We all have an intrinsic desire to change our reality. We wish the world could satisfy our whims. Leave our mark on this world. Transcending this life by the actions we took and what we left behind. However, every day we do so much in our lives, but we rarely witness the consequences of our actions.
During school we have learned the physical approach to reality in which “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” as Newton describes it, but unfortunately, most of the time our daily actions are not directly related to the result. expected. If we put in the time to get a college degree, we hope it gets us a good job, or if we put in twice as much effort at our job, that effort should get us a promotion. However, many people are unemployed or stuck in their jobs waiting for the promotion that may never come, or worse yet, closing the business they had invested their life savings into making.
Our efforts seem like a drop of water fading away in an uninterrupted ocean without changing anything. This can be truly demoralizing, especially living in a meritocracy that attributes failure solely to the individual. This situation becomes a breeding ground for all the self-help gurus who sell advice that ends up becoming mere illusions.
The truth is that this is a perception problem. If a genie could grant everyone's wish to be rich, then no one would be rich. No one would work as anyone's servant, neither manufacturing goods nor sowing the fields. We live in a world of conflicting interests, or desires, rather, against our contemporaries.
I've been there too. Every time I write a post on this blog, I wonder how many people will read it? 100? 10? 1? Or maybe no one... and I wonder if the time invested in writing this text was valuable. Considering I could have spent those hours watching a show on Netflix, getting drunk, or just doing nothing… but then, I remind myself of the reason I started writing. I remember there was an intrinsic desire within me to write this piece and share it with the world, even if no one hears it when it is published. Maybe years later this post will be discovered by someone browsing the Internet, and it could have a positive impact on that person.
I am a firm believer that the only way to change our reality is action by action. And the change does not materialize in the reaction it provokes, but rather through the change in our perception while we perform the action.
We have heard many times that our happiness depends largely on our ability to live in the present moment, without worrying about the future and leaving the past behind. So, we must strive to find satisfaction or gratification by performing the actions that make us feel fulfilled. Find the joy of learning instead of focusing on your career, or enjoy improving in your field of expertise instead of worrying about promotion, or embrace the excitement of learning about a new endeavor… because if we love what we do and are dedicated to it, We will become better versions of ourselves and our chances of achieving our goals in a world of competing desires increase.
There is no such thing as a proven shortcut to success. We can learn to work smart, to find the path of least resistance, but the truth is that there is no victory without effort. And for all of us, at first, it always seems like our efforts are futile. But don't be afraid, most of the battles we fight are won with perseverance.
M. Ch. Landa
