Self-awareness not only teaches you to look inside but also to understand your reality the way you define it.
Having the capability of adjusting with the environment or becoming flexible does not mean that you forget yourself and believe everything that every mouth has to say to you.
Learn to create room for guidance and directions, but you don’t have to sway from your core to an extent that you become slaves of the society. You may not speak up if you do not have the courage, but you certainly don’t have to accept things people deliberately do to berate you, negatively influence you, or turn you into a very sensitive and overly reactive human being.
No one accepts animal-like treatment, nor does anyone allow their hard-earned wealth to go to waste after investing it in creating themselves for almost their entire lifetime.
The wealth could of course be money, but there are other things like honesty, hard work, reputation, love, family, friends, work, passion, purpose, and so on.
You cannot ask a stranger if you could change your path in this immediate moment. One has to trade off many things for that, plus strangers should not be believed at all.
If, for example, you plan to become a monk, you would have to first truly commit to it and not be bothered ever again with this decision of yours unless it is forced upon you by other professional seekers who term you as someone frustrated and depressed to make you quit and replace you. You might be an outstanding neurosurgeon in one of the best hospitals in the country, but because of your depression, you want to turn yourself into a monk. I do not think that it would be wise, as there are also some people dependent upon your bestness. You can instead turn towards spirituality in your domestic lifestyle but continue working until you reach the stage of an advisor who teaches their skill to the next generation.
Still, it is your decision to become a monk and leave neurosurgery if it feels like your life’s call in this immediate moment for the benefit of your mental health. It shouldn’t be a trap or an action under the influence of people with vested interest.
Being a low-profile technician, you can take the advice and gain access to spirituality with the support of certain spiritual groups who offer you SEVA so that you become an agent to earn for them and bring more clients to your trust, which is lucrative to you also and would lead to your upliftment. You can continue your skill and it would be satisfying to pursue some noble social and religious work.
But being an expert at something, you will only achieve sleepless nights if you gave up due to others and not your will.
Giving up happens only when you are ready for it, when you are done with struggles and cannot manage anymore.
Don’t let your coping mechanisms give up on you. Become resilient. Most self-help teaches us this. And strength and courage are vital for your survival and your skills.
“I am not multi-talented, but I am good at certain things.” This is the most essential thing to acknowledge. Build that confidence. No one will go against you on this because your intentions are clear. You give them name, fame, ideas, love, and peace, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of your well-being.
If you feel jealous, double-check; you are demeaning yourself and your courage to go that extra mile. This isn’t about a one-time show where you win in a quiz competition and retreat towards home with a medal only to find out that you failed your qualifying exam for a PhD.
Hard work matters, and whatever you do, put in that extra piece of work, mind, or resource to achieve it. You can be a monk deep inside; it is totally up to you, but you are skilled—become that sculptor, painter, dancer, writer, teacher, and so on.
I read about Frank H. Netter long ago. This man had a diagrammatic talent; he was brilliant in explaining difficult concepts through illustrations (I am bad at it). To date, his medical science illustrations are unbeatable.
I bought the Atlas of Human Anatomy by Frank H. Netter in 2002, and I still can visualize those diagrams. He has created a series of atlases and is considered medicine’s Michelangelo. Such is the legacy of a committed person who used to draw diagrams in medical school when his talent was unnoticed and he became a surgeon despite being interested in design due to parental intervention. During the Great Depression, poor finances led him to close his clinic and become a full-time illustrator with his first Atlas of Human Anatomy, which got published in 1991.
It is real fun if you enjoy your work. It shows in you—your personality, words, documents, and speech that speak for themselves. Be such people. It does not matter in reality if external circumstances are not conducive. First find your thing or many things and continue it; share it for the betterment of others.
Enjoy your thing. People will support it, and this is the only reality.
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