Living in a modern technologically advanced world we
enjoy benefits people living even 50 years ago could not imagine. All the way from buying
clothes online to simply sending a tweet about what we had for dinner. We are
through the power of the Internet, more connected now than humans have ever
been in the past. But that’s only one part of the story. While most of us agree
that this infinite connection to people and information is a good thing. It
doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its negatives. Face to face connection has
rapidly decreased, privacy concerns and cyber bullying have become real issues
and digital experiences have numbed our senses to what the real world has to
offer. And believe it or not all of that I have mentioned so far is just about
the Internet. When it comes to the entire modern life package this is just the
tip of this deceptive iceberg.
We are living in uncharted territory. Never in history before has
the world moved so quickly. Everything is replaceable, nothing is sacred and
it’s all about what’s next. Before you are can even enjoy something you buy,
its next version is released. Polka dot shirts could be all the rage in
December and then next month in January you could be made fun of for wearing
the same thing. We have twisted our lives into a constant race and this
phenomenon has gotten so extreme, that so much so even relationships are not
sacred anymore. Compared to in the past when most people would have one to a
maximum two marital relationship and that to if things got really bad. It is
normal for a person living today to have 7 or even 8 partners in their lives
because literally everything has become replaceable. 50 or so years ago if you
were a divorcee or you took part in extracurricular activities outside of
marriage you weren’t considered a good match and you would have a tough time
getting into a new relationship. But now you could have been with 5, 6 people
before and it wouldn’t hurt your chances at all in finding someone new. Rather
in some cases this would even help you, as having experience is becoming more
desirable.
We have all become addicts and the consumption of everything
has become our drug.
Our lives have
become stuck in this rat’s race and rather than having a larger
purpose to life most of us have embraced this endless race to have more. We see
singers and rappers throwing money and having new partners every week and we
begin to think that this is the purpose of life. We see billionaires buying
luxury yachts for hundreds of millions of dollars and we make these things into
our goals. We see our friends buying new products and devices and we mortgage
our futures to have them. We think we’re getting closer to our goal of becoming
happy but the faster we run the further away it gets.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating becoming an apathetic person.
Many of the articles I have written are about becoming successful and becoming
wealthy. But my main concern is purpose. There is nothing wrong in wanting to
be wealthy. I personally feel that money is a great motivator and I urge
everybody to try his or her best to become as prosperous they can. But it all
comes down to, are you doing it for the right reasons? Don’t make it your goal
to become rich just for the sake of being rich like our modern society teaches
us. Don’t just become rich so you can consume better things at a faster pace
(Because that’s what this consumerism culture promotes). But make it your
goal to become rich so you can positively affect your personal life. That you
can strengthen your bond between your family and friends and that you can use
your money to remove financial constraints that were stopping you from meeting
and sharing time with them. And at an even higher rank make
it your goal to help those in need. Rather than consuming designer shirts for
thousands of dollars make it your goal to clothe the poor and feed the hungry.
But one again, please do not get me wrong into thinking that I’m
advocating 100% consumer celibacy You can and should buy things that make
you happy. If you can afford a brand new Ferrari and really want one, you
should buy it. Just don’t make only consumption the goal. As long as you can
keep a good balance and make your purpose bigger than just yourself you will be
okay.
Now with that quick tangent about success I want to get back to
the issue we were talking about. The reason why we feel so empty while we have
so much is because we are always mentally moving to the next
big thing. We might have the latest cell phone in our pockets but right
when the announcement for the next model is made we fixate our attention to the
new model and our appreciation for what we have goes down. And the sad truth is
that this is the foundation to our current society and it regrettably applies
to everything and anything we are able to have.
You could be in a relationship and in that to after a few months
you will begin to mentally fixate on the next person. You will begin to focus
less on the positives of your current partner and only see the negatives. While
you will mentally make the person you don’t have into being perfect. And this
is the perfect definition of consumerism and it has regrettably even infiltrated
our relationships. But it’s now about what we do about it. But
before we move on answer these questions so you can be primed for the next
part:
How can you ever be at peace? Or even think
about having it without giving up your current way of life?
How can you even think about living a life
without stress when you are mentally living in the future, always trying to
hide the past and completely ignoring the present?
After limiting consumption I feel this is the second most vital
point you must try to implement in your life. If you want peace and you want to
eliminate stress: Live in the present. Live in the NOW. Like right now you are
reading this article, live here. Live in this very moment. Don’t live today for
tomorrow or for the past but live today for today. Only
now exists and the future and the past are just in your head. Of course you
should use the past to make better decisions in the now and use the now to plan
for a better future but don’t let things that don’t really exist in reality
loom over you.
Nowadays people are so caught up in controlling their future and
changing their past that they never really live
life in the present. They give themselves unnecessary stress about the future that in
reality doesn’t even exist. I mean student suicides are the ones that really
get to me. And I’m not talking about suicides due to bullying because that’s
another issue all together but suicides over failing exams. EXAMS! Students worldwide take
their own lives simply because they don’t pass certain exams and therefore can’t
pursue certain careers and that’s pretty much the ONLY reason. Now I’m sure you
can argue that the students have a lot of family pressure and that certain
parents mortgage their entire futures so that their children can get educated.
But trust me when I say that eventually it comes back to my initial point that
they only commit suicide because they failed and were
not able to control their future. It’s just about having our priorities in
the right place and our mind chewing on what it can healthily process without
feeling stress: the present.
So with that last point I hope I was able to make my argument as
illustrative as possible. I strongly feel about this issue and I hope you will
be positively impacted by these ideas. So on that note as a sort of an overview these
are the 3 main action points I feel you should focus on. I strongly feel that
if you apply even one of them into your life you will see positive change and
that you will eliminate stress and WILL find peace in your life.
Overview (Focus Points):
- Don’t
be a sheep and blindly follow consumerism culture. Be minimalist in your
nature and use and buy what you need. Appreciate the things you have and
learn to be thankful. Understand that relationships are not something to
replace and that you must learn to adapt if you want true love and
friendship.
- Strive for success but only for the right reasons. Don’t
try to become rich and wealthy just for the sake of money. Use your money
to make a positive difference emotionally in the lives of the people you
know and don’t know.
- Live
in the Now. Don’t try to control the future and don’t worry about the
past. Only the present exists and everything else is just your mind on
overdrive. Live THIS very moment the best you can and everything else will
work out itself out.
LUCAS
FALCONER
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