The Fruits of Your Labour

Congratulations! There are so many success stories which are down played and unappreciated. Why is this? On a personal note, I have, still and forever will graciously fist pump when I stop the microwave timer at 00:01 seconds. It is important to not compare the magnitude of our own successes with others. Everyone's perspective is different, I believe the saying is "one man's trash is another man's treasure", this is relevant in all circumstances and it's about time you give yourself a round of applause for all the things that you do.

The expectations set by society are NOT tied to personal expectation. Whilst reading this, think back to all the things you have achieved in your life to date. The conditions set by our economy means that we live to please others as opposed to ourselves. Even the idea of making our families and friends proud takes away self indulgence to appease the thoughts of others. If we take a look at social media use, the achievements published online are more or less shown because those who are able to see it can sign their seal of approval with a simple 'Like' or 'Favourite' click of a button followed by a comment. So what about those who do not approve?

Surely not every single person in the world credits the time and effort it took to pass a driving test or lose a stone or two of weight in a short period of time. So why is validation from others so important to us? My answer to that is simple; it is not. It only appears this way simply because of social construct. There are many factors which contribute to individuals seeking approval from others, however, going back and forth with the topic is not going to help a person grow as an individual. Whilst I can acknowledge that acceptance from others can be a massive confidence boost; particularly from those closest to us, it should not cloud the importance of self-praise. The things we as individuals do in our lives should be first appreciated and validated by ourselves before we give importance to the views of others.

I remember when I was younger, my mum gave me the keys to the house for the first time, I felt like I achieved something special in regards to my growth as I had accomplished maturity and dare I say.. I became a man that day.. All for it to be crushed by someone saying to me "it's just a key". I regret taking that to heart and letting it effect my judgement of the situation because to me it was not just a key, it was a whole lot more and in this life time, everything an individual does is special, every second passed is a milestone which should be recognised and in truth, celebrated.

I mentioned earlier that whilst reading this I want you to think back to all the achievements in your life to date. This is important because you can now differentiate whether these achievements provided worth to your personal expectations or societies expectations. There are so many things that we do in our lives but brush out of the canvas of our mind after a short period of time, simply because it does not hold weight to the expectations set by society. This is a bad habit that we need to eradicate from our thought patterns as human beings, especially considering the rise in demands which society submits to as time goes on.

Let's celebrate our lives whilst we are still able to pump blood from our beating hearts. Self indulgence, in moderation, is a beautiful feeling. The great thing about appreciating the finer details of our lives is that it can rub off on our perspectives of everyday life; what may have seemed as a set back can actually just be part of the process for the big win! Think about it.

I conclude with a short message. Everything you have done to date has been amazing. Everything you are going to do in this life is a success story. Remind yourself of this every once in a while because it does not matter what others think of you, it is all about what you think of yourself. Enjoy the fruits of your labour because life is what YOU and only you make it.

Embrace Life. Love Life. Live Life.