Broken Mindset

I am selfish. My initial tendencies in any situation is always for my self-preservation, my happiness, comfort or my security- whichever applies. I think of other people second, that is, if I don’t think about my own motives twice, in that case others end up on the third place of my priorities.

Actually, I noticed that a high percentage of modern men and women are like me…. selfish.

If your first thought after reading that was how to defend yourself and refute my statement, then it only proves my point all the more. Human beings are normally wired to be on the look out of their own agenda. Always eager to meet their personal goals, always on the run -chasing after their own happiness.

Sometimes we are so much on the run that we miss looking at other’s needs.

Get a life!

No, not you. That’s what we say to bums, internet trolls and people whom we prejudge as someone who haven’t been chasing the same things we do -those who piss us off, so much so, that we slowly begin to think that we are a notch higher in society than them. Are we? I am not trying to defend or put down any group of people here, I am just trying to make a point, and the point is…

People seems to be too much concern getting a life, that they have forgotten that their life isn’t really about them. We have been far too busy finding our own happiness- sometimes at the expense of the opportunity of helping someone find theirs. By doing so, you and me have reduced our lives to plus-minus 80 years. That is how long our own life, which we spent a lifetime finding, would last.

Guilty as charged.

Jeff Goins wrote this on one of his blogs:

The worst way to be happy is to try to be happy; the best way is to help others find their purpose. Because LIFE is NOT about you.

So, in essence, what these kind of mindset is telling me that I try to live my life for others? Yes, and no. If you mean living a life to please others, then no. But if you mean living this life while on the conscious, and deliberate lookout for the welfare of others, then yes. This way, we please God.

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me. – Jesus (see Matthew 10:39, The Message)

This is Jesus’ idea of getting a life.

I kept on thinking, what does it mean to forget about myself and look to Jesus? Should I leave everything I own and become mother Theresa all of a sudden? Maybe, or maybe something more doable right now… like giving a listening ear and a consoling word to a hurting friend.

What about you? What’s your idea of getting a life?

 

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get, happiness, Jeff Goins, life, Matthew 10:39, unselfishness