We can often be hard on ourselves, or is it just me?
I was chatting to a friend who seemingly felt like he was behind in a certain aspect of his life.
After my efforts to convince said friend that he was certainly not lagging, he did not really agree with me.
You can’t convince a firm believer I suppose, but that discussion pointed me to the bigger picture.
ALSO READ : In my View: It’s a man’s world
My point is that we create expectations, handcraft our life’s path, pop it into a box and top it with a pretty bow.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have plans and dreams.
These plans usually start around high school, where you’re told to work hard, get into a tertiary institution, find a job and live a perfect life.
The truth is, when you’re still in high school and more or less sheltered from the adult world, it seems attainable.
The problem begins when you enter the real world and reality hits, very hard.
Most of us look at our lives in retrospect and realise that we may not be where we thought we would a couple years ago.
Remember the infamous question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Well, my answers were very far off, but that’s the reality of this whole situation.
Life happens, things change and sometimes we have to put our plans on hold.
Whether it be family conflict, financial strain, emotional trauma or anything else, you cannot be too hard on yourself.
That is the way life works, you have to take the lows along with the highs.
What is most important however, is that you don’t give up.
The moment we stop being so hard on ourselves will be the moment that life gets easier.
Consider someone drowning or fighting their way against the current, it’s a struggle but calmness makes the situation easier.
The same principle applies to our own lives.
If we stop looking back and stop racking our brains over what should have been, we are able to focus on the present and future.
Instead of fighting against the current, we need to flow with it, with grace and ease.
We spend so much time focusing on the negatives and shortfalls that we forget to celebrate or appreciate the little victories that we have achieved along the way.
Ran into problems at work? It’s okay, learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Put your studies on hold to take care of some personal issues? It’s okay, get back into it as soon as you are able to.
Stop asking yourself where everything went wrong.
Rather breathe, relax and push forward because the truth is that you are exactly where the powers above intended you to be.
Speaking of relaxing, I hope we haven’t forgotten about Mother’s Day which is just around the corner.
For those of us who still haven’t gotten down to getting mother dearest a gift, fear not because we still have a little time left.
On a serious note, Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms out there.
Thank you all for the lessons, the care, and most importantly, the love.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
