Thomas "The Tank" Dade

I’ve been doing some thinking lately, as I’m getting older I’m feeling the increasing pressure of feeling the need to commit to a career or a full-time occupation. I’m told this is what we do, it’s what’s expected of us. We finish school, go to college/university or get a full-time occupation, buy a house, then we find that special person, get married and settle down. Then we pass it on to our kids to rinse and repeat. Amongst all this we start to stop doing the things we enjoy or love because we have no time, or we make excuses that we have no time because in reality we just feel tired. For some reason we decide that these expectations become more important than our own happiness. The more I think about this the more I feel were living life all wrong. Are we really free? From a young age we’re all boxed in to societies expectations on how we should live our lives. We’re told what should be important to us and forget what we once thought was important to us. Maybe thats why so many of us aren’t happy? Maybe thats why some of us feel we’re stuck in life? Because we are stuck, we’re stuck in societies expectations and we’re not living our full potential lives because we’ve forgotten who we are, what we enjoy, what makes us motivated and passionate and really just what makes us who we are as individuals. Please don’t take it the wrong way, everyones roles in society is important and I have the upmost respect for those working as accountants, receptionists, cashiers, retail managers, etc however I feel like many of us fall into these jobs because we “have too”. We need to earn money so we can buy a house, the items we think will make us feel contempt and then to go on holiday to escape our lives. Why do we want to escape our lives? We shouldn’t feel like we have to go on holiday to escape our lives, we should be happy with our lives to the point we’re a holiday is just a nice chance to change scenery, experience new experiences and destress a little bit.

My main point is I feel many of us have forgotten who we are; our values, what’s important to us and what makes us happy. We all get tied up in societies standards; how much we earn, the items we own, our careers and fitting in and as a result we forget what life is all about, who we are and what we stand for. We put up with a full-time job were not passionate about so we can fulfil societies standards, not realising were not really living our own lives. We’re playing our role in society. Maybe that’s why I get the sense that most of us are never reaching our potentials in life because if we’re not passionate about our work (which takes up most of our time) how can we reach the best versions of ourselves. How can we reach our full potential if we’re not passionate about what we’re doing. I don’t care how disciplined you are if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing your never going to be able to work 100% of your potential. To top it off when we finally finish work for the day we’re too tired or have no time to do the things we are passionate about. Maybe this is just a stage and a thought process all young adults go though and in a couple years I’ll look back and think how stupid I sound. But it’s how I feel now and I believe people need to think about what really makes them who they are, what there values are, what they want in life and why they do certain things.