Sleepwalking
With one life to live, you ought to do more than just get by
A lot of times, we do things just because. We do not give thought to why exactly we are doing what we are doing. We live our lives on other people’s default. Sometimes it works well, other times, it doesn’t.
We do it mostly to fit in. We detest being ostracized from our group(s).
Understandably, we’ve been wired to avoid pain and being ostracized amounts to a certain level of psychological or emotional pain.
To our detriment, however, we never live the life we want or ought to live because of this mental barrier. Mental barrier because today, we can seek out like-minded people online faster and easier than ever before. It is no longer a reason, to a large extent, that you can’t connect with people who think the way you do or do things you want to do.
Most of us, including myself, are sleepwalking through life. We use other people’s defaults and assume that since others are doing it, we too should do the same. Or since it works for X, then it would for me.
This life, your life, is yours to live. The course you take can only be taken by you. You are the main character of your story, everyone else is a player; they have their exits and their entrances. They are the other people.
The show, your show, however, continues.
Take a moment and look at your choices, did you make them yourself, or they were made for you by others? Others could be your parents, family members, friends or the society.
Now, I’m not insinuating you start rebelling against everyone. No, rather, I implore you to take time and reflect on the choices you’ve made and why. And if after reflecting, you believe your next best action is to revolt, then by all means, do as you please, but don’t forget why you are doing so.
Ultimately, you’d be the one to bear your cross. The buck stops with you (read as me). You are going to live with yourself for the rest of your life, so it wouldn’t be pleasant to live regretting or hating yourself for choices you’ve made, explicitly or otherwise. It is up to you to live the life you want.
In old age, you have to live with yourself, there is no escape…… Consider the kind of person you wish to be in your old age, and start now being that kind of a person
“With one life to live, you ought to do more than just get by”. -Richard Hamming
A tweet with similar theme
You choose what you value. Every day. Even if you do nothing.
Readings
This past week was a blast, I read a lot of articles from the web as a form of procrastination. Nonetheless, here are some of what I enjoyed read:
A few more things:
Please go and watch the series even if it’s just the first lecture, in fact skip to the 40th minute and listen from there. Richard Hamming: Learning to Learn
I’m currently trying but failing to write a comprehensive e-book on personal finance. So, if anyone wants to be my accountability partner, reply this mail. Thank you
If you want to see more of my readings, check out here. I’m also considering starting a new substack solely to write a summary of the best things I’ve read. What do you say?
Some Memes/Tweets
