You walk into school on the first day. You don’t want to be there, but you’re told you need to go. You don’t like first grade, but you need to go so that you can get to second grade.
You don’t like elementary school, but you need to go so you can get to middle school.
This year will be over soon enough, and you will be off to the next one, and that will be better.
But it’s not.
You don’t like going to middle school, but you need to go so you can get to high school.
High school will be better.
But it’s not.
You don’t like going to high school, but you need to go so you can get to university.
University will be better.
And it is a bit. But not a lot.
There are still all these ridiculous hoops to jump through. All these things you have to do that you don’t want to do. Why do you have to do them?
You’ve got to take these classes so you can graduate. You need to graduate with a good GPA to get a good job.
Once you get your first job, a job you don’t like, you are told to hang in there and keep working hard so that you can get some experience. Once you’ve got experience, you can start moving up.
You’ve been trained your entire life to live for some landmark in the future that is constantly moving. Life is not about now. It is about sacrificing now for something in the future. But that thing in the future is always moving further away from you.
You’re sacrificing your current ability to be happy so that in the future you can be happier, but you’ve been so trained in the game that you never know when that moment is going to come. You have spent so much time sacrificing and disliking the present moment, which you have learned to escape the present moment.
You bury yourself in work, and when you’re not working, you’re searching for an escape. Burying yourself in sports, movings, food, alcohol; Anything that will get you out of the present.
There is a balance to be drawn between the preparing for the future and enjoying the present moment. But there is also a skill to develop.
You need to save some resources for the future, but you need to learn how to be happy in the present moment.
So start practicing.
Start quitting the job you hate, to travel the world instead.
Start ignoring the friends you don’t like but who are useful, and start seeing people who make you feel alive.
Stop forcing yourself to learn that thing you hate doing but is useful for your career, and start learning that instrument that you always wanted to learn.
Start practicing being happy, so that when the future arrives you’re ready.
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