Its time to change how we live our life?

Todays blog is from Ruhul Saiyed who is the HR & Internal Communications Advisor for Global Healthy HR and you can connect with her via https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruhul-saiyed-9b1ba398/

As its the Sunday before the last full week in work, I am aiming at getting out and about, weather depending for last minute festive shopping plus seeing family before they head to see family in America. This connects to Ruhul’s blog about taking a moment out of the day and seeing what is around you, and this week its family for me.

Every year I hear it’s time for a change. And every year, I feel a small pull inside me. For most of my life, I thought that meant I had to do something big, impressive, that would make people think I was moving forward the way they expected me to. A new achievement. A new plan. Travelling somewhere. A promotion. A degree?

But lately, the message feels different. It feels quieter. More personal. Almost like a gentle question asking if I’m actually living my own life, or just the one the world wants to see.

Somewhere between growing up, working, trying to stay “on track,” and pretending we always know where we’re going, many of us drift away from ourselves. We start absorbing expectations we never signed up for. Get married by this age. Be successful by that age. Match everyone else’s pace. Prove that you’re doing enough. And the moment you pause or take a different path, people start wondering what’s wrong.

For a long time, I chased the idea of becoming “more.” More capable. More stable. More impressive. But I never really questioned why. I just kept going because everyone else seemed to be moving so fast. The day I finally slowed down and asked myself what I was running toward, I realised I didn’t have an answer. Just a habit of rushing and trying to fit in.

We live in a world where peace almost looks suspicious. Where resting feels like you’re falling behind. Where admitting you’re content feels like you lack ambition. These beliefs have been repeated so often that we forget to ask whether they are even true for us.

Maybe real change begins in a quieter place. Not in becoming someone new, but in remembering who we are when nobody is watching. In asking ourselves what we actually want instead of what we think we should want.

Sometimes I look around, in the nature and wonder how animals or birds manage to live with such honesty. A pigeon doesn’t try to be like a peacock. A lion doesn’t wish it were a horse. A horse doesn’t look at a wildebeest and question its worth. They live as they are meant to, without comparison or insecurities. They do what they are created to do, without forcing anything or rushing their lives. They are all following their own roles and places in the world and not really trying to take up somebody else’s place or role. I now think that is contentment.

Meanwhile, we humans search endlessly for identity, purpose, peace. Maybe we grew faster on the outside and forgot to grow on the inside.

I often hear people say that if we push hard enough, we can change our destiny. I don’t think destiny works that way. I believe what is meant for us eventually reaches us. Not earlier. Not later. And maybe real change is accepting that, trusting that, and letting life arrive in its own time. That also does not mean we should not work hard or have goals. We should. That is needed and that is Life. But perhaps, we should also not forget to live in the rush to thrive and be successful. Cause I think life is so much more than just that. And there are so many more things to explore and see than just rush in life and feel unsatisfied and empty inside.

As we approach the new year, people will soon start making resolutions again. However, I find myself wanting something different.

What if our resolution was simply to return to ourselves. To stop fighting our own timeline. To accept the parts, we love and gently work on becoming the version of ourselves that is happy, content, not rushing ourselves. Become or perhaps identify who we really are as a person, not to impress anyone, but to feel more whole and at peace. To stop performing and start living. To be thankful for what we already have. I guess it’s time to change how we treat and perceive ourselves?

So, when I think of the words it’s time to change, this year, the change I imagine isn’t loud or dramatic. It’s quiet. Soft. A change that doesn’t need to be posted or announced. A return to the pieces of ourselves we abandoned while trying to keep up with the world.

It’s time to change how we measure our worth.
It’s time to stop treating life like a race.
It’s time to choose peace over pressure.
It’s time to trust the timing of our lives.

Maybe change isn’t about becoming someone new.
Maybe it’s about coming home to the person we were always meant to be