What’s Your Life Saying?

This week’s post is inspired by a quote from Mahatma Ghandi who said, “My life is my message.”

This got me thinking about the boldness that can make someone say that. You can’t make such a declaration unless you know that you’re truly living a life that is worthy of emulation. 

Mahatma Ghandi fought for his people in a non-violent way. He put the needs of his people and nation before his own. He understood the importance of human right and freedom and he fought for them. He was both a political and religious leader.

It’s no wonder that he could boldly make that statement. Everyday he made choices that aligned to his belief and faith, and he was committed.

He wouldn’t need words to describe what he believed in because it was on display for all to see.

The truth is words are cheap and mean nothing unless they are backed with action.

Why would you need to say you’re a hard worker or you’re kind and generous? Your actions and how you live your life would make those around you reach these conclusions by themselves.

If you find yourself having to talk about who you are and what you believe in, it might be time to see if your actions and the way you’re living your life is out of alignment with your beliefs.

We all have one opportunity to pass through this world as we know it and each of us is unique in all ways. So this one life that we have is important and must be lived out to its fullest potentials.

So how can we do that? Here are a few thoughts on this:

Reflect

Reflect on how your life is going. This might be a great time to have a journal and ask some questions like, ‘who am I? What do I believe? Do I like the life that I have lived so far? If I could make different choices, what would they be? Are there people I wish I was bit more like in character?

These questions can help us look inward and be more aware of areas of improvement. Although we can’t go back to re-write history, we can certainly take any learnings into our future.

Get feedback

If your life is to be your message, then what are the hearers of the message hearing? What are those watching your life observing? Since they are the audience, you must seek them out and ask what they are seeing and hearing.

We must do this in different settings because some people appear to have multiple personalities in the way they live their lives and it becomes confusing for those seeing them in different settings.

Be open to change

The beauty of reflecting and getting feedback is that we learn more about ourselves and we may hear things that we would rather not hear.

So we must be open to change so that we can become who we want to be and have a life that carries a message that we are proud of.

Define the message of your life

I believe we can all craft the message that we want our lives to carry. It can be a message of hope or generosity. It can be one of joy and love or it can be one of peace and justice.

We all have a blank slate and we can craft our message and begin to live a life that aligns with that message. In time, people will see or encounter us and get our message without us saying a word.

I want to end with a quote from Shira Tehrani who said, “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”

This is so true. Our days are numbered so we need to learn how to respect and honour that so that we live lives that matter in the time that we are here.

So as we start a new week or hit a milestone, we have an amazing opportunity to take stock of the current messages that our lives are sending. We then compare this to the messages we would rather send.

The rest is down to us making a commitment to change the narrative of our lives.

Thank you for reading my post. Please share and leave a comment. See you next week. Happy international women’s day to all the ladies.