You are born.
You learn to walk, speak and question.
By the time you get to school, you’ve probably already got dreams and aspirations. Just ask a 7 year old what they want to be when they’re older and they’ve got it all sorted out.
You grow older, make your way into high school and get confronted with the word ‘exam’. A small little word, but one that has the power to squash your curiosity.
You have the gradual realisation that money is important and that adulthood looms just over the horizon.
You focus on subjects that will get you a ‘proper’ job and a secure future. Perhaps you don’t particularly enjoy these subjects, but you do them nonetheless.
You still have dreams and passions, but these have now morphed into funny little things known as hobbies.
University.
You choose a strong degree, one that will help you earn as much money as possible of course.
You got a first? Well done! Now it’s time for you to be dropped into the real world…
Between the ages of 22 and 30, you take absolutely no risks whatsoever and instead get a comfortable job that will lead to greater things.
You climb the career ladder. Maybe you’re working in finance or some other terribly interesting job.
By now, your riveting life as an office worker leaves you with no time to work on your hobbies, which may have fallen away almost completely.
Things are going well!
In your 30’s you continue to work 9 to 5, sometimes even over night. Now that’s commitment.
You seemed to have fallen into that dangerous yet comfortable routine.
After another ten years or so and you’re in your 40’s, have a family of your own, you’ve ‘settled down’. Perhaps you’ve had several promotions and even switched jobs a few times. (Now you’re an accountant, how exciting.)
Drinking alcohol on the weekends becomes a pleasant relief from the world of work.
Then, one day it suddenly dawns on you,
In fact it may just hit you like a tonne of existential bricks:
‘What on earth am I doing?’
(To put it politely)
This moment is also referred to as the good old ‘Mid Life Crisis’.
Unmistakable.
That moment when you realise you’ve completely wasted your time. A whole 30 years of it, doing things you didn’t like doing to continue doing things you didn’t like doing until it’s too late to do anything about it.
All for a thing called money? Or reputation? Or perhaps you just didn’t take enough risks…
The Biggest Regret:
Not stepping out of your comfort zone. Not doing the things you love…
So if this is you (I really hope it isn’t), find one of your passions again, even if it is just a hobby. Painting, music, rock climbing,
What ever it is, do something that will keep you grounded.
Something that will make you want to get up in the morning.
And if you’re a student, full of ideas, hopes and dreams:
Be careful. People will try to steer you in a direction you don’t particularly want to go in. It’s your life. So take control of it and don’t let it run away from you.
And if you have the job of your dreams, well done! Keep doing it. (That also applies if you love working in an office or accounting by the way).
Besides this being (perhaps) quite a sad post (and overly sarcastic at times), I hope it will ignite or reignite the spark to go and do the things you love doing!
And who knows, maybe I’ll inspire someone to quit their job and go travel around the world 😛
Alan Watts sums up all of this perfectly… What If Money Was No Object?
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Thanks for reading,
theimpossibleminds.
IM 