Nike is about to release a brand new pair of shoes. You have been waiting for them for months. You saved up all your lunch money and did extra chores in order to have enough to purchase them. They are all you think about. They are the topic of all of your conversations. You picture how they are going to look with your outfit, what others will say, what kind of picture you will take for social media. Your life will be perfect once you get these shoes. The day comes and you are first in line. You try on a pair and they fit like a glove. You are ecstatic. You go to the counter, pay and wear them out of the shoe store. Months pass and you’ve done all that you have dreamt of with them. You’ve gotten all the likes and comments you were itching for. You paired them with all the matching outfits. As the months continue by, you push them further and further into your closet. They make an appearance once or twice a month but the excitement is dwindling down. Next thing you know, they have sat in your closet for 6 months collecting dust. Those once exciting shoes are now a thing of the past. You’re watching YouTube and see an ad for another pair Nike is releasing in three months. The emotional roller coaster starts again.
From the surface it may look like you wanted the shoes. But the truth is you were searching for the feeling those shoes would give you. The pride you felt while wearing them. The validation you got from your peers. You were at your happiest when others could see them. If you got to purchase them but the catch was no one in the world was allowed to know you have them, would it have been as exciting? This is the issue with using material things to bring you that superficial joy. Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy worldly things. There are some amazing items out there and lots of them are really fun to own. However, once you get in the cycle of always wanting the new, the best, the flashiest, the most expensive, and wanting more and more, you will never have genuine peace and happiness in your life. At this point, you have tied your worth to your material possessions, when in reality those material possessions are worthless. So does this make you worthless? The key to getting out of this cycle is finding that same feeling in things that add priceless value to your life. Because like I said, you weren’t chasing the shoes, you were chasing the feeling. That same feeling can come from things in life that are more meaningful, if you train your mind to do so.
I speak from experience. I was the one chasing the shoes, the clothes, the jewelry, the cars, the electronics, the validation. These material possessions made up who I was. The person I projected to the world. They got me the following and the likes. They got me the acceptance I was looking for. What they never gave me was peace. Once I put the energy into things that mattered such as love, family, self development, spirituality, animals, hobbies, the environment, making the world a happier place, I started to find real peace. I started to feel all the feelings I was searching for in material things. This time the feelings were real.
Most of us have a dream job. We picture ourselves doing the work we are passionate about, at a specific company, in an exact location, making a certain amount of money. It’s hard for us to look at any other job opening when this is the one we want. We’ve tailored our resumes, taken job specific certification courses, we have even planned out our finances according to the salary we would make. We go on LinkedIn and see an opening. We apply and to our surprise we get a call for an interview. We are extremely happy. We do mock interviews with our spouse and make sure we have the perfect outfit for that day. By now we are so invested in this job, we see no other way. We have told our friends and families about it and started to restructure our life to fit this new dream job. Interview day comes and you are looking and feeling your sharpest. The interview goes well and you get a hopeful feeling that you got the job. You did your best. You looked and sounded way more qualified than the other candidates, so there is no way this job isn’t yours. A week later you get the email that they went with someone else. You are devastated. You are angry. You feel like a failure. You don’t make enough money to cover your monthly bills and this was going to be your way to free yourself from living paycheck to paycheck. For days you ponder on what you could have done better. You are even starting to resent your current job because you feel overqualified. You become depressed. You feel like there is no point in trying anymore because you will never have that dream job.
A few months pass and you are struggling financially working in an office you no longer enjoy. You pray and wish it would have worked when you took that chance months earlier. You are meeting with a regular client today to discuss their needs. As you are chatting, the client mentions he has a friend who is a CEO of a company and that company is looking for personnel. The client suggests you give that CEO a call and see if it may be something you are interested in. The next day on your lunch break, you are very hesitant to do so because of your previous failure but you give the CEO a call anyway. After speaking for 30 minutes, you decide to meet each other. The CEO is extremely impressed with your resume and all you have accomplished within your current position. He offers you a job. You are astonished. This is not your dream job however, you will be making double what you make now and have better benefits. You get to work remotely, something you wanted but your dream job wouldn’t have allowed it. You get to use all of your skills and work with other talented people you can learn from. You feel happy. You feel relieved. You feel like you finally have the financial freedom you have been searching for desperately.
You were chasing a certain feeling by going after your dream job. By getting that job, you wanted it to bring you happiness, financial freedom, stability, validation, accomplishment, growth, and fulfillment. All of these feelings you ended up finding in your new job. It didn’t have to be your dream job. You even almost missed the opportunity by being hesitant on calling the CEO because of your past experience. Staying open minded and flexible was the key to finding everything you desired.
We are visual creatures. We visualize the lifestyles we want, what we want to eat, what we want to wear, where we want to travel. Sometimes we get so fixated on wanting that specific thing that we miss out on better opportunities. As long as we keep the bigger picture in mind and the fact that we are chasing the feeling, not the material thing or specific experience or job, then it will guide us to peace and happiness and provide us with more than we have ever imagined. Because at the end of the day, that’s what all of us are searching for in everything we do. Don’t get so caught up with the specifics. Focus on the feelings you want and the universe will provide the exact situation to cater to those feelings.
Love,
Suzana 🌻
Comentários