Important Questions In Life (Part 3)

Welcome back! I hope you have the chance to think through the question “What is the most important thing to do?” There is no right or wrong answer here. Some may say that it’s to do good, to be kind, to give your best, to help others in need and so on. Different people have different views as to what is the most important thing to do. Let me share with you the answer that I have learnt, it is “to care”…

Many will wonder why “to care” is the most important thing to do. Initially I was also puzzled but I finally understood after thinking long and hard. To care is the fundamental value in everything that we do or think.

Caring is the underlying value that enables us to become better persons. When we care, we will naturally put in effort to do the best that we can, to give love and kindness, to be generous, helpful etc. Just think about what you do if you care for a person? You will make sure that the person is well cared for and that his/her needs are met. You will try your best to make the person happy etc, right? On the other hand, if you don’t care about a person, you will not be concerned with the person’s well-being at all and can’t be bothered with that person.

The “to care” attitude applies to the things we do as well. If a person doesn’t care about his work, it’s quite certain that he will perform terribly at work. His attitude will also be bad. If a student doesn’t care about his/her studies, that student is most likely to fail in exams and not learn much in school. Even if a person who doesn’t care is being instructed to do something, the result will be a shoddy job done because he/she doesn’t care. So, when we care, we will put in effort to do our best in everything that we do, no matter what it is. We also won’t do anything bad to the person or things that we care about. So because of the caring attitude, you are guided to become a better person.

The most important thing in the process of caring is where we are coming from. If we care with sincerity from our heart, the recipients will be able to feel it. Sometimes when we meet people who are very caring, we can feel it even though they don’t have to say or do much. This is because they really care from their heart, so we know it and appreciate it.

One point to note is that when we care, it doesn’t mean that we have to be passive or submissive. We have to care in a wise way. That means we don’t just care without thinking, to the extent of being taken advantage of. I will illustrate this point with a story tomorrow. So keep a look out for my next post!

~ Mong Ling