Obstacles to Grace II:
The Cruel Grip of Socialization and Comparison

Of course, the most powerful obstacles to living in resonance with the highest goal come from the media, our schools, our parents and friends—our society. All of them tell us to chase a successful life that will be admired by others.

That influence invades our dreams and our deepest thoughts. It holds us with a cruel grip. We buy into the game that society convinces us we should be playing, even if it draws us away from who we are at core. We miss some of our greatest moments. We rationalize them away. We can’t put them together into a consistent way of living our lives because we allow ourselves to be distracted by the picture of success and the good life that these forces of society offer us.

We constantly compare ourselves with others. And when we do this, we lose control of our lives because we are no longer living from our core. We are living according to someone else’s idea of what life should be or what we should be doing. We lose the power that comes from doing what is right for us.