Your work matters
145: Perhaps you expected to have a highly profitable business by now. Or that you were a well-known individual who made a difference in the world. But none of that shit has happened.
It's Friday. You sit on the couch, feeling tired from hours of work in front of the computer. And an idea comes to you out of nowhere. And you begin to feel behind in life.
Why am I not more successful?
Perhaps you expected to have a highly profitable business by now. Or that you were a well-known individual who made a difference in the world. Maybe you wanted to own a luxury home by now or travel the world on your own yacht. And that you had it all figured out by now.
But none of that shit has happened.
It's easy to panic in situations like this, especially if you look around. It's natural to compare your own journey to that of others. But why are we so fascinated with time?
"This guy became a millionaire at 23."
"She wrote her first best-seller by 26."
"He became CEO at 32."
So, what? They are not the same as you. But it still hurts, right? "Why not me?" you may ask.
Everyone has their own path.
That sounds silly, I know. But you know what else is silly? Being an unhappy person. Because that is what happens when you pretend to control your destiny — you're attempting to play God every time you feel your life isn't the way it should be.
Think about it for a second — we only compare the things we see or know about people:
How much money do they make?
Where do they travel?
Which car are they driving?
But everything comes at a cost. Why don't we think about:
The stress of working late nights
Guilt for spending only two days per week with kids
Poor health habits
Next time you want to compare yourself to others, think if you're ready to compare every aspect of their life to yours.
Give yourself a break and remember one thing: your work matters
The majority of our unhappiness comes from the belief that no one cares. In a crowded environment, it's easy to feel unimportant. You get up, go to work, come home, and watch television until you fall asleep. You're just doing the bare minimum.
You lose sight of your true purpose: to be useful. What are your options? Have you given up? Drink a tumbler of scotch and claim that the world is a shambles? Come on, life isn't like Hemingway's novel.
You must believe that your work is valuable. Why? Because it is true. It all comes down to your mindset. William James, a leader in the Pragmatist intellectual movement, put it best:
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
We all feel that to matter, we must do tremendous things. I mean, look at Elon — he makes electric cars and launches spaceships, all while re-branding Twitter into X. But you don't have to solve world hunger to make a difference. Similarly, you don't have to become famous to have an impact.
Perhaps you aspire to do big things. That's fantastic! But you're not some puppet master who has complete power over life. It can take some time to get where we want to go. Yet this doesn't mean that journey is meaningless. And since we're all so obsessed with results, we believe life can be measured in milestones.
Luckily, life is more than just achieving goals. That's why we strive to hack our way into living meaningful lives. Some people feel that being productive means cramming more into each day. It isn't. Productivity is about attempting to balance work and life. That is not always the case. We hate our jobs and our days.
But we try to rationalize it by holding out an extravagant goal in front of us. Everything will be okay in the end as long as we reach our goal, right? That diploma, employment, promotion, income, revenue, best-seller, or tremendous success. But what if it doesn't happen? Yeah, we fell behind.
You don't need bigger goals or more motivation
You must recognize that whatever you are doing right now is important. You must behave in this way. You should also stop listening to those in a different life stage.
So what if this individual drives a Porsche? So what if that person purchased a new home? Stop making yourself miserable by rushing through life. And working harder, harder, and harder.
Stop criticizing yourself for not being where you want to be. Look, your work is important. You are important. What happens if you don't show up the next day? You will be greatly missed.
And don't give me that emo crap about how no one cares about you. That is the most narcissistic viewpoint you can have. People who continue to live in this manner become what Seneca describes in his work, On the Shortness of Life:
They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.
People who believe no one cares about them are overly concerned with themselves. Open your eyes to soak in your surroundings. People care. And you should care too.
It's not about having faith in the universe or God. It's all about believing in oneself. Life does not have to make sense. It simply needs to matter. And if you act as if your life is important, it is.