Unfortunately we use the images others present on social media as a measuring stick as to how well we are doing in life. Ironically, we do this as we are driving our nice air conditioned car, checking messages on our synced Bluetooth dash monitor. We then pull into the drive of our comfortable home as we simultaneously unlock the front door by pushing a button on our phone.
Distracted, we enter the house and set our keys in a place we'll never remember - on the way to our stocked pantry and overflowing refrigerator. With our arms full with food, we sit down on our 10 piece leather sectional sofa to watch our 65 inch HD flat screen TV. We then shout out to Alexa to find the latest Netflix movie. We love using Alexa because it allows us to keep our hands free so we can check our iPhone to see what others are doing in this very moment.
This perhaps, is why we’re miserable - our lives are consumed by the images others present. We are faced with the fact that our life will never be as sexy and exciting as our “friends” life. And vise versa, their life will never be as sexy and exciting as the one we present. The truth is, life is pretty mundane and our expectations are extremely unrealistic.
Socrates once said, "if you want to become great, become the person you present yourself to be".
The nice thing about becoming the best you can be is that your happiness/contentment is not contingent on what others think. Your happiness is a product of a life well lived.
We all need to wake up - what an incredible opportunity we are missing out on by focusing on the images.
