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We always want to be more than we are.

No big surprise. It is human nature. It is the quality that leads to growth, evolution, progress and all those wonderful things.

It is what has led to such astonishing heights of human development. To reach the farthest reaches of our galaxy has inspired us to first reach the moon. To understand the nature of the vast universe, we have begun to unravel mysteries at the sub-atomic level. To understand the meaning of life, we have delved into some rather scary depths of the mind.

It is also the reason we have created superheroes, who, in our imagination, are capable of feats far beyond human limitations. It would be rare to find a child who has not wished, at some point, to have some sort of such remarkable abilities: To fly, to move faster than a speeding bullet, to perform incredible acrobatic feats, or maybe just to wear a funky costume.

The point is that people achieve what they do in life by aiming for something beyond their reach. That adage is true: Aim for the moon and you’ll at least hit the tree.

Now, zooming in to a more personalized view, this trend is true even in individual lives. Leaving behind the big pictures of accomplishments of humanity, let’s take a look at the struggle for accomplishments of humans. Every day, people change their own lives by realising that they want to achieve more; do things beyond what they always do; prove to themselves that they are capable of more than what they think they are.

Epiphanies on toilet seats are no myth. That fateful morning when one wakes up and finds that spark of courage, somewhere in the sub-conscious, to strive to push one’s way out of the hum-drum of yesterday into the tingling excitement of a brand-new today, flinging out the window the fears of tomorrow, is a must in everyone’s life. You’ve got to try it!

This is the stuff that turns a civil engineer into a sand sculptor; a thoracic surgeon into a painter of exquisite portraits; a lawyer into the foremost of actors.

Sure, there is always that disappointment of not really getting as far as one would like; to not really make so much of a difference as one had hoped; to not quite be 'super'. There are no superheroes. However, I have found that I would rather be happier having risked it than be complacent having been safe.

How does one explain this to a generation from a generation ago?

Always live with a safety net.
Always won’t before the will.
Caution from an unknown angel.
Known devil’s a better pill.

When 'advice' like this, pretending to be a protective shield, behaves like an entangling net holding one back from moving, one is left with a question: What the hell do I do?

Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them?

Sigh! It is a tale told by an idiot.