How often does social media make you feel like you’re not doing enough, working enough, achieving enough, or just not good enough? Probably often? More like always? No wonder people feel stressed out and depressed as a result.
The social media image of happy people looking like they have it all figured out sometimes makes me want to quit them all and throw my phone away. There are more people in this world that are struggling than those who are pretending to be successful. Even the latter feel like they’re failures sometimes because they compare themselves with others in this foolish social media world.
Heck, even the motivational quotes are annoying some days. They’re constant reminders of, “hey, stop doing that fun thing you’re enjoying and get back to working” or worse yet, “why are you enjoying life when you could be doing this thing that makes you look like you’re more successful?”.
I detest all of the above because I used to be one of them (an overachiever). I used to squeeze every minute out of my day to stay productive. It was a quantity over a quality game. But I’ve changed my mindset; I try to reflect and practice the idea of enjoying time away from programming, from building my next idea, from trying to be productive all the time.
But this doesn’t make me any less than others. I’m still as driven, curious, keen to learn and improve, and determined as always – I simply decided to be a different type of person, one who enjoys and values other things in life like spending time with friends and family, having deep and soulful conversations, reading all sort of books, practicing different philosophies, running, writing, meditating, and many other outdoor activities. I chose to be an underachiever that prioritizes quality over quantity, and to be content with my decisions and not have regrets, and most importantly, to enjoy missing out on things, especially social media.
Richard Chan 