It seems to me that people are overly impressed with what others are doing and not enough impressed with what they, themselves, are doing.
In a given day, how much time do we spend being curious about what the rest of the world is up to? Being occupied with the agenda of others?
My impression, based on looking at how the approximate people around me are acting, is this: We give a lot more attention to others than we need to.
We scroll, search, watch, and discuss the aims of other individuals. By doing so, we forget about ourselves and our priorities.
How can I tell that this is the case?
Consider famous people for a moment. They are famous because too many people give a damn about their lives instead of their own lives.
Yet, If we imagine that the followers stop following someone currently recognizable, this same famous person will lose their status and become "ordinary."
But that's unlikely to happen. The population defaults to discussing the goals of others instead of their own personal goals. We talk about: "What this person did...", "What this company created...", "What this influencer posted...", "What this athlete achieved...", "What this politician promised..." We share news about the lives of celebrities, repost viral content, and endlessly debate the choices of people we’ll likely never meet - while barely questioning our own.
We use this not only to fit in, but also as a diversion from our own lives. After all, discussing the journey and the problems of others is far easier than tackling our own problems. Tying ourselves to somebody else is easier because we evade the responsibility of deciding how our life should unfold.
But what will happen if we give priority to ourselves? If we begin to be more curious about our own progress, our own agenda? If we focus our full attention on ourselves? Not completely ignore the rest of the world, but create space to follow more closely what we are doing.
Not only envy and the feeling of inferiority will abandon our minds, but we'll have that extra time to build our lives the way we want and take pride in it.
Worth reflecting on:
Are you tracing someone else’s footsteps while neglecting your own direction?
We absorb so much from what others do that sometimes we forget to ask what we want.
We admire the polished paths of strangers that we forget to take genuine interest in the unfolding of our own journey.
In a world loud with opinions, trends, and distractions, don't mistake the success of others as your own success.
Reaching your dream place won't come from watching others live - but by learning to pay close attention to the life quietly unfolding within you.
Worth reading:
From my desk:
- Optimization for Pleasure and Lack of Direction (members-only): "But there is a problem. A crisis. The trouble is existential. The big corporations steering the modern world aren’t building hubs that can inspire long-term thinking, resilience, and direction. They’re building amusement parks. Not places to grow, but places to escape from growing."
From around the web:
- Why is quality so rare? "This is what craft is about — the deliberate attention put into making something excellent, not because someone is checking, but because it matters to the maker."
Worth thinking about:
"Losing hope is not so bad. There's something worse: losing hope and hiding it from yourself."
― Walker Percy
What do you think about the above? I am always excited to receive your responses.
Thank you for your time!
