Make your Bets
How you act reveals very clearly what your thoughts are on how life really works. It’s easier to see with everyday objects. For example, you’re quite confident that things fall if you stop holding them. You’re also quite confident that glass breaks if it falls. Therefore, when you finish taking a sip from your glass of water, you put it on a table. It sounds simple, but there’s a lot of experience going behind it. If you thought the glass would float if just left there, or that it would stay in one piece if it did, why would you take the extra effort to put it on a table? We act according to the picture we have of reality.
I’m not claiming that I can read people like a book — others can, I haven’t learned that skill yet. But I can pick stuff up. Why will some people sacrifice their health to have a good time? An entire industry runs on people consuming harmful drugs and listening to music that is way too loud. People will go days on end without sleeping or being sober to party. I’m not saying partying is bad; there’s definitely a lot of fun in doing it. But people will spend ridiculous amounts of money on partying, ignoring their problems and their future. Unless you think someone is going to be there to take care of you when you’re broke and jobless, you wouldn’t it. Unless you think that things will magically sort themselves out, you don’t do it. Unless you think that your twenties are the peak years of your life and that it’s your only chance to have fun, meaning that the rest of your life will get gradually more boring, you don’t party like that.
On the other side of the spectrum, you have people that spend their twenties working too much. They intentionally miss out on parties and making friends to learn more and get more done. Again, I’m not saying that it’s bad to work. But unless they thought that life would be much worse without work, they wouldn’t do it. Unless they thought that they can have more fun being wealthy later in life, they wouldn’t do it. Unless they thought it would all pay off, they wouldn’t sit down and work so much. You can see how your actions show the thought pattern going on in your head.
The important thing is to be aware of what you’re betting for. I have my own opinion, but I obviously can’t say with complete certainty what the truth is. It’s also not the same truth for everybody. If working your ass off from 15 to 30 pays off and you get to do literally whatever you want from 30 onwards, and if it is indeed as much fun being 30+ as it is being 20´+, then it makes sense. It might also not be true. Your twenties might be the best years of life, and everything else might be a duller version of what went on. It might be a great idea to forget about any responsibility until you’re 28 or 29, have the time of your life, and then just deal with life. I don’t have a straight answer.
I know two things. One, it’s definitely not one or the other. It’s a spectrum. There’s also many other choices and dimensions you can choose. Like always, the trick is finding the sweet spot. Not too warm, not too hot.
The other thing is you better commit. Know what you think is best and use it to prioritize when faced with having to make a decision. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your time thinking you should be doing one instead of the other. You’ll spend your time worrying instead of enjoying any option, and you won’t get anything done right.
Think about it. Make your reasons clear as to why you choose to do some thing over another and make it objective. Make it reasonable. You’ll have a much clearer picture of how to judge your actions.