Today's society gives us a wonderful world:
- Instant, free knowledge thanks to the Internet,
- Low-cost worldwide communications
- Ease of travel
- Freedom of speech, thought, and religion
- Education at low cost
- Public safety.
Whatever you may think of the world today, anyone who lived even 100 years ago did not have the above things, and that is not little.
Freedom, knowledge, communication, are not given, but are the fruit of discoveries, sweat, and struggle.
If you ask me, I will tell you that we live in a fantastic world, of course, it has its dark sides, but try living in the Middle Ages for a day and then tell me if we are not lucky now.
We are so lucky that we often forget the truly important things, we find ourselves pushed into the fast and constant flow of today's society, and we are always a little worried, busy, and unhappy.
Do you want a photograph of the direction in which today's society is going?
Look at any film set in Manhattan, New York.
Overworked men and women who have no time for themselves, for friends, for children; junk food, class struggle, strong social inequalities, stress and anxiety.
Unfortunately, it is increasingly easy to be carried away and lost in the flow of this society that, from a certain point of view, wants us more and more: Stressed and anxious Overworked Consumers
Sometimes I look at all these people running, running, running… and I wonder:
"But where the hell are they going?"
Run, run, earn to buy the new model of cell phone, the car you can't afford, run so you'll see your wife less and less often, who doesn't smile at you anymore, run so you'll see your friends, your parents, your children less and less often, because there is no time for them. But what do you care, when you have a 10-meter SUV that you pay off until 2099? :)
No guys, sometimes it pays to take a step back, breathe, calm down, and look at things as they are.
I therefore write what I consider a manifesto for living well today and not getting lost in the daily rush.
I will be rather tough sometimes, I do it to hit and make people think.
1. If everyone is doing something, it doesn't mean it's right, on the contrary, it is often just the opposite.
2. "The things you own end up owning you" (Fight Club quote); buy what you want if you like it, buy a nice car if you want to, buy a nice dress, do well, but not if it is a way of covering up insecurities, you cannot cure your misery with a pile of material possessions.
3. The happiness of the person who buys things to impress others is short-lived and depends on the opinions of others; the happiness of the person who buys things because he likes them is lasting and depends on his own judgment.
4. If you constantly chase money and possessions, you will never catch them, because there will always be someone who has more than you; on the other hand, if you chase happiness, peace, and personal growth, you will always catch them, because they are inside you and depend only on you.
5. Don't worry about what others think of you, worry about what you think of yourself; the opinion of others is their business, not yours.
6. Don't be a conformist, don't be afraid to go against the tide, to be different; the world needs people who think for themselves and have their own ideas, not people who follow the herd.
7.If you play with your cell phone or text when you are out with friends next time you can stay at home.
8. I am not interested in your social mask built up over years of constant practice, I am interested in who you really are.
9. You are not your profession, you are not a worker, you are not a store owner, you are not an entrepreneur, you are not a lawyer, you DO these things, I hope you consider yourself much more than your profession.
10. If we are among friends and you keep insinuating your social position using work language, you might as well stop talking.
11. If you are socially important and don't show it or if you are nobody and don't care, you are much happier than most people.
12. Smile, often that is enough.
13. When a man is happy, everything else is "extra", it can be there but it is not essential.
14. Watching television is the biggest waste of time in the history of mankind, if you want to watch something you like every now and then that's fine, but more than that you are wasting your life.
15. Checking Facebook and email every half hour is the biggest loss of concentration and time in recent years.
16. Sometimes stop, close your eyes, feel your body and turn off your brain.
17. Eating is not a means to an end, it is a moment of pleasure and socializing.
18. As much as you think your problems are bigger than those of others, know that everyone else thinks the same thing about their own.
19. As much as you think you are right in how you think, remember that 7 billion people think the same way.
20. For as many problems as you may have, remember that much of the world lives below the poverty line, think about it before complaining.
21. Doing 10 things at once makes you do everything badly.
22. If you think buying a nice car and keeping it for 5 years is more beautiful than a second of your woman's smile, of a friend's, of a child's, then you are already dead.
23. Seeing the things around you does not mean looking at them, feeling does not mean listening, talking does not mean communicating, start looking at the simple journey you take to work, start listening to others by giving them all your attention, start communicating instead of just talking to hear your own voice.
24. When you get angry with someone, always remember that what annoys us in others is what we fear in ourselves.
25. As much as you can have, running, chatting, talking on the phone, talking on Facebook, using Twitter, video calling on Skype, always remember that nothing can ever replace a face-to-face relationship between two people.
26. If you have read this article too quickly then stop and read it again.
27. Sometimes try going out without your phone, without your computer, without your watch, without your wallet, just you, your shoes and the world around you.
Steve