It’s hard to feel okay with where you are in life these days. We see constant snippets in social media where people are becoming successful much faster. It could be something small – such as succeeding in their healthy lifestyle goals. Or something much larger such a leaving their 9 to 5 job and becoming an entrepreneur.
More people are pursuing their passion and choosing happiness. In fact, I’m struggling with this right now as I try to discover my passion or purpose in life. You can only imagine how I feel when I see others who are born knowing the answer to that question.
As such, we have become surrounded by narratives created by influencers, who are happy and successful. Something boomers could never imagine. You can make money and be happy?
Media content like this, every once in a while is motivationalperiodr a period of time, consistently taking in this content, you begin no longer digesting it. You begin questioning your life. Till this point, you’re still okay.
It’s the next moment when you begin falling into a never-ending black hole of negativity. The moment when you begin comparing your life to the influencers you look up to. You become frustrated when you’re unable to emulate their journey. Especially when you see that they’re the same age as you or maybe even younger. The stark difference between where you are in life and where they are hits you like a ton of bricks.
But what we always forget when we’re on social media, is that what is shown to us are only snippets of a story. That each successful person hheir own journey to go through and it was just as hard. We forget that those videos or pictures make something so difficult, look insanely easy. We begin to lose sight of the fact that we need to take steps before we can take leaps. That we all have our own timeline. Seeing a 17-year-old making millions on tick-tock – does not define you or your journey.
While all of this is great, it’s still hard to keep both feet on the ground despite being aware of this issue. There are times when that mental slap is not sufficient and you need to take further steps to prevent yourself from falling into a pit of darkness. You have to take physical action to better understand your own timeline.
- Taking a break from Social Media
This is a common one that is often mentioned. Yet people still underestimate the power of social media. Constantly digesting negative or positive content for hours on end without any control, begins to impact how you think. No matter how much you say it doesn’t affect you – over time you begin to see it take a toll on you.
Your mood becomes easily affected or swayed. You become less grounded. So the first thing I do, when I sense my mood or mental health deteriorating, I deactivate all my social media. Whether it’s for a day or even a month – I take a break from all of the outside noise.
2. Be Grateful
When you’re unable to take a break, you constantly need to remind yourself to not compare your life with another’s. Just as you begin to think of how someone is traveling the world more than you, remind yourself of the times you have traveled. Be grateful for the things you’re going through now while that person is traveling. Maybe you focused more on your work and recently got promoted instead. Perhaps you’re taking the time to relax or heal from stress. All of these are just as important and necessary in a journey. When I’m feeling extremely negative, I go to the notes section on my phone and list three things I’m grateful for. I begin to feel better almost instantly. Changing my focus to something positive and realizing how fortunate I am, always works to control my emotions.
3. Accepting your Journey
Seeing others’ success should make you want to learn. What’s counterintuitive, is when you begin to question or judge your own journey. You begin to regret your past, prior judgments, or even things you had no control over. Learning to accept that yesterday’s events are your past, not your future, is vital. What you do now, defines your tomorrow.
I was sick for several years. It made me miss out on over half of my high school experience and redefined my college experience. My health affected the very years our society puts the most importance upon. Our high school and college years are often labeled as the best time of our lives when we get older.
Of course, you can only imagine how this ideal affected me. I began to hate my past and resent myself for my health. I kept attempting to keep some sense of normalcy by trying to stick to the traditional path. However, it honestly made things harder. When I finally decided to accept my past, and begin to focus on things I had control over – my life changed. I accepted my journey and it amazes me even now that I can say, I don’t regret those years I was sick at all. It made me who I am today. I’m hardly someone that has “made it” in society’s terms, but I am very happy with my present. And to me, that’s the most important reward of my journey. It’s one I hope to continue to achieve throughout my timeline.
Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash
