The Harsh Reality of Birthdays

It's your birthday and you're really excited. You dance, play, eat, drink and have fun. You get exciting calls and text messages from family and friends. You're surprised with lavish gifts. But after all the celebration of adding one more year to your life, you suddenly start to think about the harsh reality of birthdays.

First, you may start worrying about the future.
You have just added a year to your life. You start thinking about the things you've failed to achieve or not. You start wondering about whether you have found your purpose and what the future may hold for you. You feel sad when you've not been able to accomplish as much as you had thought. You only feel good when you've achieved some good things during the year.

Secondly, you think about death. Someone once said that every birthday takes us closer to our graves. You start thinking of the time you've spent so far on earth and how much more possible time you may have left. This is more common with the older folks, so at some point, they may be reluctant to even celebrate or become too excited about their birthdays.

You get to think about those who really care about you and those who are in your life. Maybe you expected a different birthday wish or present from someone who you really care about or someone who is really close to you, but nothing was forthcoming. You may become saddened about the fact that some people don't just care about your birthday at all.

You may start to compare your birthday with those of other people. You may suddenly remember how that friend of yours celebrated his or her birthday. He or she may have gone to the beach, entered a speed boat or a ship, taken a flight to an expensive resort for the birthday and all.. Your own birthday might have come up at a time when you were not buoyant enough and you probably celebrated it in a "not so big" way.

You start to think of how well you have lived and the progress you have made. The thoughts of how well you have progressed so far in your relationships, finances, career and education will begin to haunt you. You begin to see where you have done well and where there is still room for improvement.

Despite these harsh realities which we must have to come to terms with, birthdays are still awesome. They remind us of our human nature and position in life. The harsh realities only help us to look introspectively into our lives and make necessary adjustments for a better birthday. It is not there to make us feel bad about ourselves.

Your birthday may have reminded you that you are not currently where you had planned to be. But remember that you are alive and well, that's enough reason to be happy. With life in you, you can always make plans and keep trying.

You may have thought about death on your birthday, death is inevitable in this realm of our mortal existence. The thought of death should make you see life as it really is and love more often than you hate. It should make you enjoy this life and do good to others because you never know when your time is up. And it should motivate you to work hard to make a lasting impact.

The harsh reality of the people who really care about you may have also dawned on you. But guess What? It doesn't really matter. Everyone must not care about you even when you might have cared about them. Sometimes life may look that unfair. Those you love and care about may not really love and care about you in the same way. And that's okay. They really don't owe you nothing.

Still show love and care to people when you can and when you want to. Don't cut people off easily because they haven't met your expectations. None of us is all perfect.

Comparing yourself with other people for whatever reason has always proven to be wrong because there is no point doing so. If you want a particular thing for yourself, all you need is to plan and work towards it.

Action is what you need to get it. If you want your birthday to be a blast, you have to plan for it and make some decent amount of money which can afford you such a luxury. There's nothing bad in celebrating your birthday in a small way. As long as you had some fun at all, you should be happy. But if you want it big, plan big and act big.

If you catch yourself thinking about how well you have made progress, it is actually good. But be careful not to slide into over thinking which can lead to depression. Take note of where you need to improve and just draw out new plans to help you make progress. Act on those plans consistently. That's all.

Birthdays are still awesome!