A potent, ponderable: You're born into this life with very special gifts. These gifts are given to you by a higher power.
Now, I know that some of you may be agnostic or atheists, and that's fine, but you cannot deny that we all present in special and unique ways as a manifestation of our epigenetics.
We are certainly the expression of some unique series of existential and fundamental occurrences.
It occurs to me that one of the places where things go really wrong is when (I've seen this in my own life, so I bear witness to it as well as having empirical evidence of it) we focus on the 1%: we look to people around us with envy, or seek to emulate them exactly, usually because we want something that they have in the material world.
In these circumstances, we are tempted to forget that we have been given unique gifts that can evolve and express as we learn. We fall into the trap of yearning to be something we are absolutely not. This is essentially the evil eye and jealousy manifestations, disguising themselves as a simple state: “I want to be / have / take that”instead of “I want to learn and grow from that”.
When we think in the formal way, we literally spit on the incredible gifts that we are given, and there's a result for that, which is highly unfavorable. We look to take rather than receive.
In the latter, we receive so that we can share more. We build on our unique gifts and then naturally seek to share them in the world.
It's not about everybody having a station in life that they should sit in first. We should always seek to rise higher.
What it really is about is where we come from, how we approach it, and whether we appreciate what we have and what we are getting, knowing that it is designed for us.
Sometimes people may think that they're getting something pretty bad. If you look far back enough, you'll realize that something you did sowed the seeds of what you're getting, and that what you're getting is actually some sort of opportunity for transformation. It may not feel good, but generally the biggest transformation opportunities are accompanied by the most resistance.
It still is, however, designed and meant for you and lovingly crafted for you.
You don't get to solve it by being someone else. You get to solve it by being yourself, and, of course, by learning from your experience as well as the experiences of others around you and their shared wisdom.
We form a better society and community by sharing that wisdom freely, but we never step in to take someone's opportunity to gain wisdom away from them by doing their work. If you do, you wind up having their growth opportunity and suffering for it.
This is not about staying in your lane. This is not about not looking at someone and saying, "Wow, that inspires me." It's about not thinking, "Wow, I want to take that." You already have everything you need to build off of it, as long as you don't seek to replace it and shroud it from the world and yourself.