Living Life Is Not EASY!
My wife and I in Dallas, TX
I'm not saying that we all have to be superstars, but it sure does feel like it!
Life and growing up has been a challenge for many of us. Many of us are entering our 20s, or if you’re like me, you are almost halfway through your 20s. Currently being 23, I have come to feel bland sometimes. Mainly due to society's pressure of always having more. Honestly, I have accomplished many things in my few years, but sometimes it is always that feeling of needing more. We need more of this and we should have more of that. Some say that the decisions we make in our twenties set us up for the rest of our lives. So far, I am beginning to believe that. For today we are focusing on “What does it mean to be accomplished?”. That is our big question.
Accomplishment may be at times a superficial or surface level thing. Maybe such as an award or item. For some it is your mentor telling you a job well done. Now we compare it to a statistic. Maybe it is measured in likes or views or in some cases just scores. Nonetheless, these are the initial steps to feeling accomplished. Let’s transition to the idea of comparison. We may begin to compare our current lives to the lives of others around us. Such as seeing what one person has on social media and comparing what we may or may not have compared to the other person’s possessions. Almost a feeling of lack or a feeling of what “I should have”. Either case our interactions may cause feelings like we have not accomplished what we want.
Accomplishment varies as well. Sometimes I find myself looking at my age and thinking, “What should someone my age have?”. Previously those things would be harder to quantify without the presence of social media, but now there are millions of comparisons online for us. Somewhere I have heard that comparison is the thief of joy. Why do we compare? I am not an expert, but my non-expert opinon is that we use others as a goal line. Almost as a measurement of accomplishment from a scale of “Me to Them”. “Me” being where I am currently in my life to “Them” being where I want to be in life. What I want is for us to break ourselves from this unaccomplished feeling. It first starts with letting go. I know that is easier said than done. We have to let go of the desire to compare ourselves. At the end of the day we want to be better versions of ourselves and not better versions of other people. We owe ourselves that at least.
I say we focus on what we have instead of what we do not have. It is very easy to allow ourselves to fall into the habit of comparison, but it is possible to pull ourselves from it as well. Some new daily habits we can develop is practicing gratitude for what we do have. A practice could be reminding yourself of the good that has come to you before you dive into a hole of comparing. That is why we must be vigilant on not falling into the same spirals of comparison. Yes, I understand that comparison may help motivate some people. Honestly, working towards a goal, because of envy or comparison may leave more empty feelings than fulfillment. Overall, we should try to find drive and motivation within ourselves, but not from comparing our lives with others.
