Live from the heart, excel in life because nothing lasts forever

Our body is a good example of becoming dull over time. As we age, we wake up with aches and pains, teeth begin to fall, eyes become weak and finally one day we kick the bucket. Not taking care of the body and abusing its abilities is the cause of many lifestyle diseases. Diabetes is a good example. Do you know what happens when one is diabetic? Take a saturated solution of sugar water and drop some grapes in them. You will see that over time the grapes burst open. Something similar happens to one’s nerves. The myelin caps give way and nerve endings become dull. Anyway, the idea of sharing this example is not to show off my knowledge as a pharmacist.

This example has tremendous relevance to the emotional aspects of one’s life. In our lives, we are predisposed to be saturated with happiness all the time. We crave happiness and it is an addiction of sorts where we need more and more happiness to satisfy our senses. More experiences, more stimulation, more cravings and more of everything. It is an overuse of the sensory apparatus to focus only on one part of the emotional spectrum. Over time we numb the system.

At work, the desire for happiness shows up in the incessant appetite for more and more money, power, growth at the cost of everything else.

Lack of an integrated view of life leads many young professionals to become workaholics, who are supremely effective in their trade but hollow on the inside. This emptiness within is compensated with a drive to succeed at work, no matter what the cost.

On the other hand, no one wants pain or misery and avoids it at all costs like an ostrich burying head in the sand. Since we tend to avoid pain at all costs, whatever pain comes our way is now heightened in experience and is sharp as a razor andcuts us deep.

So over time, we come to this intersection in life where happiness numbs away and whatever pain we face gets heightened like crazy.

For all the talk we hear today about celebrating failure and failing fast, setbacks at work, losing a promotion or even worse, getting fired throw people into a spiral that is often very painful and difficult to recover from.

I am not asking you to become mediocre at work and by extension seek mediocrity in life itself. I am not making the case for moderation that takes passion and zeal away from the work at hand. Not at all.

My point is nothing lasts forever, happiness or sadness. They are both temporary and only manifest as emotions. So is it worth pursuing something that is fleeting and temporalin nature?

There is merit in choosing the path that very few decide to take. The path towards excellence. The path towards becoming indispensable. As an entrepreneur in my own career, I had the privilege of hiring hundreds of people in my businesses. I can tell that the ones who were most valuable were the ones who focused on high-quality work independent of what reward awaited them.

In the beginning, I also mentioned that there are things in life that get better as we use them more. One thing that gets better and better as we use it more is the guidance from the heart. The more we listen, the louder it speaks. The more we implement its guidance, the bolder we become. The more we live from the heart, the better we excel in the journey of life.