‘Winning’ Will Never Be The Same
Nowadays, the rhetoric is fixed. It is incredibly different to what our parents grew up in. There’s this notion that there is only one outcome. ‘Winning’.
I won’t keep you long.
I have a limited brain ability today. My internship intellectually drained me.
Anyway, something that I have given thought over the last few days. I don’t know if I’ll articulate it correctly but here goes.
‘Winning’.
Social media has entirely redefined this notion of achieving and prospering in society. Expectations, now more than ever, surpass heights imaginable and it scares most millennials. That’s why you hear about so many people that don’t want to grow up.
The fear of becoming an adult comes from these expectations.
Expectations not only from family but the rest of the world.
All eyes and ears on your every movement. Social media users can’t seem to catch a break. Either they show their life as honest depictions, through the highs and lows — they’re labelled complainers and ungrateful. Or, the other end of the spectrum, are the accounts that display only happiness and receive criticism for lack of responsibility nor direction.
No-one wins. There are always trolls. They seem to make us believe that it isn’t worth it.
The amalgamation of all of this makes us question our identity, purpose and education.
It’s tough. That is not to say that growing up in war-torn countries today or amidst world war breakout seventy years prior was any easy shake-up. Each generation and location has their own set of challenges.
Entrepreneurial spirit and business innovation are two areas where people are falling down the rabbit hole.
It’s like the American dream. Glammed up and made to look irresistible. It is like that after months and years of hard work.
We are starting to see the process. Social media moguls Steven Bartlett and Gary Vaynerchuk have their own YouTube channels. They document their journeys. But some say it’s too late. They are already at the top, and their movements now are incomparable to those starting from scratch.
While advice is useful, the markets have changed, and the idea of trying becomes more of a psychological barrier than a practical one.
There is now rhetoric that follows this pattern:
Go to school.
Pass (fail) exams and go to university, get an apprenticeship or entry-level job.
Start a business or become executive level at another company.
Retire at 45 to a Bahamas beach hut.
Now, this all seems far-fetched but the notion and belief that ‘you have to be something’ is real and destroying the dreams of even the most experienced millennials.
If you don’t follow such pattern, you’re a failure. You don’t have any value in the system. It’s crap. It’s ludacris that a whole generation will lose out because entrepreneurial spirit crushed their aspirations.
I’ve realised how individual I’ve become. It has been a protection mechanism. I am focused on my ambitions and passions. I don’t concern myself with comparisons.
I play off the strengths of others and aspire to achieve similar heights, but I don’t waste time on wondering if I had started earlier. There is always time. I believe in myself because that’s my job.
If you ever have one job, it is to keep the belief. That’s a job that no-one can do for you. You can’t subcontract belief. Internal satisfaction with your position when you have that hindsight of worse times.
So, yes, I believe that ‘winning’ will never be the same again.
We continually brainwash people into thinking there is only one option.
We live in a world of more choice.
Psychologically, we are restricting that choice. Defining people their paths and judging them for not living up to expectation.
I’ll ‘win’ on my own, without the societal expectation on my back.