This past Christmas, I was given a calendar for the new year filled with inspirations. This past Sunday’s inspiration was, “Get out of victim mode and into badass mode, and be diligent about your mindset.” The idea of being in victim mode has presented itself a few times to me recently, and reading that inspired me to dive deeper and reflect on my current mindset. As I was reflecting, the word “sacrifice” came into mind and prompted a trail of further thought and research. Growing up in church, sacrifice was a common theme, considering God sacrificed his one and only son for the world, but I never took the time to sit down and think about what purpose sacrifices served within my life.

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to change some of my habits because I feel they no longer serve me and I want to embody a healthier, happier, balanced version of myself. However, I find myself saying: “Today will be the last day I eat so much candy,” or “Tomorrow I’ll start being more active,” or “Once my check deposits I’ll get a gym membership,” or whatever the excuse may be, I tell myself the same thing day in and day out without ever actually making any changes. I know I need to make changes in my life because I find myself depressed and anxious with the way that I’m living, and I go through life hoping that I’ll wake up and actually start living, instead of just surviving. Instead, I coast and numb myself through each day that passes me by. Jim Carrey said, “Depression is your avatar telling you it's tired of being the character you are trying to play.” Reading that struck a chord within me because it helped me make sense of the way I have been feeling. I haven’t felt like myself because instead of taking risks and stepping outside of my comfort zone, I have been letting life happen to me and have been sitting back and comfortably. So, do I sacrifice my comfort? Or do I sacrifice my potential? The choice is mine, and you have the same choice to make for your life.

To further justify and convince myself that sacrificing my comfort would be the best thing for me, I dug deeper into the teachings of sacrifice and its importance within Christianity and Eastern cultures. According to an article written by Jancy James on the website for the United Kingdom’s Divine Retreat Centre, they explain the value of sacrifice. James writes, “Sacrifices lead us to live a life of humility. If you are accustomed to [satisfying] all your desires, a time may come when you can no longer satisfy the bigger desires of your life.” Reading this was a bit of a wake up call for me because I feel like I have been moving through life rather naively. I was under the impression that in order to manifest a life that I want, I had to act accordingly to that life. So, I spend money on things I don’t need, do jobs that pay well but drain me mentally and physically, and I eat whatever I want whenever I want. Living my life this way has left me rather depressed and dissatisfied because by getting the things I want when I want them has now left me without direction and without discipline.

Additionally, James states, “...if you have never gone through hunger, sufferings, trials or testing times, you are in serious danger… Our Father in heaven constantly disciplines us and prunes us so that after some time, we start eating the fruits of His love. He does it out of love to make us a new creation.” I realize now that sacrifice and discipline go hand in hand because having self-control provides a path toward inner and outer harmony. Having control over your temptations and desires not only builds character by preparing you and giving you strength to take on future challenges, but it also fosters community because when you are able to give up your own desires for the greater good, communities are then able to thrive collectively. Reflecting on sacrifice and its importance has made me realize that I have been moving through life cynically. I have mainly been concerned and have acted mainly upon my own interests, as I feel many in society do as well, and unsurprisingly has resulted in the world we live in today- one filled with so much chaos, hate, and destruction rather than one filled with love, creation, and harmony. It’s my ego that lets me believe that the world needs me, when in reality, we all need each other.

The act of sacrificing one’s own desires is also revered within several Eastern cultures and religions. On Wisdomlib.org, the authors describe the significance of sacrifice within Buddhism and Hinduism. They state, “In Buddhism, the spirit of sacrifice embodies the essence of altruism and selflessness, as illustrated by Sadaprarudita, highlighting the importance of dedication to the well-being of others and spiritual growth through acts of sacrifice.” Furthermore, in Hinduism, sacrifice “embodies the readiness to relinquish personal desires for a higher purpose… and underscores the depth of ritual intentions, promoting spiritual completeness and a collective good.” The common theme for sacrifice within each of these faiths is forgoing, or giving up, the self, or the flesh, if you will, in order to contribute to the higher purpose of the world as a whole and achieving a stronger relationship with your spirit- the embodiment of who you really are.

To connect the idea of sacrifice back to the idea of being in “victim mode” versus “badass mode,” in order to get out of victim mode, we have to sacrifice our comfort to be able to step into our power and unlock our true potential. For most of my life, I blamed others- mainly those closest to me- for the way things turned out in my life. I’d use them and their actions as an excuse for why I wasn’t able to live my life the way I wanted to. I let life happen to me instead of changing my mindset and realizing that I am the creator of my own reality. It is important to move through life mindfully and with intention in order to reap what we sow because through our actions and words is how we create the life we choose to live. So by telling myself that I can’t do something, or that I’m too weak, too dumb, too broke, or too incapable, that is who I became. There is so much power behind our words, our thoughts, and our actions, and we literally manifest the life that unfolds before us through the energy we put out into it.

It’s time for me to get out of my own head and start consciously moving through the world around me. Everything is a choice, and I realized that the reason I may be unhappy with the way things are in my life is because all of the choices I have made up until this point led me here. It’s because I chose to sacrifice my happiness and success over my comfort. I chose to avoid pain and conflict, and by doing so, I chose to miss out on joy and healing. I chose to transmit feelings of sorrow, envy, and discontent. When I am able to sacrifice my own interests, desires, and ego, the result is much greater than what I could have ever imagined.

By healing myself and finding joy within myself, I am then able to share that with the world, and that’s what makes sacrifice so important. We were put on this Earth to serve, to create, and to love, and the only way we can understand the meaning of life is through sacrifice. When you find the strength to be the bigger person or to put others before your own feelings and desires, that is when we are able to learn more about ourselves and our purpose. And when making a sacrifice becomes a difficult choice to make, remind yourself that you are serving a higher purpose. You just have to decide what the intention behind your actions are, and if you don’t know why you’re doing something, then it isn’t serving you nor the world around you. So if you’re ready to step into “badass mode,” it’s time to start moving with purpose, and when you start moving with purpose, that is when you’ll get one step closer to your true self- your true north.

References

James, Jancy. “The Importance of Sacrifices in Christian Life.” Divine Retreat Centre UK - Official Website, 21 Apr. 2022, www.divineuk.org/articles/the-importance-of-sacrifices-in-christian-life/.

Www.wisdomlib.org. “Significance of Spirit of Sacrifice.” Spirit of Sacrifice: Significance and Symbolism, 23 Feb. 2025, www.wisdomlib.org/concept/spirit-of-sacrifice#:~:text=The%20concept%20of%20Spirit%20of%20sacrifice%20in%20local%20and%20regional%20sources&text=The%20Spirit%20of%20sacrifice%20embodies%20selflessness%2C%20prioritizing%20the%20welfare%20of,Devi%20and%20teachings%20of%20Buddha.&text=(1)%20An%20ethos%20centered%20around,encouraged%20by%20the%20Krishna%20Patrika.