Saturday, January 1, 2011

Am I satisfied?


I have always wondered about the 'nature' of people. Each and every person will have something unique compared to the other. Have you ever asked yourself this question 'Am i satisfied?'. Many may unfortunately come up with an answer NO. Dont try to argue to me, but definitely NO is the answer most of us will get. If you're getting a YES, then your heart is something really gifted. Being satisfied is like chasing a white smoke. There are various levels of satisfaction. Some may never become satisfied irrespective of whatever money they earn, whatever places they go, they simply need more and more. Well, I am not blaming them, I'm just saying that is how their heart is structured. On the other hand, some people may very well remain happy with whatever they possess. They may not be using their potential to the max, yet they can remain satisfied.

Satisfaction is a purely relative concept. Say, there is an ultra talented person who can do marvels when he exploits his god given gift. Still, he may not be using it and will remain satisfied with whatever he is doing. But this might look crazy and annoying for some other person who knows clearly that the other is not utilizing his talents.
Remaining satisfied may imply being lazy too. Laziness is not a bad thing. It is something you are gaining in the present, something you are enjoying the 'now'. Even laziness has many forms, many bands of laziness are there. Crazy lazy is one extreme level where the basic necessity of a person comes under question. I am speaking at an elevated wavelength, people at my level can very well grab what I am trying to say :).
'How to get satisfied?' Well this is a million dollar question. There are lots and lots of possible answers to this question. Many may be correct and many my not be but still there are almost infinite number of solutions possible for this. Ofcourse, I have my own perspective, one in zillion. Well that is, "Dont worry too much about the future, try to enjoy the present". Easier said than done :).
Please dont expect a proper introduction/conclusion to my posts, as it will be scattered and thoughts are been spit out.
Leave some comments if you have anything to say.

Thanks
Braga

25 comments:

Lava (Sanskrit: लव) said...

Satisfaction is a relative word! This is really good. I know what sort of lazy person you are!

Only one question, why did you post this? I would like to know the reason for posting this post!
The true answer please!

bragadeesh said...

@Lava
Sometimes you cannot tell something just like that because somebody is listening somewhere. Someday you will get to know the answer to your question through somemeans :).

techywiz said...

I have a contrary view on the topic tht u hav discussed. According to me each and every activity that u do in ur life is for ur personal satisfaction including social services. So, according to me everyone in this world are satisfied, the only thing is that they haven't realized it :-)

bhalaji said...

Everyone have their own definition in life for every such abstract questions.. if i am going to shoot out about it.. 'Its all about your presumption and understanding about yourself and your folks around'

Satisfied man can't be ruled out as lazy, they can coin out their own reasons beyond laziness.

Is your post justifiable?

bragadeesh said...

What i was trying to say how many ask these abstract questions out in the open. how many are really having this perspective of analyzing these. What is the outcome that comes out of each and every mind?
I have not made any strong statements. Just a vague idea as there is no precise definition nor any solution.
I am not trying to justify anything here :)

Anitha said...

I couldn't exactly come to a conclusion on reading this braga... u may be correct else no... its ur perspective

But according to me, Be satisfied with what u have and work hard for what u want.

Arun said...

Great post buddy. It is very true that we feel guilty and unsatisfied when we know that out potential is being under-utilized. But its strange that things that we used to enjoy, over time, becomes under-utilization of our brain.

Unknown said...

I would like to add 2 comments about it. First, from where i see 'Satisfaction' is a temporary feeling which might span over a few months or on a rare case few years. One example would be if a guy gets a good job. When u ask him about his satisfaction level he says he is very much satisfied. And when u ask him the same question after a couple of years he says he is not satisfied because he is not growing in the company as compared to others.

Secondly, People many a times look for happiness or satisfaction which is not in their hands or control. They ultimately end up dis-satisfied. Such people cannot be satisfied at all since nothing can be done regarding that.

Alpine Path said...

