In a society that puts immense value on material items, I want to start off my saying this: No one cares about your status or how much money you make. When it comes down to what's important, all that matters is your happiness. And it's important to question whether your strides for that title or the money are rooted in expressing your true self or your ego. From a very young age, we're conditioned to want more. More money, more things, a bigger house, a nicer car. Whether it's from advertisements, social media, the education system, or our parents. We're influenced to want the next best thing, whether it's rooted in money or status. I'm not saying that you shouldn't work toward gaining something. Money also isn't innately evil, there are definitely circumstances where money is a helpful tool. I'm just proposing that you ask yourself why you want these certain things. Is it because this thing aligns with your passion and true self, or is it the result of outside influences telling you that it's what you should want? I saw a quote the other day that didn't give credit to anyone but it stated "True happiness is not the outcome of anything. It is born from the realization that you are already everything." You can slave for your entire life desperately yearning for the next best thing to find yourself utterly unsatisfied in the end. You'll never be truly happy until you become grateful for what's already present in your life and understand that you have within you all that you need to fulfill yourself. When will what you already have ever be enough?
I struggled with this idea mainly in the form of status. I constantly worried about how others perceived me, and it landed me in many situations where I was wasting energy doing things that I didn't even want to do. When it came down to deciding what I wanted to do for the rest of my life with a career, I ended up choosing things that were respectable enough to satisfy my ego. I couldn't bare the thought of just working a job that didn't require a four year degree. Which is absolutely ridiculous to me now. I put so much importance into my image that I wasted a good amount of time and money on something that didn't align with my passions. Now, thankfully I've been put in a situation that forced me to really question what I want from life. And it all came down to simply doing what makes me happy. To be honest, I had no idea what that even entailed for a while because I had spent years simply doing mundane tasks. The feeling I get by writing or doing something new to figure out exactly what fuels me is amazing. It's this feeling that we should be chasing, not these worldly things. On your death bed, material items and status hold absolutely no value. We weren't given the gift to experience life on Earth to work an unsatisfactory job simply for that pretty paycheck until we die. The value of your life is held in creation and self expression, connections to others, and experiences. Don't waste anymore of your life striving for the wrong things and find what fuels you.