Precious
Sometimes we get so stuck that we forget about the things that matter the most to us. From work to relationships we end up spending all our effort on something that will eventually lead us nowhere. Sometimes it is not up to us to make a change.
The more energy we put on work might not come back to us with a promotion. The more time we spend talking to that girl we like so much might not end up with a steady relationship. We have to know the facts and read the signs well before it is too late. Before it is too late to do the stuff that do not really define us and get back to the person or the project we once cared for so much. We all know that is a difficult task to accomplish. Sometimes we just want to give it a try. We close our eyes and plug our ears to all the cautions. We go deeper and deeper to test the limits of our abilities. We hold tight to destiny and believe nature will find a way. We don’t let go until our pants catch on fire. When we finally get the idea to put off the fire, we are left with that heavy regret of not focusing on something else which or someone else who could have given us all that we were yearning for in the first place. And that regret pushes us to a frenzy, making us do all the things we used to criticize other people for.
With relationships there will always be one side which is trying harder. One side that loves more than the other. One side that will sacrifice more than the other to make things work. At the end of the day there is one question we have to ask yourselves: “Can we honestly tell ourselves that the other side is trying to make it work for us?” Unless the answer is yes, we have to quit pretending and care enough about ourselves to save the time and energy for something else that will benefit us in the longterm. We all know that this decision takes time to sink in, but the faster, the better it will be for us.
With work and other projects that we believe in so much, we have to make it a priority to calculate the amount of control we have on the matter. There is one question to be asked “Will all this effort make a positive change for us?” It might not be a promotion, but an inner satisfaction or a better relationship with our superiors. Those kinds of achievements are surely worth trying for. Yet, if we can no longer see a positive change for ourselves as a result of our efforts we have to take a pause and redesign our priorities.
We have to keep trying and keep innovating until we make the best use of our precious time. We should know that as long as we don’t care for our own nobody else will. We are all too good to dedicate ourselves to things that will not make us better.
[...] quote summarizes all the things I wanted to say in Precious in one single sentence. Its author is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known by his pen name, Mark [...]