One of my hobbies is learning history, sometimes I will sit and read history articles or watch documentaries for hours. It's a rather strange interest but I can't stress enough how fascinating it is to me when I find out about things that I never would've imagined happened hundreds of years ago in the other side of the planet. Even more so when I dive deeper into an event that I thought I had a solid understanding of, only to gain a new perspective and completely changing my opinions on a topic. Knowing this, if you asked me if I would rather be able to meet my ancestors or descendants (Theoretically, of course), which one do you think I would choose? This is a question that someone asked me not too long ago, and I didn't hesitate to answer. That answer was meeting my descendants.
What? I just wrote that knowing about the past and our ancestors is fascinating to me, so why did I give that answer?
As it turns out, being a history nerd has taught me something that I hadn't even thought of until after I had that conversation. I've read about world leaders, military generals and historic figures that have left us with inventions or ideas that we cant even imagine living without in our current time. We seem to view historic figures in either a negative or positive way, this is natural as we tend to view history as a story, with good guys and bad guys and categorize events as either catastrophic or completely positive, this can't be further from the truth. Events and people are complicated, events happen in a chain reaction and are a product of everything that came before. People are not inherently good or bad, we have ideas and take actions according to our understanding of how things work. The one thing that historic figures have in common, whether their reputation is good or bad, is that they left a legacy. They had an impact on the lives of many who came and will come after, they had the courage, skill and motivation to make a change. What could be more valuable than bettering the lives of as many people as possible?
So here lies the reasoning behind the answer I gave, as much as I would have loved to see ancient greece, the roman empire and ancient egypt, I am more interested in knowing what legacy and impact I will have for those who come after me, whether it's one person or thousands.
As I reflected on these thoughts, I realized that I had found motivation and an appreciation for whatever it is we are doing now to better ourselves and therefore better the lives of those around us. Perhaps I won't appear in a history book a hundred years from now, but that shouldn't mean that I won't do my best to leave as much for this world as I'm capable of.
These thoughts surely won't magically provide a lifetime supply of motivation, but perhaps will help you in your day to day life, at least a bit. You may occasionally feel stuck or like you're going backwards from your goal, but know that as long as you are doing what is in your hands to provide value to your loved ones and those around you, feel no shame or frustration as you are already doing more than you can even imagine. Dedicate time to yourself, your thoughts and your body. Valuing yourself as much as everyone else will help you take good care of your physical and mental health, it is your only chance and tool to make the place we live in a better one, which I believe is our purpose in this giant sphere of water and dirt we call home.
See ya!
-Rob
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