I spoke to one of my oldest and best friends this morning, and he was telling me about a trip his friend went on. His friend was traveling with people of means, who by all appearances, seemed to have everything going for themselves, yet, most of them were on some form of anti-depressant. It left him asking “What is wrong with people today, that they are so stressed and unhappy? What is the issue; what is the problem?”

I shared with him a personal story that happened to me last week. I had the privilege of talking someone out of hurting themselves, and they texted me that I was the most helpful person they had ever spoken to. Not even 5 minutes after I saw that text, I looked at the price of Tesla stock, and I said God, why didn’t you give me the foresight to buy it? Why can’t I just have complete financial freedom?

I reflected on this for a moment, as well as what my friend asked me about the unhappiness of our generation, and at least for me, it comes down to one thing: faith in the almighty; a surrender to a higher power, and trusting and believing in all my heart that he gives me exactly what I need to accomplish what I was put on earth to do.

I want to be clear: if you are depressed, it is biological, and you should take medicine, just like if you have a heart or thyroid problem. Yet, if you think medicine without doing any work on yourself is the answer, you are sorely mistaken. You must exercise your brain, with— but not limited to— therapy, spiritual guidance, meditation, surrender, breath-work, prayer, and study.

In life, I find that we can focus on what we do have, or what we don’t have. We can choose to focus on what we think of ourselves, or what others think of us. We can judge our insides by your outsides. Yet, no matter what, someone will have more, and someone will always have less.

I will end with a story of Zushe. Zushe, a great sage, was on his deathbed, and he started laughing. His disciples said to him, “Rebbe, you have been waiting for this moment for all of your life, you are about to sit in judgement in front of your maker, and you are laughing?” Zushe said to his students, “Yes! Because when God asks me why I wasn’t like Moses, Abraham, or any of the other greats, I will say, God, because you didn’t create me that way.” Moments later, he started bawling; crying and trembling in fear. His students said, “Rebbe, you have the answer, why are you so scared?” To which Zushe responded, “When God asks me Zushe, why weren’t you like Zushe, I won’t know how to answer.”

This week let’s focus on ourselves and our unique gifts that we bring to the world. I promise that each and every one of us has something that only we bring to the table. We waste so much time on comparing ourselves to others, or to what we don’t have, that we often become completely oblivious to the amazing humans that we are.

Accountability, Community, Unconditional Love

Happy new year,

Asher

I want to remind all of you that you can hear more on my podcast, Showing Up. We have lots of amazing shows with interesting guests on a variety of personal development topics. It would be great if you could also rate 5 stars, review and subscribe to the show. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/showing-up-with-asher-gottesman/id1489856285y