Take a close look at the picture above. Is it me or does the whole write up have a way of making you look at people who complain about what they don't have regardless of already having a little or a whole lot, with a distasteful look? It also happens to you right? It's like there is this little guy in our head that takes control the moment these kind of write ups surface on any social media we belong to. It takes control of our brains and helps us spot out people to lay the judgement it already programmed in our heads for us. To an extent that voice in our head is actually right. I mean a person that has all those things that are listed above has no right to complain about what so ever it is he/she is going through right? such a person should instead keep quiet and settle for what he/she has right?.....well this is where I disagree. I think people who have roofs over their head have a right to complain and ask for a light bulb to go with it. Why? well let me break it down a little more for you...
You see, from where I stand, I believe with everything in me that gratitude for what you have is the foundation of success. I really do honestly and totally believe in that concept but at the same time I do not believe that we shouldn't complain....wait, sorry, let me rephrase that...I do not believe that people who have a couple of good things going on for them should be relaxed and satisfied with having/managing just that which they have, simply because someone somewhere isn't opportuned to have the same luxury. I frown against complaining but I frown more against settling for the least. In your head right now you are like, "who said they should settle for the least?, the message only said they should be grateful". Well yeah but as humans we find a way to interpret messages into what we want them to be.
You see as humans, we are naturally lazy. I have experienced this first hand from a couple of people. Maybe it's in our genes or our biological makeup dating back to the prehistorical era but it's definitely in us. That is why we keep researching technology that will help us do things to achieve more while putting very little effort. That is the reason why most of us settle for the less that we can be.That is the reason we search for excuses in every aspect of our life from spoken words to written advice to justify our desire to be more and more inactive with each passing day. We know how to give ourselves excuses so that we don't get to exert ourselves more that we would wish to. Some of these excuses come as upfront verbal excuses and some of them come to us in the manner of these write ups like the one above. Worst part is, the person who wrote this most likely wrote it to encourage gratitude but somewhere in our heads we manage to twist it to look like what we want it to look like, an excuse to not put in more effort and achieve more. What I find funny is that we then take that advice we have given ourselves, we relax more, refuse to put in more effort and at the end expect someone else to come pull us out of the miserable life we have created for ourselves. When we find out that there is no one to pull us out we turn to blaming every and anyone around us. Well, if you do that then you should know that you are blaming everybody that isn't to blame. If you are looking for where to point your fingers then you should purchase a mirror if you don't have one.
Now I know some of you might be frowning right now and getting ready to attack me but let me ask you all a question. If no one ever works harder than they need to, if we all decide to appreciate and settle for the things we have already then who gets to cater for those who do not have anything at all? Is it from the little that you "settle" for that you are going to take out of and give to the homeless? Are you really going to starve yourself to feed those who do not have any to eat? Before you answer yes to that, think within yourself how many times you have actually done that....let me guess? Your answer was still "yes" but the truthful voice in your mind is screaming a loud resounding "No"...yeah I guessed as much!
Trust me, giving yourself the excuse of "gratitude" simply so you don't get to put in work and grow isn't going to help you and sure as hell wouldn't help those who have nothing out of the situation they are in. I know that I sound like I am judging you right now but the truth is that I used to think this same way but along the line I had to change my view of things. It wasn't something that happened overnight, it was something that grew with time. I remember that music as usual was one of my inspiration. You see I learnt something from a line in the lyrics of one of the greatest rappers of all time. In the song "Died in your arms tonight". It was in his second verse where he (Jay-Z) said...
" And I cant help the poor if I'm one of them, So I got rich and gave back, to me that's the win win".
I had heard this line a lot of times from listening to that song repetitively. On the day I made sense of it, I was actually paying attention to the lyrics and trying to relate them to real life situations and it struck me like a lightning bolt. You see all those people out there who you are already richer than? That 75% of the world? Well it is up to the 25% to help them out. However how are you going to help someone out of the gutter if you are in the gutter or if any attempt to help them out is going to get you into the gutter yourself? That makes no sense and helps no one. That was the day I made up my mind, to stop giving excuses and start working hard in order to help people (who are willing to be helped) out of their situations.
So do you see it now? Settling for the least just as that picture above suggest or should I say just as your mind reads that picture isn't about to help anybody. It is that sort of mind state that got half of that 25% into the situation they are in today. If you do not change that mentality,you are going to end up just like them. By all means, be grateful for what you have but do not settle for it. Always motivate yourself to keep moving ahead, keep trying to grow in all aspects of your life. When you make it to the top, remain grateful then turn around and show those people what it takes and what they have to do to come out of their situation.
If you have the simple comforts of life, by all means, please be grateful that you have all that you have but do not for one second allow pictures and write ups like the one above to limit you. You deserve a whole lot more, you just have to get up and work for it!