The forty-something year old man, has finally renewed his passport, and is ready for a long awaited trip to the tropical country of Costa Rica. A vacation to another country is just what is needed to reenergize himself, for the next hectic work cycle ahead. He and his wife packed their bags for their relaxing, get-a-way and are off to the airport to catch their flight.
As the couple gets ready to board the plane, the man is informed by the airlines, that there is a two bag minimum. The well-established businessman was attempting to board the plane with an astounding six bags, plus two personal items.
With today’s flight restrictions, it would be virtually impossible to board a traditional plane with that many bags. What in the world? I know what you’re thinking, how could anyone try to board a plane with so many bags? Perhaps, the man wasn’t even aware that he was trying to board the flight with so much baggage.
As we move through life, we tend to accumulate a certain amount of “baggage” due to our life experiences. Baggage can easily be defined as things from our past that we “carry” with us, and haven’t let go, addressed, or confronted. The problem with baggage is that it still affects us in some way, shape, form or fashion because it’s a chapter in our life that we haven’t closed yet. Often times we may harbor a certain amount of guilt, distrust, or anger towards an individual or situation, which inadvertently translates to more unhealthy baggage.
Our experiences ultimately shape us into the person that we are, and the person that we become. These experiences that we encounter begin with our childhood, extends throughout adolescence, teenage years, young adulthood, our middle-aged years, and beyond. If we don’t deal with these circumstances that affect us, I would argue that it’s extremely difficult to live a fully rich life, full of depth, happiness, and purpose.
Now, the question to what extent something affects us is indeed another discussion in itself. I’m sure a lot of times we think, “Oh, well, I turned out pretty good.” “Everything’s fine with me now, it could have been much worse.” It’s almost as if we try to convince ourselves that everything is okay, because we do know that things could always be worse.
Is this a good stance to take? Are we really living our life to our fullest potential? Are we genuinely satisfied with the course our life has taken? Are we being true to ourselves and the people around us?
After analyzing many case studies, I have yet to discover an individual that had a substantial amount of baggage that was genuinely happy with their life and felt a deep sense of fulfillment with their life. Now, “substantial amount of baggage” is, of course a highly subjective statement. However, those cases in which people had unresolved issues (with family, friends, romantic partners, business relationships, etc.) they tended not to feel a high level of content within their life.
The primary way to increase your sense of life satisfaction is to come to terms with all of you unresolved matters in your life. That means that you’re really going to have to “unpack” all of your baggage in order to ensure a happy, fulfilling trip into your future. The obstacle is that this can be both mentally and emotionally exhausting. This can be extremely challenging because it will often times force us to be uncomfortable and we will have to deal with a lot of instances from our past. This process will also dare us to be honest with ourselves and force us to be vulnerable. This can be really hard, because often times we put up artificial representations of ourselves for the sole purpose of being perceived positively from others.
However, in the end, dealing with our baggage is undoubtedly worth it! It can be a freeing and therapeutic experience! It’s not going to be easy, but its value is priceless. Take it one step at a time. Figure out what things from your past have affected (and/or continued to bother) you, and confront them head on. I understand many will read this article and choose not to make any changes in their life due to fear, despite the fact that there are many bags to unpack.
Just remember that “courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear” (Ambrose Redmon), like your happiness. I’m sure the outcome of being able to address your previous obstacles that have affected you will actually ensure that your future is brighter and that the life you lead will be richer and filled with a deeper sense of contentment.
NOTE TO THE READER:
Of course, as always, I am very interested in hearing your thoughts about this article! Do you think many of us carry “baggage” in our day to day to lives? Is it really even a problem? How can we fix it?
Ready, Set, Discuss!!
