The world is progressively becoming a thornier place to live in and navigate. Young people are often confused and not yet equipped to cope with what contemporary human life demands today. Faced with hardly resolvable everyday problems, especially the egregious unpredictability of the future, our young men and women often find themselves at a loss when it comes to making those win-win decisions in favor of their nation, their families, and themselves.
Now the question is whether an optimal model of conduct can be constructed for modern-day young men and women, one that allows them to survive healthily, feel happy, and achieve success while moving through the sticky, stinking debris of the precarious vicissitudes of life on our sin-ridden Earth.
Notwithstanding this ostensibly alarming picture, there is, of course, nothing hugely wrong with the atmosphere we are living in, although it is uncannily multifaceted, appallingly accelerated, and dreadfully uncertain, with uncertainty ceaselessly growing.
Hence, rather than letting this prevailing atmosphere become a trap, we must hunt for advantages, not drawbacks and pitfalls. Yes, the surrounding chaos feels suffocating every now and then, but at the same time, there are hundreds of tools, accumulated knowledge, numerous paths, and specific ways to meet both concealed and revealed challenges, instead of trying to mechanically and gullibly simplify a complicated world and only semi-enjoy it.
Down with futile slogans, dry clichés, and worn-out standards! Let us look for applicable structures and workable models to build our lives, this message directed especially to those still in their salad years, filled with wistful expectations and wild dreams about their panoramic future.
So, what should we do, and how should we behave?
How about starting by building our inner fundamentals, based on the decisive rationale that our inner system must remain unflinchingly stable when the external world tends toward imbalance? If this is true, I would suggest three pillars.
Let us take good care of our physical health by eating correctly, exercising methodically, and sleeping well and sufficiently. Let us regulate our emotions so that we are never overwhelmed by circumstances. Let us remain absolutely adamant about the spiritual values we will never give up.
If we are unable to do this, we can forget about any strategy upon which we want to build our lives.
As a result of the mind-boggling rush we have gone through in the last half-century, attitudes have changed drastically. If, in my youth, it was enough to choose a path and stick to it tenaciously to succeed, now things are entirely different. Today, young people must first explore thoroughly, adjust comfortably to outcomes, and make informed guesses about the best paths of development that align with the future demands of the existing political and market structures.
Not easy, is it?
Nowadays, learning alone does not suffice. It has become more important, indeed indispensable, to learn how to learn. To learn how to learn!
We must also be very careful about acquiring the right skills, those that can serve as tools to earn a living when needed. It is a significant and unavoidable challenge for young men and women to discern right from wrong in this regard. Wasting time acquiring skills that cannot translate into well-being is simply a waste of time.
While guidance in this area is not always easy, there are certain skills that are increasingly essential for all of us. Communication means clear thinking, writing, and speaking. Digital literacy means the wise use of modern electronic tools. Financial understanding means basic investing and risk awareness. Social intelligence means understanding what people represent and building necessary trust. Information management means filtering what we consume, not using whatever comes our way, but what truly serves our survival, saving time, energy, and nerves.
Let us not strive to master everything, but rather to master what best serves our potential excellence. No one is capable of keeping up with everything our surroundings present.
Modern life demands that we be good at something real and tangible, that we strictly manage our time, and that we think through our decisions. We should let others know that our efforts matter, but we cannot be entirely certain of eliminating the omnipresent, roaring uncertainty in most of what we attempt to accomplish.
That is why we must find ways to feel secure at all times. Otherwise, we may begin to wobble.
Let us eliminate both overthinking and underthinking, and bring clarity to every endeavor we undertake. At the same time, let us not waste our valuable time building empty relationships. Instead, let us nurture genuine ones, within which strong human connections offer immense advantage.
The direction of our thoughts and actions must be from chaos toward progress. This is not always easy to achieve, but who ever said life was becoming easier?
We would greatly help ourselves by reducing rigidity and increasing adaptability, becoming more responsive than merely deliberate, learning to be less distracted and more focused. Cultivating these traits of character helps us, especially the young, to survive. Remaining confused does not pay. Gaining advantage does.
That is all I wanted to share with our maturing generation, in whose hands Sakartvelo will soon rest. And ruling a nation is no easy task.
You must be ready to take over, mustn’t you?
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
