Contents:
This article will center around the desire to come out victorious in life’s meaningless battles. Any notion you set out to prove to those around you can turn into one of these battles. Should the right opponent come along, you can find yourself defending seemingly mundane behavior and thoughts. People will attack you for how you lead your life in a variety of ways, and this article aims to help you view all your interactions in the longest of terms.
The general sentiment, is to never try to win today at the risk of losing tomorrow. Do not yearn for small victories in life, and view life as one whole domain you’re set to master. The fragmentation of life’s battles will cause you to become nearsighted. Even though it is important to focus on what’s directly in your path, you should be conscious about the general direction which you’re working toward.
The heated, egotistical, momentary victories seldom lead to long-term gains. Cutting people off in traffic will label your car as dangerous, proving someone wrong at work for the sake of winning ideologically will encourage others to interact with you less, and aggressively imposing your dietary choices on others will make you come off as closed-minded.
A Lack of Understanding
When we find ourselves amidst worthless battles which our competitive drive cannot let go of, we show a lack of wisdom. One grows wiser by going through many of these battles, and perhaps in understanding that they seldom lead to lasting improvements. It is sometimes wise to allow others to relish in their perceived victory, in order to achieve victories which are larger and more meaningful in scope. Long-term gain means being surrounded by the ones you love and who love you back. It means being held to a streak of commendable acts, never acting out in anger or emotion. Flipping off the driver next to you may make you feel victorious in the smallest of universal scopes, but does not encourage lasting personal improvement.
Lasting improvement is garnered through traits like patience and forgiveness. The long-term victory is not flashy and does not command attention. It looks like a wise old man sitting on his rocking chair, and being deeply respected by those who interact with him. It is an understanding of humans’ imperfections, and the forgiveness of their tendency to chase small wins.
Real Behavior Change
The larger your scope of victory is, the higher the standard of your behavior will be. If your goal today is to prove your ever-changing theories, ever-morphing habits, and ever-expanding understanding of life to be more correct than someone else’s, your scope of victory is too small. Your behavior will be driven by the small scope which your mind is tuned to , and will be blind to understanding the deeper lessons of living in this life. Consistently remind yourself of the largest of scopes. Consistently envision yourself at a ripe old age, and the wisdom you aim to possess. Chasing small victories will result in you becoming something nobody wants to become; a narrow-minded senior citizen who has become useless to the world.
Your vision of yourself in old age should be commendable. You should envision yourself to be sage-like, with wisdom flowing out of every pore. Yearn for your presence to comfort the narrow-minded, and those who consistently chase the small victories of life. Allow yourself to let go of those victories in an effort to chase a victory most blind themselves to. Grow to respect the traits which signify long-term victories in life, and let go of ones which are used in day-to-day battles.
We no longer need to fight, and no longer need to impose our will on other individuals. Those realms are from where we came, and those behaviors are to be left behind. Now we focus on something greater, and should yearn to understand the difficulty of this endeavor. The answer to what comes next is unknown, but please allow this article to encourage you in looking beyond chasing the small victories in life in an effort to find your answer.