Source: Flickr by Scott Maxwell
It can be hard to live life in 2023. Technological advancements have seen humans progressing at a breakneck speed. It really can all be a bit much! Especially when we are constantly made to feel like we are not good enough and that we should always want more for ourselves.
But what is ever enough?
When we seek more and more things, do we lose a sense of who we are?
We Are Individuals
Each and every one of us is an individual, from our personality, our likes and dislikes, to the way we cope with life.
Life would be boring if we were all the same!
Just think, how our lives would be without music, art, sport, or all the individual skills that makeup society? Yet right from the start, we found ourselves funnelled into an education system full of targets and milestones. One that expected us to achieve the same things, all by a given time, and viewed us as somehow deficient when we fell short.
But we are humans and not robots!
Is it right that we are forced to compete? Or would it be better if we were appreciated for our individual characteristics and skills? We should be appreciated for being an individual.
Also, it is important for us to recognise our place in the grand puzzle of life.
Collective Thinking
As well as being individuals, we are also a part of a wider society and a great big world. We should always remember this before we do anything so that we can consider how we impact our society.
It REALLY isn’t all about me! However, I am still important (Hmmm quite the contradiction, I know).
Yeah well, we all need to think of how we can best fit ourselves into the collective. How do our skills fit? How can we use these skills for the benefit of others, and not just for personal gain? As this quote so rightly says:
Edgar Cahn
Or as my wise (late) grandmother once said, “Sharing is caring“. We get great satisfaction from sharing our skills with others.
The miracle is this: The more we share the more we have.
Leonard Nimoy
OK, so media messaging wants us to be selfish, wants us to think of ourselves- because then we will be fully subscribed members of world consumerism. We propel technology and speed up progress; as well as lining a few pockets along the way.
But isn’t life about more than money and wealth?
Final Thoughts
Life is like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Although it is the hardest and most complex puzzle ever, it need not be so tough. If we remember that we are individuals, with all our skills, working together, then we aren’t attempting this puzzle alone. As I said in an earlier article “Our crazy world isn’t going anywhere” (just yet). We need to start working together so that we get to see a future.
Collectively we can conquer, when on our own we may fall.