So I was helping my mom out at the office the other day. And it got me thinking about the work I do.
Here I am everyday writing about personal development, self-improvement or self-help, the three most common terms in the space.
I’ve helped a lot of people. I’ve created freedom in my own life in my own way, but you know what? This isn’t to say my life is all that great.
There's honestly so much bullshit involved in the self-help industry as practitioners all around are advocating a bunch of ideas that imply that their life is good, when it's not.
They also imply that they’re leading better lives than the average person, when that’s not true all the time.
When I was in the office with my mom, I caught a glimpse of how great she is.
Yes. She has to go to an office everyday. She has to wake up early. She has to toil to keep the business going. She also doesn’t have time or travel the entire world and stuff.
But you know what? That’s okay. In fact, that’s more than okay.
She’s not arrogant about it.
She’s proud of who she is.
She’s happy to have her sons by her side.
Is that average? Of course not. But the pretentious people in the self-help space seem to think so.
Just because you quit your job to follow your dream doesn’t mean you’re super awesome. You only quit your job. And that could be the stupidest decision you ever made.
Just because you travel the world often doesn’t mean you’re better than the rest of us. It only means you went to new places as a human.
Just because you make a ton of money doesn’t mean you’re happy. Everybody knows money doesn’t buy happiness.
Just because you meditate doesn’t mean you’ve mastered your emotions. You’re not a god. You’re not perfect.
Just because you have passion doesn’t mean you ahead of the curve.
All of these are good things. They’re legit. It’s okay to have them.
But it’s also okay to not have them.
It’s okay to have a job. If you like it, good for you. If it pays the bills, what more do you need?
It’s okay to not travel the world. It’s overrated. Some of us prefer to stay put and that’s okay.
It’s okay to not make a ton of money. There’re many great things in life that are free.
It’s okay to not meditate. Nobody can perfectly master their emotions. Who said they have are fucking liars.
And passion? Passionate people are the most problematic.
Take it from me. We’re so passionate that we tend to feel extremely fucked up inside when things don’t go our way. In that sense, we lose the ability to practice tolerance. We get so angry all the time. We get sad all the time. We feel the need to express ourselves over every ridiculously small things. We always think that there’s something wrong with us. We have it harder than others when it comes to letting shit go.
In the office, I watched how my mom exchanged friendly banter with her neighbors over there. Everyone was kind and friendly. Everyone was happy.
I watched how my mom utilized her time properly to become really productive.
I watched how she did all of this out of love to support the family.
How is that average?
No.
You’re not average or mediocre just because you’ve a job, lacking a dream, lacking passion or not traveling the world.
You’re just you. You make your own decisions. You create your own life..
Nobody is better than anybody else.
We’re just trying to figure it out as we go along.
Average and mediocre are not vulgar words. Whoever said that they are are just constantly unsatisfied with life.
And that is not necessarily a good thing.
Hang out with some of these pretentious people and you’ll know.