Just reading the title ‘the world owes me nothing’ can be triggering for some people, and many people will have a problem with it.
If we want a mindset that works in life, we could do far worse than adopt the mindset that the world owes us nothing. Nobody owes us anything. From such a mindset, we accept what comes our way and we work to establish what we can, and we do not resent anything that supposedly comes against us. It is a powerful self-concept to nurture.
The fact is, life is unfair.
You only have to ask the person who has worked diligently and has led an honest life who is dying of cancer. There are many who have been bankrupted through no fault of their own, yet they are blessed to accept that the world owes them nothing, because it causes them to rebound the best they can.
We always need to ask, if we are living responsibly, if we have made a contribution to our misfortune. If we haven’t, we must remind ourselves the world owes us nothing. It is the common potential plight of all to suffer poor luck.
When we have expectations,
those expectations stand to be dashed.
Not all expectations are realistic.
It’s the person who continues to walk
like a clock in a thunderstorm,
steadily and faithfully,
who leads a resilient life.
THE SCOURGE OF ENTITLEMENT
From a position of expecting nothing from the world we negate all tyranny of entitlement. Entitlement is a spiritual, mental, and emotional cancer, and besides real cancer that kills the body, entitlement kills relationships and lives.
Let us live free of entitlement, so we
are not a curse to ourselves and others.
But we live in a day where entitlement reigns in individual lives and in corporate systems. Nobody can be content living a life of entitlement, just as it brings anxiety to others’ lives.
I am involved in conversations every single day trying to help those who have fallen into the trap of entitlement. What do I say when I’m helping people stuck in this cursed thinking?
I would prefer not to have to say anything. And then I am reminded of how quickly I fall into the trap. It is a trap common to all. And if you don’t think you are ever entitled, I would invite you to read the book The Entitlement Cure by Dr John Townsend (2015). This book describes the concept of a pocket entitlement, because we all have pockets of entitlement in our life, even if we are not characterised as entitled.
THE BEST THING WE CAN DO
The best way to live for ourselves and others
is to live as if the world owes us absolutely nothing.
If we want power, the only power available,
it’s right there, in the acceptance of what is!
Remembering that this is a theory, and accepting that we will still battle when we don’t get what we want, we can keep coming back to this concept of living that helps us in every way.
When we acknowledge that the world owes us nothing, and we can live accepting this harsh truth, we take responsibility for what is ours, and we take less responsibility for what is somebody else’s to deal with.
The most direct path to joy is the gratitude
that comes from being thankful for what we have
because we are not focused on what we don’t have.
Focusing on what is good in our lives negates focus for what isn’t so good. It’s paradoxically ironic that some of our worst times deliver space for reflections in gratitude.
Grief, for instance, opens our eyes to the suffering in the world, and God builds within us powerful capacities of empathy because of what we’ve suffered.
We are broadened and deepened emotionally and
spiritually through the life experiences of hardship.
Hardship is (or can be) an antidote to entitlement.
Trials remind us that we cannot control anything more than our own thoughts and actions in this world.
Why would we resent such a fact when everybody else exists in the same reality?
Resenting what we cannot change is a form of insanity.
Shaking our fist at anyone or at God for that matter over these issues is folly.
But there is great wisdom and accepting what we cannot change.
The epitome of humanity is accepting the status quo
with joy, whatever the status quo is.
It’s a goal worth striving for.
