Originally answered by me on Quora – https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-overrated-things-in-life-1/answer/Ashish-Lal-5
1. A CORPORATE JOB especially when a woman does it – job is a 20th century invention. Earlier men worked like idiot blind rats all their life in a job they mostly did not like while women did the more aesthetic and fulfilling things like nurturing a life, feeding the entire family, building a home from a house et. al. Now in the race with men, they’ve also become like idiot blind rats. 80% of the men or women who are into jobs literally hate their jobs but the hypocrisy is in behaving as if job makes them somebody superior to those who do not do it such as housewives or those who work project to project only sometimes. Slow down once and think hard – why are you doing a job and is it really worth it, seriously?
2. MARRIAGE & KIDS – getting married and nurturing kids are beautiful things to do if you really want to do it but the compulsive decision to get married or have kids whether or not you really want it is something every person should dwell upon. Don’t just give in to peer or family pressure.
3. FORMAL EDUCATION especially in a professional field – again, if you want to do it, do it but don’t do it just because everyone else does it. You can become greatest of the greats in business, arts, sports etc. without almost any formal education in that field. These days the internet can be a much better teacher for passionate learners than schools and colleges can be.
4. GOOD LOOKS – whether you’re a man or a woman, if the number 1 priority in your life is looking good, if it occupies most of your thoughts in a day, you’ll soon become a dull witted shallow thinker capable of never accomplishing anything substantial in life. Above all, you’ll suffer great pain all your life because firstly, there’ll always be many men or women more good looking than you and secondly, your beauty is inversely proportional to your age. So as you grow older, you’ll mentally suffer a lot. Looking good can be somewhere in the priority list but it should not be an obsession until and unless you’re from a field where that decides what you achieve in life, for example modelling etc.
5. MONEY and the things it can buy – Money is simply great if it is earned through the right means and used for the right purpose. Money is a great servant in that case. The problem arises when you’re so obsessed with acquiring more and more and more money. Then money becomes the greatest master and you a mere slave to it thus getting stuck in a never ending loop of stress, dissatisfaction and arrogance.
6. HOW TO BEHAVE WITH A WOMAN – haven’t you ever heard – “Don’t you know how to behave with a women?” Seriously, what the hell does that even mean? Aren’t women human beings just like men? Aren’t they equal to men? Why the heck then there should be a separate moral code made on how to behave with women? We should learn and teach young ones how to be respectful towards every human being irrespective of gender. When you do that, there is no need of plastic moral or gender codes. Whichever way you behave with that kind of thinking will be beautiful. Morality is set by a bunch of people in that culture in that period and hence differs from place to place and time to time. Humanity never changes. Develop your humanity, not your morality! Your behaviour then with men, women, eunuchs, animals, birds, tress and even non-living things will be simply humane and beautiful!
Never take any major decision in life out of obsession, compulsion, or social pressure. Please do that in awareness, complete awareness. Life itself is overrated. Stay blessed, spread love.
