THEORY OF IMPORTANCE

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor." - Elon Musk

Many times we look for solutions everywhere but overlook what is right below our nose. We expect that the solution to our complicated problems has to be equally complex. But many times, true solutions are counterintuitive that means complex problems could have simple and straight solutions.

If we carefully observe our life, we will see that we have only those things that we consider important and those things missing in our life is because we feel they are not important. When I say important, it is not important in the general sense but the attitude that "it's important to ME." You see, once something is important to us, we will find every way to get it and overcome all the obstacles, just because "it's important to me." Another angle to see this is in when we have something in life, we are sending a signal to others saying - "so and so thing is very important for me."  and when we don't have something we are sending a signal to others - "this aspect is not important for me." 

I will give a few examples from our day to day life to substantiate this theory.

Cultural Life
If one has a clean house, it's only because he or she feels "it's important to keep the house clean." If one's house is dirty that means he or she feels "it's not important for the house to be clean."

Physical Life
If we are fit and our body is in shape, it is only because we believe that staying fit and healthy is important.

Interpersonal Life
If we don't have good relationships, somewhere inside, we have the belief that "it's not so important to invest in meaningful relationships."

External Life
If we are wealthy, it means we have the belief that money is important and if someone is not wealthy, he has the belief that having money is not so important.

If we wear good clothes, it means - we feel it's important to dress well.

If someone has a very good car he believes that "a good car is an important item in my life."

Student Life
If someone studies well and gets good marks - he feels, "it's important to score well." Otherwise how can he study well!

If a student is not attentive in class or doesn't come regularly for classes, we can infer that - he feels "classes are not that important".

If someone sits in the first row of the classroom, what he or she is saying is, "it's important for me to sit in front."

Professional Life
If someone is corrupt it means he feels, "being honest is not important. After all no one is honest. So why should I be?"

If we don't come on time, it's only because, we feel "it's not that important to be punctual."

Environmental Life
Only one who believes that trees are not important will mindlessly cut trees, and the other way around if someone plants trees, we can infer that this person feels trees are very important to this world.

If we are not judicious of our use of electricity or water that means, we feel "they are not so important".

Spiritual Life
If someone chants well it's because, they feel that, "chanting attentively is very important to me."

If someone reads scriptures regularly, it means that he or she feels "reading scriptures is important for me."

If someone keeps himself busy and positively engaged it means, he believes that "being busy and utilising time is important to me."

Internal Life
This applies to our inner world too.

If we are not peaceful it's because we feel "peace is not so important to me."

Or if we are proud we have the belief that "humility is not that important to me or it could be that pride is very important to me. If I am not proud then people will take me for granted."

If we don't have a pure heart, the reason might be that, we feel "it's not so important to have a pure heart.' What is the proof of it? Well, if it was important to us, we would be trying our best in every way to become pure.

These examples make it clear of how every action and result in our life can be traced to some underlining belief and attitude because the outer world is only a manifestation of our inner world. If there is some area in our life that we have a lack or are not up to the mark, we need to check it out - it might be because we feel that area is not important for us. If we can flip this attitude to "it's important to me" then we will fill our lack.

But to do this we should be convinced that this particular area is "important for me." One way to do this is to imagine and feel how our life will be if we had those aspects in life that is missing now. How wonderful, satisfying and fullfiling our life will be. How much more such a life can have a positive impact on others. Such positive visualization can be the impetus for us, to do the needful to get us back in form.

Also, I am not saying that we need to feel that every area is very important to us. Naturally there will be some areas of more importance than others. But the point is to have a balanced life. If we are out of balance, it means we are neglecting some areas in our life which need to be given more attention. How do we do it? First by understanding and believing that this particular area is important to me.

Just like a student may neglect a few subjects because he or she subconsciously feels that these subjects are not so important to me. If this student understood how important these subjects were he or she would have undoubtedly studied better and got better marks.

I remember in my school days, I didn't focus on languages so much because I probably felt they were not so important as Science and Maths. Obviously, I didn't fare that great in them. Now in hindsight I feel that, if I had understood that languages were as important as Science and Maths, I would have been much more equipped in my speaking and writing skills. We all make mistakes. Making mistakes is not a problem but to keep repeating them and not learn our lesson is the actual problem. Let us not live a life of regret and leave the world with music still in our heads.

- Achyut Gopal Das