Proximity to reality

Acknowledgement dictates effort, appreciation dictates improvement. Or rather, the propensity to achieve these dictates our effort and improvement.
There was a time when my life was dictated by these exact same things. Appreciation and acknowledgement. From others. Days when the manner of criticism drove my mood. Days when I did things since I was supposed to do them. Someone once said,"Once you have done what you are supposed to do, you can't do what you want to do". You grow accustomed to a life like that. To the lies you have fed to yourself. When you first begin to do things you are supposed to do, you start a never-ending chain of all the unwanted actions that hence take place in your life. In the end, all you want is to get sucked into singularity or teleported to a parallel universe where your actions are guided by your desires and by your willingness(instead of others'), where you go out of your way to impress yourself and nobody else.
Sometimes you are lucky enough to discover a slip through to your alternate universe, where your life is more like the one you want. But, instead of it being an abrupt change, it is gradual, like a river shaping the rocks over time, or a ring imprinting itself on our finger. These changes come about when we decide that the thoughts of random people and the interpretation formed by them about our personalities in their head are no more our business. It's in moments such as these that we truly discover ourselves, when we pine towards the things that draw our soul, not the hibernated mind. It's moments such as these that we live for!

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