Starting from today, stop worrying about what society thinks or says.
Because what society thinks changes every 10 years, at the maximum every 20 years.
What society thought to be ‘respectable’ or important 20 years ago is not respectable or important anymore.
What society thought to be a ‘good job’ is not a ‘good job’ anymore.
What society thought to be ‘the best way to live’, is not even considered a decent way to live anymore.
Exceptions aside, this is always the pattern – every 20 years, what society thinks changes.
So much that people who plan and live their life based on society’s opinions and expectations end up getting frustrated when society starts thinking and talking differently 10-20 years later. Because they discover that they have ended up with a life and a situation that is no longer considered ‘good’ by society.
Then what should you do instead?
Live Your Life How You Want To
Simple, common advice, but it’s as true today as it was true in the past.
Know yourself, know your wants, know your likes, dislikes, know what satisfies you and what frustrates you. Have a vision of yourself doing what you would like to be doing in 20-30 years’ time.
Then plan a roadmap – preferably a flexible one – that will bring you to the point closest to that goal in the coming few decades. A flexible roadmap, because with a flexible roadmap, you can still keep walking towards the vision in your head even as society and circumstances change.
Plan your own journey through that roadmap too – the journey should be as enjoyable as the end goal itself.
This will give you the most flexibility to reach the most satisfactory destination at the end of your journey. And when you reach that destination, you can have another plan and another journey.
Other people’s opinions may be in favor of your goal, they may be against it, they may be mixed. Moreover, all of those opinions may change over time.
But what won’t change will be the fact that you set your goals, you crafted your life plan, you crafted your life journey and you lived it as you wanted it to.
Even from the start, that’s an accomplishment and a reward in itself.
Get Along with the Society Too
There’s no need to butt heads with the society and openly row against its current either. There is no need to complicate your life in that way.
Parents, family, friends, relatives, everyone may be thinking different things about what’s important in life and what everyone should do, and they may be following those ideas and advising, or even pressuring others to follow the same ideas.
Openly conflicting with the society and rebelling against today’s norm and trying to change it 20 years before than it would automatically change by itself, has little point.
Rebel where you must, go along with the current where you must.
There are battles which you must fight, battles which you must never surrender, and there are battles which do not need to be fought at all.
Skillfully navigate the waters of social opinion and circumstances. The opinion of your family, friends, loved ones, and society. The circumstances of the times.
Get along well with people, take care of those around you and take care of society, be a good person.
And still walk towards your goal, continuing the journey you had in mind.
And in the End, You Will Get There
One way or another, you will get close to your goal. It may not be 100%, it may not be 90%, but even if you got 70% closer to what objectives you have planned, its still a much bigger success, a much bigger satisfaction than having wasted your life obliging with the shifting opinions of the society.
Because this is your life.
