Clean up
your life
Before you start criticising other people you should take a good, long look at your own actions1
This is really hard advice. Critiquing yourself needs introspection and self awareness. To acquire that you have to spend time with yourself. You have to think about yourself and your actions. You have to confront yourself with the ugly truth. And sometimes being alone with yourself is the hard. Going into a dialogue with yourself is even harder. This is the reason a lot of people are just inundating themselves with [[anti-social-media]] or constant input because then they don’t have to shoulder the weight of feeling alone. But avoiding these important moments with yourself does not lead to anything good, because sooner or later the day of reckoning will come. And the later it comes, the harder it will be. So instead of pushing it away you should embrace it and get into a regular habit of deeply thinking about yourself, your actions, who you are and who you want to be. Because all of that is intertwined and only you yourself are the only person that can advise yourself on where to go next. Letting someone else except yourself do that is an excuse and a a sign of laziness.
As you are maturing as a person just facing life is hard. It does not matter what the people in motivational videos tell you on Youtube. There are no shortcuts. You have to work hard at the things you want to achieve. Everyone has the same amount of hours in the day. And you are the only person that can decide how to spend your time. How do you spend your time? Do you spend this time well? Are you working towards your goals? You are the only person that is able to imagine where you want to be and then take the steps that take you there. I know it is hard. I am still far from where I want to be in a lot of respects. Yet I have already achieved a few things I was aiming for. This is a good sign because being where you want to be means you are a lucky person. But if you have nothing left to strive for, then how do you go on?
Or are you the person sitting there doing nothing. Then you really have to take a long hard look at yourself. Are you doing what you want to do? Are you taking daily steps that take you towards the goal you have? Or are you just talking about doing this and that without actually following through? What about the dreams you had when you were a kid? The things you had in your head when you started college? Are you still on track to achieve those dreams? How important are those really? I know it is very important to adjust as you go but sometimes you just lose track of what you were actually aiming for and straying from that path. So you should step back for a moment. Take stock of your life and think about habits you want to change or things you want to pursue to be where you want to be to be. Where you actually always wanted to be.
The following passage is taken from Jordan B. Peterson’s Book [[12-rules-for-life]] and it is an excellent To-Do list to help you start cleaning up your life: 2
Consider your circumstances. Start small. Have you taken full advantage of the opportunities offered to you? Are you working hard on your career, or even your job, or are you letting bitterness and resentment hold you back and drag you down? Have you made peace with your brothers and sisters? Are you treating your spouse and your children with dignity and respect? Do you have habits that are destroying your health and well-being? Are you truly shouldering your responsibilities? Have you said what you need to say to your friends and family members? Are there things that you could do, that you know you could do, that would make things around you better? Have you cleaned up your life? If the answer is ‘no’, here’s something to try: Start to stop doing what you know to be wrong. Start stopping today. Don’t waste time.