“These” Are the Best Days of My Life

Dhaka Diaries /Dec/2018

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it 'til my fingers bled
Was the summer of sixty-nine

Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit, Jody got married
I should've known we'd never get far

Oh, when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life.

The above are the lines from the famous song of Bryan Adams “Summer of 69”. Although I had a very limited exposure to such English numbers in my youth, this song somehow not only reached me but also touched my life. It continues to be one of my best song that gets me to the nostalgia of good old days in my life. For so many us, when we just hear the song, in a fraction of second you have running videos of all the good things you did in those best days of your life.

I was reflecting upon those best days of my life and started to think about what were the elements that made them the best days! I am sure life was the same complex game that we played then and the same it is when we play it now. Being a sales and marketing guy, we always have this tendency look for pattern in events and incidences to draw correlation on why something worked or why something failed. And it is all because of the thousands and thousands of actions planning that we make for our businesses challenges, this flows naturally.  I have been thinking on the possibility that if I can decode the elements that made those days, the best days of my life, why I can’t apply them to make my today the best days of my life .Why the Summer of 69/79/89 or whatever year it was for you  , was the best days of your life , and now you don’t have the courage  to say that summer of 2019 , would be best days of my life ! And that too when I can say beyond doubt for most of us that we possess more resources, more power and more maturity now than we had in the summer of 69!

I thought of not relying just on my assumption of things, I preferred to speak to some of my friends to get more perspective on this. I just threw a simple question to them “which were the best days of his life and what made it the best days?  The responses were amazing, there was passion and confidence in each of the answers. And best part, I could really see a pattern in the responses. If the answer sheet would not be named I am sure that most of the answer would fit to each of our summary of “what made those days, the best days!

Is it the Eureka moment that I am looking for to make my “these days the best days of my life “!

The common chord across the responses that made those days best days were the various combination permutation of the below elements:

1. Freedom to Choose
2. No anxiety for tomorrow  
3. Closeness to family with Responsibility
4. Positive aspirational drive to Future
5. Good people around me whom I called “friends”
6. Passion played over pressure
7. Self-Contentment superseded dissatisfaction 
   

So, what has changed now, which make me feel these are not the best days of my life. Today my days are marked with

1. Feeling of limited freedom
2. Lack of purpose and passion
3. Deep feeling of unfulfillment
4. Fear of the future
5. Lack of friends and tarnishing relationship

The above list can go on and on. Let’s analyse what made the difference between “those days “and “these days “. Everything under the sky is the same. The people around are the same. The emotions that flows around us is the same – the basic human feelings of love, bondage, harmony, truth, honesty, competition, jealously, fear, aggression and the list is the same. I believe Happiness is a situation, which is an outcome of YOU and Environment.

Happiness = YOU+ Environment

Environment has always remained the same. be it today, in the summer of 69, or in the 690 years back. History is the proof, where we have ample stories of love, brotherhood, sacrifice, and same time stories of treachery, jealousy, dishonesty and misguided ambition. So, if Environment is a constant, then

Happiness is directly proportional to YOU

So, when you ever reflect on those best days of summer of 69 and dreaming about making these days and good as those, you are the only person responsible, and who has the power to make it happen.

Let’s see if we can do something today which can my current days as good as those best days of my life.  As I said earlier, if now I have more power, more resource and above all more maturity than in the past, I can sure make it now!

1. Feeling of limited freedom: what stops you to practice the freedom. I don’t remember of any major change in the constitution on our Fundamental Rights.
2. Lack of purpose and passion: Make a realistic visualization of the future and work for it. Every small and little step that you take towards it, is a success.
3. Deep feeling of unfulfillment: Every human being is combination of set if virtues and vices and set of success and failures. Have a broader spectrum for happiness and don’t just link it to few selected metrices of things you wanted to achieve.
4. Fear of the future: Just follow your instincts and don’t stress about the outcome. Be “Present” for the future rather than fear for the future.
5. Lack of friends and tarnishing relationship: Just remember that in any relationship, you control of 50% of everything that happens! You are equally responsibility to see that you have played your “legitimate “role to make it grow.

“Summer of 69 “will always be a memorable song for many of us. But don’t restrict your life on story of “those were the best days”. “We have lived a summer in very year of life till now and will have many more seasons of autumn, spring and winter. Some days will always be more cherished than the others. But don’t make any day such an experience that when you reverie few years away from now, you shouldn’t regret, “I wish I could have put a little more effort to change the things, perhaps I could have taken those few little initiatives in my career ,perhaps a few more steps to improve those relationships, perhaps I could have heard my inner passion…  perhaps…. perhaps!

Happy Living!

Best Regards

Robin