Remember the tragicomedy published by Samuel Beckett in 1952 named “Waiting for Godot” and how the two tramps waited for the arrival of the mysterious Godot, whom they thought would shed enlightenment to their futile existence?
As I was recently reading several posts from my professionals connects across the world, one thing that I noticed constant and similar across was that most of them were waiting: for the right time; for the right person; for the right chance that would give them the great break of 2020. But, the truth is that they are not going to show up until and unless you reach out, make the effort and grab them. The year 2020 as it stands is almost screwed up in its own way as we are submerged by bad tidings over and over again and our tenuous wait is only going to make the matters worse.
One of the posts that I came across today read somewhat like, ‘ I am terribly waiting for 2020 to end because I had a lot of things planned in my bucket list for the year and none of them are happening. ‘ So why aren’t they happening? The root cause is the thought which asserts that with the pandemic stuck across the world, almost everything is coming to a standstill. But, are they? No. Because even at these times, we can see how profusely people are working towards their goals treading their own paths, how companies are helping the governments to overcome the pandemic, and how brands are becoming companions of their customers amidst the crisis.
Take this as an opportunity to unlearn what we had been thinking of and to learn new ways of being in existence. For I always aspired to become a documentary film-maker who would bring an impact on people’s lives with the stories that I weaved. And I had been working for the last entire year on a documentary that was to be scheduled to get shot this year. Everything was set and the shoot days were a few weeks ahead of when the world got stuck by the great pandemic of the year. I was devastated because I was waiting for this great break to happen so I could prove to myself that it was worth what I was driven for.
And as I sat through my home-quarantine, I thought of how I could achieve the same goal that I wanted but in a different way. A way in which I could achieve it without postponing my goal for another year. All I wanted was to bring an impact to my audiences’ lives through the stories that I told with the documentaries. “So why just documentaries?”, I asked myself. “Why can’t I write or speak for the same audience and tell my stories in multiple mediums available- podcasts, blogs, and so on.
And that single thought brought in a lot of excitement to my otherwise monotonous quarantine life. I started looking out for the mediums through which I could start telling my stories. Oh well, in the meanwhile, I also lost the only job I had that left me a lot of time to ponder over my own existential crisis. I had a lot of stories to tell but all these while I was overlooking the chances I had that were before me; right on my face.
The very idea of getting back to my dream goal gave me way great excitement, each day I woke up. And every night I would go to bed thinking about the stories that I could tell my audience and how they could change their lives. And as I started, it was like magic. Finally, I could achieve my goal without compromising anything; time, money, effort. And here I am, joyfully pursuing my dreams even in the middle of the pandemic-driven world.
So why wait? If you had just a few days ahead of you, will you just wait for the year to end so that you can start afresh? You won’t. And that’s exactly how you should be treating your ‘nows’. You won’t get a ‘now’ the moment it passes and after that, it’s just the past and full of regrets.
Stop waiting for some Godot to come and save you from the turmoils you are going through the year and brace up yourself to live the moment, in pursuit of your goals and dreams without compromising them and happily being in the world to spread care, love, and connection. Definitely the world is going to heal and with her, let us not leave regrets to lament behind.
As a character from one of my favorite Bollywood movies had once said, “Seize the day, my friend!”