Sacrifice For Something Nice

It's disappointing there are certain online platforms in which we are denied the right to freedom of speech, because Good Friday is indeed a significant day on the calendar, and really deserves open discussion and transparency around the message it contains. Although I cannot therefore go into details about the significance and reasoning behind Good Friday, I can at least discuss one important word, to which part of the message relates to, because it's about a crucial behavior that we require if we are truly determined to achieve success and happiness in life. Imagine being asked to put your life at risk, or even to sacrifice your life altogether, in order to save others. As a parent myself, I think I can answer for nearly all parents worldwide that they would absolutely sacrifice their own life in order to save their child, or children's lives. The majority of us would do the same for our partner, or maybe our parents, or friends, or other loved ones. Why would we sacrifice ourselves for our children, partner, friends, and loved ones? Simple, because we love them with all our heart, and they mean the world to us. We would be happy to ensure their safety before our own. What if we witnessed a random stranger on the street standing in harm's way, would we risk our own life, and potentially perish, for the sake of saving someone we don't even know? I can't answer for everyone with that question, but one thing is for certain, the percentage of people that would sacrifice themselves, or place their own life at risk, to save a stranger, would be considerably lower than the percentage of people who would sacrifice themselves for their own loved ones and friends. I dare say that most people would likely just stand by and look on in horror. I look at such individuals worldwide such as firefighters, our service men and women, policemen and policewomen, even doctors and nurses who are required to tend those hurt or ill, despite there being the risk of catching a virus such as COVID-19, and how they all place their own lives at risk every single day, in order to save others. To be prepared to sacrifice our own health and life, in order to save and help others, I personally believe that is the greatest form of courage a human can possess.

Sacrifice isn't all about risking our life, or potentially losing our life, in order to save others though. Sacrifice is also the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. It's interesting though, how the vast majority of individuals, whom we share the planet with, aren't even willing to sacrifice anything in life whatsoever, yet in total contrast, there are those who are willing to risk and sacrifice their own lives to save others. One group of individuals live in total selflessness and courage, whilst the other live in selfishness and fear. So what are we even supposed to be sacrificing for anyway, why is there this urgency that we should sacrifice, and why are we living a life of fear and selfishness? Well the first part to answering that question is that we should be sacrificing in life to achieve our goals, along with the happiness and satisfaction we desire. After all, most of us spend our lives constantly whinging and complaining that we are not living the life we desire, that we are constantly unsatisfied and unhappy, and that we never achieve our goals, but yet we don't do anything about it. The second part to this question is that there should be an urgency around sacrificing, because it is our happiness and our future that's on the line, so why are we not prioritizing that in life? The third part to answering that question is that too many of us base our life around greed, through being constantly driven by money and material things, instead of focusing on helping, uplifting, supporting, inspiring, and encouraging others.

For many of us, we get bursts of satisfaction, happiness, and enjoyment, in life through spending time with our children, spending time with our partner, spending time with our friends, treating ourselves to a new purchase, spending time on the couch watching Netflix or our favorite television shows, going on holidays, and all these sort of activities that can range from a few minutes, to maybe a few weeks. In the scheme of things though, that's all they are, bursts of satisfaction, happiness, and enjoyment. As far as our overall life is concerned though, most of us aren't happy, we aren't satisfied, and we aren't fulfilled. It could be one aspect of life that's making us miserable, such as our job, or it could be several aspects on top of that, such as our finances, our relationship, and our health. So despite giving ourselves these regular bursts of happiness, overall, we are disappointed and miserable in life. The problem is that too many of us aren't prepared to sacrifice the short term bursts of happiness, for long term happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment. We won't give up our Netflix or our favorite television shows to instead spend time on working on the actions that are leading us to our goals. We won't give up those regular weekends we go out with our mates, to again be working on the actions that are leading us to our goals. We won't resist going shopping for designer clothes or the new phone on the market, to instead save our money to invest in our future. We won't resist getting off the couch, snacking on chips whilst scrolling through social media on our phone, to instead get out and do some exercise to keep fit and healthy. It's with all these type of activities that we should be sacrificing, yet we don't, and then we wonder why we never achieve our goals, we never have money, and we are constantly feeling unhappy and unsatisfied in life.

We have these wonderful life changing goals that we would love to achieve, and we have this vision in our head of how we would love our future to look, and yet we don't bother even working towards them. Are we honestly that foolish to believe that if we sit tight, and not change a thing that we are doing, that our goals and long term happiness will magically come to us? Now, I would honestly think that along with our health, our happiness should be in our top two biggest priorities in life, surely? I mean, what's the point of receiving the blessing of life when we are going to spend our days being constantly unhappy and unsatisfied? That's not living, that's merely existing. With life though, anything you want to achieve or be rewarded with, you need to work hard for it. Just as when we were a baby, we had to work so hard just to learn how to walk, as we continually faced the constant pain in falling over time and time again, but we kept going because we wanted to walk so badly. We sacrificed ourselves to go through all that pain, all that bruising, all that bleeding, and all those tears, all because we were determined to walk. Fast forward to being an adult, and we can't even pry our butt off the couch to even do exercise, such is how lazy we have become. If you want happiness, success, satisfaction, prosperity, fulfillment, and goals accomplishment, then not only do you have to work extremely hard to earn them, you have to also give up the activities that aren't leading you towards them. You have to sacrifice these short term bursts of happiness and satisfaction.

The thing with these short term bursts of happiness and satisfaction also is they are continually in our face, always tempting and enticing us. We are always faced with the choice of giving in to this temptation, or remaining steadfast in focusing on the less enjoyable, yet more productive and beneficial activities, that are working towards our goals. We honestly should feel ashamed of ourselves in the knowledge that we can't sacrifice the likes of Netflix, television, or hanging out with friends, in order to pursue our goals, whilst there are men and women around the world who are prepared to risk and sacrifice their own life just to save you and I. Funnily enough, we still have the audacity to whinge and complain we never get what we want in life. The key to sacrifice lies in something I mentioned above. I talked of how we would be prepared to risk and sacrifice our own life to save our friends and loved ones, and we would do so because we love them with all our heart. Why? Because they are extremely important to us, they mean everything to us, their safety and welfare is a priority to us. The question is, why isn't our happiness a priority to us? Why aren't our goals a priority to us? It's because, for too many of us, our goals don't hold enough importance. There is nothing within our goals that provide us with that drive and inspiration that would make us want to sacrifice for them. We need more substance in our goals, something with more meaning and something in which we have a strong emotional attachment to. Too many people don't value their own happiness enough, and their goals don't truly drive them. It's evident in people's actions, because if their happiness and goals truly meant something to them, they would be prepared to make sacrifices in order to achieve them. Sadly, most people don't make sacrifices, they make excuses. They can't be bothered applying themselves, especially over a number of years, and they expect that life will eventually hand them the happiness and the goals they desire. They refuse to give up their time, their assets, their energy, their money, and their short term pleasures, for the sake of their long term happiness and satisfaction, because they don't want to work for it, or wait for it. So that begs a couple of questions to you today, on this day renowned for sacrifice. Do you truly prioritize your goals and happiness in life, and if so, what sacrifices are you prepared to make in order to achieve those goals and long term happiness? Remember, it's about giving up something valued and important, for the sake of something more worthy and valuable. It's a necessity to sacrifice for something nice!

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