Good post! Satisfaction is truly relative. A person may be satisfied with what he does when compared to person B(since he is doing better than B in some sense eg.more fun, more money, more success, whatever) but may be dissatisfied when compared to person C(same criteria). And, yeah, we don't usually ask ourselves these questions because sometimes the results are less than satisfying(yeah, the irony of it all! :D) and sometimes the discussion leads to something totally different which we might not be yet ready to discover about ourselves or others. So, guess we get to live it through, after all!

Unknown said...

Well said Braga.I always believed i was the champion of this so called 'True Happiness' theory. Personally there are many reasons why i believe in this theory.One is i was lazy :).But the prime reason was that most of my peers were very simple guys who were not engineers or docs and so i felt i was somewhere high above relative to them.

The whole theory is considered to be incompetency to perform. To all those who say so i have a question. Have we improved life from what it was 2000 years ago? I think adam and eve would have been more happy than what we are now inspite of not having TV/Laptop/Mobile etc. We can keep setting goals and run round chasing them.But is it going to make us happy??? What are we going to achieve by becoming a director of a company? I think such people lose out on things i consider very important to life like health, family life, etc.

I would also say only a gifted few can appreciate this theory. So if you are not one among them dont worry the majority is on your side:) I would rather be a couch potato watching TV rather than an engineer at Intel working 18 hours a day trying to find how to improve the picture quality. To summarise i would say happiness and satisfaction are very abstract,relative and non measurable. But true happiness can be acheived by doing what your heart feels and not what the world tells you to do. So be yourself and you will find true happiness.

Unknown said...

Satisfaction, rather than givng desc on this, lets take for instance if a guy says he's satisfied, expose him to a different environment or situation or circumstance, his mind changes immediately, so It depends on the mindset and the maturity level of a person at that moment, it varies highly similar to happiness, joyous moments, sad instances etc...but its a feeling rather than an expression. once u go to bed its over, the next day it all starts new again with new plans and new goals. As said in the above posts, it doesnt persist for long time.
True satisfaction must persist for long time and To find an answer for the question Am I satisfied?, you have to first know who you are-the real YOU, ur purpose of life, by listening to ur inner conciousness and I feel only spirituality can get you there. But Yea, its tough in this hard and fast paced life.
Braga, its a very good post that makes ppl think(if u see in the right way)...the more u think the more u know the reality of life.Keep posting such good ones.

Cheers,
Karthik Ekambaram

Anonymous said...

Hi Braga,
-I wud also like to spit my comments ;)-
'Am I satisfied?'
Its true that we have different views on the term "satisfaction".

Arvind's post-'do what your heart feels' is not always possible as our mind(which most of the times overpowers our heart) is not something which always things right/correct.

And I believe knowing the reality is the only solution for getting Satisfied.(I believe its only possible through spirituality bcos it helps you define 'satisfaction' clearly and gives you ways to achieve it)

Unknown said...

@Chandra mohan

What i meant by saying do what your heart feels is at least try doing what your heart feels. Mostly we are guided to do what everyone else does. I am sure that 85% of us are not doing jobs which enjoy doing it but are doing it since everyone else is doing it. To my knowledge a professional does not always enjoy his profession but an artist will always enjoy his work. So he is doing what he likes. All of us cant always do what our heart feels like but at least we can stop get into the rat race when we dont know where it leads us to.

As far as spirtuality is concerned i have very limited understanding of it but there could be more than one ways of finding out what you like to do so yes it could be one of the means. I would define satisfaction as a state where you have no reason to be sad.

-girish- said...

Hi Braga, you cannot see a single person who is satisfied in this world for his/her entire life. Sometimes they are, sometimes not. if you find someone happy and satified for most of the time in his/her life he/she should be a altruist. You cannot be satisfied in a world that is driven by commercialism and consumerism. Remember an add in TV where bollywood hero says 'pls don't be santhusht!'. Money drives the world. If you can imagine a world without money, and people help each other selflessly, probably there you will be satisfied. There you will not be forced to work for money, and your creativity will not be restricted. Forget about being satisfied here, you cannot be for more than few days or weeks. Its not your problem or my problem. Its a design flaw! Money is a big bug, yet to make the world crash. As we used to believe, nature has its own mechanisms to fix these kind of bugs to stabilize the system!. Till then just try to enjoy everything that comes on your way.

bragadeesh said...

