A Message To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind In Life

How many sleepless nights have you spent blaming yourself for not being more successful, richer, or just better? How many times have you thought that nothing you do is ever good enough?

Well, my friend, I think you’re forgetting to give yourself permission to be a human being.

You’re failing to realize that life happens – the beautiful, sad, and ugly moments. And that’s something which is beyond your control.

You’re failing to realize:

You don’t need more motivation.

I believe the following situation is familiar to you: you see other people achieving their goals and becoming successful, and you feel like you aren’t doing enough. You feel like you’re stuck. And you think the reason why you’re falling behind is that you lack motivation so you try to find it wherever you can.

Well, if you think that you can read enough articles and inspirational quotes about life on the internet and that this will generate the necessary motivation in you to take action, you’re terribly wrong. If you’re not satisfied with where you are in life now, don’t expect that some inspirational quotes will change that.

Of course, there are times when things don’t turn out to be like you expect them to, but that’s normal. We’ve all been there. But, if you’re giving your best and you’re still unable to make any progress, that’s not because you’re incapable or you lack inspiration. That happens because the timing isn’t right. You put  your ideas and plans into action in the best timing.

You can’t control everything.

You can’t control what happens in life, nobody can. You can’t just snap your fingers and turn your motivation on. Sometimes things don’t work well. Sometimes life happens. You make mistakes, fail, experience heartbreak, and lose someone close to you. But, these are all valuable lessons life teaches you. They make you stronger and resilient and they create the person you’ll become tomorrow.

No matter how hard you try to control things, you can’t. You can work on something, be that a painting, an article, a novel, and the list is endless, until the early hours every day but if the ideas don’t come and if it’s not the right time, you’ll never get them finished.

Sometimes they can’t be finished because you haven’t found the inspiration for it yet. Sometimes you need two or three years more of life experience before you can add something new to your masterpiece and turn it into something that will stand out and feel genuine to others. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because you still have to discover many things about yourself.

You are as you are until you are not.

You live trying to control every aspect and outcome of your life and when you fail to do so you feel like you’re falling behind. You forget that life is unpredictable and there’s nothing you can do to change this.

You try to find the shortcut to success because you see other people have. But, those people you see progressing have also been left behind at some point or another. Changes and success don’t happen overnight.

You will change in the timing that is best. You owe it to yourself to break your bad habits and create healthy ones. You have a responsibility to create new opportunities which will help you grow personally and professionally. And until that happens, let yourself show up and act in the present moment as you are.

One day, this moment will make sense.

Many people may aren’t aware but the most of our unhappiness is a result from the belief that our lives should and could have been different. You are dissatisfied with your life because you believe you should’ve been prettier, smarter, and more successful. But, life doesn’t work like that.

Instead of thinking about your life this way and feeling disappointment and bitterness, what you should do is to put in effort and do your best so as to remove the things standing in the way towards your happiness and success.

You need to learn to turn your mistakes and failures into lessons. You need to learn to accept and cherish every opportunity life offers you. You need to stop listening to people who are in different life circumstances than you telling you that you’re not doing enough.

You need to understand that your unhappiness now becomes inspiration later and that where you’re now shapes the person you’ll become tomorrow.

We can’t game it.

You can’t control the things life has in store for you. Sometimes you’re not the person you need to be so as to preserve the desires and dreams you have.

So, instead of making yourself miserable by focusing on the pursuit of your goals, why don’t you just chill out? Why don’t you take a step back for a moment and let your life takes its course. Trust the path you are on now and know that all this will make sense in the future.

Image: Anis Haddad