EACH day comes with a unique set of hurdles and tasks to overcome. Every morning, as soon as we wake up, a force drives us and keeps us moving. There is always another place for us to be, someone to take care of or something to do. Sometimes this can become overwhelming, but it is a necessary force to keep us from becoming stagnant. The idea of us being constantly needed in a specific place or by specific people might be taxing, but it gives us a sense of purpose so that, even when we are tired, we do not stop contributing towards making the world a better place.
It is quite unfortunate, however, that as we progress through life, we might experience a strange shift in our perspective and our aims, where life is no longer about doing the things that we enjoy or finding new things to learn. Instead, it becomes a long, cumbersome to-do list that only seems to get longer every day. Life begins to feel like running on a treadmill, except the treadmill gets faster and your feet start to get tired. Soon enough, you may fall and find it very difficult to get up again.
Time is one of the most valuable currencies for younger generations. We are not used to boredom or monotony. This characteristic shows up in our need to be constantly entertained or occupied by something new, and in our tendency to jump from one task to another as quickly as we can, so we don’t have to feel the tedium of doing something for more than a few minutes. It also shows up in our drive to find a new form of success every day. Whether it is the joy of learning a new language using an app on our phones or the excitement of winning a video game, life for us often seems to be about achieving goals.
In adulthood, this becomes basing our sense of identity on how much we achieve each day or how many items on our list we can complete. If there happens to be any days when we do not complete the tasks that we intended to, or when, due to an unforeseen circumstance, we are unable to do anything at all, a small part of our self-worth crumbles, and we wonder whether we are capable of achieving our most important goals at all! We are caught between the exhaustion of completing tasks that don’t give us long-term satisfaction and the disappointment of failing to do what we intended within a given time frame.
What we often forget is that life cannot be boiled down to a list on paper. The most beautiful poems are found in the spaces between the lines. The most wonderful music is heard in the waves or the wind, which will never move in the same way again. The most interesting stories come from strangers we never would have thought we would meet. Life is undefinable and unpredictable, and it certainly cannot be made into a list on a sheet of paper. If we try, we will lose what gives life its meaning and beauty.
So, as a generation, let us vow not to live by to-do lists. Let our dreams be guided by hope and not by check marks. Let our lives be infused with spontaneity, not with cumbersome lines drawn by people in the past who have already had their time and space in our world. Let us try new things and visit new places, not because they are tasks on a page, but because they genuinely excite us. When we encounter days when we do not have a chance to complete all the tasks that we wanted to, let us not treat them as a waste, but rather as a little surprise given to us by the universe to encounter an unexpectedly marvellous part of it.
