This is a question that haunts the thoughts of many people. If God promises us abundant living physically and spiritually, what could be the reasons so many of us are not living our best lives? It’s really not rocket science. There is no underlined, hidden reason we feel stuck in mediocre living. We are not enjoying our best life because many of us don’t know how. Before we can get to how, we must deal with what we have been doing all along and then change our approach to life. I want to put forward a few things about our approach to living that are stumbling blocks in us, attaining the quality of life we desire.
Living life fulfilling other people’s expectations. We become so focused on meeting people’s expectations of us; that we forget who we are. The best way to live a miserable life is to live trying to please everybody and become what other people want. No matter how hard we try, we will never meet the expectations of everybody, so the best we can do is forge our own path. Most times, people’s expectations of us are even realistic, yet we work overtime trying to please them. Every one of us must have a clear picture of our lives, our goals, and aspirations and work towards them. Trying to fulfill people’s expectations will cause you to come up short and miss the opportunity to discover and live your purpose.
Playing it safe. If you want to live abundantly, it is not likely to happen by playing it safe. You won’t push yourself beyond the box you put yourself in if you focus on playing it safe. If you play it safe, you will you settling for what makes you comfortable instead of trying to soar. We fool ourselves into believing playing it safe is protecting us when all it does is rob us of discovering our real potential. To live the life we deserve means most times we have to step out in faith and God will lead us in the right direction. Even if we fail by not playing it safe, the lessons we would have learned will help us make better decisions the next time around.
Not investing in yourself. You can’t pour into others what you are not willing to pour into yourself. Too often I hear people say, Jesus, we must love others more than ourselves. Jesus made no such statement! Here are his words, Matthew 22: 39 ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ What I draw from these words is I can only become for others what I am willing to become for myself. The best thing I can do to bring out the good in others is to make sure I bring out the greatness in myself. If I am pouring into others what I am not willing to pour into myself, I am setting up myself to become resentful of their success. Before I can help people to live abundantly, I must have a taste of abundant living.
Fearing change. The biggest deterrent to living our best lives is not accepting that change is inevitable. If life was stagnant, it would be boring and we have nothing to look forward to. Change makes life exciting because we will always have to anticipate what will happen next. I am not suggesting change is easy to deal with, but it is what makes life worth living. As we move towards abundant living, we should be aware life has different seasons. Each season brings with it a period of growth. Instead of fearing the changes that will come, we should learn to embrace and go with the flow. Even if we don’t like change, there is very little we can do for it not to happen. Accept that change is a part of life and see how much better life will turn out.
Too concerned about what people think. Especially in this social media age, we are so caught up in what people think about us it’s becoming ridiculous. We can’t stop people from forming opinions about us. If you are good, people will say you are bad, and if you are bad, they will say you are good. You can’t win with people’s opinions of you. The sensible thing to do is live life on your own terms. Focusing on what others think about you keeps you from discovering your potential. While you are worrying about their opinions, they are busy living their best life. Nobody’s opinion of you should be so valuable it stops you from spreading your wings.
Living the best life will look different for everybody, but the reasons for not doing it are usually the same. If you want to live abundantly, begin taking stock of your thought process. If we can stop playing it safe, forget about people’s expectations, invest in our own lives, embrace change and be unbothered by the opinions of sheep, we unlock the door to successful living. We deserve to live our best lives, but it will not happen by accident.
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