Are You Living a Life Worth Living?
That's philosophical #3
Welcome to That’s Philosophical, a newsletter with the longest web domain on Earth. Twice a week, I send you inspirational ideas to become a more mindful person and live a more fulfilled life.
You can read the web version here.
Am I wasting it? Am I even good enough to be here? The question that a lot of us wonder, even subconsciously. Most people are looking for an answer to these questions in the wrong place. And consequently, they put too much pressure on themselves which makes living even harder.
We are looking for an answer in the wrong place- externally. While we should be focusing on the opposite.
Today, it’s easier than ever to compare yourself to any extreme success online. Even though we understand that life shared on the internet is not the whole picture, we are still prone to keeping up with the standard in front of us. This makes it hard for people who clearly see that they are not as productive as this random guy they saw on the internet.
This ultimately leads to people relate life’s worthiness to success. We start to judge the quality of our lives based on external variables. This mistake doesn’t let us enjoy the life we’ve got to live only once.
We think that accomplishments and successes show the true value of our presence on Earth. If we get one more medal or start a new business, then we are worthy. But eventually, we start to put off happiness for later. “I will get X and then I will become happy.” ,- even though we all know life doesn’t work like that.
Rather than depending on societal norms that we created in our imagination (money is just a worldwide belief), we should focus on our internal well-being. It doesn’t matter if you are great at something you do, or you changed the world, the only thing that shows whether you are worthy or not is:
Just Being Alive.
We put too much pressure on us by letting society decide whether we are good or bad. Simply, living is a purpose in itself, just enjoy your stay.
Even your passion shouldn’t be the primary meaning of your existence. Of course, you feel great when you do something you love. But then you start to ignore other beauties of life and it becomes an obsession. Now you only want more. Check out “Soul” from Disney, the movie is based on the same philosophy.
In our system, if a child doesn’t hit some developmental milestone or doesn’t get a good enough score within a timeline that is determined by adults, they don’t get a chance to move to the “next level of being a person”- they are considered a failure.
Everybody has their own journey. Humans just love to oversimplify things, it results in a system that doesn’t really work for everyone.
There is no right way to live life. It doesn’t matter what abilities you have, it doesn’t matter if you can change the world, it doesn’t matter if you have a job you love. Life is more than what you can just accomplish.
You are worthwhile just because you are alive. Cherish every moment.
Thanks for being mindful, see you on Friday!