@Girish
You should have watched the movie "THE MATRIX". If you havent please go ahead and do!!
I am just pasting an excerpt from the conversation between Smith and Morpheus.

Did you know that the first Matrix. . .
. . .was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered. . .
. . .where everyone would be happy.
lt was a disaster.
No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost.
Some believe that. . .
. . .we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world.
But l believe that. . .
. . .as a species. . .
. . .human beings define their reality through misery. . .
. . .and suffering.
So the perfect world was a dream. . .
. . .that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.
Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this.
The peak. . .
. . .of your civilization.
l say, ''your civilization'' . . .
. . .because when we started thinking for you, it became our civilization. . .
. . .which is, of course, what this is all about.
Evolution, Morpheus.
Evolution.

This is not a fancy dialogue in the movie. Thats one thing for sure!! What I'm trying to say here is suffering, misery and sorrow are the part and parcel of our life. But how optimally we can fight it is the question here. At least we can know where we stand.

Manick said...

Its my view and my own view. I think satisfaction is of three ways.
1. Am i satisfied by myself.
2. Am i satisfied by the happenings and people i know.
3. Are others satisfied with me.

Here only first two are full and full in my hands and the 3 is not fully with me.
So i ll be myself to others trying my best not to interfere or influence anyone's life. So i dont care much about it.

For the first 'Am i satisfied myself?'.......Always i am. For me before i do anything i have two things in mind before doing anything. 'Prepare for the worst condition and pray for the best condition' and then 'Never be relative to anyone or anything' and always after finishing something i think myself at this particular point of time in that situation i did my best and maximum what i can get from that is the minimum possible result. But has never discouraged myself in anything. For me Im always the best. I live mainly to enjoy today and think very little about future. i never give up my character and my actions (that affects me only) for anyone or any reason bcos i want my own things my own way and unless it affects anyone Y should i think off, if somebody says anything about it. But if anyone comments i accept with a smile and tease myself make them laugh and go on. Why to argue or hurt them by giving back. we all live to be happy and tensionless. so y to get tensed? And because of all these reasons im always satisfied with myself.
Secondly 'am i satisfied by others whom i know?' for sure yes because i always reduce expectations from anyone. That i am doing by an easy way. The way is i try to be like a passing cloud to most of the people i know. I try to know many people and enjoy with them and move on with next set of people. But not forget the old ones. But if i get a chance to meet the old people meet them and enjoy the time when u meet. bcos of this before expecting anything from anyone there arises one thing in my mind that 'I am not so close to that person to expect from that person'. But in case if by fate i start moving close with some one and if in case im in a situation to ask any help from someone immediately after i ask i think 'They might be busy or they might be incapable of helping u at that situation' and make alternatives. Because of this i ll be satisfied even if they r not able to do and if they do it ll be an additional happiness. So im always satisfied with people around me.

Really am enjoying a lot in my life. Always doing wat i want. Always my life has been a great gift to me. I dont know wat more things i need. For the society or some people who care for me might think i need more in life. But to say frankly I DONT CARE. Im living my own life happily. When something talk wrong about me or Something wrong happens to me then also i tease myself and laugh, and then simply DONT CARE about it.........Yes Im Satisfied with Myself.....I guess enough of being so serious....Cant be serious anymore..... And I see a lot of great things, great achievements, great characters around me in day to day life and am so great to be with all those around me. Lots and lots of great achievements am seeing. For example many persons(my classmates and friends) are getting married. Isn't that a great achievement........
Many of my friends were working in food courts(in foreign) after finishing their B.TECH/B.E.....Isn't that a great achievement....I mean for studying they r even working in food courts(many people's ego ll not accept).....
Without working properly(mainly on GTALK and other stuffs) many are getting well paid by the company......Isn't that a great achievement.....
The above mentioned great achievements are purely fictional and is not an imitation of any personality.
k i guess enough for the blog......

