I used to give up things for lent as a child, we didn’t make a big deal of it,  but I remember doing it. This year I decided to give up gluttony, which looks like giving up late night snacks, eating less overall, and eating better overall. I decided I wanted to partake because I realize that I’m bad at giving things up.

We don’t talk about sacrifice enough when we talk about getting our goals. We streamline the discussion by talking about hard work, like those two things are completely interchangeable, but they aren’t. Sacrifice is hard work, but working hard doesn’t mean that you’re truly sacrificing, especially if it is hard work you enjoy.

The point of sacrifice is that you’re giving up something you don’t want to. The point of sacrifice is to suffer now in order to succeed later on. In terms of your life it means later on in the years, in terms of your soul it means later on in the next life. But either way you have to give things up to get anywhere.

The path you are on has lead you to where you are now, but you might not get any farther if you don’t change yourself. You might be stuck here or stuck inching along at a snails pace forever. You don’t want that, but you might deserve that with how you’re currently living.

Life is a give and take, but you always have to give. I think as a society we’ve let people take a little too much, and now we think we can get away with taking a little bit more without the give. I think that’s one of the reasons we find ourselves so disappointed. After all, we’ve made it so far with taking more than we give, why can’t we make it a little farther?

It’s in our nature to do so, but that doesn’t mean it’s feasible in our reality. Sometimes we have to give without take. Sometimes we have to sacrifice just to sacrifice. It might not seem fair, but nobody ever promised life would be. But how to do we prepare ourselves for sacrificing our time, sins, and habits? Is it simply discipline and foresight?

I think a lot of it is. We have to hold ourselves accountable and buckle down so we can be successful in the future. It’s time we realize that and start living like it.