A wise man named Gary Vaynerchuck once said: “Comfort is a drug. Comfort is where dreams go to die.” All our lives, the default we've all known was to enjoy your childhood, go to school, get to a good university or college, get a stable job, retire at 65 and enjoy the remaining days in the hourglass.
Let me refine that perspective for you. Let's say you graduate from university at around 22-24, and you would start job searching, and let's say that requires you roughly 1-2 years until you find a “good” job to provide means for you and your future family. You then continue down this road for about forty years until you get old and weary.
You pray you saved enough for your retirement, your children’s college tuition and wedding, have grandkids, and rest in peace ten or (hopefully) more years later. So, ask yourself: Is this the path I would want to live?
Here's my take on this. Whatever your answer may be, will be the right answer. There is no wrong answer. Wait, what? Let me explain.
Success is relatively subjective. To most people, success would mean: a big house, a tree of sprouting money, fast cars, and a yacht; but to some, it could mean the little things like raising a child well or maintaining a healthy relationship with friends and family, or even getting to the end of a rainbow is a success. You know you found success when life slowly becomes meaningful and brings you, well, happiness.
Society will build you in a framework, a false perception of what self-fulfillment truly is. Success is not the 20 million Instagram followers, the five lakeside mansions, or the zeroes in your bank account. To me, it's as simple as being able to get up, knowing I have another shot at making something great out of myself through the work I do, like writing this blog as an example. And when I get to bed tonight, I would smile and tell myself that I did something great today. Success is the ability to change the narrative as your own.
Like all great things, it takes time. Time becomes plenty when you learn how to use it wisely. Here is a well put analogy by Steven Bartlett: Each day, you have 24 chips to spend on the roulette of life, 7-8 of those chips are for sleeping and eating, what's left is up to you.
Often, it has become a norm to feel the need to escape reality. People typically do this by watching Netflix, playing video games, scrolling through social media, and so on. I am not saying that these things are bad or taboo (don't feel guilty about it), not at all. I am just concerned it has become too normalized.
When you normalize something, it becomes familiar, clouding, and canceling all the noise that would say otherwise may very well be a trap of your own making. The reason why I’m telling you this is because I’ve gone through it myself.
Let’s take comfort back in the conversation. It is analogized as a drug because it makes you dependent on this “go-to stress relief” or the "rest" we think would help us make the problem disappear. I think the most dangerous mentality one can ever have is one who has nothing to lose and everything to gain (shoutout to Eminem).
The only thing that has the power to limit how far you can go, is yourself. I think you can be whatever your heart desires and loves. My dad once told me: "Believing that you can, takes you halfway to where you want to be.”
I think death is not something to be feared. Before you were born, what did you feel? Nothing. That’s what death would feel like; numb (presumably). The one thing scarier than death is not living the life you were ought to live.
We live in a messed up world. Today, being real gets you hated, and being fake gets you loved. It makes zero sense, but that's just how it is. So how do you deal with it? By reminding yourself that it's not about what happens to you; it's how you respond to what happens to you. The way you know the “how” is by simply being true to yourself (simple, right?).
Do the things you love, laugh the way you laugh, cry the way you cry, talk the way you talk, and all of the above that makes you the beautiful human being you already are. Not everyone is for you and you are not for just anyone, but to those who chose to stand by you, keep them.
Remember this: What they hate about you is missing in them. Keep shining (by Thinking Minds). And on that note, never, and I mean never, be sorry for being you.
About the Creator
Darnell
Hi there!
I’m a 20-year-old college student obsessed with self-growth in all walks of life and I'm here to share my views on the daily hurdles I’ve conquered so far.
Let's get started!
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.