The finiteness of our lives
It's a lie. Every motivational quote, every advertisement you've ever seen and every friend, parent or teacher who told you that you have infinite potential to do anything, that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve in life. It's all a lie.
I've seen, heard and consumed endless amounts of this motivation, just like a lot of us do. Deep inside, we all know the truth and yet, we live in denial. That expensive football shoe isn't going to get make you play more like Messi instead of the utter piece of bullcrap amateur player that you are. Wearing that expensive cologne/watch/any other fashionwear isn't going to get you more visibility at your workplace and get that promotion that you probably don't deserve. That stupid deodorant ain't going to compensate for your ugly face and get you laid.
Don't take my word for it. For every successful person out there, there are about a million that have failed. For every Novak Djokovic out there, there are a million "No-way Joke-O'vic's" that failed. The reason is that, quite often, it's not what you have that matters but what you're willing to do to get what you want that does, and unfortunately, most of us are always just too comfortable in our own space to get out and walk that extra mile, grind that extra grind, day in and day out.
For some reason, we're all finite in a way. Apart from the obvious fact that our time on earth is finite, so is our potential. It's almost as if we invented this concept of infinite potential to distract us from the ugly truth about the finiteness of our lives. It's like we're living in denial till we can't deny it no more. Till we realize that what we set out to achieve in our lives was too unrealistic in the time that life affords us in the first place. Till we realize that, had we accepted our finiteness better, we probably wouldn't be disappointed in the end but surprised that we managed what we did at all.
So here's the question: At what point do we become wise enough to realize that all this was a farce to keep us all in a rat race, that there are limits to what we can do in our lives, and that we should stop living in Wonderland and come back down to ugly Realityville? At what age do we lose our naivety and become miserable adults? At what point do we transform from dreamy-eyed individuals to just another face in the crowd, going on about their daily struggle till our clocks run out?
Maybe the game is to be naive till the very end. To believe, albeit foolishly, that we can do anything we may want to, only to barely manage the things we could've managed anyway. Or maybe, we need to be raised better. To be taught, that while our potential might be just as limited as our lives, there's plenty more to look forward to in this finite time that we have on earth...
I've seen, heard and consumed endless amounts of this motivation, just like a lot of us do. Deep inside, we all know the truth and yet, we live in denial. That expensive football shoe isn't going to get make you play more like Messi instead of the utter piece of bullcrap amateur player that you are. Wearing that expensive cologne/watch/any other fashionwear isn't going to get you more visibility at your workplace and get that promotion that you probably don't deserve. That stupid deodorant ain't going to compensate for your ugly face and get you laid.
Don't take my word for it. For every successful person out there, there are about a million that have failed. For every Novak Djokovic out there, there are a million "No-way Joke-O'vic's" that failed. The reason is that, quite often, it's not what you have that matters but what you're willing to do to get what you want that does, and unfortunately, most of us are always just too comfortable in our own space to get out and walk that extra mile, grind that extra grind, day in and day out.
For some reason, we're all finite in a way. Apart from the obvious fact that our time on earth is finite, so is our potential. It's almost as if we invented this concept of infinite potential to distract us from the ugly truth about the finiteness of our lives. It's like we're living in denial till we can't deny it no more. Till we realize that what we set out to achieve in our lives was too unrealistic in the time that life affords us in the first place. Till we realize that, had we accepted our finiteness better, we probably wouldn't be disappointed in the end but surprised that we managed what we did at all.
So here's the question: At what point do we become wise enough to realize that all this was a farce to keep us all in a rat race, that there are limits to what we can do in our lives, and that we should stop living in Wonderland and come back down to ugly Realityville? At what age do we lose our naivety and become miserable adults? At what point do we transform from dreamy-eyed individuals to just another face in the crowd, going on about their daily struggle till our clocks run out?
Maybe the game is to be naive till the very end. To believe, albeit foolishly, that we can do anything we may want to, only to barely manage the things we could've managed anyway. Or maybe, we need to be raised better. To be taught, that while our potential might be just as limited as our lives, there's plenty more to look forward to in this finite time that we have on earth...
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