Next is what?

One of my good friends recently joined a small company with a really big package. All these years, she had been this average girl next door, who seemed to be happy with whatever she ever got in life. All she wanted was enough money to pull her through her treks to the Himalayas. And suddenly she was a big star. A person grossly underestimated by the people around her. It wasn’t long before people did start discouraging her. “Are you sure the company is gonna survive?” “You’d be laid off soon.” “You already had a good package, now you are doing better. Next is what?”

It’s really funny how people don’t want to venture out and try something new but are always envious of those who do. Especially of the ones, who have been written off as useless. Which brings me to the point- Next is what? The popular tagline from Samsung is now my life’s mantra. Thanks to the guy who ventured to ask my friend what her future plans were.

If we start deciding and writing our future, wouldn’t we be destiny ourselves? But that is how most of us feel, that we can write our own destiny. But how many times have we actually been able to predict where we would end up? I for one had never ever imagined that someday I would be working for one of the biggest IT companies in the world. I never had it in me to pass the multiple and increasingly silly aptitude tests. How is answering a question about how a balloon will fill up a room ever help me design a visually impressive report? But here I am, building reports without having to ever understand about a balloon or a stupid room.

Next is unknown. Next is blind. Next is dark. Next can only be revealed when we decide to walk that path. If we are comfortable in our cosy rooms there is never going to be a next. Not that it is something wrong. Being cosy and comfortable is definitely not wrong. What is wrong is being jealous of someone who decides to step out of the cosiness. Why bother? If I am happy with my life, why bother about someone else’s? If I am comfortable in my room, why bother about how more comfortably someone else’s room would be? But that is what we do…don’t we? Compete, compare and complete.

Many of my colleagues feel, competition completes them. They are able to perform only by competing and comparing. All I can tell them, is, my friends, open your eyes. Compete with yourselves. Instead of asking a traveller, what he expects to see next, step out there and explore. Competing from the confines of comfort, will never ever express what “Next” holds for you.  If someone was to ever ask me, next is what? I’d only tell them, that only Next can foretell. Because, the day we can answer this question, we will be able to be comparable to God and destiny. Better let Next be blind and unexpected.