The Pursuit of Passion

So I've always had this problem... I've always had trouble fitting into society. For a number of reasons I suppose, but today I'll focus on just one of them, probably the most important one. It has to do with passion, with its repression and its pursuit.

You see it's not a big secret anymore that there is a specific way we're supposed to live life in our society. You are born, you go to school, you go to university, you get a job, you get married, you buy a house, you have kids, you get old, you retire and then you die. That's it, that's the mold, the prime directive, the great equation of modern life. It's not very different from following a recipe if you want to make some brownies. Follow the recipe and you're good. Follow the recipe and you'll fit in. Congratulations, you're now a good, productive member of society. Thank you for being compliant and have a good life!

The problem is, of course, when you decide not to follow the magic recipe.You become an outcast, a social misfit. People do not understand you and they do not like you. Because you're not like them. If you're one of those misfits, chances are you're gonna have a tough life. Unfortunately for me, of course, that is precisely my situation. So just in case you happen to be one of those misfits too, I'll just keep writing so you know you're not alone.

The thing is, this particular breed of misfit which I happen to identify with is usually very concerned about something most people tend to forgo as they grow old and wise (or so they might think). This particular kind of misfit places an obscene amount of importance on something we could define as "passion". I'm talking, of course, about those things they are truly passionate about in life.

Unfortunately for the misfit, it is not easy to truly pursue passion in life, specially as an adult. Remember, passion is not one of the ingredients of life's recipe according to modern society. Not only that, the pursuit of passion often conflicts with one of the key elements of said equation, that is, getting and working a job until you're allowed to finally retire some 40 years later. In fact, pursuing your true passions is so hard that the vast majority of people end up, at some point in their lives, giving up on them.

You see, giving up on your passions has some perks. First of all, it is actually a whole lot easier than pursuing your passions and getting a boring job that pays the bills. Things like becoming a writer, a musician or an artist are definitely not easy to accomplish. To achieve some degree of success in most common jobs is infinitely easier and less stressful. Also, giving up on your passions will actually, for the most part, allow you to fit in much better with the vast majority of your relatives, friends and people in general. Again, society wants you to fit in, to follow the magic recipe. And of course, working a stable job and letting your passions go or turning them into simple "hobbies" will definitely make you a better candidate for getting a loan to buy a car or a house. Forgoing your passions definitely makes life easier!

I'm here to tell you though, that is not enough. Not to me at least, and I don't think it should be enough for you either. This is because I believe one should not aspire to live an easy life, but rather a happy, meaningful and fulfilling life. A life driven by passion instead of comfort or fear or money or big cars and shiny objects. You are not the content of your wallet. You are not the car you drive. You are not the house you live in. You are much more than that. You are your dreams and ambitions and the courage to pursue them. This, I believe, is what truly defines you as a human being.

We have a responsibility towards ourselves to stick to our passions even when it is difficult to do so. To follow our dreams and remain ambitious even when we are surrounded by mediocrity and surrounded by people who will doubt us and criticize us as we fight to accomplish our goals. I believe that, today, in our day, we misfits should band together in order to inspire people to build a different society, one that is guided by the pursuit of passion rather than the pursuit of profit.  

Wake Up

So one day you wake up and you realize that you're not happy, that something's wrong. That, without a shadow of a doubt, you are living a life that you don't want to live. That maybe, probably even, you're living a life that wasn't meant to be lived by you. What do you do then? Do you just keep living that life or do you decide, right there and then, that you need to change your life? That you need to change your thinking? That you need to change your world?

Ok, sometimes things are not as simple as that. Sometimes it takes a lot more to realize you need a change. Sometimes that realization does not come swiftly and whole in one enlightened moment. Sometimes you have to feel it for a while, digest it, process it. Sometimes it takes many mornings waking up and feeling that you hate your life or simply feeling that you're not happy. That's probably the case for most of us because, after all, most of us are afraid of change. After all, life is difficult and complicated and everyone has bills to pay.

However, it doesn't truly matter how long it takes you to realize it. It can be one day or ten years, someday it just becomes so evident that you have no choice but to admit to yourself that you don't like your life. And at that point, when this knowledge starts to sink in and eventually becomes irrefutable, that is when you have to tell yourself and maybe even the world around you, "this is it. I've had enough. I will not keep living my life by someone else's rules, by someone else's expectations... I want to live a life that makes sense to me, a life that is worth living in my opinion, not yours, because at the end of the day this is my life to live".

Today is my time to say this.

So now the big question for me is: what does a life worth being lived looks like? I think that is really the big question for most of us and that maybe the answer is a little bit more simple than most of us think. I've come to believe that happiness should be like a compass guiding us in life. We should do with our lives whichever brings us the most happiness and fulfillment.  

The sad thing is, very few of us actually do this. Most of us, including myself, have become entangled in this web that represents normality in modern society. We forget to do what makes us happy and fulfilled and decide instead to sell our lives for money. We start to think that spending most of our time working in something that we're not truly interested in or passionate about is worth it because we get paid for our time. This allow us to earn and spend money in order to live mediocre, sad and comfortable lives. We do it because we have bills to pay and that is a great excuse.

The problem is that twenty years from now we will wake up one morning and realize that we've been living lives that we didn't enjoy and that time's finally running up and then it will be too late to change. We will tell ourselves, "I fell into a trap and now there is no way out..."

So let's not let that happen to us. It's time now to remember what really matters in life and money isn't it. Comfort and security aren't it either. What really matters is happiness and fulfillment and love and friendship. These are the things that should inspire our lives and that should shape the way we interact with each other and with the world. It's time to wake up.