The thief of joy we are entangled with

We are in a world today where everyone has dreams and aspirations. Everyone wishes to succeed and be of value in this life. We move relentlessly toward greater emphasis on achievement and goal orientation.

When you meet someone at the party or gathering, what is one of the first questions you ask them besides their names and where they come from? For most of us, it is, “What do you do?” From my experience, this is what I have seen and been asked a lot.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against this kind of question, and I do not mind being asked that. However, the sad truth is that in today’s society, we seem to define ourselves by our careers. What we do for a living has become such a priority that we often do not even realize how closely we attach ourselves to it. While there is a lot of merit in that sort of success, I think we need to be careful about associating our career status closely with our self-worth. We tend to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves with others around us—our peers in various industries or life in general.

I am saying this because the pressure is not pressuring any longer—it is a belief system—a total and utter allegiance to a life defined by work. A lot of it has to do with money. We are slapped with a number, entered the system, and told to do our best—or else. But should it be this way?

What is sad is even the “luckiest ones”—the ones who have worked hard and reached “the top”— seem just as doomed as the rest when it comes to letting their work lives define them.

You are not your job title—you are and will be so much more than any job title or position description. Defining your worth or self-esteem by your job title will lead to disappointment and frustration. It is not about the title—what you are called, but about the job you perform, the problem you solve, the lives you helped change, the social justice you helped deliver for those individuals in the communities you serve, those who depend upon your voice, your advocacy, your leadership, and your service. Your reputation, your future professional successes will derive from these things. Not your job title or your position. Your reputation is not always about your professional success.

The best titles in life are those that define who you truly are, not what you do. Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Friend… those are titles that will always get you through the ups and downs of life. If we considered this, we would not have all these superiority or inferiority complex or the feeling of a failure or worthless or feeling so low in every sense of the world.

Because you don’t have an “outstanding” professional positions or higher education degree, it does not mean that you are a failure. Do not ever let this make you feel like you are “below” everyone around you. Because if you value that, nothing will ever mean anything in your world, you will feel low emotionally, and no matter how far you make it in your life, you will never be satisfied.

Associating your career status with your self-worth, you will always fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others around you—your peers in various industries. It is easy to compare yourself in this way and wonder where you stand. But life does not work that way. If someone is earning more money than you, or they have made their passion their career, or their job title has more responsibility, none of that means they are “better” than you. Because the amount of money people makes or the number of followers people have does not define you. Your career status does not define your self-worth.

In today’s world, with social media, everyone wants to be famous. Most of the time, many people pretend to be—to impress others or prove to the world that they have made it and others want to succeed fast because they want to prove something to somebody else—that is what makes them vulnerable. I am sure many of you know many people who look like billionaires on social media, but in real life they struggle to make end