Fiction Reviews India said...

Human beings are never satisfied...
God s made us like that....

If human would have been satisfied then probably we would still be living in cages and worst --- Braga wouldn't have blogged.

I think satisfaction and perfection are closely related. when one feels that he is perfect/ does something perfectly he is satisfied.
But somewhere deep inside one thinks that "I could have done this BETTER"

As we know no one in this universe is perfect so it is natural(human) for us not to be satisfied, hence leaving aside room for improvement, development and growth.

Unknown said...

i think this blog has grown way out of what braga intially meant if I understood braga. This has throw open a lot of questions like

Is satisfaciton related to spirutality? Is it making others happy? Is it same as doing things perfectly? Is there no one satisfied beacuse we have dependcy on money? Is there something like permenent satisfaction?

I would say as a simple way to be satisfied you need to keep it simple and reduce your desires. I think thats what spirtuality also says ultimately. This means you are going to stop you running after unrealisitic things like money,which will help you spend more time with you loved ones and give you permenent satisfaction if you follow this path. I am not preaching but just saying being simple and you will be happy. You dont have to be like a hermit but be self contained.

Karthik Vignesh said...

Amidst the buzzing comments for the blog.. i have one basic.. somewhat stupid question if i may ask.. the basic problem with a lot of the people are.. they are lazy but still they want to achieve something big without putting in any real work.. i mean.. a lazy person satisfied with what he has is kinda understandable.. but what to do with the kinda people that i have mentioned?? any perspective to be laid on people like that?? ;)

Anonymous said...

I feel Proffession and satisfaction is similar to science and religion where people see jst god not science here people see just money.
Am i satisfied ? well i dont have anything to complain,I dont compare and i dont care about the future as well looks like am satisfied .If people term me lazy well i see them as someone running mad behind money, god am lot better than them .From my perspective.if we consider money as the unit of measure for satisfaction then no one ever will get satisfied.And i feel being perfect in what ever u do wont make you happy as aravind pointed out doing what ever we like will leave us satisfied.

bragadeesh said...

@karthik
Yes dude.. There definitely is a perspective on people like you mentioned - who are lazy and complain after sometime for being so. Well, that happens dude.. See there is always a trade off between being and not being lazy. You cannot be lazy forever and still get satisfied (very rarely you can see people of this kind) as i said crazy lazy is one extreme.
So for those persons who were lazy at a given point of time have enjoyed too much and were satisfied at that particular span of time period. They still have the choice to remain lazy in the future and not look behind the past. But such an option is very damn tough in this competitive and materialistic world. Rarely people who are filthy rich, who do not care about anything, who lives on his parent money will fall under that category. But again thats rare.
So, the people who complain on being lazy in the past are still under immatured stage.
And I have one question for you. Are you such a kind? (blaming for being lazy in the past) ;)

Unknown said...

Braga jus to add on what you said.
Such people should be termed foolish. If a person knows he is lazy and still wants to ahceive something big i think he knows he cant do so without either riding on someone else work or by miracle. This blog was about am i satisfied and not am i foolish.

KD said...

Satisfaction: digs up a lot of questions about happiness, self-sufficiency, desire, passion, lethargy, motivation, and finally greed doesn't it. There is not one but many answers to philosophical contemplations :)

Nice to know that you guys are active in the blogging world. keep going! As for me, I am satisfied with my current state and have seized to exist in the blogging world :p

Divya said...

No more blogging or what??? or a long hiatus?

dishantparikh said...

Many similar thoughts come to my mind as well man... satisfaction is truly relative term - totally agree.

As per my observation, even if you are lazy, you are trying to become so lazy because you are not satisfied with your current lazy ness.. :).

In my opinion, there is nothing called satisfaction, its availablity and consciousness, which make you to take action. You are not satisfied with the eating sweets. But your inner conscious will give you a fear that if i eat more sweets, it may happen that i will get diabeties.

So its very relative term. I just say don't satisfied and keep your self restless, if you are doing work related to mankind and helping others. There are no satisfaction require at this particular point of time.