My dream job then? Being a child
What did you want to be as a child, what was your dream job; Astronaut, soccer player, train driver, doctor or maybe something completely different? Certainly there were and still are a multitude of other professions that children wish for in their later life. It would be exciting to create a top 10, to know how these wishes may have changed over the last few years or decades.
In contrast to many other children, I never had a particular desire to achieve a particular job. As a child I was always child enough and to be an adult was at the same time as far away as it was uninteresting for me. To be a child was enough for me, in every second of my being and doing. How much I enjoyed this time and never questioned it. At that time I was very mindful without knowing what it means, how it makes itself felt, and what mindfulness is all about. I was a child and just lived into it from day to day.
I lived in the here and now and knew nothing else, was valuable enough to me. My future was far away and my present a loyal and reliable playmate. Tangible, existent, wrapped up like a warm blanket and a constantly lit candle for orientation. There was nothing that made me change anything, it was sufficient, it was okay. Why should I have changed something too?
Nowadays, with a lived look at my past and my current knowledge of my present (then future) I have to say: mindfulness, being a child, to live fully in the present, to enjoy it; has been lost. At what point in my life were you gone, not realizing that you left me? This thought about my childhood and my feelings back then makes me sad every now and then. Sad, because I compare it to my current self and notice how much I have been absorbed by many other useless and less important things (or I have let myself be absorbed).
Important, urgent, everyone wants something from me, even at some point I began to demand ever higher standards and results from myself. What was the result of this process? It made others happier than I was. Because they got what they wanted. Was I also happier because of what I achieved, achieved, and achieved? In the short term, yes. Long term, no.
Your own happiness, contentment and inner peace never come from outside, but always only through yourself! Understanding, accepting and internalizing this knowledge is a big step towards being yourself again.
What is my foundation, what are my values, what defines me as a person? What am I and what do I definitely not want to be? What gives me positive energy and what bad things do I no longer let in? Who does me good, who enriches me and who just taps me into?
Would you like to know more about yourself and your values; then the first (important) step is done! You alone are the key to your satisfaction, no one else. Knowing your values and living them consciously helps you to make better decisions in your private and professional life. I wish you on this way that today is another VALUABLE day in your wonderful future.
… and the nice thing about being a child is that you think everything is forever.