Is it okay to just be okay?
It feels like everyone is rushing around educating themselves, promoting themselves, and working hard to achieve goals and dreams and wealth and status.
Is it ever okay though to just be content with a life of ease instead of achievement?
You can feel you are lazy if you aren’t working, raising a family, building a side hustle, gaining clout on social media, and being so busy you can’t even think about what you already have.
There is so much going on in the world right now. Everything is moving so quickly, it’s like being in the middle of a tornado feeling helplessly swept away while compelled to keep whirling at a high rate of speed.
At some point the tornado might spit you out and your life will suddenly slow down. Very often a physical illness or stress overload will force you out of the race, and then feelings of failure or loss can creep in.
This doesn’t happen to everyone, but it will happen to many. Some people manage to never get off the treadmill, but then when they ultimately retire they have no idea how to slow down.
Anything that takes you out of the rat race, whether by your own choice or not, can challenge your beliefs about who you are right to the core.
Identifying yourself with what you do instead of who you are is a common way of life in this society.
If what you do changes, then who you feel you are changes with it. Identifying with something outside of you can cause a disconnect with your true self, the self who is here to live a conscious existence full of discovery and exploration.
We can feel less than complete because we aren’t as rich or successful as people around us. It’s not a healthy view to have, and the increase in anxiety and mental illness in society can possibly be caused in part by the feeling that we need to be someone who we are not.
We think we know ourselves, but when faced with a life-altering challenge we can discover that we have no idea who we truly are inside. Losing a job or a spouse or having someone close to you pass away are moments when the self that you really are is exposed.
This can be terrifying.
Seeking an identity that exists outside of you will never be an authentic way of life. Defining yourself in terms of achievements or material wealth is limiting who you are and what you bring to this existence.
It’s so normal in our world that you feel disregarded as unimportant if you don’t have money or some level of recognition in society.
If you lost everything today, would you still be who you think you are?
Is any of this important though? Is it not possible to just live in a continual state of striving and never arriving, of always wanting what we don’t have, and of needing to be more than we are?
Of course it is. Lots of people do it. It just isn’t a very peaceful way to exist.
They say be careful what you wish for because you may get it. The achievement of certain goals can bring a level of satisfaction for a moment, but then we feel compelled to move on to the next thing. We are continually living for a future moment when we will finally have what we feel we need to be complete.
This life can be peaceful. We are here to create. We are here to think things into existence, to find what allows us to feel joy and peace in every moment. Wanting more than what you already have is not a problem, but needing it is.
Take it easy. Get out of the tornado and take a moment to appreciate where you are right now and what you already have. Find a way to know that even if you had nothing, you would still be you.
Peace is attained in discovering our true selves and being okay with who that is.