Who Are We
Who Are We
Who Are We
Who we are, who I am, who you are all questions we sit and ask ourselves for a variety of reasons. Because we doubt ourselves and our abilities, because we are envious of what we believe others have become or achieved , because we just feel lost in this big wide world and consequently our sense of self and identity is called into question. Many people including myself have questioned our self worth and where we belong in one way or another. We have questioned whether we have value, whether we are or could be great. Greatness is something I think most of us strive to or would love to achieve. But it is important to first define greatness, as subjective a term as it is I will give my take on it. WHO IS GREAT AND WHAT IS GREATNESS? Are the famous people we see on television and other forms of media great, are they greater than the man cleaning the street or collecting the garbage? To me greatness is every and any man, woman and child who pushes themselves to the best of whatever abilities to be better than they in as many aspects of their lives as possible and through that influencing the lives of others. Greatness isn't necessarily becoming vastly rich and famous, greatness is rather trying everyday, working hard everyday especially when it is not easy. Picking ourselves up from the depths of self pity and loathing. Greatness is going to bed at night possibly having not achieved a single goal you set out and smiling because tomorrow you will try again. Greatness is every act of defiance against hatred of ourselves, giving up on ourselves, giving up on our dreams, giving up on life, love and all it has to offer. Greatness is still being able to laugh through adversity because you are still here and will not be broken. Greatness is being all you can be, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but right now. We all have the potential for greatness, every single one of us, no matter who you are, where you are from or what you have done. But this where the tough part begins. Greatness is like most things of value in the world it's harder
to get up the mountain than it is to get down. but I guess that's what makes it great. Who you are, who you really are is who you are right now. If you have been a nice guy all along and today you I come across you and you are far from that, that is who you are and that would apply to everyone who met you. We are who we are today. The beauty of this is that no matter who we were we can choose to be great right here and right now. Forget what people say, what people think because what you have or haven't done. Who are you now, be better now, greatness is not what people think greatness is what people do and how we live our lives. If any person turns around and today and onwards does the right thing and makes the most of themselves as well as others you are great no matter whether people judge you based on your past or otherwise you. You are great. Greatness is a way of life, a way of being and it only counts what you do now. The past is set in stone in so far as us being able to change. So if you didn't tell one of your family members that you love them for the past twenty years tell them now, if you didn't ever be kind to your neighbor, or a stranger, or the less fortunate do so now. What you didn't do doesn't change how great we can be. We just need to forget what people think for a moment and do what we should do.
A lot of things that happen in our day to day lives that we cannot change, usually because they are affected, controlled or dictated by factors that are outside our control. But we do control is how we let these things affect us and our response to them. My brother once told me. DON'T BE A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE These are words to live by. What do they mean? As I said above we may not always be able to control what happens to us or our situation, but life is mostly about how we deal with things since things will always happen to us. Don't let adversity destroy our ability to smile. Don't let adversity destroy our compassion for others. Don't let adversity destroy our hope. Don't let adversity destroy our belief in ourselves. Life can be extremely difficult and sometimes cruel in so many ways. Some of the biggest
challenges we face economic or social challenges. But when we walk outside and the weather is something to marvel at, it will do you no harm to smile. It will do you no harm to put in that extra effort to show those you love how important they are to you. If anything it will make you feel better, it will make you be and feel great. No matter how bad things are you can still write a letter to the most important people in your life encapsulating all that you feel for them. That and more is what greatness is all about, defying adversity by appreciating and enjoying every aspect of your life that you can as you struggle on. This and more feeds the will to keep fighting no matter what, the will to innovate to improve and overcome our problems. At the very least when you come out of it you will be stronger for it and you will be able to traverse adversity much better. Sadly too many of us allow adversity to change us into bitter people and cynics. Healthy cynicism, which would more accurately be called realism, is fine and should be nurtured. As should the constant and unwavering focus on solving our problems. But bitterness that causes us to isolate ourselves, lash out at the people closest to us among others. Bitterness that makes us hate ourselves and sometimes even hate others stemming from what we are going through is damaging and all to common. It limits our potential, inhibits the extent to which we can or will enjoy our lives as we go through both the ups and downs and especially the downs. I am advocating for a way of life, a way to try and LIVE even through the most difficult of situations. To allow us to enjoy every moment and better the lives of our lives and those of the people around us. Life is just too short. Don't be a victim of circumstance, choose to be great, choose to act. Choose to make the most of whatever the situation, choose to smile a little, choose to laugh a little. WE ARE WHO WE CHOOSE TO BE. We have been given all that we need, things do not need to change, we need to change things. Sometimes must choose to go against what we feel, usually in the case of bitterness, hopelessness self pity and a total lack of self worth.
I often tell one of my closest friends that very often in life we are faced with a fork in the road. I coined it the rule of V because there are usually two choices in these cases, what we want to do and what we should do. More often than not we choose to do what we want to do instead of what we should do. This is because what we should do is usually substantially harder than what we want to do. Sometimes the gap in difficulty is so huge that we do not even consider what we should do as an option and tell ourselves that we have/had no choice but to..... A person comes home from work after having another difficult day in a series of difficult days, perhaps they don't even have a job and have just gone another without being able to get work. They just want to be by themselves and maybe reflect on the days past and days to come. What they possibly should do is regardless of how they fell put in a some extra time with their spouse, partner or relative. A little time with their child among other options. But it is much harder to do this when we are in the middle of adversity but its is most probably what we should do and very often what we want to do. You may be surprised to find that doing this makes you feel better, more motivated than you were and overall making you be and feel great by showing love to those you love and who love you in them most difficult of times. That is just one example in a near infinite number of ways we can all choose to do what we should do and not necessarily what we want to do. Ultimately choosing to be great. Try to be great everyday of your life. Trying honestly and genuinely is greatness after all. Another way of looking at is choose the right to do the right thing and not the easy. Understandably right is a very subjective word, but deep down more often than not we know what we should do, sometimes funny enough what we should do is ask. In the end the power to choose is ours and it is that power that gives us the power over our lives and the power to influence people and things around us. Choose to be great.
WHO ARE WE? Who we are is not defined by others opinions and perceptions, what we have or haven't done in the past, the wrongs we have committed or otherwise. All the above is not who we are. We are who we choose to be right her right now. No matter where you come from what you did, what you do now
and henceforth is who you are. We must act, we must take charge and take responsibility for our actions, for our lives and what is happening in them. More importantly how we react and respond to the events that happen in our day to day lives. Who are we, are we spectators to our own lives or will we step and in some cases step down and take action, forget what people say and do the best we can, be the best we can, be all we can be. Be Great. You might inspire the same in others. Hold those close to you, love those near you, reach out to those far from you. Could be a loved one, friend or stranger.
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt April 23, 1910 Paris, France