As a child, we grew up in the era of scarcity. My father was the sole bread earner for a family of 5. With the little money he managed to earn, most of it was spent of our household expenses, education or only on anything that was totally necessary. The tax slabs were also so high than today that he could rarely manage to save money on non-taxable investments for gaining tax benefits. My birthday and the new year fell in almost the same time frame and I always had one common new year shirt and a jeans pant for both special occasions. If we needed something, we were told to earn it with performance. So a cycle, a toy or a game required us to fare good in studies or to secure a higher grade which I rarely managed to earn.
A cake was brought at our small home only during my birthday. I remember that for my two elder sisters birthdays were never celebrated for them. Money was scarce, luxuries always seemed out of reach and I may have tasted cheese or butter not until I was 7 or 9 years old.
The story today is however different. Today, me and my wife are the bread-earners for our family. Although combined, we do not have a high income but it can be termed as a decent one. With our busy office schedules, we both wish if we could spend more time for the family and especially with our 3 year old daughter. With the little time which we manage to spend with her, we mostly surrender to her demands and we fear this may create a wrong attitude in her since her early age. Today if my little girl insists on anything, we can buy it in no time. A pizza, lunch, dinner, ice-cream, chips, chocolates or you name anything is just a phone call away. Toys from China are cheaper and easily available. Stylist clothes, costly gadgets, top branded perfumes and accessories are being manufactured and sold more than ever before. The problem today is that, we all have too many choices!
When you are given too many choices and when you can pick anything or more than one, the chances are you won’t give it much of a thought. Ask yourself, do you really pause for a few seconds and take time to think if you should be really eating that piece of extra cheese burst pizza or that famous deep fried chicken burger. We generally don’t. If we all were really the careful thinker type personality, then we wouldn’t have problems of obesity, too much drinking or smoking.
In the world which is becoming smaller and smaller and also one big common market day by day the options are only going to increase for you and me going further. With so many options available, you need to choose wisely or you decide whether to not choose at all. Life isn’t difficult, it is simply made up of making choices and making the right choices. A right choice does not happen by fluke or by making instant random decisions but it requires clear thinking from both the perspective. Every choice has something good and something bad associated with it. You and I need to choose the one that has most good aspects associated with it from the long run perspective.
Thinking is difficult as we mostly operate in a subconscious mode but thinking is necessary to make better choices. The famous author Napolean Hill titled his book as “Think and Grow Rich” and not work hard and grow rich. When you take time to think and most importantly clearly, you see the whole picture. To conclude, don’t just pick randomly or anything. Back every choice with enough good reasons. Choose wisely from a long run perspective to be happy!
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