Follow your dreams is a cliche, overused and annoying statement. Any iteration of it to be honest. Follow your heart, the American Dream, whatever you wanna call it. It always feels like capitalist pigs tryna get one up on you. That’s mainly because the people who are usually telling you to follow your dreams are your friend from high school in a pyramid scheme asking you to join his loom. It doesn’t feel like anyone with constructive advice is telling you to follow your dreams.





It’s always these fake ass social media life coaches. They’re all basically telling you to chase happiness which is the first way to becoming unhappy. I love Gary Vee and I really do think that at one point he used to give very constructive advice. I followed him for a long time and it sounded like he was giving sound business advice. But lately it feels like he’s joined a long list of Instagram motivators. People who are motivating you to chase a fictional end of the road. Giving you advice like “be a different beast than you were yesterday” that means nothing to me sir. That tells me nothing about the ROI on my business but thanks a lot for that.

I don’t believe in chasing your dreams if the implication is that there’s a final destination of pure everlasting happiness. That’s the dream that we’re sold that keeps us on the treadmill in this rat race. This belief that if we just work hard enough and punch in the right hours, one day we’ll be happy forever. We’re sold this dream that if you just have the right house and the right cars and are able to spend all day at the mall, then finally, you will be happy. That’s not a reality in anyone’s life because that’s not life.

Life is poetically sad just by being life. The sadness exists because you love, experience joy and all of the good emotions. And without their contrast those feelings wouldn’t exist. You wouldn’t know what happiness was if that was all you felt. You’re lucky to feel sad moments because it means you’re alive. It means you got to experience this one of a kind experience that is your life. It's surround sound, 3 dimensional experience, it’s thrilling, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s happy and every emotion that’s possible. That’s the deal that you get with life as soon as you exist. But we push away feelings of sadness because we’re afraid of them and in turn we’re never truly happy. We’re always pushing away sadness with food, new purchases and sex, never truly being happy or sad, we remain in this neutral zone. Just being mindless consuming drones instead of experiencing this one of a kind experience that we get to have in this highly unlikely experience that is life on this beautiful, blue-green ball floating around the cosmos. This place where you’ve been your whole life. Where all your friends and memories are, where all your greatest achievements took place, where your tiny life started and where it will inevitably end. True peace comes from knowing that everything you've ever known is so minuscule to the scale of everything and truly being able to be alone with your thoughts to process the utterly unbelievable one of a kind, oddly lonely but amazing thing that is life.





Because of that I won’t tell you to follow your dreams. What I will tell you to follow is your calling. That thing that you find yourself doing in all your free time. That thing that you’ll do for free forever. That thing that comes out of you in spite of you. That thing that gets you obsessed. If you don’t have that, try things so you can find it and do it. And don’t assume that it’s going to lead to everlasting happiness because that’s not real. All you can hope for is financial stability from doing something you love and an honest experience. That’s means fun, joy and happiness, as well as ups, downs, fears and sadness and that’s okay. You wouldn’t read any book or watch any movie if it was just pleasant the whole time so why would you expect anything different from life? Macbeth would be ass if there was no conflict to overcome. The Avengers wouldn’t exist if there was nothing to avenge. Kendrick Lamar couldn’t make Good Kid MADD City if it was just a good kid without a mad city. Ce La Vie.

True happiness comes from the moments where you overcome adversity. Where you do something difficult and come out victorious on the other side. And that doesn't last forever but it is an evolutionary trigger. The reason why you feel happy is because dopamine is released in your brain once you complete a difficult task that you didn’t think you were able to complete. Once you get up from your couch and go for a run and understand that you’re capable. Once you’re able to write more pages than you expected or hike up a mountain you never thought you could climb. The happiness you seek is in the process you’re avoiding, not in the purchases you’re making or some magic realm of everlasting happiness. Overcoming difficult tasks is where you gain your own self respect, find contentment and achieve true happiness. And that is life. Just embrace the experience and don’t buy into the dream you’re being sold. 5 star dishes and 30 white bitches is also a form of happiness but my point is, nothing lasts forever.





Ps: Make sure to comment and give me your thoughts below. Am I tripping? Is there such thing as everlasting happiness? Make sure to subscribe to the mailing list so you can be notified when I drop new content! And make sure to follow me on Instagram @acidrant if you wanna see some cool shit!



