From the moment we’re born we’re put into a timer. Kinda like that movie “In Time”. Its this impending doomsday that’s upon us at all times. First it’s kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school, after school activities and play dates, hang outs and curfews, college and work, marriage and kids, all with the eventuality of death looming above us.
You never have enough time until you have too much time and then it’s not enough again. A lot of us live our lives in this rigidly imposed societal constraint. Not making time for what we want to do because of what we feel like we have to do. We live our lives in quiet desperation never truly being present while trapped in our present. Working jobs we hate, at school in programs we don’t like and never approaching our actual goals because of our own insecurities.
Drunk and high in our spare times just letting the time fly because we don’t want to live our reality. The few moments of freedom we have outside of our constraints we spend escaping reality, mindlessly scrolling, consuming hours of content and food, usually together. All while tryna fill that hole deep down. The one that exists because of your own awareness of the absurdity of it all. It’s absurd to live a single life and live it according to what’s expected of you as opposed to what you know you want to do.
Time is a social construct. The Earth moves in seasons not in minutes, hours or years. We’ve been programmed since childhood with bells and alarms to always be anxious and wary of this impending doomsday. We have clocks everywhere from our phones to our walls, tvs, videos, buildings, birthdays and billboards, all to remind us of the passage of time and rush us. We may not realize it but that takes a toll on our psyche.
Our capitalistic rush culture isn’t made for our well-being and happiness, it’s made for efficiency and product output. We overwork ourselves to our graves to please a system that doesn’t care about us. We will die eventually, all the other milestones that scare you or make you feel bad aren’t real. You aren’t living someone else’s life and you’re not in competition with anyone. As long as you’re alive you’re doing it right. You don’t have to be a millionaire at 18 because of Lil Pump or a billionaire at 21 because Kylie Jenner is.
You can go back to school at 30 and you can travel the whole world in your 40s. The time constraints we feel are all an illusion. We don’t have to do anything but eat and sleep to keep our body moving, the rest of your world is for you to explore and figure out. Don’t spend your life living in dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. The whole world around you was built by people just like you. Don’t let the noise of the outer world block out your own inner voice that's there to let you know what you should do. You can map out your own terrain and take your own path.
Societal standards of failure don’t exist. The only failure that exists is the one that will exist in your own mind on your deathbed when you’re regretting living someone else’s life as opposed to the one you would have actually wanted. Use your creativity to pierce the apathy that a society constrained by time creates. If you’ve ever experienced flow state you know what I’m talking about. Flow state is a state that a lot of artists and athletes get into, also known as being “in the zone”. It’s when you’re fully immersed in the activity that you’re doing and fully enjoying it to the point where time disappears. I’ve experienced flow when I write, make music or edit videos and that’s the only way I can describe it. Time and my sense of self disappear as the idea takes the driver seat and by the time I’m done, hours have felt like seconds.
Einstein already proved that space and time are relative as opposed to absolute concepts. And I’m not no scientist but I think that time is one of the main tools used to control us. The only thing that truly exists is the eternal Now. We are always in the present but we never really live in it. We’re always worried about tomorrow or reminiscing on the past when all that truly exists is now and the decisions we make here. Practice mindfulness and enjoy right now, today.
So go and take chances, talk to that person, get off your phone and get real life experiences, chase your dreams, find your passions, try new shit and meet new people. Don’t let deadlines control you. And this is all shit you can do for free or on a budget so hop on google and figure out how to get what you want and go get it. Take all those moments you spend on Netflix and Instagram and direct them towards what you love to do, and if you don't know what that is, find it and pursue it wholeheartedly. And if you really don’t agree, eat a dick nigga. You’re Agent Smith in this matrix.
“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”