ARE YOU MISSING THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER?

Excellence is measured not only by accomplishments, but by balance, presence, and the ability to savour life along the way

- BY MICHAEL GUZDER | Special to Gulf News

I often find myself reflecting on whether we — adults and children alike — truly have the chance to enjoy life amid schedules, screens, and endless deadlines.

Life is not a 100-metre dash, and not everyone was born to shatter records or hoard accolades. While ambition and achievement matter, our obsession with success risks sprinting past the very life we are meant to inhabit.

Life wasn’t always this frantic. Back then, time moved at a gentler pace: growing up in Allahabad, afternoons drifted at the speed of a ceiling fan — deliberate, measured, generous. Later, as a young teacher in Pune, evenings stretched into billiards games, idle chatter, and long-playing Beatles records.