I know it seems self-evident but it’s worth mentioning. It is contradictory to sacrifice yourself for your path. If there is no you then there is no path. If the point is for you to achieve the goals you set for yourself, to live a happy and fulfilled life, and to bring your gifts into this world, then hacking off pieces of yourself, sacrificing your happiness, and using yourself up is not the way to get there.
It does, however, seem to be the goto for a great many people. I’m not talking about short-term deferment of pleasure for long-term goals. Joining the military for four years means you’re going to put a bunch of stuff on the back burner. You’re going to sacrifice parts of yourself for the greater goal. The idea is not only to achieve the goals of the moment and of the military, but to come out better than you were. Same with going to Law school, getting a medical degree, becoming a Veterinarian or getting a PhD. In the short-term gratification narrows down to getting something like sleep and eating something other than pizza and getting to talk to your loved ones for a few minutes between duties.
But for so many, instead of looking to our surroundings for support, instead of clearing from our lives what is no longer serving or actively holding us back. we sacrifice ourselves to make ill fitting situations work. We force the square peg and call it a spiritual endeavor. We sacrifice our happiness for what we think we should do and never stop to think that our happiness is our soul trying to tell us what we could do. Each of us is a piece of divinity. Honoring that is priority number one. How else will others know how to honor us or even if they should? How will our children learn to honor and respect themselves let alone anyone else? How will we be able to honor and respect our significant other if we can’t even do it for ourselves? Our path starts with us. Overflowing blessings we can share with everyone else will fountain outwards when we finally stop killing the messenger.
