“Should I continue to do question of the day? I need at least 40 likes and comments.”
These are the words a friend of mine has posed several times on his Facebook page since I’ve known him. They are in regards to the question of the day that he places there daily for everyone to answer. While he has continued to receive the necessary validation to keep on doing his day-to-day exercise, I’m not sure he expected to receive the comments I had for him.
There’s actually a nice spiritual lesson I learned in life that specifically deals with this very thing.
Don’t let others justify where your heart is with anything…
How this lesson applies to my friend’s Facebook dilemma is this. If his heart is truly in his daily exercise, in that he fully enjoys writing a new question each and every day, then by all means he should continue to do it, even if he has but1 like. It’s really about continuing to do the action for himself, because it somehow is making him happier in life. But if his heart is not in it, and even if he garners 50 million likes and affirming comments, then him continuing to do it is more for everyone else, and for the wrong reason. And following that path is only going to be unhealthy for his mind, body, and soul in the long run.
I do my best to live by these words nowadays. In all honesty, there are plenty of times I’ve questioned whether I should continue this blog or not, because I receive very little comments or feedback on most days. But writing my blog does bring me happiness and healing as well, which is exactly why I continue to do it day after day after day. On the other hand, there are many other actions in life that I’ve done, more for someone else’s happiness, instead of my own. And while each of them helped others be happier because of it, I grew more miserable in the process, solely due to the fact that my heart wasn’t in it. The bed and breakfast I once bought for an ex-partner and eventually totally lost to financial failure is a perfect example of this.
The bottom line here is actually pretty simple. A teacher once told me to only do what makes me feel good and which spiritually uplifts and recharges me, and to avoid doing whatever makes me question whether I should be doing it at all. They were truly wise words because anytime I’ve ever had to question whether I should continue to do something or not, my heart was no longer in the action, and my existence had become more for another person’s happiness, at the price of my own.
So hopefully my friend will end up following his heart with his question of the day dilemma, because ultimately, it’s not what everyone else thinks that should matter, it’s what he feels in his heart deep within…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
When I have written, it has been because the words were bursting out of me, and needed to be written down. It was because I needed to share something – even if no one else but me read it.
I would say the same thing to your friend. If you need “X” number of “likes” or comments, then it’s about appealing one appears to an audience, and it’s about approval and ego-stroking. For me, it’s an expression of my inner self, or it’s a waste of bits and bytes.
BTW, I mis-wrote that – I would say to HIM, “if you (meaning him) need likes or comments,” not to YOU, Andrew. I realize that for you, this is a spiritual exercise, not ego-feeding. (I didn’t want to leave that comment and not clarify that – sadly, there’s no way to correct once I hit “post.”)
I knew what you meant… 🙂 Thanks for clarifying it though… 🙂