Everything looks amazing on social media, but rarely something looks as good on the inside. In fact, a lot of times when you get to know something on the inside, you might get heavily disappointed. For one, because some things that look glamorous on social media are actually rotten on the inside, and for another, because any social media image is a highly selective presentation. That’s one of the reasons why it’s important for me to keep it real.
A couple of days ago, I experienced something that served as a catalyst for some major realizations — and decisions as a consequence.
I wasn’t able to fall asleep for three hours after midnight, because my heart was pounding as intensely as I’ve never experienced in my life. I had no clue what was going on, and there was no obvious direct cause of that. After over an hour of feeling my heart’s gonna beat out of my chest, the voice telling me “There’s nothing to panic about, you’re young and healthy, just keep calm and breathe.” went silent. All types of worst case scenarios started racing in my mind. Eventually, the realization that life is actually pretty fragile, and we don’t have control over everything just hit me.
We really don’t know what might happen tomorrow, or even in the next hour.
Keeping this in mind is critical.
It opened my eyes for the fact that putting work first and above everything else in life is so wrong. I started seeing how obsessed I’ve become over my work, and how this ironically has the potential to move me further away from the purpose of my work. Because you cannot preach #PutYourselfFirst, and not practice it yourself. You cannot push your boundaries to the point where it becomes self-destructive, and post stuff about #SelfCare.
The world is not spinning around the deadlines and the insane expectations I set for myself and in fact, they all simply don’t matter at all if I’m not healthy and happy.
I’ve always understood the concept of #WalkYourTalk intellectually, and have truly aspired to it. But that night, I experienced the power of its meaning, and the importance of integrity.
The only way to be truly inspiring is to live your life fully and with love in your heart.
You need to love yourself first, so you can love others. Forgive yourself, so you forgive others. Support yourself, and you’ll support others. We always treat others the way we treat ourselves.
Live your life the way you want it. Love yourself and others with all your heart. Because in the end — that’s gonna be the only thing that matters.
