I am often thinking of a model of life that, at least in my view, is closer to my nature. In my model, life has a quality; every day and moment has a quality or taste that you love to have.
In today’s world, we are mostly consumed in doing things that don’t offer that quality. Instead, we do it to earn money, and we are always waiting for the escape—holidays, we call it. We are made to think like a machine, which has to be productive most of the year and then is given a break to also ‘live’ life.
I find this contemporary model against my nature and personality and devoid of the quality in life I had referred to earlier. In my model, we simply live—without the bother of the modern-day productivity drill every day in order to sustain a life and chase a career goal that is hardly attained in one’s life and that also continuously keeps us depressed. In contract I have a model that advocates hyper productivity without causing depression. That is to find that meaning & purpose in what you do in alignment to your personality. Once you have figured it out, you will become hyper productive while still living every moment wholly.
So, essentially, when you look for an alternative model, first, you will not find one on the internet. Second, if you figure one out yourself, you will not find people who will agree to it. Lastly, if you still choose to live by it, you likely will face criticism, and since society is not structured around that lifestyle, you will face struggle adjusting to it as well.
Let me define my model. I would like to keep it very simple. Since this is my own model, I don’t suggest it may work for everyone else.
Here is a model:
First and foremost: there is no career, there is no final destination, and there is absolutely nothing to chase. If you are alive, you are there—sit back, relax, have tea, look around, and appreciate it, since you made it to the Earth.
Simplify your living and shed away dependence on money as much as you can. If you are dependent on money for sustaining your lifestyle, this is critical. As long as money decides your lifestyle, you will have to continue needing money, and that may also define how you spend your time on Earth.
Be willing to go down on the financial ladder. This is important because the moment you start to make the life choices highlighted above, you will start to go down on the financial ladder. You will unlikely afford branded clothes more often, food at expensive restaurants, travel, buy land, or afford to pay rentals at your choice of place. This must not unsettle you—this is an obvious outcome of your choice. Society has conditioned us to regard all of these as essential to a meaningful and successful life. However, in my model, these are chains you have to break free from—the sooner, the better.
Health and food are important. While this can be globally true—that a lot of processed and junk food out there is responsible for bad health—health is critical for a few reasons:
Modern medicine and hospitals are money-making avenues; they are expensive, so if you are not taking care of your health, you likely have to plan money to go to them.
Western medicine, based mainly on antibiotics, causes more harm than healing, and it is important to look for alternate ways to fix your health through medicinal food and diet naturally.
Lastly, the freedom and quality of life we are after require good health to enjoy it. So, a body that is being nurtured well can only enjoy the good life.
Finding a thing that you enjoy: this is important because when you do away with your need to work for money all the time, what you save for yourself is time. But if you do not know what to do with your time, you may be disappointed. This is where cultivating skills that you are passionate about matters. Everyone has them—it is a matter of discovering them. These skills are not an end in themselves; they are a means to live a tasteful life. Think of music, dance, poetry, writing, traveling, or any other craft—it serves to enhance the quality of your life and bring taste to it. And yes, please people find joy & peace in doing work that they find purposeful, like helping community etc, all of that is critical to a tasteful life.
People and relationships in my model are key. In my model, people and the quality of relationships we have with them are foundational to the quality of life. So you have to keep cultivating meaningful relationships with people. These relationships don’t serve an end; they don’t have a purpose to serve. They only exist to bring meaning to your life, more joy, and wholesomeness. In my model, it matters a lot that these people are a certain kind—the kind that you love spending time with. I don’t agree with defining relationships based on legal or blood ties; the quality of a relationship is defined in terms of the care, respect, and love we have for someone.
Life skills: learning life skills to sustain your own life is important. You must learn how to live a life without relying on any other human being—at least in principle. While we will still rely on so many people in order to live and sustain our life, our essential daily life is something we must learn to live completely independently. Cooking, cleaning, fixing things, building a basic shelter, growing food, keeping a pet, and taking care of another human being in need are all part of this.
I want to speak of death. In my model, acceptance of death is important. Death is a transformation from this world to another, and it has to be accepted, not frowned upon. People usually want to save money for their end of life, especially for medical purposes. However, if you can do away with this need to save money and live your life through, you can focus on living a more balanced, meaningful, and healthy life today.
This is my complete model. Nothing more. I like to do a number of things. I try to earn money so I can sustain my life. I feel I have a capacity to go further down on my needs today. Today, I am responsible for running a software organization where my work is critical to a lot of people. Likewise my immediate family and some friends require me, my idea is to find ways to empower them as soon as I can, so they don’t need me for their sustenance. I like to play a lot of musical instruments. I read a lot of books. I love spending time with so many people I got extremely lucky to build relationships with. I like to keep my life simple, and I am trying to further simplify it.
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