is a rational decision-maker (the adult) and an impulse-driven irrational thinker (the child). The two are frequently at odds with each other, and whenever the child takes control of decision making (which is, quite often), we end up in this illusion.
And most of the time, it is an illusion. Like one of those optical illusion images where, if you focus on one part of the image, the other parts appear to be moving. And if you shift focus to other parts, then the previous parts appear to be moving. While in reality, nothing is moving.
From time to time, I ponder over this quote; it calms me down and puts things in perspective. I remind myself that things I want so passionately today might not bring as much joy later on. Of course, it doesn’t stop me from dreaming passionately about things I want, but it takes away the restlessness.
Best,
Kaddy
PS - This is a quote by a famous stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. You might remember his name from the movie Gladiator.