You’re Going to Die Someday. Did You Really Want to Fill Your Days Like This?

Life is precious. Why are you taking on stress like an idiot?

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I just looked around the coffee shop I’m sitting in and saw all the people around me, complaining about other people or their jobs, and I just saw people who aren’t awake to the concept that life is important. It’s precious. It’s fleeting. And I just can’t imagine that anyone would want to spend their short time here working on their masters degree in international trade or spending hours a day replacing crowns on peoples’ teeth. How horribly depressing this life is.

People intentionally stress themselves out and we’ve normalized stress, then complaining about it.

We’ve normalized the act of getting excited about a career that is soul-sucking just because it will put a lot of money in the bank that we intend to just sit on. We’ve normalized the lack of vacations and people feeling proud about working so hard that their health and relationships fail.

We’ve normalized being lost.

I’m not rich. I am not rolling in dough. I may not be “successful” according to a lot of peoples’ standards (especially around here where I live within the confines of the greater Washington, DC area). But instead of sitting in this coffee shop writing code for an app that will help people do something unnecessary like check their credit score, I am here writing this article for you. Because I choose to spend my life in service of others. That makes me feel like I am using my short time in a productive way that helps humanity.

Sometimes, I am not even excited about being alive. But I know I am alive for some good reason. I know I came here for something, and that something isn’t about stress and sadness, nor is it about trying to get money from others.

I can’t urge you enough to find what makes you happy and just do it. Don’t settle for less than what your heart is asking for. You have one shot at this particular life, whatever lot you happened to be born into, and everything that’s been happening to you is for a reason. You have what you have. But there are always opportunities to be your best and highest self. You have to seize those.