Readjusting Our Lifestyle

Wednesday, 07 January 2009 10:07

We’re beginning to wonder when our age group became so damn complacent. There was a college professor once who used to rant and rave to his 200 person lecture about how we all needed to fight urban sprawl and return to the days of community farming and reusing water by letting the drains run out into buckets under our sinks. Needless to say, he lost most of the room to fleeting smirks and rolls of the eyes. But there was another lecture once; that we were all programmed from the time we were young that we must go to school and get a good education because we must get a good job after graduation and must grow up to have 2.5 kids in a house with a green lawn and a dog with neighborhood barbeques on Sundays. Sure enough, we all let this lecture go in one ear and out the other like his commentary on community farming.

Fast forward five years later and we can’t help but have that lecture replay over and over in our minds. Why is it that we all force ourselves to produce so much? Today, Americans are the most productive workers in the world….for what? There is something inside that drives us all to fight for more …which doesn’t sound so bad until you take off the rose colored glasses and realize we are a society of Consumerism and more can only mean one thing…more material things. So, here we are, young, bright-eyed and bushy tailed and determined to come out into the working world in a quick race to the top. How many happy hours have you sat at listening to people bitch about their jobs?? How many times have you looked at your friend, family member, or significant other and recognized the dread in their eyes as they try to pull themselves out of bed to go to work each morning? We’ve all been there and probably still are. Professional happiness is like an emotional rollercoaster with ups and downs depending on how successful you are feeling and how much money you’re making at any given moment.

So why the hell do we do it? Sure, ‘its not so bad’ and the steady paycheck lets you have your fun on the weekends. But once you add in all the true costs (stress, time, emotional preoccupation) is it really worth it? Half the time we can’t even enjoy that luxurious trip our hard-earned money paid for because we are too tied up at work to enjoy a vacation (if you even manage to get out the door at all).

The beauty of all this is that we still have a choice. What if there was no money? Perhaps all of your worldly possessions would mean nothing and the social pecking order would be based on something real, like how kind you are to others. Who knows? All we’re saying is that we have an opportunity to shift society back. To get away from this machine that is fueled by our constant need for more and need to impress others. You may not think you fit in this category but please be assured you do….all of us do at some level because it has been drilled into our minds since birth by our great Western society. So, lets all kick it back to 3rd gear together. Not strive for great wealth but for great lives and great company. There’s a perfect quote floating out there on the web about how most people are working in hopes to accumulate mass wealth to gain the ultimate freedom. Unfortunately, our society is a corporate rat race and this mentality only kicks up the speed of your treadmill. So, take a step back and consider how your life would change if you fought your instinct to produce in hopes of accumulating enough wealth to buy your freedom and simply, enjoyed your freedom! It’s right there waiting for you….it just takes you walking out the door at five o’clock occasionally and remembering not to blow through life without enjoying the little things. Besides, we’re pretty sure by now that climbing the corporate ladder is empty promises and mirages and we’ll all be slaving away until we’re 70 if we don’t. Don’t believe us? Examine the lives of your VPs…truly examine not just assess from face value. Do you think their SL500 compensates for the job related stress and health issues that keep them from enjoying time with family and friends? Just saying….cruising in 3rd sounds pretty good some days.

--The ReasonsToEnvy.com (R2E) Team

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