The world as we know it today, has become more like a village, with mostly social media and television setting the trends at a global level. It is easy for individuals to get sucked up into what is sometimes just utopian fantasy in an attempt to fit in and be relevant. Consequently, thousands or even millions end up living one person’s dream. Needless to say, the pressure then causes many to lose themselves and their identity. It is important, however, to highlight that content does not necessarily need to be controversial to be considered as an unfavorable influence in an individual’s life. How easy is it to stay true to who we really are and fulfill our purpose with so much information and instruction at our disposal?
What is your purpose in life?
To be able to fulfill our purpose, the first thing we need to do is to find what our purpose in life is. An individual’s purpose is nothing out of the ordinary. It is knowing our reason for existence and living according to it. It requires us to identify our talents or strengths which we can develop and use to improve our lives and the life of our dependents without intentionally stepping on other people’s toes.
When the world influences your purpose.
The challenge most people face nowadays is the feeling that who they are is not enough. This is largely a result of flashy lives their peers and the world at large display on social media and, televisions and magazines among other platforms. Consumers of such information then get to a position where they go out of their way to ensure that they ‘improve’ their lives, fit in, and are not left behind. Identity is lost and purpose is forgotten. As much as some people can successfully live according to standards set by the content producers, some find it hard to strike a balance between this popular life and who they really are. Frustrations ensue when the demands seem nearly impossible to meet. This leads us to the next point. How do we remain true to who we are given the situation?
It is easy for anyone to be tempted to give up who they are in order to find easier ways of getting things they dream of. Maybe the question we should ask ourselves is; will we be proud of our achievements and who we have become, afterward? Do we have the peace that allows us to enjoy what we have acquired? To avoid finding ourselves in a position where we are not happy with the answers we give to these questions, who we are or should be and our purpose must be a priority and must also guide what we do and how we do it. What others do or possess should never have the power to redefine us or our purpose. To protect ourselves from unwanted influences, especially content that gets us questioning our good deeds, it is important to be selective. We need to be careful in choosing what we feed our minds and give our attention. Where possible, we must seek inspiration from people who share almost the same life principles. We also need to remember that our life stories are different and what works for some people may not work for us. We need to be patient with ourselves and our loved ones and stop seeking approval from the people around us.
Never sacrifice what gives your life meaning.
Ever heard of the statements not all that glitters is gold and things aren’t always as they seem. This is especially true with most of what we see in the media. Some people are more concerned about keeping up appearances and will do everything and anything to look good for the audience. We need to ask ourselves this question again; is there anything worth sacrificing what gives life meaning for? Although the content we come across is not always controversial, we need to remember that it may still be irrelevant to our situation. We need to avoid unnecessarily allowing other people’s lives to become a part of ours. This relates especially to how we run our relationships and families. We deal with different people who need different levels of attention and it may not be wise to apply everything we read to our own situations.
More to that, we need to learn to fight every sign of uncertainty and self-doubt developing within us. It is important to remember that even knowing the future may not change the present. The fact that life is unpredictable does not mean that we should only expect negatives. As we stay conscious of the fact that challenges are real, we need to enjoy the positives and also have confidence in our ability to deal with challenges. Therefore, for us to be successful in living our purpose, we need to be mentally and physically prepared to find our way through uncertainties and doubts, and, understand that challenges often bring with them lessons that can help us improve our strategies.
