It’s Not Hopeless

If you feel stuck in an endless loop of seeking short-term satisfaction but ultimately feeling empty, it’s not hopeless. You’re not defeated unless you give up, and you’re not alone. If you feel broken, take small steps to fix yourself. You can’t just wait for things to get better. Sure, circumstances can change and sometimes life can become easier for certain periods, but you can’t rely on external factors to drive your life. You have to take charge and do what needs to be done. Sometimes life is hard and you have to pull through anyways. “Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor,” and likewise an easy life doesn’t produce a strong person. “In calm waters, everyone looks like a good sailor, but in stormy waters, you want to be the one with the experienced captain,” and you are the captain of your life. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that though. Sometimes you feel like just a part of the crew, forced to do whatever you’re told, because, in the case of the vast majority of people, you’re stuck working under people who likely don’t care much about you beyond the profits you can produce them, for wages that are frankly not worth it, especially when you spend a majority of the time of your life at a job you hate. If you hate your job and you spend a majority of your life at it, you end up hating your life, and that’s a dangerous path to go down. You need time to do things you enjoy and that improve the quality of your life, like spending time with loved ones, exercising, and hobbies. But you have no time (or it feels like it sometimes) if you’re working 9-5, and with the pay you’re making, even with investment and saving, you likely won’t have financial freedom until you’re much older, if ever. The security of working for an established company is enticing, but someone had to have started that company, and unless they were born into a rich family, they likely didn’t have all the time in the world to dedicate to starting it. A lot of people probably worked in their free time to get it started, it probably felt hopeless and scary at times, but they kept going. Outside of winning the lottery, I see no way of gaining financial freedom before my joints start giving out without starting some kind of business. And that’s what I recommend for anyone reading this. I’m just starting out, writing in my free time before or after work, I haven’t seen crazy success or even any income yet, but I have a strong feeling I’m finally doing the right thing. I felt lost and didn’t know what to do with my life for so long. And I know a lot of other people feel like that too, so just know that you’re not alone, it’s not over, it’s not hopeless. Just do what you can to improve yourself and start something you actually enjoy doing that you can get paid for so you’re not stuck anymore.