Growth and Degeneration

Growth and Degeneration

I've always believed that If you do not grow, you will degenerate. So always seek opportunities to grow; it could be learning something new or continuing to enhance your knowledge and skills in a area that you are already familiar with.

When you first begin your career in your chosen field, you are young, energetic and eager to learn. You don't mind putting in long hours, even working over weekends. You are driven by a desire to learn and to prove yourself to your peers and superiors. But as you grow older and other things like marriage and kids start occupying your time, you begin to lose you eagerness to learn new things.

It is understandable though. Starting a family takes up so much of your energy. You have to fuss about buying a new MPV, a bigger house (preferable in a gated community, next to a golf course) and finding the best school for your kids--all the humdrum trivialities of modern middleclass life.

Time away from work becomes very precious to you (your wife already complains that you spend too much time with your golf buddies). Weekends have to be spent helping her shove shopping carts at the hypermart and spending "quality time" with the kids--that usually means feasting on junk food at the local burger outlet or spending nights glued to the idiot box, watching people making a fool of themselves in yet another reality TV show.

Is that the life that you want? Perhaps. You have a good career, a home, a loving wife and two happy kids (a boy and a girl)--a family. What more could one ask for?

Or perhaps the question that you need to ask yourself is: Are you still growing or are you degenerating?

As you watch your kids grow up, you must also allow yourself to continue growing. Or else degeneration will inevitably set in and the only thing that seems to grow visibly is your waistline.

Growth can come in many ways: you could for instance, start building your knowledge in the spiritual, so essential for the evolution of one's soul. Or you could also start contributing something back to your community by doing some voluntary work. Or perhaps even rediscover some the lost passions of your youth: once upon a time, were you not a keen photographer or writer? What happened to those hobbies?

To live is to learn and grow. Anything else equals degeneration and decay. The choice is yours to make.