I have learned my lesson today.
I read once somewhere I could not remember where, maybe some place in Medium, where someone talked about how we have lived our lives pretty much for everyone else but us.
How we go to school, we graduate, we get a job, we work our ass off, we done this and that, for everyone else but us. Well we might say to ourselves that we do this for us but we rarely do. At the end of the article he emphasize his suggestion to really do everything we do for our sake. For us.
When I finished reading that, I thought I have truly understood it, but turned out I had not. Until now.
You see, I am someone who gets bored easily. I quickly turn from things to things. I try everything new. I do whatever I like. And I have been done that since I can remember.
At times when I feel like I could use a little bit more of my potential, I’ll move my ass off the seat and get something done.
I do writing, wall decorating, watercolor painting, oil painting, paper crafting, doodling, hand lettering, practising keyboard, flower bouquet decorating, ribbon sewing, pretty much anything. Just for the sake of my fun.
Other times, I make it a little bit more productive. I do it for other people too. On birthday occasions, on graduation days, on farewells, you name it. Little did I know, it developed my certain skill just a little bit.
Today, I told myself to make something for someone. He’s a friend. I did something kinda new and it needed extra time. I went the extra miles. I did all my best. When finishing it, I felt kind of satisfied with my work, it might be me being over confident, but overall I was satisfied. I was sure he’d like it. Well, then I showed it to him, and he just...asked me questions about it and that’s it. I was hoping for at least a thankful expression but maybe it’s me who’s being so wrong for putting more expectations than I should have been. Or maybe he’s just having a bad day.
And by that time I really realize what the writer means. To do everything we do for our sake. For us.
I could just simply be sad for having this friend not appreciating my effort at the least, but I didn’t.
I told myself: “it’s okay.”
I choose to look for the other side. Whatever response I get, I still have succeeded to develop my skill a little bit more, resulting in one more work of mine that I am satisfied of. One more to my portfolio.
Over all, in the end, it is all for my self development.
Yes, mine.
Another time, I watched a talkshow of a rising star, young singer, who was about to launch his second single. His first single was a tremendous success, and the talkshow talked about how he dealt with the pressure of his previous hit song. And he said,
“I treat this single as same as my previous one. I focused on my skill and if became a big hit well it’s just a bonus. ”
We can choose to focus and be oriented to our work. The rest of everything that comes with it is bonus. It’s less pressure.
So, this is what I’ve got today:
- True, we could never really get it until we’ve gone through it ourselves.
- And true, we could never succeed to always make everyone happy.
- And true, we’ll never be sad if we don’t let anyone making us sad.
- And true, always choose to be optimistic. It feels better.
- And once again, true, the best life lessons seem to be learned at the worst times 😂
Well, it’s a lot of life lessons to learn in a day. A day well packed.
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