"In order to get things you've never had, you have to do things you've never done".
A wise man once asked me, "What's the first thing you need to climb a mountain?". I was sitting and chilling with a few members of my recently-formed family as we all started to think of the wisest answer that the question could possibly have. Our primitive and immature minds didn't quite spare us and our thought processes wandered off somewhere, leaving a dumbfounded look on our faces. Someone said water. Someone said accessories, like ropes and stuff. One person even mentioned those special terrain boots that you get(That was me, by the way). All kinds of answers were thrown out. Willpower. Determination. Strength. He looked at our faces, and smiled. And he just kept smiling, till we realised that all of our answers were baseless. Not being able to handle the long standing silence, I spurted out, "Just tell us, please!" And so he did.
A mountain.
That was the answer. As simple as that. And we felt like fools. As simple as that. Perception of life changed that day. We realised that no matter how much pain we endure, no matter how hard we fight the fight, it's futile unless we know what we're fighting for. We all worked hard, and I know that we did because I could see it in all of our eyes. But that day, we knew for sure that we didn't have an aim. Well, everyone had dreams like 'I want a house at the seaside', or 'I want to stop being a common man', or 'I want a peaceful life with no stress'. But I'm talking about a sure shot goal. Something that defines your existence. Something that makes each and every breath of yours count. And so we developed that part for ourselves.
We all live our lives fighting. And I mean everyone. We all have our fight with life. And that's the thing about fighting life. It's never easy. We shed sweat, blood and tears, every second of every day, all for a better tomorrow. We cry, we laugh, we run, we jump and we fall and we get back up, hoping that one day, each step that we take will count for something bigger. We spend each second telling ourselves that there have to be downs for ups to come our way. But who defines how high up that up goes? That's the one thing that we can do. Define it for ourselves. And at the same time, we have to know deep down that if we want to go way up, we'll have to go way down before the up finally arrives. But it will. It always does. All you have to do is strap on a pair of roller skates and start going down the down, as fast as you can.
Luckily for me, I had someone who gave me those roller skates. And he's the best and the wisest man I have ever known.
"When vision is one year, cultivate flowers. When vision is ten years, cultivate trees. When vision is eternity, cultivate people"
