All too often we tend to use the lives of other people as our gauge to living and even success. We tend to pin the extremism of their materialism on our vision board of what success looks like instead of what our success looks like to us. We shouldn’t compare ourselves to others because their approach to their goals and their access to resources may be clearly different from what’s available to us.
So take what you have, use it, and even revamp it if you have to. But whatever and however you do it, always do your best, look your best, and be your best. You represent you.
Like a runaway train about to derail at any moment, we can get lost in overextending our ambitions. Overly ambitious? Trying to be at the top of your game? This is what society deems as working our way to success.
I saw a quote recently that stated, “You can’t be successful if you can’t handle pressure.” So, when I thought about that particular quote, and frankly I don’t know who wrote it, I saw how this could be slightly misleading. Society tells us that if we work hard then we will succeed. But oh contraire. Sometimes the way things look isn’t always what they are. We get sidetracked trying to measure up and reach those levels of success based on the goalposts and guidelines that others construct for us to follow.
The next thing you know your world comes crashing down, shattered into a million pieces that can’t be put back together again. Why? Because the road leading to someone else’s success may not be the one you need to travel down. You feel like you’re coming apart at the seams or feel shattered like broken glass, and you’re walking on the shards barefoot. It seems like you’re burned out and feel you’ve failed miserably. We sometimes feel like we’re free-falling from an airplane that has reached its maximum altitude with no doors or windows and find ourselves plummeting and splattering to the ground without a parachute.
Do you ever feel like a pressure cooker, and your lid is about to explode through the roof at any second now? Is it simply because you’ve taken on too much and you’re overwhelmed because you haven’t accomplished the things on your goals list on your projected timetable? Where do you go, what do you do, and who can you turn to for relief?
Image Credit: AnnRve
Do exit strategies help to alleviate that pressure or add to it? It’s good to push yourself to an extent but not to send yourself tumbling overboard. As that old saying goes, “Life is a marathon, not a sprint.” Do it for you, not to please someone else or on some standardized term and timetable for your life. When the game is over, let it be over. Get your life back and sharpen your pencil to design your blueprint for success. Don’t put yourself under pressure when you don’t have to.
You no longer have to keep up with the Joneses… They’ve died of exhaustion!
I thought this quote was too cute but so true. I found it on a flyer from a country town restaurant.
I have never been one to try to keep up with the Joneses because number one, I never had the financial capability to do so. Number two, neither did I have the desire to do so. That does not mean, however, that I did not strive for continued personal growth, educational development, and to be a contributor to society in some form with what I had. I didn’t have time to keep up with the Joneses because I was too focused on something a little more meaningful than becoming one of the members of the rich and famous.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe we all strive for self-improvement, but sometimes in that quest, we do not always start on a level playing field. The rules seem to be different depending on who you are and what tribe you are from. Thus, you could never keep up with the Joneses, because the Joneses are operating from a different playbook.
We have become so accustomed to the fact that appearances matter, whether false or true. We try so hard to keep up with the status quo, thinking that if we get our grind on to acquire more materialistic stuff and to present ourselves as the pinnacle of success and wealth, that we have arrived. I think we arrived, to getting lost in the shuffle.
Be the best YOU, not the worst of someone else. š„°
Stuff! What do we worship? Is it true we have an ‘idol’ problem? Many have sold their souls forĀ a chance to buy into that pipe dream of prominence, by exalting ‘gods’ that have been marketed through ourĀ augmented realities. Is it allĀ about the importance of prominence that makes us truly happy?Ā
Image Credit: Karen Arnold
Are we so focused on the success-driven quotient that contentment and gratitude have becomeĀ a non-existent theory? For the love of the more grandiose, the most expensive, the wealthiestĀ set sail on the ocean-linerĀ of narcissism, trappedĀ in the vortex of sea drowning polluted spirits.
Image Credit: Kim Newberg
What has happened to the strong, solid foundationĀ of common decency, respect, compassion, ethics, and love in humanity, when folks are rushing to the finish line of hyped up, apparent greed on an uneven playing field?
Image Credit: Ian L
Do we really trust those things seen as a sign of happiness, a true measureĀ of success, as opposed to the evidence of unseen peace and contentment that becomes a valued testamentĀ to success? Have we idolized things under false pretenses all for the sake of satisfaction?
From Behind the Pen 