I ran into a great quote while browsing Reddit the other day. Someone said:
“The world isn’t cruel as some people like to say, it’s just apathetic. It doesn’t care about you and it’ll leave you behind unless you try to make something of yourself.”
Isn’t that true?
You can play the victim, believe the world is rooting for your failure, and shake angry fists at the heavens when you don’t get what you want for the thousandth time.
Truth is, the world isn’t cruel at all nor is it conspiring against you. In fact, it doesn’t even really care.
It’s not just you, the world is also apathetic towards me and everyone else. It doesn’t care about your parents, your siblings, your closest friends, or any of your other loved ones.
Mother nature isn’t plotting against your goals. It shrugs its shoulders as you pass on by.
But wait, don’t be depressed. That’s great news! You thought you had natural forces hoping you fail so your odds were lower than they actually are. Nope, you’ve got a great chance to make your own effect on this world.
What this green earth cares about is what you make of yourself. What sort of footprint are you leaving during your lifetime?
If you’re making someone else’s day once a week then boom, there’s your contribution. Maybe the entire population of earth won’t remember that, but you would have made an impact nonetheless.
Don’t have anything to contribute at all to this world? It’ll leave you in the dust.
If you want the world to notice you and work alongside you then get yourself together and contribute something, anything. Life doesn’t favor those who live an idle life.
We only have, on average, 75 years to live. That’s 39,420,000 minutes. Use those minutes right the hell now.
Make an impact anyway you can and make the world miss you when you’re gone.
Photo Credit: MN AFL-CIO – Flickr
Super points – all, Vincent! Some may think that view is cynical, but I think it is very motivating. I don’t think we can make anyone else do anything, but we sure can make ourselves do things – and it may mean something to someone, bonus!
I do think that it’s important to do as the flight attendants say, “Put on your oxygen mask before you assist others.” I am not sure that was your message here, but I am making that connection in my brain.
Hope you’re doing great!
Tammy! It’s been a long time since I’ve heard from either you or CJ. How are you two doing?
Although that wasn’t my intended message in the final published version of this post it was actually on the back of my mind. I had a small part about that before I cut it out. 🙂
Hi Vincent! We are great and thank you for asking. We are not blogging right now. We sold the townhouse, moved to a one-bedroom apartment and are loving life!!!
I love seeing that you’re still making it happen over here at Self Stairway!
I was sad to see you guys stop back in January! Hope you’re enjoying your current place.
“If you’re making someone else’s day once a week then boom, there’s your contribution.”
Hehe, thinking about blog posting, Vincent? 🙂
Keep kicking ass.
Hahaha! Maybe it crossed my mind but I’m too scared to make the jump… How do I doooo?
you can do better than once a week, thats a pretty low bar
Thanks for this, Vincent. This came at the right moment.
No problem!
“The world isn’t cruel as some people like to say, it’s just apathetic. It doesn’t care about you and it’ll leave you behind unless you try to make something of yourself.” I like this quote; as harsh as it sounds, that’s the truth.
I really want to thank you for sharing this- actually, this very thought has been haunting my mind for some time now as I started thinking about my life and what really matters in it. Your words were really inspiring and touched my heart. I couldn’t have said it better myself :)mer
Glad this resonated with you, Meryam! It is a bit harsh but to me it’s almost optimistic. I didn’t go the optimism route with this but when I read the quote I feel lighter. The world isn’t against me? Awesome!
Ohh… a fellow redditor! (Actually I’m more of a lurker…)
It’s amazing how many things you can pick up from reddit (and imgur). 🙂
That quote may sound a little cynical but is spot on and needs to be heard by everyone—especially those who just entered the “real world” of having to make a living.
I’m more of a lurker as well, Glori. That place is great when you find the right subreddits. 🙂
Reminds me of Emerson’s words:
“The purpose of life is not to be happy, it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived – and lived well”.
and I am paraphrasing here from jerspassages.com – “create the answers everyday to the following questions: did I live fully? did I love openly? did I matter?” I am actively trying to spread joy like manure, to see what grows! It had been amazing to see people smile in response to my smile and laughter.
Both quotes are awesome! Although I’d love to combine making my life purpose about being both happy and useful instead of one or the other.
Let’s stop the victim mentality and take responsibility for our own successes and failures. Our love for ourselves should spring from the fact that we can do good for others if we take care of ourselves and our needs. And even if it’s true we are a victim, we have to stand for ourselves and claim the victory we deserve in whatever endeavor, dream or goal we have in life. all the best Vince 😉
I’m with you there, Rob!
