Spotlight and circumstances

Don't invest effort in trying to manipulate other people's perception, or judgment, of your way of living. You had to do that when you went for a career, where others could influence how successful you would become. But this is exactly what you're getting away from now; make yourself independent of that. If your goal is to improve yourself and your decisions, beliefs, actions and feelings, then success depends on you alone, not on others, and therefore it's immaterial what they think about you.

What goes for the assessing eye of would-be superiors applies to more respectful recognition equally. If you've done something noticeable in your life, as most of us have in one way or another, then expectations may already weigh on you. Shed them. Don't invest energy in keeping up a prominence that would have been short-lived anyway (if history is any guide to such things).

We often get reflections about the whole of our lives going only when we are already in the middle of the action. We always start somewhere, and we're not responsible for where that is; but once started, we are in charge, and from there on it is our responsibility to get things right and steer the best course available, away from the more or less random starting point, towards the goals we have found, or are in the process of finding, when we reflect. Take care.
Copyright © 2007-2012 by Leif Frenzel. All rights reserved.