January 20, 2023

When you’re free from competing and comparing!

It’s a funny old game we’re persuaded to play in
When our pliable young minds enter the Big Business sphere.
For we’re taught that to feel smart, fulfilled and self-worthy
We’d better grab more than each one of our peers.

We’d better win more and far more of those clients.
We’d better aspire to grand homes and plush cars.
We’d better push this year for ‘stretch’ goals and objectives.
We’d better be praised as one of our industry’s stars.

What’s more, we’re then taught from the very beginning
That none of that matters unless we’re ‘The Best’.
So, we glance o’er our shoulders to measure what ‘they’ have.
For, unless we have more, then we’re surely ‘much less’!

And the stress levels rise, and our faces grow earnest,
As we relentlessly strive at the heap-top to stay.
When a small voice within us (which we try hard to muffle) says:
“To live gloriously happy, is there not a different way?”

‘Til one day, if we’re lucky, life slaps us and wakes us
To the truth, that our life is worth more than all that.
And whatever we’ve learned about survival and warfare
Will bring pleasure as lasting as the life of a gnat.

Here then is my invite: lighten up, and look ‘round you!
There’s a world crying out for the gifts you possess.
There are lives you can touch with your skills and your passion.
There’s a mark only you can make, when “Me” matters far less.

When you cease calculating how much more you can gather.
When you set aside investing in your personal esteem.
Then you’ll see why Martin Luther didn’t say “I’ve a Strategy!”
You’ll catch what it feels like to cry “I Have a Dream!”

So, put passion to use; go and make this world better!
Place the inspiring of others at the centre of your gaze.
For it’s then you’ll discover what ‘soaring’ does feel like.
And – I promise – you’ll experience more exuberant days.
And – I promise – you’ll experience more exuberant days.

© AN ORIGINAL POEM BY DAVID J SCARLETT