The Inevitable Fight for Relevance

Today, I am writing to you all for a different cause. I am writing to talk about something that each and every one of us go through everyday: the fight for relevance. We are all put on this Earth without the slightest idea of why. We wake up, we go to school or to work, maybe spend time with a few people, and then come home to go back and restart the day tomorrow. We go to school to get an education to supposedly help us get a job in this world. A job that we are supposed to love and enjoy. My question to you is why? Why do we do this? Is it to get a paycheck to further prolong our lives? Or it is simply to feel like a part of something?

Through my seemingly insignificant time in this life, I face this problem every morning. I wake up and make the immediate decision whether or not it’s even worth it to get out of bed. I ask myself if the things I will do today will impact my life in a positive way. Will they? The answer I give myself is maybe. The lone word that perfectly encapsulates the unknown. The future no matter how much we wish it wasn’t, is completely a mystery. Some of us incessantly schedule and make sure everything is going according to “plan” while others fight and claw their way through life hoping, just hoping, that someday they will grab hold of something meaningful; something to make them stick out of the crowd and be important. Now, let me take you back for a second. I want you to imagine you are looking in the mirror, truly analyzing yourself. What do you see? Are you happy with the person looking back at you? Or are you ashamed, maybe even disappointed? Will the things you do today make that feeling you have right now change even in the slightest way? Will they improve your perception of life? If you answered no, then change it. No, I’m not telling you to uproot your life and completely restart but I want you to take life from a new angle. Do something completely different than you would normally do (something positively impactful, not something bad or illegal). Each and every one of us wants to be something, whether it’s a doctor, a football player, or simply a teacher. But we don’t want to be only a doctor, a football player, or a teacher. We want to be the doctor, the football player, the teacher. Why waste your time doing something that isn’t going to help in this journey to be “someone”? I started this blog to help contain my ideas, my dreams, and my thoughts about this society. I plan to make an impact on this world. No matter how I plan to do it, I am going to do whatever I can to leave this life with a positive mark on this world.

The great Steve Harvey once said that if you want to be successful, you have to jump. When you are looking down at the cliff of life, you have to take the risk and jump. And once you do, you will scrape your back along the cliff face and it will be hard, but eventually, your parachute will open up and you will soar. The video to that inspiring speech is here, I highly advise that you watch it. If you really want to be relevant in this world, you have to take the risk. Stop playing it safe because all it will do is bury you farther and farther into the crowd. Stick out, do something incredible and show the world that you are important. But before you do, you must realize that “being important” is a relative term. We are not all leaders in this world. We can’t all be. If we were all leaders, there would be no one to lead. No followers to lead by example and make something happen. The difference is that even if you are a follower, you can be important. Without you, leaders can’t lead and make an impact. So whether you are a leader or a follower, take that leap of faith and be prepared for what comes. It certainly won’t be easy, but you can’t give up. You have to hunker down and dig deep because with enough perseverance and heart, you will soar and the fight for relevance will be over. This is what it takes. Success is 50% hard work and 50% luck. Without either of those, you will never truly win. So do yourself a favor and put the work in. The luck will eventually follow because without the initial jump, you will not go anywhere. So go now, go and soar.