Strive to Be Great

Life is this journey we go through. We were born into it without much awareness, mostly unconscious, and with time we lived, we experienced, we learned. Through all of it we have hurt, we have laughed, we have cried, and we have deepened.

If you’re lucky, you have not lost your hope in the goodness of people. Or maybe, by choice, you decided to stay positive and not give up trusting yourself and others. If you have a decent life, you may think it’s always going to be like that. But is it?

Is life always going to be the same for us? What if you did something so bad that guilt eats you inside? What if the person you loved most died, or left with another? What if you made your fortune and lost it, or never made it while your friends did? Maybe you were healthy once, until age and bad habits caught up with you. Maybe you have a good life, you like it, and you think this is the best it can get. But is it?

No matter the state of your life, it can always get better. If we choose to be aware, if we choose to be honest, if we look at ourselves, we will always see areas that can be improved. If we look within, at the world, at the people we love, we can see there are things we can do to make things better, to be better.

When shall we start? Why not today? Tomorrow never comes. Why work to be better? Because improving is good. Because we take the reins of our lives, because we take charge of our path. Because this is to be empowered. How? By making every decision a good one, every choice with the intent to be better people, to do better at what we do. And the prize? Our soul, our joy, our self-esteem. To be proud of who we are.

Every step we take, every word we speak, every decision we make is an opportunity to move toward what we dream we can be. Or to be just a reactive talking head, wanting to be accepted by those we don’t even admire. What, then, will our choice be? To choose our aim, to work hard at it, to fall and stand up? Or to give up on living, becoming cynics with broken dreams?

Will we choose to awaken, to be open to the world, to listen to it, to be sensitive to what it is telling us? Or will we lose ourselves in socially accepted addictions to food, drink, sex, money, possessions, power, acceptance, recognition and fame, whatever we think will fill our inner void?

The path of greatness is walked by those who choose not to give up. It is not traveled by the meek; it is traversed by those who, with every fall, become tougher, who with every mistake become more humble, who with every pain become more loving. Success is to live this way. Success is to say, “I love my life. I am proud of who I am,” because you know you always want to be better.

The choice is ours. Don’t wait for someone to fix your life for you. Don’t wait for justice to just happen; the world doesn’t work like that. Stand up, open your eyes, open your heart, and walk with your head up toward your highest aims. And if you can, help others along the way.

We are here on this planet, living with others, part of a human system that is as dark as it can be bright, as broken as it can be good. No matter our state, we can always choose to do right.

Go, my friend. Don’t look back at a life lived with insecurities, with fears that chained you for years. Now is the time, today is the day, for you to say: “I am worth it. I am, because I choose to be. I am, because I value myself with my choices, because I do what is good for me, not only what feels good. I am a warrior, I am a fighter, I am a lover of life.”

Say it. Own it. Live it. Be it. And share your light. We all need those shining stars to guide the way.