The Pressure to Have It All Figured Out

PRATIMA SHARMA

At what age were we expected to have everything figured out? We live in a society where genuineness and honesty are discarded with questions of how far we can go, what we are doing lately, what's our next venture, this isn't enough, doesn't align with who you are, this is not what you should be.

In all these sounds of statements, we, at times, find ourselves in a gloomy direction, feeding our minds with the urgency to figure out our entire life at once. Really, at what age were we expected to have everything figured out? In our school days? After graduation? After getting a job? After the first relationship that shattered us completely? Or after marriage? When?

Anxiety is a natural response to uncertainty and unpredictability, but it is also the factor that motivates us to seek new experiences and build our lives in better dimensions. But why is it that we forcefully feed our minds that uncertainty is failure, pushing ourselves hard only to feel hopeless because of the invisible timelines we create within ourselves?

Where is the race going on? In reality or in our minds? With what? She did that, so why shouldn't I? He reached there; why am I still here? They are happy only because they achieved so much; why am I lacking? Where are these thoughts directing us? We compare because uncertainty is uncomfortable. Seeing someone else's certainty gives us the illusion that we're the only one who hasn't figured life out.

Every human being has the inherent tendency to search for meaning and purpose in life, and it's necessary to be in congruence with what we believe and how we act. But while we run a race that isn't even worth sacrificing our happiness and harmony for, it's a waste. We rarely compare realities. We never know what's going on in somebody's life. Discarding the curated social world filled with success and happiness uploads, we compare what we see in a superficial way and try to reach the next level without being true to ourselves, which results in self-abandonment, forgetting that we are all unique and we all have our share of stories.

Everyone is still figuring out one thing or another, but as we say, life itself is filled with choices for improvement and becoming a better version of ourselves. Even if we are disturbed with the loud noise of the society life was never asking us to have all the answers. Why not take it this way, life is only asking us to keep taking the next step, even when we don't yet see the whole path. Let's not mistake uncertainty with failure and promise ourselves to keep moving forward without doubting ourselves. We all have a long way to go.