Great post, Vincent! A healthy reminder for all of us. 🙂
Thanks, Anastacia!
Wow Vincent Great Read! One of your Best to date this is what life is all about. Hope all is Well and Rocking!
Awesome! So glad to hear. I was worried that these short posts might turn out to be lower quality than the normal-length posts. 🙂
And on the contrary, it’s essentially that we learn to not care about the world. I’m not talking about the planet and the environment. I’m not talking about people. I’m talking about what people think about us. Most people want to be liked and accepted. However, it’s that desire that makes us self conscious and holds us back from being ourselves. You have to learn to not give a shit.
True that! Most of us (myself included) need to remember that others are often busy worrying about how others perceive them. They don’t have time to judge other people every moment of every day.
Interesting thought, Vincent.
For me, I just tell to myself that I don’t care if people don’t care about me. They can ignore, tease, humiliate, hate, or do whatever things they want. What matters is I care for them because my own action is the only thing I can control in life.
Thanks, Wan!
Great post Vincent. Giving back as much as possible to Earth and it’ll give back to you. That’s my believe. And it makes the world a so much more beautiful place that way too.
Right!
Insightful and accurate article, but there is a flaw in the logic. A common flaw that we’re all guilty of, nothing to be excited about, but a flaw nonetheless. Well, a misperception actually. When people talk about “the world” or “life” or “reality” we tend to do so as if the world is a separate entity from ourselves, independent of our existence. However what most people don’t realize is that it is not the world we live in, it’s not the life we live, and it’s not the physical reality we exist in. Rather it is the people we have the misfortune of sharing this world, this life, and this reality with.
Now, again, this is a common flaw and it takes a certain amount of insight that most of us don’t bother to attain because we’re so busy trying to gain profit at the expense of others. We humans, for all of our capacity for good and decency and compassion, we can be defined in several words; cynical, paranoid, selfishly apathetic, egocentric, vindictive, sectarian, sanctimonious, and competitively opportunistic.
People who live idle or unengaged lives are condemned because they do not contribute to the capitalistic game set for them by their forebears and structured on the Darwinian principal of “survival of the fittest.” They don’t pay bills, so they don’t feed the pockets of the greedy. They don’t work, so they don’t contribute to the lives of the needy. We do whatever is in our best interests or what gives us the most gratification or success or safety, regardless of who it helps or hurts. We take what we can get and try to carve out an existence while under the boot-heel of an uncaring public and whatever care they do have seems to be directed towards starving children in third-world countries like Africa. Now, those are some disgusting and decrepit countries with an abundance of poverty and a wretched standard of living for a lot of folks. But tell me, do we feel sorry for them because they are deprived, or because we use them as an excuse or distraction to ignore or justify the problems in our own country?
Look, you can see the world however you want. You can put the cruel truth right in their face and say, “Unless you work and provide for yourself and contribute to a society that couldn’t care less about you and, unless you become some big hero, won’t remember you when you die, the world won’t care about you. The world doesn’t care for people who only care about themselves. Get off your bottom, take responsibility and do something with your life and stop sponging off others.”
But we both know that’s not true. The world won’t care about you regardless if you make something of yourself or not because the world only cares about itself. People only care about what’s best for them and their own survival and advancement. We’re opportunists. We are but piranhas scurrying after the same pieces of meat: money, shelter, safety and power. If that means we have to eat our lesser, smaller, weaker fellows, so be it.
But tell me, what is power if but an illusion enforced by physical brawn. What is money if but paper, plastic and numbers? What is life if but an allotment of time for which we are obligated to succeed and then die ultimately forgotten? All those victims and whiners and losers and have-nots, they perhaps experience unique pressures and limitations that you do not, born from their environment, genetics, upbringing, neurochemistry. There are some, as you know, who are so socially, mentally, emotionally and morally bankrupt that they are not even fit to compete in the big bad wold’s little hunger games. Why do you think we have so much teen suicide and school shootings?
What would you do if you were at their low? Has your strength of disillusionment, your reality, indeed reality itself, ever been tested?
And, in the end when the sun burns out and humanity finally meets its well-earned end, will it all really matter?
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Full of salient points. Don’t stop believing or writing!
True, but what happens when you care TOO much about the world, so much so that you limit yourself and end up self sabotaging so that you can’t give to the world even a small fraction of what you want to give?