D is for Destination Disease

I met my longtime childhood friend today in the chat. It was after a span of complete 14 years we met for the first time. Because he has used a strange name in his Facebook profile, I have omitted the friend request for several occasions on many grounds. I am reasonably allergic to entertaining strangers after a few individuals injected me with the lethal dose of mistrust and spam.

My friend and I exchanged messages for almost an hour and a half. Our talk grossly indicated like punching the refresh button only to excavate the reminiscences of the yesteryears.

However, in the process of opening the zip of our talk to discuss the present, he asked me if I was already holding a good job. Instantly, I queried him on what motive he posed me this question. And to his reply, he said that ‘I was kind of excellent in academics during my kindergarten’.

Seriously speaking, his comment has left the balance of my thoughts to swing up and low. The whole GPRS tower of my thinking system was disturbed. It has tempted me to hunt over my dreams that were so vivid and beautiful in those youthful days. Whether I was excellent in studies is not a question, but it made me reflect if I have accomplished the things that I dreamt of when I was a kid. 

In that process of thinking, I can’t forget to remember the faces of my parent’s hope that believed that their son might one day be a better person. I can visibly see and hear the tone of my teachers’ voice making remarks of my excellence. Of all, I can still visualize the colour of ink that I have used to write my dreams in one of the childhood diaries I used to maintain.

In brief, I always had a dream of growing tall.     

I had my ambition that one day will symbolize a house of my final destination. I had dreams that when I reach that ‘X’ level of career, I would accomplish the ‘Y’ level of victory and success. And to reach that destination, I can still recall the taste of hardships that I faced by burning midnight oils.

Now after I reached some destinations that I have and never dreamt of, I find myself mentally paralyzed making me unable to grow further. Complacency has started to grow in me because I end up thinking, ‘I have accomplished my dreams and I don’t have to work anymore.  

This kind of the worst mental disease according to James Maxwell, the author of The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, calls as a Destination Disease.  

Life is not a popularity contest though. But I think I need to grow. I think I need to change the entire motherboard of my mindset in the days to come. Otherwise, to live with such kind of mentality is so fatal in this 21st century, where the world is running under the slogan of 'Survival of the fittest.  

“As long as you’re green, you are growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot”- Ray Kroc