Gratitude and Goals

It's almost a decade now, when Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for Dallas buyers club. And during that ceremony, he perhaps gave the most inspirational and yet pragmatic speech. He said that we only need three things in our lives. Someone to look up to, someone to look forward to and something to chase for.

And I think it's a minimalistic approach. And I too believe that it's the right way. We fill up our minds with so many things, we forget the basics. We forget why we started the very thing. We get fed to the grind economy, to generate and then spend.

I don't have any problem with that, but while doing this we all are entering in a cycle of infinite comparison. Like the saying goes, we have entered the era, where we only see the greener grass on the next garden. We are looking so much outside, we are losing the art of appreciating what we have, known as Gratitude.

We forget to acknowledge the love we receive, or the work we do, or the little things we enjoy. And appreciating the stuff definitely makes a difference to our attitude and mental health.

But, I feel that having Gratitude is not enough. Cause no matter what anyone says, our minds will always compare us with others, unless you are a monk. And a restless mind can never follow Gratitude in a right sustainable way. And this brings us to the next important part of his speech. The Chase.

Perhaps the chase is more important for people in 20s and 30s. And when I say chasing, I don't mean higher salaries or expensive cars or houses. No, those are temporary things. Important, but temporary. This chase is a goal of our life, which keeps changing in a better way.

The goal could be committing to betterment of your relationship, or improving some skill set, or working on your ideas, or spending time on your hobbies. It could be anything that's incremental in nature. The goal is something that keeps evolving with ourselves.

So to conclude, with Goals in our head and Gratitude in our heart, I think we might be able to say,

Alright, alright, alright!

P.S.: Do watch his speech if you haven't already. Link is below.

https://youtu.be/wD2cVhC-63I?si=evg6_SqJk4iobye3

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