Tuesday, May 13, 2008
okay so future is a BIG BIG question mark. and a discussion with jarrod, pam and adrain got me thinking. then paul came along and discussed with me as well.
i'll just address the post to paul so i don't have to explain a lot haha. k first things first. im not using happiness as a reason to choose which course i will go to or what my future career will be like. It it something called Ignatian comtemplation which to you, is probably bull coz you don't believe in it. okay but nvm, i will introduce it anyway haha. it is a process where u daydream. u daydream about how your life can unfold. so u pick a path, lets say slog hard in uni then come out, headhunted by big firm then earn money and be successful in the career. you daydream about it and the details in which it will happen. the good things of having financial power, giving family a good life, be recognised. then the bad things of having to work late nights, sacrificing time spent with family. perhaps the tactics in which is required to make the business grow may not be exactly moral. these kinda stuff. then u stop and u assess how u feel there. do you feel empty? or do you feel satisfied with that kind of life. then u move on to different possible paths of your lives. mayb becoming a social worker. bad things like having to worry about money, children's school fees, family living expenses because social workers dont' earn much. then the good things about making differences in other peoples' lives, putting a smile on their faces. then u pause and assess the feeling you get after the daydream. therein may, i repeat may, lie the direction where you will like in the future. so this is sometimes where i get my intentions from, about where i should go and where mayb i will feel happy in. this para is just to describe how i get the happy thing which maybe in your opinion, pretty much absurd.
happiness is probably sorely lacking in this world. ppl too caught up in work and the society's race to the top that they find themselves wanting more perpetually. so what if we identify this problem now and promise not to fall in the trap, will we really avoid it? will we actually enter the working world and say hey, i will not want to be the best around, just be who i am. no problem its possible, but by then it'll be hard to justify why someone would choose to opt out of the rat race when their whole life has been in it. I know myself well. anything that does not toe the moral line, i will probably not do it, barring temptations that i can fall into duh. but usually conciously i will not do it. so how am i suppose to study business and make a profit without undercutting anyone in the process? ok then i give my workers very fair wages, give the suppliers and farmers (or equivalent) what they deserve, my profit margin will be as thin as my hair. well of course if people just brushes that off as saying that its part of the world's economy that there will be poor and the exploited, i have nothing to say. Jarrod posed me a challenge. to start a business that can earn as well as not exploit any parties at all. difficult eh.. moreover, actually extra profits should then be donated to charity right? (being a christian). don't even need to be a christian. as long as the person knows what is right and wrong clearly deep down, the person will do it (donate profits). ok back to the main argument. so will someone in the rat race be really ok with one's conscience and be happy. i am sure there are, really rare cases that their achievements had really bettered the world. but the majority? its high expectations to live up to, and i think i will want to meet that if possible.
then to the argument of only knowing when you are happy when you are in the job. so because of this, you should take the most pragmatic way first that is, the university course. take a good uni course which will give you options to choose where you want to go. so usually, the most pragmatic course ain't the most desired course of the person so the person just gotta slog it out. well it makes sense, sacrifice that 4 years studying something pragmatic then hope to enjoy life after that. so after that pragmatism will stop? and interest will take over? really?
but the main point lies in that you need to know where you want to go even before you have ur university course. otherwise you'll really be crippled by ur choice at uni, causing u to not be able to do what u want in the future. so what is pragmatic? choosing the uni course, or choosing the future?
so if there are bad things in an occupation but there are many more good things, does it mean that there are no more bad things? is it then possible to be in an occupation where there is nothing bad about it at all. fully directed at doing good in this world. there are, and a lot. but the problem with it? pragmatism. other than the people who invented good things for the world and profited from it, everyone else who tries to make a difference don't really profit monetarily from it. what they gain is satisfaction in their hearts. so should we follow the satisfaction? (another pragmatic question) but different people with different agendas will answer differently.
so im not even basing my uni choice on my future career. i would probably like to study what im interested in, something that i know i will enjoy my uni years. after that i can come out to do what i am interested in which will also help people. be it doing mission work, doing environmental conservation, helping devise plans to help less fortunate people, it is somewhere that i can see myself in. i also can see myself being in an established office, busy in the working world, earning money and using the money to serve the same purpose. so where do i go? eventually this kind of question in my opinion will not be reached by logically thinking, or just sitting down and trying to rationalize it. it can be reached through discernment.
so paul, a lot of my thinking is developed from both religion and logical thinking so i can say some may be beyond ur grasp firstly due to your stand towards religion and also ur own set of thinking. its difficult to explain until you go thru the procees i went through. its complex haha..
7:46 AM