When You Feel Unsuccessful

Ever feel unsuccessful? If this is you, trust me I’ve been there and still am there sometimes. When you feel like a worthless human being, when you feel like you’ve wasted you life, when you look around and see all these successful people and you feel as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. I’ve been there.

I just turned 22 years old a couple days ago and when asked what my biggest accomplishment was I had no answer to give them. Sure, I could of given them a cookie cutter answer like, “I’ve made it to my senior year of college,” “Or I’ve done a lot of service work.” But I don’t see that as an accomplishment but more as the norm. Ya see, I think society puts all this pressure on people to be involved with so many things. Have a job, do three extracurricular activities, take 18 credits, balance having a personal life, and being healthy. And when you don’t fit into this role, you feel unsuccessful.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you longer have to feel this way! Whenever you feel as though you haven’t done anything and your life is going nowhere, remember your life isn’t over yet.

Mother Teresa, who by the way, won countless awards including the Noble Peace Prize for her servant hood and founded four branches of the Missionary of Charity family, said this,

“God doesn’t call you to be successful, He calls you to be faithful.”

This is the real accomplishment in life, folks. Staying faithful when life is hard to bare and you don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning but believing that you have a purpose on this earth and that you are valuable.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11.

Every single person on this planet has a future, and a great and wonderful future ahead. So, when you hear those thoughts of inadequacy and that your life is going nowhere, remember that YOU have a bright future ahead.

This might be a cliche illustration, but who cares, I’m going to share it anyway. I want you to close your eyes and think of a butterfly. The most beautiful butterfly you can think of, I want you to imagine it flying through the air surrounded by colorful flowers. Now, I want you to imagine a caterpillar. Just a plain, ol’ caterpillar. Often times, we forget that the caterpillar, after a long process of being in a cocoon, being morphed and shaped, become the beautiful butterfly you just imagined. Life is a journey. Life is a process. A process filled with hard times, struggles, love, and joy. And I believe we are all already butterflies on a journey to be faithful. It’s just now we have to realize it.

So, the next time someone asks me what my biggest accomplishment in life is, my answer will be, “I’ve realized that I’m a butterfly.”