We all have this assumption that the people we associate with – our family members or colleagues – are extremely successful; we think they are doing better than us, we think they own more than we do and or go to places that we could only dream of going to one day.
I’m sure we all think about this at some time. And for many, just the thought of knowing how far you have come, or how hard you try to make an honest living daily, knowing you have not attained your personal success it eats you up, just because you envy someone else’s lifestyle. In most cases, we are misled by other people’s materialistic success and this keeps us in a race that is way bigger than us, which eventually leads us into a web. I have come to understand this thing we are in, this thing called life, has many routes that require our discernment.
And as much as we think other people are better off than us, we should not be bullied by what we want to see as a measure of success in other people’s lives. To be honest, everybody on this planet, every day if not every hour, is still just trying to make it. Every day people are hustling. Every day people are strategising and trying to find new ways to make it. Someone we think has made it already is also having sleepless nights every night because they too within their hearts know that they have not achieved what they want in life.
Who knows, maybe they even cry themselves to sleep while you are there thinking they’re better off. You could be going to bed peacefully if you could only stop comparing yourself and your achievements, as everybody has their own measurement to their success.
It’s not up to us to determine. If you keep standing on the sideline, keeping an eye on people, you might be wasting your own time by being carried away with the spirit of competition.
I say rather have a spirit of a finisher. Be the kind of person who understands their own race and be in no competition with anyone but yourself. Look around you and appreciate what you have managed to acquire already through hard work, because every day brings you a step closer to what you want out of life.
This is a secret only known by each individual. Let’s be honest with ourselves and start living within the means of what we can afford and not what we dream of affording. I know the statement of ‘fake it till you make it’ goes through your mind daily but faking something will only lead you to unhappiness.
Nghoshi Serron youth activist and motivational speaker. Follow him on social media or email
serronnghoshi@gmail.com.
