The questions you need to ask yourself
If you haven’t already, you should.
Stop and ask yourself, “What are the things I strongly believe in that could be wrong?”
I’ll share a few of mine that you might feel the same about. You’re in for a ride. Warning: it might hurt.
You should follow your passion
What if you have the wrong passion? What if your passion changes over time? What if you think your passion is your passion only because there’s nothing else you’re good at? What if you realize you’re actually not passionate about something? What if your passion doesn’t pay the bills? What if you learn there’s no magic feeling attached to your passion? What if following your passion means pursuing empty promises?
What would it mean?
Everything will turn out fine
What if it won’t? What if things just pass but not for the better? What if we continue to ride the world’s tide? What if the inherent goodness in each of us can no longer be found? What if the chaos finds its way to feed into that and further ignites its force? What if after every adversity, every challenge, all there is left waiting for us is a lesson to learn? What if at our last stop, there is no out of sight, reasonable reason that will make sense of it all and we just die?
What would it mean?
Happiness is the ultimate goal
What if happiness is not all that matters? What if happiness is not enough? What if happiness is not as great as what we made it out to be? What if happiness is not only about feeling good? What if happiness is more about pain and struggle? What if happiness is not something we have to achieve? What if happiness is the problem?
What would it mean?
Big questions like these are daunting. I don’t even know what to type in next but I’m just going to keep typing and typing and typing so at first glance not only will it seem longer but you will also think this part is so insightful like it’s about to tell you, “Well, fear no more! I’ve got all the answers for you.” But reading this now, you’re about to realize it’s just a paragraph of nothingness. But before you think I’m annoying and hit the exit button, listen, fear no more — okay, no, seriously.
I’m gonna break it to you now: you won’t find the be all end all answer here. All I’ve got are questions. Lots of them.
As I’ve said, these questions are things outside of our belief system. Its unfamiliarity makes us feel uncomfortable. When I asked myself these questions, not gonna lie, it hurt like I was condemned to the underworld.
Although, the bigger question is, “What if that’s okay?”
What if not following your passion doesn’t necessarily mean you’re settling for less? Do you think the best tax lawyers are passionate about tax laws? No. People are passionate about being great at something. Sometimes, loving what we do is just as an accouterment. Even so, pursuing our passion doesn’t guarantee happiness.
What if whether everything turns out fine or not holds no weight of significance? “Everything will be better,” used to be my motivation. But I found a better one: everything will most likely not be better but so what? To accept none of these will matter in the end and still choose to keep going and do our best in each given moment despite knowing the probability that there’s nothing in it for us, aren’t we being better individuals?
We want to pursue our passion, to know everything will be better because ultimately, it promises happiness. But what if there’s something more important than happiness? Did it ever cross your mind how maybe we’ve got happiness all wrong? How it’s not the same as pleasure or positivity. How it can’t be bought, achieved nor met. It’s just is. Happiness is our default state.
I may be wrong. But so is everything on the internet. And that’s a whole other story. Everything we believe to be right, in a few years, will be proven to be wrong. Every single thing.
All of us want answers. But we have to be able to ask ourselves questions, especially uncomfortable ones even if they’re left unanswered. But here’s what I’ll offer, even if we’re not doing what we love or everything won’t turn out fine or we don’t feel the kind of happy we expected, let’s still try and be better.
Maybe it’s a half-baked answer and this whole thing should’ve probably stayed in my drafts but at least I’m asking the questions.
