Do we think for ourselves?
It’s very easy to say “Yes!” because you make choices based on what you might want to eat or drink but how much of this is something we’ve been lead to believe we want rather than actually wanting? I think it’s actually an illusion. We want to be told what’s cool and what’s not coo. we’re loyal to brands and companies who give us the feeling of confidence and support. We want things to be easy!
I often wonder if people are capable of making their own decisions — is it possible for us to just judge a situation logically without letting sub conscious feelings getting involved? I don’t think it is, not easily at least. Peer pressure is a huge part in making us feel like we have to do a certain thing, never escaping the “pack” and never really doing what we truly feel in spite of it being the right thing to do. It’s the very thing that we stop ourselves from doing that actually truly makes us unique in the first place, but with onlookers we’re often scared to move out of the social group hug situation that means most people will end up hating their lives, living just to be accepted (or not noticed).
I feel like I’ve partly broken that trend, but when I’m down it’s easy to slip back into it because it’s comforting to never be challenged.
I know that the internet consumes a lot of my time, well, actually I spend a lot of time creating things. It’s my 100% full-time job to make things from ideas. I think it’s a healthy (for the mind anyway) way to spend a career. But, I see so many people who genuinely hate what they do in life. They hate the work they do and they complain so much about it or just in the end, accept their fate and burn hours in front of the television.
I can relate to that, I have too hated what I have done in the past. I have been pent up and angry so much so that I completely lost track of what I truly feel and I would get so angry at times that I would smash things — smash my washing machine, break mirrors, throw mugs, smash plates, hit doors, break doors only to immediately wish I never did those things.
The biggest thing I did to change how angry I felt was to take control of things, I realised that despite doing something I thought I wanted to do (web design) I wasn’t actually happy. In fact, I was angry because I wasn’t happy doing what I thought was what made sense. Josh and I started Johnny Two Shoes and I’ve had some really frustrating times with it but also some great times and the anger is just about gone! I quit my job, moved cities (for the 4th time) and we took some mad risks, lived on pennies and thrived on thousands and then lived on pennies again.
If you don’t feel happy then you’ve got to change the way you do things, even completely to try and make life better. What’s more, nobody else is going to come along and say, “you’re having a tough time” and give you the things you need to make things better. Nobody is going to do that. Not ever. So if you’re feeling really down, or even just not happy, you need to start questioning your own life and start thinking for yourself.
