Most of the time, living life should not be demanding of our time and energy. Unless the stress and fatigue we find ourselves under is voluntary, we’re being fed an idea that sacrificing today—especially the feeling of freedom, whatever that looks like for you—will be worth it tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.
Instead, we keep delaying gratification in order to keep setting ourselves up for happiness in the future. We make plans for when our regular duties will no longer be present and our ceaseless worries will finally be resolved. Even the mere thought of reaching this imaginary place brings some fleeting joy to elevate our languished spirits.
As Henry David Thoreau stated so simply, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
We can probably bring someone to mind when we hear those words, but we quickly dismiss the notion as impertinent to our lives. However, if we really dug deep into the lives of those around us, how many people would we find that are truly happy with the decisions they make as a whole? I would boldly venture an assertion to say that most people tolerate their life at best. Sure, there are bright, happy moments where the misery of obligations are forgotten, but most people’s time ends up being consumed by all the things they feel they need to do to merely sustain a life.
Life holds more for us than a mundane cubicle does. Life expects more from us than pouring our creativity into worthless time-sinks. Life demands that we live it the best we can, and that can’t be done if our activities are selected on a basis of what other people do—regardless of knowing their own personal satisfaction.
We must remember that nearly every choice we make is in an attempt to be happy, but in most cases we pursue the wrong thing. We try to fill a hole with something that will never fully satisfy. So, rather than start over and take an ego hit, we persist in our misery and hope that the promises of the future will come soon to relieve us from our work. All the while, forgetting that the only cause of our unhappiness is the false beliefs in our head. Get deprogrammed, un-learn those beliefs and return to life. Life begins when we let go.