Question Your Assumptions // Show Up for Yourself // Excess Is Unnecessary
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Question Your Assumptions
Revisiting the notions that we have about ourselves, others, and the world can be a massively beneficial exercise for personal evolution. When we actually step back and question the things we hold to be true, we find ourselves in a place where new realizations can be birthed and new perspectives built. Oftentimes we even hold outdated or flat out incorrect views simply because we haven't made the intention to dissect them, leaving them dormant in our minds.
Ask yourself from time to time: "Why is this situation/myself/person the way they are?" "How can I look at this another way?" "What is this trying to reach me that I didn't realize before?" Turn assumptions into conclusions based on reason.
Fundamental questions such as these can be so powerful to ask. Try it next time you find yourself in a difficult situation.
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Show Up for Yourself
Have you ever noticed that when someone expects something from you, you tend to prioritize their request over other tasks that you set for yourself? Eventually it becomes easy to spend your life acting as a puppet instead of a sovereign person. When you live like this, it is you subduing your own goals and desires. For what? A lack of respect for yourself.
I know how extreme this sounds; I was surprised when I heard this myself and I hesitated even phrasing it like that and publishing it. But as I thought more and more about it, the truer it rang. We tend to be our own worst critic and abstain from going after what we want in fear of what others might think. As if having personal priorities is not a priority. In short, that is a lack of respect for ourselves. If we heard someone else talk about our own goals as if they were their own, we’d encourage them and then some. But when we say those same goals to ourselves, we don’t follow through with them- again, from embarrassment, lack of organization in our lives, whatever the reason is.
So show yourself some love, chase that which calls out to you, and mean it. Actually do it and see how things turn out. Those are the steps that create a blissful life.
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Excess Is Unnecessary
What do you need to live?
We tend to think in terms of salary, housing, pleasures, etc. While these are by no means things to be avoided, we just as much go overboard with them. Basically, despite being at a comfortable place, we seek more and more. An extra $10,000 on top of an already handsome $60,000, or a bigger house just because your current one is already lived in, or a new iPhone because yours is two years old. Past a certain point, we already have everything we need yet we continually seek out more. Western culture has ingrained in us this idea of pursuing more because what we have will never be enough.
But what we do have is enough. As long as you’re at a place in life where all of your needs are comfortably met, you don’t need more. Excess is a trap. Invest in knowledge and experiences instead. Chasing after materialistic things is one of the quickest and easiest way towards discontentment, not the contrary. You don’t need much to be happy, remember that.
