This is a guest post by Michael Nelson
You can look up at the stars and immediately stumble upon some vague rationalization that you do not matter. It’s easier than you may think. All you need is just ponder on the immense vastness of space and our magnitude in the scale of things. Out in that space above your head are stars that are as numerous as the grains of sand that populate the world’s beaches. If just thinking about the sheer number of stars leaves you in awe, then think for a second that the star in our own solar system is only just one of them. To put things into even clearer perspective there are trillions of suns – with possibly a planetary system of their own – which are multiple times bigger than our own.
But then you don’t even need to gaze at the heavens to feel insignificant. Think of the things that are happening a world away from where you are right now and it’s easy to feel powerless to make any sort of impact on events and chronicles happening in other parts of our own world. Going through these ‘thought experiments’ and conceptualizing the scale of things outside our small immediate world can easily make one feel small. Although being humbled by our smallness is good, feeling completely powerless and insignificant is not the right approach to life in general. You always possess the potential to affect change, no matter how seemingly diminutive you may be. It just takes a little bit of introspection and honesty.
Sometimes we perceive ourselves to be less worthy than we truly are. Look around you and you’ll recognize that you have friends and family that are going to be affected by what happens to you and what you choose to do with your own life. That’s a significant degree of power in terms of personal human connections and you possess it.
Look at what you have done, created and achieved in your life. Some people remark that they are under-achievers or they have achieved less than expected when in their 20s. This is in a way a misconception since when people think this way they are generally using an outdated model or irrelevant benchmark for themselves. The fact that you have not turned out to be a world business magnate exploring new frontiers of entrepreneurship and innovation doesn’t mean you have underachieved or should feel insignificant. There are many goal posts in life that you have achieved but often ignores because they are not so celebrated in the media and pop culture.
You also have a unique set of skills that very few people have even though some skills or talents take a long time to be discovered and nurtured. You are just starting to tap into your potential. No matter your age, there are latent skills within you that have you just yet to harness. Make an effort to truly understand yourself, and discover what type of skills you have. It’s easier to get down on yourself when you believe that you can do absolutely nothing right, but no one could ever echo that statement without being mistaken.
When it gets right down to it, the best way to get rid of all your ideas of inadequacy is just to appreciate yourself for who you are. Don’t get caught up in group thinking and values thinking that all the exciting things that your friends are are doing should be your goal post too. Find the things that provide genuine excitement and joy for yourself. The biggest mistake you can make is to compare the mundane events of your day to the highlights of someone else’s life. It would also help if you stop dwelling on trying to find some eternally profound purpose for yourself. It’s your life that you’re leading, and if you’re happy and not hurting anyone then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with your life. Insignificance is an illusion brought about by misconceptions and delusions. You’ll always matter to someone, and all the gigantic stars in the sky can never tell you otherwise.
About the author:
Michael Nelson loves writing, and traveling. He has covered several stories about a nation’s culture and belief. When he visited Sri Lanka, he came to know Tilak Fernando, whom people called a health guru.
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