Meet that important person in your life

In the hustle-bustle of life, we often forget the most important person in our lives. It's none other than ourselves. School, college, career, work, marriage, kids and commitments, both professional and personal, make us overlook that important person, who slowly fades away, with no dreams of their own, until all that is left is a skeleton of regrets. The best way to keep that person alive in your life, to stop her from becoming a ghost with the shadow of regret trailing it, is by going on a date with yourself, often.

Yes, it’s not too difficult. Start with communicating with that person whose reflection you see in the mirror and asking them what is it that they really want? Is it a trendy haircut that you have always wanted but now in your middle years feels too flippant? Is it that tattoo you have craved since your teen years, or that ear-piercing that has you dilly-dallying because you feel it doesn’t go with your serious professional image? Or is it a holiday to a dream destination? Or is it a book you want to write?

Is it Salsa or some other dance classes or Veena classes, maybe classical singing or cooking classes, that you have shoved away and now it’s lying at the bottom of your heart, weighed down by duties and responsibilities. It’s never too late to let those dreams float to the top of your heart.

When I was teaching creative writing in a college a few years back, one of my students was sixty-year-old gynaecologist (my course was open to outsiders too.) The doctor told me that as she had retired a few weeks back, she now wanted to fulfil her desire of doing a creative writing course. She attended every class with excitement and joy on her face and later wrote a novel too.

It’s not always possible to fulfil all our dreams, but neither is it impossible to fulfil some of them.

Times flies by so fast, that before we realize, we are in the autumn of our lives, with the sunset looming large on the horizon. Isn’t it better to go without regrets?

The best way to do that is to take a few unfulfilled desires out of the cupboard of your dreams and start fructifying them. And when you do that and see the smiling reflection in the mirror, you will be rewarded beyond measure.