Nothing Is Promised

Admit it, nothing is ever promised.

You can plan and plan and things will still never go accordingly.

The biggest lesson one can learn is how to deal with all the uncertainties of life.

To be uncertain is to not be completely confident or sure of something. And, the fear of uncertainty causes many people to never pursue what they truly desire.

For some reason we are our own worst enemy when it comes to holding ourselves back in life.

Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s a dream job, whatever it is we really want, we are terrified to actually go for it.

But, why?

Our desires can be taken away, or we think we don’t deserve them, or we are afraid of rejection - that’s why. There are so many reasons we never just “go for it.”

Things can go from perfect to a complete nightmare in such little time. One small obstacle and it changes the entire course.

As children we dream of our adult lives. We talk about what we will be when we grow up, and how we will live, and what we will do. We talk about future spouses, and dream jobs and our heroes and role models. We lay everything out, but rarely do we end up where we imagined when we were six years old.

Circumstances will forever change the outcome, it’s an uncontrollable variable. And on top of that, we ignore our hindsight for the sake of comfort.

When did we stop simply being ourselves and living our lives?

When did we start comparing ourselves to others seeking a story for our character rather than simply allowing our character to write our story?

It doesn’t take long to recognize that priorities are terribly wrong in this world. We aspire to rational thought, however because we are emotional beings, we often use those emotions as the ruling factor in our decision making processes.

Which isn’t healthy by the way. In order for balance to occur, everything has to be rationalized.

We are conditioned to believe and behave in a way that doesn’t fit human nature. All it does is breed envy, jealousy, and greed. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they all have different meanings. Envy is desiring what someone else has, jealousy is the fear of losing something that you already have possession of, and greed is desiring something by itself - for instance money or power. All these things only build a mindset of scarcity - you know, that feeling like there’s not enough to go around or even feeling entitled to your desires.

Deserving your desires and feeling entitled to them are two completely different things.

And, fun fact, entitlement won’t get you anywhere. First of all, let’s just all agree that it’s definitely not attractive. You look like a whiny child who has never actually put the work in to deserve anything - let’s be real here.

The scarcity mindset is based on the idea that there’s a shortage of something we seek or want. So we either complain about the fact we don’t have it or enough of it, or alternatively we hog it all to ourselves because we are afraid of running out.

And, most of the time, we think about money this way - as sad as it is.

We either don’t have it or there’s never enough. So, we get greedy and sometimes envious of people who have things we don’t.

Such backward thinking. No wonder we are living in a time warp stuck in the 1990’s. For some reason, we just can’t move past the past. We are thinking with our emotions, not our logic. The key is to have a harmonized balance of both.

Let me tell you a story about a girl. This girl grew up having everything she ever wanted. Love, family, wealth, freedom, the world was her oyster. But, having everything in the world still could not make her happy. So, she felt guilty, sad and outcast because she knew she should be happy, but she wasn’t.

Alternatively, there is a story about a boy who grew up in a small town with a small family with a small house. He was employed by the time he was 13 cutting grass for the neighborhood because his single mother could barely afford the bills even while working two jobs. But, every night he made dinner and he and his mother would sit together even if it’s for five minutes and enjoy their moments together. Every time he cut grass he would keep a small fund aside for things he wanted like clothes, gifts, and savings. He eventually saves enough to pay his own way to college. He gets his education, meets people, and eventually finds a job that not only supports himself, but then also buys a home for his mother.

I can go on and on, but I think the point I am trying to get across is pretty clear.

When we are given everything we think that we want, we eventually become unhappy because we start to question if it’s what we even wanted in the first place, or the reality of it is no where near what we imagined.

When life is simple we learn to appreciate what we have, and work towards what we want. We have to move past the fear because fear is a liar.

Once we let go of fear, we become grateful.

Gratitude is one of the most important virtues we possess as humans and it is so valuable.

People forget that a simple “thank you” goes such a long way. I am personally thankful that my parents instilled in me a sense of gratitude and humbleness.

Life is not about me.

Say it.

“Life is not about me.”

Say it louder for the people in the back, I don’t think they heard you.

“LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME.”

Make people say it with you until it gets through their thick skulls.

Practicing gratitude daily is also scientifically proven to improve physical and psychological health, according to Forbes. Apparently, it’s also known to help people sleep better and reduce aggression.

Imagine turning your whole life around by just transitioning the way you think on a daily basis.

Like any change, it’s not going to be easy. It takes a lot of work to be grateful. But it’s a mindset, a different perspective.

So, when we come across obstacles and circumstances that change our overall outcome, the importance of positivity and thankfulness plays a key role.

Nothing is promised.