By Solange Isaacs
The title speaks for itself. Right now, many of us are scared to leave our comfort zones. We live through other people’s lives more than our own. This response often happens when we are afraid to take risks, face new challenges, or even be truly happy— especially when we are taught following is the “right” way to live.
We compare our lives, bodies, and social statuses to famous bloggers, friends on Facebook, coworkers, and others. We see Instagram influencers who travel the world, and we are jealous we don’t have the same opportunities.
Thus, we begin to depend on what we see on social media for comfort or emotional stability, which inevitably leads us to waste our precious time checking and monitoring the lives of people we don’t know.
However, when we see people with more stuff than us, we feel jealous and assume everyone we know is moving forward while we are falling behind.
Online friends and followers are, for the most part, an illusion. Just because someone liked our post, it doesn’t mean they are truly a friend. When we are immersed in social networks, it seems our friendships occur only through our list of followers, but in end, we don’t know any of them.
Admiring someone’s work is good because it motivates us in many ways. However, when we become obsessed with everything in their life, we stop living our own. Our real lives become secondary, and then addiction to social media begins.
Social media is addictive. When we are connected, our brain releases small amounts of dopamine, and therein lies the danger. This is the basis for all types of addiction. We want to go back and interact more and feel the same way again.
Another thing that happens when we are always connected to the Internet without realizing it is we end up feeling like we need to do something all the time. We are never quiet. Without stimulation, we don’t feel good. Being constantly connected deprives us of something wonderful, which is the pleasure of having moments to do nothing. Without even noticing, we have started to fear inactivity. This issue is serious because it is precisely in these moments of doing nothing that we generate our best ideas and deepen existing ideas. The great achievements of thought were often generated in moments of leisure.
Often, we don’t realize the damage our addiction to social media is causing—we give up on our dreams and live limited, frustrated lives through other people’s lenses. This is because it is not easy to take the first step off the couch to improve.
There is no easy way to transfer knowledge from person to person, just as there is no easy way to achieve any dream. Anyone who waits for luck to make things happen is unlikely to achieve anything. Attitudes are much more effective than luck, which rarely happens. Don’t be lazy—if you want something, go for it. Fight for what you want.
How many times have we put success before happiness? People often say that if you work hard, you will be successful, which will lead to happiness. In actuality, you don’t have to be successful to be happy. You need to be happy to be successful.
At the end of your day, make an improvement board consisting of three things that you want to achieve the next day. This powerful exercise trains your brain to focus better on possibilities for personal and professional growth and helps you seize opportunities to realize those possibilities.
So before criticizing others for having everything you want and getting upset because you cannot figure out while sitting on your couch how to get to their level, remember they worked hard. They were not afraid of challenges. They tried and they failed, but they didn’t give up.
If you don’t take this as your wake-up call, keep doing what are you doing. Keep watching TV. I just want to remind you that you are a coward because you are leaving out the most important person in your life: you.
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