The Superficial Society

The way I see it, hidden in society is how people are truly supposed to live. There are people living in alignment with their true nature, with their natural purpose. But the media doesn't show you this. The advertising industry doesn't show you this. You have to look beneath the superficial. Because the goal of media and advertising is to sell you shit you don't need. What you DO NEED is to know who you are, why you're here, what your purpose is, and where you want your life to go. Deep down you know this is true. And that new car or that nice appartment feel great when you know who you are, and feel like shit when you don't know who you are and you realize that the things you buy don't tell you who you are.

When society tells you that what you have should make you feel high value, and it doesn't, it hurts. When you look good but don't feel good, have nice things but don't feel good, it hurts. Self esteem comes from knowing who you are, what you are capable of, and that you deserve to be happy. So you allow yourself to be happy. Because all low self esteem really is is a mental cage that keeps you from enjoying the present moment as it is. Low self esteem keeps you from allowing yourself to just BE. And when you internalize that self esteem only depends on the person that you are, not the things that you have, you are free from the commercial bullshit that society fires at you.

Society has no reason to tell you that those cool celebrities you see every day in the media are cool because of who they are, not because of what they do or what they wear or what they own or how much money they make or what they look like. And most of them aren't even that cool. Think of a Brittney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan. Not that I have anything against them, I feel for their situation. Because they allowed society to dictate who they are, but the self is always shining through. They thought that because society TOLD them they should feel good, that they would. And they did, for a while. But it just doesn't stick. Because if you don't feel good about yourself, if you don't FEEL your own value, then no amount of external gratification will ever lead to self esteem. And what happened when the gratification ended? When society turned their back? When they went from being the next big thing to the next joke.

Remember how cool Brittney used to be? How popular, how everybody loved her. Now look at her. Cover story of one of those gossip magazines is "Brittney hates her life." No shit she hates her life. The media built her up, and the media tore her to shreds. Did she ever feel her own value? Did she ever say "Fuck it, I know who I am and what I'm capable of?" Survey says no. What she felt was the intense pressure of performing not for herself but for a nation of onlookers that didn't really give two shits about her, but just wanted to be entertained. But watch the news (actually don't, just allow me to use it as an example) and all you see are celebrities, and the underlying message is these are the people you should be like, the people you should idolize, THIS IS HIGH VALUE, and then they slip up and get torn to shreds and you're left to wonder...so who should I be looking up to? So I am supposed to be famous, with my value being determined by how much attention and admiration I get from other people, all the while fearing that the very thing that gives me value could turn on me at any instant and leave me with nothing?

And that is where having your own standard of value comes into play. Because deep down everybody has this image of who they want to be. And too often this image is obscured, and becomes: this is what I want to look like, this is what I want to have, this is how rich I want to be, this is what I want to show off to the world to prove my worth. When the real image should be: this is who I want to be, this is how I want to act, the expression on my face, the way I interact with people, what I give the world, what I expect in return. That respect is earned not by how much you have and what you can show off, but IN HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE. That unless you know your own value and live in alignment with it, you cannot truly feel good about yourself. Because even if you're rich and have all this cool stuff, you feel the need to IMPRESS people with it. The mark of true value is the knowledge that no matter what the outside world thinks of you, you know who you are.

Personally, I don't know if I'll end up rich, but here is the kicker: I know that I am capable of making a ton of money. I just don't know if I value money enough to put in the time. Right now I don't. Right now I am more than happy making enough to get by and pouring my passion into what I truly care about. For a little while I toyed with the idea of having no income and producing enough to survive with only my brain and my hands. I know I am as capable of surviving like that as I am at running a fortune 500 company. So since I know what I am capable, the real question becomes: what do I want? Where do I want my life to go. Rich and powerful or subsistence farmer. Naturally, it will be somewhere in between. I don't like the idea of depending on others for my own survival, but I have too much to offer society not to at least try to spread what I know to the people who need to hear it.

The future is wide open. The world is my playground. Take life seriously, but not too seriously. It's all just a game, but it's YOUR game, so play to win.

You only live once, so take the time to question things, to look at the depth. Most people seem to go their entire lives without asking "What is my purpose?" I know mine. I just need to live in alignment with it. Because the difference between knowing your purpose and living it is HOW YOU ACT. What you choose to do. How you spend your time. Knowing what you value is one thing. Living what you value is something different.