Don’t go to college or buy a house
Theres something else more important.
We live a linear, sedentary existence.
The trajectory of most people’s lives follow a ubiquitous pattern:
1. Go to school and get good grades
2. Land a high paying job with good benefits
3. Purchase a safe, new car
4. Own your own home
5. Get married
6. Have children who… (go to school, land a job, get a car, a house, and get married…)
7. Retire and give all your money to a retirement home
8. Die.
An American dream worth dying for.
When written out in 8 steps like it is above, it doesn’t look so appealing, atleast not to me.
Yet this is the subscription so many of us buy into. We’re told that those 8 things are the American dream. To not follow along would be “Un-American.”
A cold hard slap in the face
For me, life is so much more than just this linear step by step dance. It’s something of infinite beauty with exploration and excitement abounding.
My advice is different. When someone asks me what they should do for the rest of their life my answer is always the same.
“Whatever the f*ck you want!”
Stop living a life with rules and regulations, borders and boundaries. So many are blinded by what we were brainwashed to believe is right and wrong:
“But Fred, I can’t not go to school, everybody does it. I won’t be successful if I stop going.”
“But Fred, I can’t not get a job, I need to make money somehow”
“But Fred, I can’t not get a car how will I travel around?”
“But Fred, home ownership is what everybody strives for, that means I’ve made it in life.”
“But Fred, I can’t not get married, people will make fun of me and think I’m odd if I don’t.”
“But Fred,………. I think you get it.
The point of today’s post is not to talk about all the ways that you can succeed in life without following the “normal” path. Today’s post is simply meant to point out a fact that has been lost for a long time.
There is no path.
I love hearing stories of people who have achieved extraordinary amounts of success in the most unorthodox of ways. Oprah Winfrey is a great example, Casey Neistat is another.
My point is this.
Often in life we stop pursuing our dreams because we believe:
They’re too ambitious
You’re undeserving of them
You can’t make a career out of them
It’s too risky
Nobody else will like it, etc. etc.
Fact is, these are all just excuses. None are true. The truth is:
You CAN do whatever it is you want to do. You just don’t know how yet.
Today’s post is simply to say two things:
- No matter what, NEVER give up on your dreams because they can and will happen no matter what anybody says
- The only permission you need to make something work is your own.
