Thoughts on: Human being vs human doing

Some of us like to be good at what we do. We try to get better and we pride ourselves in that. We feel that if we’re good at what we do we get some sort of status. We feel worthwhile, like we’re actually being a productive member of society.

And then, when things aren’t going as well in a certain facet of our life, be it professional, health, fitness, family, relationships, we feel bad. We feel like we need to pick it up. Like we need to fix that ASAP and then we’ll feel good about ourselves. We’ll be proud of ourselves once we get back on the right track.

It’s good to want to be good at what we do, to always seek improvement. It’s not good to base our value on what we do. We’re all equal, the richest person is not more valuable that the poorest and the person struggling with weight isn’t less than the fittest person on Earth.

Sometimes I feel like I’ll be happier with myself once I get my career off the ground, once I’m making a lot of money and have a big company. I feel like I’ll be proud of myself once I do that. Like I’ll finally be of use. But we have to learn that we are human beings and not human doings. Our value comes from being and not from doing. And we can’t wait until we’re accomplished career-wise, fitness-wise or whatever to love ourselves.

We aren’t valuable because of what we do, we are valuable because we exist.

Anyway, I’d been thinking about this for a while now. What are your thoughts?

The comic for this thought here :)

-Marcos

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