The eyes of perfection from the imperfect

The older you get, the wiser you are to the truth and disappointment of how being the good guy and playing fair doesn’t always equate to having a nice happy life, slowly having to reconcile with the fact that the world you know and the people you meet or not as clean, professional and honest as the social rulebook would suggest.

Life has a funny way of going down different and unexpected pathways asking us to break sometimes even our most heavily sacred boundaries for the sake of survival and progress. I try and practice what I preach, but i’ve admittedly had to play the bad guy more than once for my own self preservation.

I have met many different people in the professional world who seek happiness within their own personal interests but in fact either hit a middle life crisis or undergo a full transition later down the line to focus on their happiness rather than financial goals. However, they do so at a cost of spending years of their lives trying to live up to societal and reputation expectations and then end up deeply locked into responsibilities before they even truly know what makes them happy. The common things you will hear many people say is how they "wish they did it sooner" or have left it too late and "regret not doing things earlier" realising the importance of time on earth rather than material success.

Young people follow social systems which encourage you to find a purpose quickly and lock into this social pattern, but most young people have not developed the critical thinking skills and life experience to break away from the trodden path, thus repeating the cycle.

I watched a documentary recently about Christoper McCandless and the origins story of “Into the Wild” Chris was clearly different from the rest, his desire to find self determination and peace from the noise of society was his calling to the wilds, but sadly his efforts to merely exist in the simplist way possible brought him to his final adventure, coming to terms with his choices and fate during his memoirs.

I believe most conscious thinkers seek this desire to find questions of who we really are and what life ultimately means to us, the thought of being trapped into a repetitive cycle eventually hits us, it is like a wake up call which shakes people out of a trance and into action, just like Chris, we all need our into the wild moment to remind us what the point of life is.

Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed, you can have a top job, the best education, follow the straight path, and life can change in an instant and you can lose it all. The one thing that is certain is that inevitable life events will inadvertently change your whole outlook on life.

If you find a new interest, hobby or career calling there is no time like the present to start your new journey into what makes you fulfilled and happy, the path itself may not finish at your ultimate goals but at least you can be happy in finding who you are in the most pure form possible without social construct and influence dictating who you should be at any given time of your life.