Whitney Houston - wrong choices can cost you the world

Whitney Houston who passed away tragically in a lone hotel room at just 48, was a super star who knew stardom from an early age. She was raised on gospel music and soon found herself singing one hit after another. Following phenomenal success in the USA and the world, Whitney was to know the consequences - life threatening at times - of choosing a wrong style of living. In the end, it cost her everything, as she lay dead all alone.

If there’s anything we can learn from someone who gave up everything she had achieved in a drug induced haze, it is just how wrong, wrong choices could be. What happened to Whitney can happen to anyone - maybe not the whole drug trip but deliberately choosing what you should not be choosing. She had everything - yet, she had nothing when it came to the things that mattered.

Drug abuse

It is easy to lose focus when you have fame and the world at your feet - it is easy not to see the obvious. You start lying to yourself and continue to live a life you know will eventually take its toll. Whether taking drugs, alcohol or engaging in other vices, such as, gambling, first gives you the confidence or the high you need before it slowly takes over your life.

Whitney Houston

Whitney is not the first victim of drug abuse among stars. There were and there will always be others. Amy Winehouse who was full of promise died at a young age from alcohol and drug related issues. There was also Heath Ledger, talented but dependent on drugs that eventually killed him. It seems very lonely at the top - stardom brings with it other issues that if not dealt with, can end up consuming your entire life.

It is not only the stars but mere mortals like you and me who can easily get side tracked if we are not vigilant enough. Bad habits are easy to form but tough to kick. In fact, you can deceive yourself into thinking you are doing no wrong when it is a small wrong thing.

Wrong things are like the small holes made in the cushion. At first it is too small to notice but before you know, the innocent looking small gap has become a large gaping hole that will bring the entire cushion apart at the seams.

Small mistakes

Same thing can happen to human beings. You compromise with the little things and before you know it, the little things have become very very big. Big enough to consume your life, your soul, your very being.

You can lose everything you have spent your whole life building, in a matter of minutes. It is best to refrain from the small things. As Whitney’s life showed the world, small drug use can soon become trouble big time.

There are those among us who have paid dearly for the small mistakes. The chance you should not have taken, the step you should not have missed.

It is too late all too soon and you will only have regrets. In the case of some, they do not die physically but live a non-descriptive existence, wishing they had actually died instead of having to live on as mere shadows of their former selves.

Life is as good as you can make it out to be. For some, stress of a high profile career and fame, as was the case with Whitney Houston and countless other super stars, comes with a price. If it isn’t drugs or alcohol, it is infidelity or marital trouble, with marriages lasting mere days. Hollywood is full of such sham marriages that deny the very purpose of matrimony. Yet again, it is the price of fame and stardom that you miss out on the simple but precious things in life.

Whitney could have used her talent, her wealth, her privileged position as one of music’s leading ladies and her sheer aura that we all saw in her famous movie ‘The Bodyguard’ to good use. She would still have been among the living and her young daughter would not have missed her mother so soon. Now that she is no more with us, we can only hope that she is at peace in death than she was in life.

Price of stardom is not worth paying - as stars before Whitney and undoubtedly after her, will show the world. If you cannot handle the pressure of a high profile career, fame or the stress, you should perhaps get out early, before the storms set in. There are stars who have escaped the vicious cycle of abuse and stress, those who have gone on to live normal lives.

We need to keep in mind the lessons the Hollywood stars teach us when they fail. Life is but worth in its simple but profound things - in the smile of your little daughter, the twinkle in the eye of your son…the way your spouse holds your hand… the values you sometimes take for granted but keep you firmly anchored on ground. Treasure them - they are what makes life worth living.