The walk through an orchard

Someone once said life is like walking through an orchard with the task of picking out the biggest apple you can lay eyes on, and leaving with it. You could pick up any apple without limits, but must exchange it with what you have so that you can only hold onto one at any point in time. You can only move in one direction and cannot turn back.

This explains the anxiety of opportunity cost. We’re afraid that we’re settling too early and missing out on bigger apples further down the path. Simultaneously we’re afraid that we’re being too greedy and end up dropping the biggest apple irretrievably, and we will constantly mourn it while holding onto a much smaller and disappointing one. Opportunity cost and regret paralyse us at crossroads where we have to make important decisions.

These apples range across every aspect of our “success” — is this relationship “The One”, is this the best job combining our passion and purpose into “Ikigai” — and it seems the older we grow the more we learn to regret things.

I have come to realise that it doesn’t matter to me whether the apple I have is the biggest in the orchard. I have no need for it if it is too much for me to hold. All I want is to be happy with that apple I chose, that fits in my palms just right, that is good enough to make me happy. Then, I will hang on to it and keep my eyes on the path rather than scouring around for the next big opportunity. At the end of the day I just need to be content with the apple of my picking, save myself the trouble of worrying and tunnel-visioning. I would rather take the time to enjoy the rest of the walk through the orchard.