“The slow rush. Let’s take our time & live to be present. Live for the people in our lives. For future memories. For past mistakes. Live to outgrow ourselves & to help others grow. To explore. To create. To celebrate. A life is to be lived. To be cherished. To be changed. To be nurtured. Not to merely exist. Good things take time & when we slow down, we allow inner peace, clarity & happiness to enter our lives.”
If 2020 has taught us anything it’s to be present & grateful for the people and things we already have in our lives! For many the cons have outweighed the pros,but without just a little bit of struggle, we wouldn’t be able to grow.
I’ve taken a little bit of a break from writing to focus on uni and to figure a few things out. I created this blog to share my approach to life because I think it’s important that we don’t take it so seriously. Despite this, more recently I have been feeling a little deflated.
It may be because I take on too much at once (bloody Geminis), or it may be because I just put so much pressure on myself to have it all figured out that it stops me from being present and takes over my thought process.
I’m 23 and I have been working in a full-time job since I was 18 because that’s just what I thought “you should be doing”. I look at all my friends who have been working in casual/part-time jobs. They have all had so much time to focus on their uni, travelling and building a memorable life that I felt like I had just wasted mine, when really that is not the case. Of course it’s different for everyone but I feel like I have just been working the wrong way.
I found that I have been comparing my life with those that I grew up with and when you compare a part of yourself to someone else, it is generally a sign that there is an aspect of your life that you are not completely satisfied with. Comparison truly is the thief of joy so try and bring your awareness to those thought patterns and change something about it then tell yourself something positive to follow it.
When I do get stuck in that thought pattern, I like to remind myself that the only person I should be comparing myself to is my past self. My yesterday self.
When you compare yourself to others, you get nowhere and life can feel like you’re competing with others, not cooperating with others. Lately I have been thinking a lot about the life I am living and if my actions now are affecting the future I want for myself.
At the beginning of the year, I was happy but not satisfied with my day to day. I left my old firm for a new firm to see if all I needed was a change of environment and found that within four months of being in my new job, I was already applying and looking for new jobs then Coronavirus hit. Many people lost their jobs and had been affected in more ways than I can imagine by this virus and I felt like now was probably not a good time for me to quit my job. So I stayed.
I put a lot of pressure on myself on trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life when really the whole time the question I should be asking myself is “what am I interested in?”, “what am I good at?” and “how can I make this a career?”. It’s so easy to focus on the deficits that we look past our progression.
Of course stress is not ideal but it can be good for you. Good for you as in it helps you grow and become more resilient. You can manage it and choose what you stress about. So overthinking and stressing over a situation that YOU CAN control is not something you should be doing. It’s about bringing your awareness to your thought process and quickly catching the thought to stop it from progressing into something bigger than it needs to be.
Time went on and luckily for us Queenslanders COVID stayed away for the most part. I was constantly complaining about how unhappy I was with my job to the people closest to me but I realised I was doing nothing about it.. I was complaining so much that it literally affected almost every other aspect of my life. My health. My relationships. My mind. Nothing good ever comes out complaining, but by doing.
With a little bit of tough love, some courage and a brand new opportunity, I finally resigned. Although I have no idea what to do for an income, I am moving onto a new venture and with all the doubt and worry that’s come into play, I will make it work. I don’t know a better way of wording this but I work best when I am under pressure and I am excited to go back to basics and try really hard for the things I want.
I think that is one thing I have learnt more recently too. It is so easy for us to now go out and get the things we want in an instant, that most of the time we aren’t truly working hard for the things we want.
And if I fail, at least I can say I’ve tried.
I’m working hard now on my future self.
Keep positive friends & look at tough situations as a form of growth & being.
Nik x
The Holistnik Approach 