Resist.

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like. — Will Rogers

This is my plea against conformism and hyper-growth. A call to resist.

Resist the perpetual quest for happiness, well-being and ultimate wisdom. There is beauty in imperfection, courage in discomfort or frustration, and poetry in foolishness. The simple fact to make the pursuit of happiness a daily obsession constantly reminds you how far you are from it. Build some resilience instead. Take what’s there, make do and learn to get stronger. As Mark Manson puts it in The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck “…when you stop and really think about it, conventional life advice — all the positive and happy self-help stuff we hear all the time — is actually fixating on what you lack.” Unhappiness is also a good propeller: if people had ever only been happy, we’d still live in caves wearing animal skins.

Resist growth at all costs. Stand strong against the social pressure that intimates you the order to grow fast, to aim higher and to go over the top. Not being a winner doesn’t mean being a loser. There is no shame in not wanting to break the ceiling or go beyond the limits. Touching the limits, understanding or going around them is plenty enough already. Everything has limits (life, love and mostly the resources on this planet) and that’s precisely because these limits exit that life is so wonderful.

Resist stereotypes of success. If you don’t have a Rolex by the time you’re 40, you’re not a loser. If you don’t want kids, it’s your right. If you want to change your life and start all over again from scratch, you can. Give yourself plenty of time to think about your vision of “success”, it’s a tough question.

Resist the entrepreneurial pressure that urges you to create a scalable startup and spend money that isn’t yours to run it. This is a fucked up model and it’s not sustainable.

Resist the siren song of power: titles, priviledges and too much money. Your true power lies in your ability to change the world, change the others and above all change yourself.

Resist preconceived ideas, get out of your comfort zone and open up to new things. Strange things. Frightening things. We have to reinvent this world and we’re not going to be able to do it without freeing ourselves from the burden of history, habits and heritage.

Resist the constant prompt to go bigger. They’ll say you have no ambition, don’t listen. There is ambition — and a real challenge! — in doing the same with less. Small is beautiful.

Resist the hype of busy: you don’t have to be/appear busy all the time. Acknowledge that flirting with burn-out is dangerous; before its first kiss. After that, it’ll be too late.

Resist the yearning to expose yourself, to the sun as well as to social networks. Both are bad for your health. And you don’t need that to prove you exist.

Resist the call for conformism. Or, if you want to do and be like everyone else, at least make it a conscious choice, not a default one. Those who could not make the difference have ended up tied to their own chains — which they chose to please their parents, spouse, sibling, boss, guru, cast, etc.

Be yourself, even if you don’t know yet who you are. Keep looking it’s a long way but a beautiful one.