A lot of people don't talk about the big questions in our lives; how do we live or learn to balance our lives? What does it look like to have a happy, successful and all-around good life? There are people who claim to know the answers to those questions such as people who believe traveling the world is the secret to having a good life or living forever. Others think it's by being healthy and exercising or being with people who love you and care about you.
Those things are all fine and do result in some form of happiness, but those events are temporary. Those things we do to give us pleasure are what happiness is really about; the temporary moments, the moments that you will treasure and think about.
But there are some people (I used to be one of them) who didn't think that happiness could be meant for some of us. It was only meant for a specific group of people who experiences little to no worries. That somehow, fate gave only specific people happiness and the rest of us were made to feel unhappy.
However, as I thought about it more often, it occurred to me that maybe it isn't really that way, but we (who are more honest about who we are) perceive that other people (who might not be so honest about who they are) are always happy or successful. Living in a world where looking up on the computer someone's social media is a very common practice has made a lot of people (especially younger people) doubt themselves on whether they can be happy, successful, loved, and/or appreciated by others. It's so easy for us to project a certain image about ourselves that it's oftentimes not considered entirely true to who we actually are as people. And some people will go to great lengths to change who they are just to fit the persona that they've created for other people to see (that is acceptable to them, others or both).
I can't say that there is one specific way to achieve balancing happiness, success and your life, but you can start with thinking about yourself and your needs. Like I said before, it's so easy for us to get caught up in our own image nowadays more than ever that it affects us subconsciously.
Someone could be at work, class (most of the time it is during class), out and about while in the back of your mind there's a little voice saying, "Oh I wonder if anyone saw what I posted an hour ago?", "I wonder if so-and-so is doing since it seems like she's always doing something fun while I'm stuck doing work." , "I wonder if I will remain single since all of my friends have a SO and they look so happy.", etc.
We as a society like to blame the social media itself for why people act, think, and learn this way, but if that was really the case then there would be no way of people communicating on a much faster and more efficient level. This is not to defend all social media apps, but the concept of communication.
What the real issue that most of us don't want to address is that humans overall are not satisfied with what they have. We always want more than what we have even if we are in a stable and well-kept situation. Someone could be a successful business person but still want more money, you could be a successful singer but still want more awards and songs made, you could be the king of a country but still want to be a God. The dissatisfaction is what prevents us from being happy or have balance in our lives.
Let's say before the scenario I brought up of a person doing work or is in a classroom and in the back of their head they are thinking about their social media or someone else's. It is more likely that someone who isn't as successful or well-to-do would think negatively about themselves or feel insecure compared to a successful person. But a successful person doesn't always mean secure. I've seen some people who have been successful and very secure about themselves (most of them were adults in their 30's or older, however), but there will be more and more people who will be successful and feel insecure because of this belief (that unfortunately is associated with technology and social media) that people have to "show off" how much happier and successful they are compared to other people.
In this day and age, our biggest problem will be learning to be comfortable with yourself rather than relying on other people to validate you. The only person who should be validating you should be yourself because you will be the one who will live with yourself for the rest of your life. And think to yourself, if I was alone would I be able to be friends with myself? Would I even like myself?
If you do that, it'll be the big first step of many steps towards being happy and successful, you just have to be happy with who you are first.