Pause, take a moment, and step back from your life. Ask yourself the following questions:
What are you doing, where are you heading, and why?
Who am I, who are you?
What defines each of us as individuals?
Do our jobs define who we are?
Does what we do with our free time define who we are?
Why should I even care what this greater definition is?
Life is a confusing playground and we all play our little roles. I find myself taking a step back from everything from time to time, just to listen. I listen to my surroundings and I listen to my inner self. This is a very important part of the growing and self discovery process. I believe we need to take a step back and reflect upon our lives to determine if we like who we are.
What do we want to do with our lives? Do we want to touch the world in some special way and make a difference? Do we just want to get by and live our lives with minimal effort and enjoy a simple quiet existence? Most people would opt for the first option. It's a common romantic idea, this being special and making a difference. It gives us a sense of self purpose and a reason for existing. It also makes us unique in a world where most lives seem to be cookie cutter, though since most people seem to desire or attempt this, it becomes less unique.
Whatever type of person you are, you just need to establish a goal. You need to define it and roll over the idea in your head until you really understand what it is. Once this has been established then comes the difficult part, we have to look at what we are doing and what we have done. This part of the self reflection is painful and depressing sometimes because we often find that we are doing nothing to move towards our romantic dream. We feel as though our lives have become stagnant and we lose our sense of accomplishment. What you do once you come to this realization is what defines us.
Do you find your life becoming one big party? You float around day to day, maybe even working, but not really doing anything of any real merit. Do you vegetate in front of the TV or even behind a good book soaking up other people's creative spirit, but lack the ambition or drive to create your own? Do you hide behind your job, using it as a sense of accomplishment but feel totally unsatisfied when the work day is over. Do you drink until you’re out of control, because only then do you feel free of your boring existence. Is the purpose of your life just to keep going through the motions until you die? Does any of this really make us happy, or are we just sedating our human spirit.
I look at my friends and acquaintances that I have surrounded myself in life and take measure of their lives and accomplishments. Do I find myself impressed, embarrassed, or jealous of their actions? Looking at the lives of the people around us can give us a little insight into who we are, it can even show us who we don't want to be! In the end we can only look within ourselves though and take stock of what we do with our lives.
Life changes are difficult and never easy. Looking at ourselves from a subjective point of view we sometimes don't like what we see and in that self disgust we bulk at the very concept and reject the reflections of ourselves. I challenge you to make such reflections and be honest with what you see and not reject them out of fear. Comfort zones are only zones, don't let a comfort zone consume your life and leave you crippled. A lot of us have great potential behind our eyes that is waiting to be released upon the world, and this will only happen through self discovery and active life changes. Do you feel you have a destiny in life, then make it happen! If you sit around waiting for life to happen, we will quickly find ourselves old and with little precious time left to do anything about it.
I have looked at my life, I saw some things that I liked and I saw other things that I didn't like. I waded through the depression that engulfed me when I came to the realization that I was not happy with the direction my life was heading and I came through to the other side and started to make changes and plans. I challenge anyone that was able to read and follow this reflection to do the same. I truly believe we can reach our potential and hopes and dreams, we just have to get in the driver’s seat of our lives and stop being passengers.
What is your greater definition? Are you a driver or a passenger and what are you going to do about it? Let me know what you think, leave a comment!
