Life Is Not A Race

We were brought into this world to experience it in your own unique way. No one's life is the same. We faced different problems, we strive for different things, and we have different goals. But as a human, we often comparing ourselves with others.

In this social media era, it’s so easy for us to see people’s activities through social media. Seeing people’s achievements always made us feel inferior, it made us feel like they are way better than us because we haven’t achieved those kinds of things.

Recently, I saw some great people who really good at speaking, writing, and critical thinking. Every time I see them I feel like I’m nobody compares to them. But then I realized that everyone has their own journey, that’s what make us can learn from each other. Now, what we need to do is knowing ourselves and find our life’s purpose. Start making goals and planning our life, do it step by step.

The only person you have to compete is your past self. You just need to be a better version of you every single day. Do what you enjoy and make you happy. Start to grow self love and never doubting yourself. Just believe that one day you will be a great person too, the person you’ve always wanted to be.

Don’t compare your chapter one with someone else’s chapter twenty. It’s not fair and unrealistic. Like if you just start writing but you've already compared your writings with great authors' who has written thousands sheets of paper before they became one. Just calm and believe that you will be at that point too. There always be a chance as long as you want to strive for it.

If you see people who have figured out everything at young age, it’s okay, it’s good for them, but you don’t have to be the same. I know it’s hard, knowing that right now, it’s so easy for us to see someone else’s achievements through social media.

What you have to keep in mind is people who seemed so successful basically just like all of us. They faced problems and failed but they get up and try their best again.

So my point is everything happens at their own time. You may look people who seemed ahead you and maybe some people you feel are behind. But everything happens at their own pace, so do you. Be patient. Relax. Enjoy your journey in this life, take all of the positives things in life. No need to rush cause life is not a race.

(I wrote it at Pesantren Riset Al-Muhtada's writing camp week 4)