New day New Life!

New year. Supposed to be a joyous celebration, right?

That one special day each year when we throw a party and reflect on the day our amazing journey began.

The starting point.

I’ve had quite a colorful journey and certainly enjoyed many wonderful new year eves in my life.

When we are little every new year marks a major accomplishment. We learn to walk. Then we learn to talk. Then we go to school and learn our ABCs. Everything is brand new.

When we graduate, we have our whole lives in front of us. Whether we’re off to college, exploring the world, or entering the workforce, we begin a whole new chapter. Independence.

A starting point.

Then our career phase arrives. we just picture that open highway stretched out to infinity before us, beckoning to a future somewhere out on that horizon that spread throughout the zenith. All that we want to become is out there.

And we are supposed to have accomplished our greatest life’s aims by now. Achieved all our major goals. Marriage, kids stuff, changed the world, etc.

But what if we are still working on that? What if we are just now starting to figure out what we are really supposed to be doing with our life?

At this point in the journey, life has shown many of its cards. Not all, but got a pretty good grasp on how the world turns. If there are still any surprises, they have mostly to do with learning to change the way we see things.

In between the monotonous day-to-day office home routine and my irrelevant thinking, something else happened that was very difficult to escape. Much as I hated to admit it, I eventually found that I was looking around and comparing myself. To people.

This person has secured 99.6, percentile in CAT, he has been admitted in MS, she is already doing fashion designing, he cracked IES, he has got a job in London, she is engaged, they are having a baby and here I am having no idea what I am doing.

This way, there’s always going to be someone whom we feel is ahead of us by our own estimate. And we’ll never catch up to them. So that leaves feeling behind in some imaginary rat race that can’t be won.

And when the game is compared to others, we will never have enough. Ever.

Unknowingly, we build this imaginary scale to see how we measure up against our peers.

We tend to believe that if we can just achieve that, we will arrive at our destination and will find happiness there.

But it won’t happen because it’s not there.

Any materialistic thing or whatever it is will begin to lose its luster the moment we acquire it. Then we look for something new to replace it. And the cycle never ends.

We never appreciate the stage where we are at this very moment because we concentrate on what happened in the past that no longer exists and worry about a future that hasn’t happened yet.

With that came the realization that each of us has a unique story we’re supposed to tell. That’s why we’re here.

We never stop and give ourselves a break for simply being on the path. It may be a path of discovery. It may be a path toward a specific destination.

But we are walking the path. Celebrate that.

The law says that if you take steps in the direction of your destination every day and keep walking, no matter how slow or how far you must travel, you must one day arrive there.

In Tibet, they have a tradition. After a long and arduous journey, no matter how difficult, they seek a high vantage point and look back to see just how far they have come.

Age is irrelevant. Wherever we are in our journey is a starting point.

Realize there is no race.

Whether we are 20 or 50 or 80, if we never stop seeking then we’ll never cease to be amazed by what we might find.

And if every point is a starting point then every day can be a new year.

So celebrate today your new year!

Because every Day Is a New Beginning and the Start of Your New Life!

#newbeginnings #motivation #mindset #hopeforthefuture