Find Meaning in Daily Life

Sep 7 , 2019
By Eden Sahle

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One of the best decisions I ever made about my life is not to evaluate myself on a yearly basis. I have discovered that when I give myself a year to have new plans and evaluate them, I tend to stress out more and realised my mistakes too late.

Fixation on New Year’s resolutions does not lend itself to a productive life. The daily life evaluation method is worth pursuing. The more we delay our life responsibilities, the more it stresses us so much and problems get piled up.

Most people are frustrated with their lives every time the season changes, because that is when they look into their life, and worse, they compare it with others. I know friends and acquaintances who detest New Year’s and their birthdays, because they are convinced that their life is not doing as well as their friends or families. These days just remind them that they are a year older and far from what they want to accomplish. They focus on that instead of seeing the hope that is coming.

Culturally, we Ethiopians are not appreciative toward ourselves, seeing only the mistakes or problems in our life and others.  People feel guilty and grieve for every mistake they make to the point of hating themselves.

Very few people encourage and forgive themselves for their failures. Most people are not kind to themselves. They keep blaming themselves for endless things. We should not be enduring each day of our life trying to make it through the ups and downs of life condemning ourselves. Each day is a gift and we should be grateful for it and be inspired.

In today's busiest culture, people say it’s harder than ever to have time for reflection. Because of the pressure of social media where people feel they need to participate daily, most are forgetting to actually converse with themselves and plan life daily. They tend to believe regularly evaluating ourselves is not possible, because it’s easier to avoid that conversation within us than to deal with it to solve the issue.

Most people say they will enjoy life if they have more money or fame. But someone who has all these, the actor Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” I believe this is profound advice showing us the healthy alternative we can follow of being kind to ourselves and others, practicing compassionate living in the moment that we are granted.

Some are bedridden, so we should not complain about traffic congestion. Some have died so we should not be upset about bad days.  Some are unable to be employed so we should not be angry about a small salary. Some do not have anything, so we should not complain about not having too much.

It’s a healthy habit to give up worrying about each thing that went wrong in the past and find peace even when things seem to go wrong in the present. To truly forgive the ones who wronged us and those who intentionally continue to hurt us. I think fulfilment is deciding to take on daily life activities despite discouraging experiences and being a great comfort to ourselves and others. To me, this is the true meaning to life.

We need spirituality to have guidance, because there are so many things we have not and will never figure out about life on our own. It’s a genius to find comfort in our lives just the way it’s given to us.

It’s helpful to develop the simple ability to be completely and bluntly honest with ourselves. Self-improvement and reaching our goals often occur together. We should not fixate on what we think we lack. Sometimes all the change we need to make in our life is to have a renewed encouraging outlook. It requires learning to accept ourselves just the way we are. We should make it our life ambition to live daily life with so much zeal no matter the circumstances.

Things might seem agonising at times. But if we can see past all the unfairness and look for hope, it can help us move forward without hurting ourselves. Hope is happiness. It makes us get back up again and start the life we envision to have.

We should consider our mistakes as a lesson and the people who let us down as the ones who encouraged us to do better and lend a helping hand to others. The greater good in life is found not just living for ourselves but for others as well. It may not seem like it, but vanished hope can be rediscovered.  What we have lost can be gained in double portion. Being positive about life is never overrated. I may not have lived long nor had so much life experience, but I have found out that these life rules help me find meaning in everyday life.

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PUBLISHED ON Sep 07,2019 [ VOL 20 , NO 1010]

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