When I used to live in the city I fell prey to what most people fall for and that is the promise of the toys, the friends, the connections, the social events, the big homes etc…. you know the rest. There’s nothing wrong with having these things but the issue I found is the lengths people will go to achieve them.
I remember thinking about how I did not want to take clients out to places I would not feel comfortable going only to be able to secure a friendship with them and hopefully attain business. It’s a good thing I didn’t follow that path and it’s not by any mistake that I didn’t.
This past weekend I had relatives over and we were discussing world events and I made mention on how I fell like the one thing that keeps me afloat in reading. Reading books,
research papers, articles, court documents, whatever it is if it is on a subject I enjoy learning about then I am very into learning more about it through reading. After mentioning this, I was told that I was “lucky” because I have the time to do this. The funny thing is that I am not lucky to have the time to read, I have designed my life so that I make time to read.
In fact – as many of you know – I made significant changes in my life so that I wouldn’t live a life of chasing after things. I gave up on the race to achieve the things I thought I wanted at the time. I gave it up for a life much more simple, a life where I was in control of my time and energy.
Fast forward to what we see today in our society. People are being coerced into doing things just to keep their jobs, just to be able to bring in an income, just to be able to survive. It
turns out that those that lived a life focused on chasing after material things eventually led them to being manipulated in ways that robs them of their freedom of choice.
I now look at my life and the choices I made and I see clearly now that the fact that I gave up the chase of material things and unimportant goals for a life of simple pleasure, focusing on what is true in the world, what is important and the end result is I am free to make my own choices, I cannot be coerced into anything. I don’t answer to anyone and my family is protected alongside me.
The thing I can impress upon you is that I “gave up” things I thought I wanted and put my trust in what I felt deep in my heart were the right things to focus my energy on and low and behold I now have the things I truly wanted and needed.
In the Bible, Luke 17:33 there is a passage translated says:
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”
Does this passage not relate to the story I just shared with you? I think it does.
Learn from my experience, turn away from chasing after things and instead focus on the right things and the rest will come naturally to you!
Kevin Araujo
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