As I begin writing this essay I am scared that I shouldn’t focus on how readers should perceive it, rather I should focus on what I originally intend to say.

Creating perception is precisely why we do a lot of the things. If you were given an option of not doing anything at the office or not mandatorily clear the exams at school, will you still do it out of your interest? Some might, but most people won’t. It’s not that most people are lazy, people are just not interested enough in that particular work. They would rather play football, watch tv, or gossip given an option.

But not everyone gets that option. One has to first cross the chasm of financial security to actually think of doing things that interest them. Survival strategy almost always makes you do things that don’t interest you and don’t matter much. So to do things that actually matter, one has to be financially secure and curious (interested) about the work one is doing.

Then there is this desire to give (or influence a change). Why would anyone want to do anything if they are financially secure and are engaged in something interesting. Who doesn’t like Netflix all day. Or playing sports. Or going for a bike ride. But in most cases, financial security and following your interest will lead you to somehow discover the bigger goal of your life. And once someone has that realization, that’s when you begin to do things that really matter.

I am not saying this is the only route to discover your way to what truly matters. Most people are working for security and continuously enhancing their capabilities ( for further security) and are openly learning anything and everything under the sun. It’s okay to be unsure about what you want to do. And continuously sharpening your knife is the best way to use your time till you have discovered your interests and are really ready to do things that matter. It is the combination of 3 things in any given order : security, interest, desire to influence (give).

But what are the things that matter? These could be different for different people at different stages of life. For a mother who is financially secure, it might take care of her newborn. For an aspiring sportsperson in college, it might be never missing a practice session. For a working professional, it could be something he worked upon that is actually making the users happy. 

So something that makes you long term happy in a constructive manner (giving element) is the thing that actually matters. By that logic, for an addict, addiction can result in short term happiness, but it will almost always result in long term financial, mental or physical stress and will result in no good for anyone else.

Conversely one can ask, what are the things that don’t matter? Maybe eliminating strategy can work to help us reach the ideal stage. Doing things so that others have the perception of us doing it doesn’t matter. In an office environment finishing the work to please the boss doesn’t matter. Finishing work to please the customers/ to achieve financial outcome matters maybe. And I am no way suggesting that this is the only way to do things. Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes for security we have to go through different paths to reach a position where we can decide to do only things that matter.

Why one should strive to do things that really matter. Again although it’s a personal choice after a point of time. But if people do things that really matter it makes them really happy. That makes people around them really happy. As happiness attracts happiness. And this leads the prospect to live in a happy world. But still it’s always a choice. That might be people who might not want to live a happy life.