I’m acquainted with someone, who in my eyes is a very successful author. Of course, success is only relative, but this writer has reached out to millions of people throughout the world and changed their lives for the better. He shared a story of how he felt (not in an egoistic way) that if he had made such great strides in his spiritual evolution, why was he still getting all the same old negative traits coming to the surface? For example, allowing seemingly trivial things to annoy him and getting angry over what seemed like nothing. He felt that, given where he is today, compared to the pits from whence he had dragged himself up from, and considering his work, why was he not now the equivalent of a Buddha or a Lau Tzu?

He said that he was relating this story to a friend of his as he had allowed the situation to drag him down. As stated, he didn’t think like this because of his ego, it was because he’d had a particularly difficult time throughout large slices of his life and couldn’t understand why he was still struggling given how far he’d come. His friend, a very wise lady, reminded him that if he was off around the world being a Buddha or Lao Tzu, he wouldn’t have been doing his current work and touching the hearts of millions. We all have our own unique purpose for being here on earth and we also tend to have that rather annoying habit of comparing ourselves to others and feeling inadequate; even the best of us.

It just goes to show, that quite often it’s the people around us who see our qualities and achievements. We seem to be blind to the wonderful, positive things that make up our character and it’s left to others to remind us.