The Sacrifice On The Altar

Everything we do or don’t do and every decision we make or don’t make results in a sacrifice being made but the question remains, what is the true sacrifice?

What is the true sacrifice when we choose to stay in bed a bit longer or decide to get out of bed earlier than usual? There isn’t a right or wrong answer to this as it depends on individual circumstance. For someone staying in bed longer is sacrificing their future health or their goals if they were already oversleeping. For another person staying in bed longer might be what the doctors ordered and what their body requires for optimal performance.

What is the true sacrifice when you stay in the wrong job or role? What is the sacrifice when you refuse to follow doctor’s orders?

The key thing to bear in mind is recognising that there is always a price being paid and a sacrifice being made by every one of us.

Recently in one of my WhatsApp forum, we were discussing the use of bleaching products and what could be done to address what can only be termed as a future epidemic when the consequences of ingesting dangerous chemicals through the largest organ of the body – the skin – hit the users.

Users of these products are making choices today and sacrificing something in the process. The choices range from listening to what the beauty industry is saying about beauty, what the manufacturers are doing to push products for profit, their own perception of beauty, following the bandwagons of skin bleachers, their understanding of what they believe will make them attractive to others, denial of the risks involved, ignorance or denial of the more serious consequences over decades of ingesting chemicals into their systems.

Decades after hair straightening products have been in use, we now have reports linking their prolonged use to certain cancers. They happen to be today’s sad headlines but the stages and scenes for the sad headlines of the next twenty to fifty years are being set today.

So what can we do?

Figure out who you are

The key is to first figure out who you are and what motivates you. What makes you tick, what and who do you listen to? What’s your opinion on your own life. If you don’t have an opinion, then the opinion of others will sway you. Who has the final say in your life – your friends, family, the pages of a magazine, what you see and read on social media, wider society, news headlines, family, your peers, total strangers or the industries that are willing to sell you anything for a profit?

Figure out who you are and then move on to figure out the ‘what’.

Figure out what you want

What do you want in life? What do you want for yourself today, tomorrow and in the future? What kind of life do you want to have when you are in your fifties and when you retire? Who do you want around you?

Where and how do you want to spend your days in your youth, middle age and old age? How do you want to live and how do you want to die? Your answer to these questions will shed light on what you might need to start doing today to move you towards what you want.

Remember, “If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice”.

If you want to live a healthy life in thirty years time, what do you need to sacrifice today to make that happen? If you want a certain level of financial comfort in your retirement, what do you need to do today to support that vision? How much do you need to set aside, what financial products do you need to invest in now and what financial sacrifices do you need to make today for that?

Figure out your why

Why do you make the choices that you make, why do you feel the need to do what others are doing, why do you feel the need for approval, why do you allow your own voice to go silent or unheard by you?

Figuring out why you do the things you do will be life transforming but prepare for some shocking revelations.

Asking tough questions like, why am I willing to put my health at risk, why am I unwilling to fight for the life that I want, why don’t I care about my future, why am I afraid to be different or to be me, why am I afraid to say no to what doesn’t serve me well and why am I willing to listen to people who have no stake in my outcomes?

Your whys may expose altars including ignorance, denial, short-sightedness, confusion, self-loathing, fear, laziness, lack of skills, self-doubt, desperation and need for acceptance, approval or need to belong and fit in.

In conclusion, the government, society, friends, families and education systems can have all the best intentions for us but the choice always remains ours to make. We have health practitioners who smoke, intelligent and talented people who waste away and people who will choose to jeopardise their health no matter what measures are put in to stop them.

Only you can care enough about yourself to do the right things for you. The key question is, do you consider yourself worthy enough? It’s time to reassess what you are sacrificing on your altars.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post. Have a great week.