#1-Not a Checklist!

How many of us spend our lives looking over our shoulder? So many of us do this, including myself. We view our lives as a checklist. It’s like we get a “to-do list” and need to check off as many boxes as possible and check them off as quickly as possible. And when we can’t seem to check off those boxes, our anxiety levels begin to rise. “Help! Everybody else has moved on! I need to check off some boxes already! I feel so stuck!"

But the problem is that if this is the way we view life, we will always be miserable. Because there will always be someone who has more than us or who has better than us. There will always be those who have more “boxes” checked off!

Instead, our mindset has to be, Life is not a race! And I know that it’s so cliched, but... it’s so true! We’re not in a competition to see who will get married first, who will have kids first, who will have more kids! We’re each given our own circumstances, our own checklist.

And Hashem will never ask, “Why weren’t you your neighbor? Why weren’t you your friend?" What He demands of us is that we should be ourselves and be happy with what we do have. “What did you do with the list that I gave you?”

So, we need to stop focusing outward, looking at all those around us, and instead focus inward. What boxes did I check off today?

Did I smile at someone even though I was in a bad mood? Did I help someone out when they needed me, even if I really wasn’t interested? Was I a good daughter, friend, sister? That’s all we need to ask ourselves. Stop looking around; look within! And once we shift our mindset and start viewing our life this way, we will live in a much happier state, & feel much more content.

Our purpose in this world is for us to do our Avodas Hashem to the best of our ability in the circumstances that Hashem puts us in. That is the only thing that determines our success!