Almost all of us have gone through those important exams. In India, it is the 10th and the 12th class. Those board exams are supposed to make or break your life. Then there is the college entrance and so on. We remember them because they are unfortunately turned into life milestones. Do you remember any other exams that you took during the many years of education?
10 years hence, was it really worth the tension and stress you put yourself through? Does it really matter?
Have you ever been in a situation where you had to deliver a project to a client where you worked all night to ensure that it got delivered? I have done it several times. The real gut punch is when you slog to meet this artificial deadline only to discover the next day that the client is not available and would only see it the week after.
The problem you worried about never came to be. Half the things you worry about never even come to be.
We often make our lives miserable because of diktats that are imposed from the outside to us. We obsess over things that would not matter the least bit once a moment has passed. We make ourselves miserable and also makes the lives of those around us miserable.
Have you ever bought something that you never used, but would not throw away just because you bought it and it is still new. We spend so much time and energy accumulating things that serve no purpose. We reduce our living or storage space to retain that, which is not useful.
Worrying is a little bit like this.
Time makes the futility of those things obvious. It is unfortunate that we waste so much time before realising it.
Lesson in self actualization ?