There are so many advertisements about how to invest. How to grow your wealth. How to live the life of your dreams with passive income. People are afraid of missing out. We hear ‘inflation’ being thrown around and know we’re supposed to do something about it. But maybe we don’t know what, so we panic a little and try to do some research about investments, about roboadvisors, about ETFs and NFTs and what-have-yous.
And then there’s also a ton of people talking about mental wellness. Companies creating environments and having initiatives to help people cope with their mental wellbeing. All the people who are part of the Great Resignation know that life is short, they know that there’s more to life than work.
People want the dream life. Obviously. Without the hard work, without the grind. That’s why socialites like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian were a thing. That’s why social media influencers became a thing.
People who didn’t look like they needed to grind in the office and do ugly things, to live a beautiful life. People who could make ugly things sound beautiful from a screengrab or a short caption.
So we’re drawn to the beautiful things like moths to a flame. But it burns us.Looking at their beautiful photos and feeling a little meh about our unbeautiful Thursdays.
Seeing their delicious cafe breakfasts, prepared by someone else and gorgeously plated while munching on our peanut butter and jam bread because we’re too busy, lazy, poor or cheap for anything else.
Do they live their lives in DSLR photo quality, with the washed out look that makes everything look soft and pretty? When they’re angry, are they still in focus with their teardrops shot in macro? Expectation. Meet reality. Why does it look different in full HD from our own retinas?
Moth, flame.
So we work and grind and we try to reach that level of what must be success. Beautiful things are good, ugly things are not.
But. If you’re living in Paris, the Eiffel Tower will soon get boring. The idea that you’re drinking coffee near the world’s most romantic steel tower will be lost on you.
I know. I have spent some hours of my trip to France sitting on the grass patch facing the tower. But what happens after that? It’s fascinating. The idea that you’ll go back to real life again is dreadful. But without a much less beautiful real life, that idea of sipping on your cup of fresh brew looking at the iconic frame isn’t as powerful.
When real life is walking past the Eiffel Tower everyday, or even the gorgeous Sagrada Familia, which to me is really much more epic – how dreamlike and romantic is it really?
I’m not sure what I’m rambling on about – maybe I’m just wondering how I can live my life without wants. To be satisfied and content with everything that I already have.
Because recently I’m missing the beauty of nothing.
Doing nothing, expecting nothing, wanting nothing.
That’s a beautiful success story and the most difficult to achieve for me.
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