Youer than You

A lot of the conflict you have in your life exists simply because you’re not living in alignment; you’re not being true to yourself. - Steve Maraboli

Tom works with a lot of college students right now. It’s amazing how many of them are pursuing studies that they do not enjoy, are following a career path that someone else has set for them, who take the first position offered to them, often one they often despise. They feel imprisoned in places that do not satisfy and bring them no sense of meaning and purpose.

While everyone needs to pay the bills and take responsibility for their lives, too often we settle for situations, relationships, jobs and directions that ultimately leave us empty, unfulfilled and discontent, asking the question … Is that all there is?

It is vitally important to find a balance in our lives, a balance between what we need to do to survive and care for our responsibilities and who we have been born to be. They do not have to be mutually exclusive, even in these challenging economic times. It is possible to meet our commitments and to live a life that allows us to foster relationships that nurture and uplift us, to pursue a career that excites and brings out the best in us and allows us to leave a lasting, positive impact on the world, and enables us to be involved in activities that use our gifts and free our spirits in the most beneficial, satisfying ways.

For example, Michael, who after he made a decision to follow a different career path because of his family’s needs, remembers a doctor who approached him months later to tell him that he had gained courage from Michael’s decision. That courage allowed him to make his own career path change, one that he had wanted to make for a long time. For the longest time he had realized that there was a conflict within him that needed to be resolved, that he was not really doing what he felt led, called, to do.

The truth of the matter is that our jobs, our relationships, and our activities take up so much time in our lives. How sad it is when we allow such a significant portion of our lives to be used up in ways that do not bring us what we need to truly be who we are meant to be.

Are you living your life and asking … Is that all there is?