To Will One Act a Day

I remember I used to be amused with the precision with which my parents would go to bed and come out of it, same time, day after day, month after month. I with usual teenage swagger of thought would scoff at it, interpreting philosophy in my own way, letting life go, live the way you want to. I trust, it is common part of every individual's life, what we call growing up. But then, living the way you want to live is not about succumbing to temptations, but is about being in control. It is about deciding what you want to do without the worry and pretensions forced on by life and society as we have it. Step one is to identify what you want to do, apart from things that you have to do and then get engage in dogged pursuit of the same. Even if deciding what you want to do in life comes forward as a great liberating thought, it might not always be possible to go at it right at start after years of gluttony, silliness and societal adaptation. To will one act of the day could be a good point to start. It is this will to the act on this the Will to the life will build up and which as Shopenhauer said, is the key to riddle that man is to himself. It is important to have one thing fixed, uncompromising every day, not matter how silly it may be, something like a ritual, it could be half an hour set aside for listening music(not as backdrop but as activity) or exercise or walk or write or read or do nothing, but something constant and look forward to everyday...as a mark of control in otherwise uncontrolled and uncontrollable happenings in the world. It will keep you going every day with excitement..so as to encourage you to take on bigger things. The act of willing things in a particular fashion will embolden you to do bigger things, to bring all you are capable of being to the fore. To begin with, take one activity and go for a religious pursuit of it, walk, run, sit with your parents, walk the pet, do something, same time every day, at least do it every day, and being able to do it every day will bring so much feeling of being in control and happiness that you will love yourself and the world around more for it. 

Self-Discipline

I still remember how my parents would actually hold me up in the morning, as I would try to hold on to the door and try to sleep, there itself, like a horse. I was always thinking about what pleasure they might be drawing out of pushing me out of the bed at the unearthly hour of five in the morning. What great discovery I was expected to make by being out of the bed so early. They told me that I would be able to be a fast learner if I get up early in the moring, I did not believe a bit of it. I felt my level of stupidity to be uniformly constant, irrespective of whatever hour of day it was. My entire childhood and later early part of teenage life went by trying to understand the seemingly sadistic pleasure they would be deriving out keeping me deprived of sleep, while the later part of my teenage life and early adult life went in a sort of protest against this early life ritual, with unslept nights and days in slumber. It started dawning only couple of physical ailments and one child later, that early to rise may not make you wise, but vice-versa is certainly true. That is, if you are wise, you, most certainly will rise early. It is not only to catch a worm that one has to rise early, it is the most basic act which demonstrates your control over your own desire for luxury. It is one small step, which defines the journey one is going to take. Rising early, you can smell the air which still is not polluted. Getting up early is more about the effect it psychologically has on you, it is so difficult to get out of the comfort of the bed, especially in the cold of the morning. The very fact of getting out gives you a feeling of being in control. If you can top it up with little exercise, which is again contradicting the the temptation to luxury, the immense sense of self-control and control, in general, over life and your being. The sense of control will carry itself with you for the whole day and will at the end of the day, ensure that you are sure of your self and as a result, not worried and defensive (and offensive by the same logic) to people.