Wisdom is such a complicated subject; it’s an ambiguous word. What makes someone wise? Is it experience or intelligence? I like to believe it’s the ability to be self-aware.

But don’t confuse being self-aware with being self-absorbed.

Between years of untreated mental illness and addiction, if there’s one important thing that I’ve learned, it’s that you have to be true to yourself, you have to be true to your emotions, and you can’t let anyone define who you are but yourself.

That’s the only true path to your happiness. Money, a relationship, none of these will be worth anything if you aren’t content with the person you are, in the depths of your being.

We are told who to be from the moment we put one foot in front of the other. Expectations from family members, friends, and society cloud our dreams and pave a path to gloom and misery.

The idea of being true to yourself, the words rolling off your tongue, seem so effortless. This concept seems like such an obvious and cliched statement but still, it’s a quality that most humans lack a grasp of. The thought of being a well-rounded person is a foreign antibody that the masses are terrified of, fighting at all odds against it.

I spent way too many years attempting to be everything everyone expected me to be while rebelling in secret. I couldn’t hold on to the lie any longer; I was suffocating. My only release was drugs and anger that had been bottled up inside of me for years.

The best decision I ever made was to take a step back and reevaluate why I was self-destructing.

If you aren’t fulfilled, take a step back. Take a deep breath. It’s just fine to not accept what the world expects of you if it’s not what you want.

Who are you? Who do you want to be? Are these qualities aligned? What do you want to accomplish in life? Not what you’ve been told to want but what you truly want.

Are you content to just go through the motions until you’re in a casket?